beavercreek
Travel, Art, Theatre, Music, Photography, Trains
As the weather has been less than wonderful for the last few months, besides a couple of very nice interludes, I have spent a bit of time in the 'workshop' on various projects.
Like a lot of us, I have a long list of half completed endeavours but still decided to start a new one and create, replace or 'tart-up some buildings. The extent of my modelling will be no way near some of the great efforts shown on this iste but there will be a lot of different materials used from plastic kitbashing to scratch build from wood.
building one:
THE NEW DINER
One building that has been due for replacement is 'Lorraine's Diner'. The original 5 year-old diner utilised an old Plko 'Pilkington' building that was a bit of an odd structure. I had tarted up the bland structure and added an 'soda' kiosk to give a little more interest but the site was always a little 'messy' and not too convincing. Also, as the manager of the diner, Lorraine, had made good business in the food trade she has decided to invest in new premises.
This is now replaced with the new one...as it was:
I had got one of the Piko 'Peter's Motorcycle shop' buildings from ebay very cheaply some time back with the idea of finding a place for it somewhere. Its shape lent itself to being a good basis for a diner (in fact Piko do it as a diner in different colours)
Peters bike shop: This shows the original colour scheme of the kit.
I decided to change the colour scheme to a total stainless steel jobbie and use my own detailing to make it personalised. I had bought a job lot of passenger carriage seats for another project but with a bit of paint and silver detailing they would be ideal for use in a diner. I made up some tables from scraps and built the serving bar from piko bits and bobs. I added a 'restroom', a drinks display/sales point and and telephone etc.
Internal details:
Nearly all diners have a 'kitchen area' which is usually not a stylish edifice and is stuck onto the main building like a 'carbuncle' I kit-bashed this from odd bits of walls etc from other finished kits. I will add cooker and sink details later.
The kitchen:
I decided to use LED strips to simulate the interior neon and fluorescent lighting so I used some of the cheap waterproof 5m roll that I had got from Fleabay. It works from about 8 volts up to 19v so is just right
Led lighting: (The original orange colour of the roof can be seen)
The next thing was for a new 'Lorraine's Diner' sign...this just had to be internally lit. Again the LED strips were implemented. The LEDs had to be encased in a sandwich of two plates. For the edging around the plates, I used Plastistruct angle with knotches cut out so that I could easily form it around the curved edge.
Some of the back, of the front facing translucent plate, was 'blacked out' to kill the light from any LEDs that were in the wrong position on the strips when shining through the new sign.
I knocked up a new design for the sign in QuarkXpress using a 'neon' font and a couple of 'OPEN 24 HOURS' graphics. This was printed out on laser decal paper and ten tested while clamped on the front plate. Then the decal was affixed to the front plate, the 'sandwich stick together, sealed and then wired through the roof to the strips inside and mounted onto the roof posts.
The completed sign on the diner. The light 'leaking' through where the wall meets the roof will be stopped when the roof is firmly fixed on.
Now the 'site' needs to be enlarged for a carpark and for the extra depth of the new diner.
Like a lot of us, I have a long list of half completed endeavours but still decided to start a new one and create, replace or 'tart-up some buildings. The extent of my modelling will be no way near some of the great efforts shown on this iste but there will be a lot of different materials used from plastic kitbashing to scratch build from wood.
building one:
THE NEW DINER
One building that has been due for replacement is 'Lorraine's Diner'. The original 5 year-old diner utilised an old Plko 'Pilkington' building that was a bit of an odd structure. I had tarted up the bland structure and added an 'soda' kiosk to give a little more interest but the site was always a little 'messy' and not too convincing. Also, as the manager of the diner, Lorraine, had made good business in the food trade she has decided to invest in new premises.
This is now replaced with the new one...as it was:
I had got one of the Piko 'Peter's Motorcycle shop' buildings from ebay very cheaply some time back with the idea of finding a place for it somewhere. Its shape lent itself to being a good basis for a diner (in fact Piko do it as a diner in different colours)
Peters bike shop: This shows the original colour scheme of the kit.
I decided to change the colour scheme to a total stainless steel jobbie and use my own detailing to make it personalised. I had bought a job lot of passenger carriage seats for another project but with a bit of paint and silver detailing they would be ideal for use in a diner. I made up some tables from scraps and built the serving bar from piko bits and bobs. I added a 'restroom', a drinks display/sales point and and telephone etc.
Internal details:
Nearly all diners have a 'kitchen area' which is usually not a stylish edifice and is stuck onto the main building like a 'carbuncle' I kit-bashed this from odd bits of walls etc from other finished kits. I will add cooker and sink details later.
The kitchen:
I decided to use LED strips to simulate the interior neon and fluorescent lighting so I used some of the cheap waterproof 5m roll that I had got from Fleabay. It works from about 8 volts up to 19v so is just right
Led lighting: (The original orange colour of the roof can be seen)
The next thing was for a new 'Lorraine's Diner' sign...this just had to be internally lit. Again the LED strips were implemented. The LEDs had to be encased in a sandwich of two plates. For the edging around the plates, I used Plastistruct angle with knotches cut out so that I could easily form it around the curved edge.
Some of the back, of the front facing translucent plate, was 'blacked out' to kill the light from any LEDs that were in the wrong position on the strips when shining through the new sign.
I knocked up a new design for the sign in QuarkXpress using a 'neon' font and a couple of 'OPEN 24 HOURS' graphics. This was printed out on laser decal paper and ten tested while clamped on the front plate. Then the decal was affixed to the front plate, the 'sandwich stick together, sealed and then wired through the roof to the strips inside and mounted onto the roof posts.
The completed sign on the diner. The light 'leaking' through where the wall meets the roof will be stopped when the roof is firmly fixed on.
Now the 'site' needs to be enlarged for a carpark and for the extra depth of the new diner.
