John--I just want to add my admiration of your excellent job of model building & selective compression. If someone has not already done so, when I visit the 2R Forum I will post a mention about your topic. Thank you for sharing this project with us.

Ok - one of the two side pieces to the main, central building came in. This time, I requested black styrene, which is opaque and won't let light glow from within. This costs very little extra and relieves me from the task of painting the inside surface black.





This one shows the placement on the building:



I'll order another of these for the other side, and then get started painting, black-washing, and assembling.

More to come...

John

If you want to add a unique detail, you could make it inaugural ball night, when the place hosts the president. Personally, I'd recommend GG-1 day, when a hot shot express failed to stop and the GG-1 "power" over-ran the buffer and ended up in the lobby, then fell into the basement. Maybe someone has a picture?

So I finally got the two side pieces to the main building sent to me. I framed them on the insides, along with some interior decorating, painted & weathered them, and assembled.

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Fashion by Design

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This is as good a place as any for this amusing story, and it highlights how you can turn setbacks into unique architectural enhancements.

I went to Home Depot looking to see if I could get lucky and find a PVC pipe with the perfect diameter to serve as barrel ceilings in my arch-portals. I brought one of the arch-portal insets with me to size it at the store. Amazingly, I did find such a PVC pipe, and it only cost me ~$5.

But I apparently left the portal inset piece at the store! Argghh!

Not to worry, I decided to use one of the insets from the back wall piece as a replacement, and then did something a little bit creative with the center portal on the back:





It will look a lot better when it's painted. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to show that though, as it's still drying.



This pic shows the PVC pipe cut to length, and then in half to give me two barrel ceilings.



This shows the ceilings in place over the arch portal insets.



This is a mock-up with the pieces dry-fit together. I will need some flexible plastic trim to seal the gaps where the pipe doesn't exactly fit, but I think it will work, if I'm careful...

Next step is to assemble the rest of the central building, and start working on the interior details and the glass components. I'll post a CAD design of the glass details soon.

Cheers,

John

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JohnBoy, November 12, 2005 08:33 PM

Here's a CAD drawing of the clear plastic sheet parts. These will of course serve as windows, assuming they come out alright.

This time, they will leave the masking on and etch right through it - leaving me a perfect paint mask to fill in the window "mullions" with black paint.

This should be here by Thursday or so, so I will show some pics of the steps involved.

Cheers,

John

Nice as always, keep on going it's looking great.

Jamie

Amazing project. It's a very nice replica but bound to be a very costly structure. Sure must be a labor of love. I'm now building Ellisons Fillmore Station but still doing it the "old fashioned way" with pine boards, illustration boards, and dollhouse trim. I did breakdown and use the $4.00 set of greek columns sold at Michaels as this saves quite a bit of lathe work and they are more detailed than what I could build. Be sure to post pics of your completed work.

Thanks gentlemen. Dennis - I would like to see some pics of your models, if you have some.

Here's some more progress shots:

Front:


Interior, from overhead. Here's where that post about needing more benches came from...


The back-side:


Angle view of back and side:


And another:


Cheers,

John

Wow. Keep up the great work!!!

Very impressive. You are a very gifted artist.

Please post back here as you go so we can see it completed.

bitt

Below is an overhead planning diagram showing the major components, and four tracks. The track furthest from the station is to be an elevated line.



The rectangles that run parallel to the tracks are covered platforms, although I think I might end up making my own custom designs for those. The two larger rectangles which span across the first two tracks are pedestrian bridges.

The frontal mock-up is placed face-up above the whole thing to give an idea of what it will look like - it is scaled to match the width of the model in the overhead plan.

The whole scene fits on a single 4' x 8' table. The rectangle below the table is going to be a fountain in front of the station - the Lemax operating and lighted fountain with the cherubs.

The experimental glass sheet has been shipped - I should get it early next week.

Cheers,

John

Hey John, awesome work! Is this model gonna be complete for the Kena Temple show?

