Some new buildings for Beaver Creek

[beavercreek]

Just a slightly different view of the new Arrowhead hotel. The "Paul's Dry Goods' store will also be getting some specially treated curtains as those pesky mini-slugs get everywhere and have practically stripped it of the original ones.

 

[stevedenver]

nice looking scene indeed
amazing what youve done with the foliage on the slope too...LOL

 

[robocop1976]

Great llooking layout mike keep up the good work

 

[beavercreek]

The Movie Theatre

I have always wanted to have a movie theatre in one of the townships so Point Rock was going to be the lucky one. I got a very cheap Piko 'Bijou Theater' and decided to kit bash and spruce it up with my own movie posters, bill sign and to add a customised 'Model Power' billboard.

I wanted the movie be from the fifties and also to be one of my favourite ones so 'Forbidden Planet' it was.
I found posters on the net but the 'cinemascope' proportioned one for the billboard was very hard to find. I found an image of a folded real one for sale and unfortunately it was photographed with all the folds showing so a bit of photoshop was used to try to 'straighten' it out.
The next thing was to make the playbill sign and the theatre name.
These were, together with the movie posters and billboard, printed on sheen finish photographic paper and then soaked in varnish.

The billboard itself already had a running led system but like the extra led lighting I was to add, it was polarity sensitive so I needed to add a bridge rectifier to the circuit so that wiring up to the layout lighting circuit.did not cause an problems.
I added led lighting under the playbill canopy and also along the top of the billboard which was then hidden with a fascia strip. For the leds I used self adhesive strip (available in 5m reels on ebay). It can be cut every 5cm or multiples of this if needed.
For the interior lighting I used tungsten bulbs in the void and also behind the movie posters.

I customised a Pola phone booth as the kiosk

The name tower will be lit using internal leds.

Here is how it turned out:

From across the stockyard

As it fits into the general vista

getting closer into the town

As it looks from the Point Rock general store

Close from the left

From the right looking out of town

 

[Mousey]

Movie theatre is looking great Mike.

 

[beavercreek]

At the risk of boring all the folks that visit ..one more of the movie theatre.

The plastic sheet that can be seen suspended above the 'General Stores' building is there to protect it from the rain as it is a wooden building with real wood shingles and even with all of the vasrnish and anti root treatment it would degrade after a while. The sheet can't be seen from the front viewing angle as it is in line with branches and leaves!

 

[Zerogee]

So, Mike, is "Walter Pigeon" a deliberate in-joke, or an inadvertant typo....?
Walter PIDGEON was in Forbidden Planet!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0682074/

Not that I'm being at all rivet-countery.....

Jon.

PS: the Cinema DOES look great, though!

 

[bobg]

As always, totally atmospheric. Love it!!! My choice would have been a little later with a Steve McQueen epic "The Blob", but hey what the heck! Superb!

 

[beavercreek]

So, Mike, is "Walter Pigeon" a deliberate in-joke, or an inadvertant typo....?
Walter PIDGEON was in Forbidden Planet!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0682074/

Not that I'm being at all rivet-countery.....

Jon.

PS: the Cinema DOES look great, though!

No Jon you are right about the spelling but it was intended as the in-joke as you know about my love for the local burgeoning population of the flying rat !!! Now where is that air gun...............

 

[stevedenver]

great stuff-really looks like a western town in the fifties early sixties
always enjoyable to see your work and layout and photos

i have never had luck with wood- warps, unglues (even with weatherproof glue) etc-but it does look great

ive had great luck though with cedar and redwood construction, and treated or painted at that, in the form of bridges and loading docks and ramps-still can warp (rarely however), but seems to hold up really well

plastics are the way of the future my lad-LOL

 

[beavercreek]

Thank you for your encouragement Steve. When I started the layout I had the idea of setting it in the thirties and being all steam but that was before I realised that my gradients would need more power and therefore more diesel, so it has settled in the 50's and 60's era. For a guy from the other side of the pond to say that the scenery looks right, is great to hear!.

 

[Richie]

Love it all Mike :love: you have been busy this summer be nice to see a write up in the Garden Railways magazine

 

[tramcar trev]

Wow Mike your cinema is superb! Love it!
Can't wait to start on my own which will be art deco with a row or 2 of chasing leds. I'll be showing either Casablanca or Streetcar Named Desire.....

 

[beavercreek]

Hi Richie and Trev

Many thanks guys, A few buildings wether scatchbuilt, kit bashed or revamped have appeared this year but despite a couple more to change that should be the lot..of course adding detail etc doesn't count

Trev, the leds on the large bilboard actually do chase but I also installed flooding led strips along the top of it to light the poster itself. These are hidden behind a facia strip along the top front edge. I think that the video that Tony shot on the open day might show how the whole thing looks

Good luck with your one ...with your penchant for trams and trolleys it has to be 'A Streetcar named Desire" !!!

 

[JRinTawa]

Another fine building idea Mike, you come up with some neat ideas.

 

[tramcar trev]

On second thoughts maybe my Cinema should be showing " illusion travels by streetcar"

 

[Don Gilham]

Lovely stuff Mike

 

[beavercreek]

On second thoughts maybe my Cinema should be showing " illusion travels by streetcar"

Si señor muchos buenos

 

[beavercreek]

Many thanks for all the lovely comments lads...it gives real encouragement to carry on with the 'detailing' of the line. I love adding buildings but I think that I am getting near saturation point. Extra detail on the existing buildings will be next but who knows!
I have to rip up the Arrowhead area to make it a reverse loop so there will be big changes there...the newly kit-bashed hotel will have to find a new home as will the cider brewery and then the grocery and dry goods...Oh dear here we go again!!! ...oh yes then there is the farm area and also the quayside to develop...perhaps not yet at saturation point eh?

 

[beavercreek]

I have done a little sprucing up and extra sealing of the Point Rock saw-mill. It had got a little 'messy' inside with spiders and leaves etc. Also the paint on the corrugated roof needed a bit of work so I decided to have a real go at it.
I also always meant to have plenty of lighting in the mill interior and never got around to it so used this opportunity to put it in.

The operating buzz saw and the band saw now are powered by a hidden weather-tight battery power supply and switch on the other side of the tracks so it is easy to get at...I am thinking of putting a proximity sensor to turn it on and off. Also there will be a small cheap mp3 sound system with a rolling collection of saw mill sounds.

I used tungsten bulbs in the Pola wall lights stuck to the ceiling, as the warm-white leds just seemed to have a more flourescent tube colour but I might still swap them over as they are brighter.

I resealed all of the wood with matt varnish after soaking with a coat of spirit based Ronseal 5* preservative. Then copiously sprayed the interior with spider repellant

Whilst working on it:

Accidents frequently happen in saw mills as 'One Arm Jake' will readily agree to. His favourite saying being "I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!"

A few shots of it back in place