LOL! Thanks.

Actually, unfortunately, I will not be a vendor at the Kena Temple show this year. With an infant in the house, and everything else going on in my life - I can't afford to do it.

(I may try to at least show up as a visitor, however...)

Cheers,

John

Outstanding creativity and skillful work John!

The glass pieces came in:



They came with the masking on, and I just brushed two coats of black over the etch lines:



These are the doors, placed here to show how they might look assembled:



And mocked-up inside the back side of the building:


I think I'm going to tint these with a gray spray to get them to be a little darker. Also, I'm going to attach door handles prior to final assembly.

Cheers,

John

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JohnBoy, August 29, 2005 02:20 PM

Awesome, John. Keep posting the pictures of this masterpiece. I find myself looking forward to each new step.

Andy

For anyone interested in the specific paint used, here's a pic of the can and box:



Best as I can figure, there's no real barcode or model number on it, so I don't know what to tell you to look for. This is fantastic stuff - perfect color, and even has a sandy texture to it, which lends some credibility to the limestone look of the building.

I've used it on many of my buildings. The only annoying thing about it is that the sand grit causes the nozzle to get clogged very easily. I lost so many cans of this stuff that way that I ended up buying a bulk bag of extra nozzles from an on-line place, and now I just swap them in at the first sign of trouble.

I have not been able to locate this spray paint at Home Depot, Lowes's, or Michael's recently. I wonder if it's been discontinued?

Because of this, I ended up getting Sherwin Williams to match the color for a quart. If anyone's dying for a color card, I'm happy to send you one.

Cheers,

John

John -

This is truly a work of art and a labor of love.
Keep it coming. It's inspirational!

- Mike

So, you are having all this fun? When are you gong to kit this out? This is fantastic.

John:

I agree with the others, this is awesome and very inspirational! I look forward to every update. I don't know about the others, but I find myself getting a little burnt out from time to time for various reasons and threads like yours with pictures really gives me a lift and makes me want to head to the basement and do something on the railroad.

Thanks for sharing and please keep it up.

Wow - thank you all. I'm very glad to hear that these are fun to read and see. My only regret is that lately, my job has been killing me (this is the first weekedn in three weeks that I've had off). Just can't make much progress these days.

Cheers,

John

I want to see the finished model at Kena. No excuses.

I'm off next week for training. Nobody seemed to worry until Thursday. Then a mild panic broke out and I was bombarded with questions about what do I do and when. Told them I posted docs on our office web portal some time ago and -- from what I can see -- nobody has bothered to review them, so happy reading and see you in ten days. And I'm gone again for York Week in October. And taking a week's vacation in November and another in December!

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you're gonna miss me when I'm gone

John, this is a magnificent piece of work!! You are building my dream train station!! Scratchbuilding structures is one part of this hobby that I am all thumbs and one of the few things I don't have patience with. I admire the talent and imagination you have to do this project, especially after I once visited Union Station in D.C.!! I just want to take the tall wooden square box I made and called a station and toss it in the trash can and set it on fire after seeing your work!!

Good luck and keep the updates comming!!

(Are you going to model "Track 16??)

What a great project!
Looks like a winner with the paint too. I Googled "American Accents paint". Found out it's a Rust-oleum product. On that web site there's a dealer locator. From my address there are 15 dealers within 10 miles, mainly Wal-Mart and Target.

Bart

Unfortunately, I've entered a point in the project where the progress is less visible. I did start on a barrel vault roof and ceiling. It's a hairbrained design, likely to end in trajedy, but I have committed to it for now, and I have to see it through.



Using 1/2" MDF, I traced out a half circle using the technique shown. I just marked the dead-center, and screwed in a small screw. Then, using some scrap wire, I bundled up a pencil and looped the other end around the screw.

I cut the shapes out with a jig saw.

The pie-shaped wedges were cut out to reduce weight - MDF is very strong, very rigid, and makes for nice cuts. But it is heavy.



Then I glued & screwed in the two large square dowels you see to attach these two end pieces together.

I am now in the process of trying to get the lights installed into the ledges which the square dowels form, in order to back-light the barrel roof.

Next step: soldering...

Cheers,

John

Wow John, that is really great! It's almost as if you knew what you where doing.

Please keep us posted.

After watching this project progress since you first announced it, JohnBoy, I can't imagine it or any part of it ending in "tragedy."

I've long held that the mark of a really great model is having someone look at it and say, "I know what that is" or, "I've been there." This surely is the case with your model. Anyone who's ever been to or seen Washington Union Station is bound to immediately recognize it in your work.

Please keep keeping us posted.

- Mike

JohnBoy,

You are in good company. Mike specializes in invisible progress. Keep us updated. This is indeed a great thread.

After some much-needed and greatly appreciated schooling on the art of soldering (thank you, Forumites!), I managed to get all the lights installed along the shelves. These are socket-based lights, so replacing bulbs is possible, if difficult.



There are 12 bulbs - 6 on each side; 2 over each arch portal, under each section of the coffered ceiling (coming soon).



It's been a nerve-racking endeavor, since I had to ensure that anything & everything that needed to be installed, painted, soldered, etc. inside the barrel was completed prior to afixing the barrel in place. Thankfully, Mike Casatelli published a post on his glorious GCT before I finished the lighting. Mike's work is truly inspirational, and it motivated me to install some recessed lights over each arch portal on the back wall. In the second photo above, you can see one of these between the two "shelf" lights, pointed down where the bulb emerges from the other side of the wood. (Great idea Mike! Thanks!)



The idea is that the "shelf" lights will back-light the barrel ceiling. I tested this concept in many ways prior to final assembly, but you can never really be sure how something like this will work until you just do it. In the above photo, you can see the matteboard I installed on one end, slightly curved over to simulate how the backlighting might look.



Once all looked as good as I thought I could get it, it was time to proceed with the actual barrel substrate (above). This is just matteboard, bent over, with glue and screws to hold it in place. I struggled for a long time with how best to implement this, and in the end, this proved to be the winning method - at least for me. I was worried that the matteboard would not be strong enough, and that the various other materials I wanted to attach to both the interior and exterior of the barrel might cause i
to sag. This proved to be an unnecessary concern - the matteboard is remarkably strong when bent into a half-circle like this.



This next photo shows a little technique used to make the long pieces of the crown moulding removable. Replacing light bulbs is the driving concern for this: getting into the corners, with the barrel in place, is no easy feat. By removing the crown moulding, it is possible to get some tweezers in there and replace bulbs. Because of the way the corners are mitred, the edges are pretty much held in place by the adjoining pieces of the moulding. What I needed was something to prevent the removable pieces from sliding down. For this, I just glued in some strips of wood (1/16" square dowel) at the right height to catch the ledge. This worked, but the darn moulding was bowed outward (both of 'em), so I had to create the little "latches" you see in the center. The narrow slot of empty space you see in there slides over another piece of the same dowel glued onto the side of the "shelf", and this holds it in close to counter the bowing.



In this last pic, you can see the 3 recessed lights on the one side, waiting for bulbs.

This will look a lot nicer when the interior textured ceiling is installed. That's coming next...

Cheers,

John

I finally got all the interior ceiling pieces installed. Here are two pics before the paint was applied:





And after the paint was applied:





And with the lights on:





Next step: the roof exterior...

Cheers,

John

Whoa!

Absolutely masterful work, John!

By the way, I secured the mortgage. When can I take possession?

- Mike

Oh no the roof exterior. Didn't that take about ten to twenty years for the prototype to be repaired? How are you going to gold leaf the ceiling?

I have some beams you can put under the station heading to the RF&P. There special shapes.



Jamie

Wow...

That's amazing, John