Nice work!
Today, I repainted the reproduction eagles. I have found that reproduction castings often have odd casting marks, low points, etc., which require filing or adding filler and then filing.
In fact, these eagles, which were marketed on ebay as reproductions for the Old Glory Flagpole and the President's Special engines, are missing a key item that really prevents them from even being used with those items. These eagles are missing the loop that the string for the flag or the chain for the President's Special engines would go through and attach to the eagle. I noted that immediately upon receiving these and had it not been for the fact that the eagles on the station are not meant to be attached to anything, I would have sent them back.
I filled in a couple of ugly spots and filed off a number of casting marks. Here are some photos of both eagles, not sure which is which, so I will post all of the photos.
NWL
That station is looking awesome! Great work!
Jon
Update - I have not been able to do much with the project lately, as I have been waiting for the shrubbery materials to arrive. I ordered 2 packs of 4 full un-cut Loofa sponges on April 23 through Amazon. They were shipped from a foreign country on April 27, arrived at USPS Customs in Chicago on May 11 and were not scanned again until May 25. They were finally delivered today!
I ordered full-length uncut Loofas as I thought it better for making longer hedge pieces than ordering 6 or 8 inch cut Loofas. These are anywhere from 12 to 14 inches long. Two of them are a bit bent, but they should be OK and will likely be the last ones I choose to use.
Had to rehydrate them as the ends of some were bent and they had compacted some when drying.
I hope to provide more updates and photos of the station soon.
NWL
@Will posted:Last year I made some hedges for a fantasy Lionel winter scenic plot. Since I wasn't duplicating anything exactly, I used the more open inner core of the loofah as the lower branches.
Will,
Thanks for the info. I am thinking I might have to do the same, as the outer husk seems a bit thin. I will have to see how the material looks after I cut it open. I know I need a certain thickness.
NWL
I used the outer part as the top of the hedge. My hedges are only about 1/2" x 1/2". I soaked them well, and then they cut easily with scissors if I remember.
After a lot of procrastinating, I finally began experimenting with cutting the Loofas for the hedges.
I first cut the 2 Loofas that were bent, as I thought they would be the best ones to experiment with, as the bent portions would likely not straighten well.
The Loofas have 3 hollow areas, where the seeds would have been and a central core, so I first cut down the center of the outer husk along the center of the hollow area and created 3 outer sections. Then I cut the centers into 3 sections.
I then cut the smaller sections, created by the bend, off of the main portion. These areas were near the smaller end of the Loofas and some of the portions at the end are not suitable for creating the hedges.
I then trimmed the excess with scissors and the results are as follows.
This one shows the top of the original section and the section I created. The portion on the left of the reproduction is near the end of the Loofa and it starts to get thinner and ratty looking near the end.
The next reproduction is a part of a taller hedge, with these two pieces laying on their sides. I was able to make the hedges taller by including some of the center core of the Loofa to make it taller. This appears to be how the originals were done, as the center core has a slightly different appearance than the outer husk / top layer.
The next step is going to be cutting the enough Loofas to create enough hedge material. I will have to take the base and station down to the layout room and cut them, while looking at the reproduction station I have. That way I will know when I have cut enough material.
NWL
A bit of a setback here. I realized that the loofahs that I have are not the same consistency as the ones on my reproduction Union Station. Basically, the loofahs that I have lack the thickness and fiber content of the original hedges and reproduction hedges.
When looking on-line at available loofahs, some sites show much thicker loofa outer layers that have higher fiber content than the loofahs I currently have. I decided to test my luck and ordered 2 loofahs through Walmart that are supposed to have a 2 day delivery. That sounded better, as the ones I ordered through Amazon sat in customs for a month.
Will update upon arrival.
NWL
OK, the new loofahs arrived. Here is a picture of the 2 new loofahs next to 1 of the previously purchased loofahs.
As you can tell these are giant sized compared to the ones I already had. These 2 loofas measured c. 22 inches long and about 5-6 inches in diameter. The previously purchased ones averaged 15 to 16 inches long.
I am glad I purchased these new loofahs, as I now was able to make the side hedges out of a single piece of loofah.
I ended up cutting up 1 of the newly purchased loofahs and it was enough to create the hedges for the station. Here is the station with several rough cut loofah pieces.
I am not exactly sure what the hedges are made from on my reproduction station, but they appear to be loofah material, but are too perfect, so I am not sure if they are some sort of processed material or what, but they are very fiberous and are more uniform in thickness, height, etc. I also noted that the tops of the reproduction station hedges appear to be the edges of the loofah material, where the original station hedges were always the top/outer side of the loofah.
Due to these differences, I modeled my cuts and dimensions more on the original hedge pieces that I had.
Next up I need to figure out the paint color, paint them, and make the final cuts and nail them to the base.
NWL
WOW.
That's pretty much exactly how I did it.
Today, I finished cleaning the window inserts and applied tape to any of the inserts that were loose/hanging. Once that was done, I re-attached the building to the base. The building is held on to the base by 6 nails, 1 at each of the corners and 1 at each of the front corners of the clocktower.
For the first time since I got this in February, the base is once again attached to the building. Now I can do the final trimming of the new hedges.
NWL
Magnificent! What a fantastic journey!
This building is priceless!
Peter
Bellissimo!
It has been almost a year since I did anything with the Union Station, as I became extremely busy with work and then cold weather arrived. As I don't spray paint inside, I had to wait for warm weather to get back to this project.
The first thing I did was to test spray a section of the loofas with Rustoleum Hunter Green (gloss).
Although these represent the pieces I am using, my original test was on a spare section of loofa. I thought the color too dark. I searched out another color and settled on Rustoleum "Painters Touch" Leafy Green (satin). I sprayed it on the bare end of the test strip and over some of the Hunter Green at the center of the test strip.
I thought the section that had a coat of the Hunter Green with the Leafy Green over it looked better. The results are below.
Now I just have to wait for it to dry.
NWL
As usual, am late to the discussion. 😐 These are my favorite types of threads; the "How I Did It" kind of thing...and this is one of the best.
I appreciate not only your workmanship but your willingness to take the time to show the process...and judging by the number of "likes" you have received so far, it's obvious I'm not the only one who feels this way! 👍
Mark in Oregon
I am finally working on touching up the base. I tried several times to match the paint by custom mixing it myself and was not able to get a close match. I finally went to Lowes and got several paint strips and picked out a color. The color looked good on the card, but is a bit brighter on the real thing. It seems I will have to weather it.
Here is a photo of a couple of touch up spots.
As the original greenery has sawdust mixed in the paint to create the grassy effect, I opted to paint the spots missing paint and then sprinkle sawdust onto the wet paint.
Here are some photos of the sawdust sprinkled on the newly painted areas.
Tomorrow I will blow the excess sawdust off and apply another coat of paint to the sawdust.
Then I will have to weather it to make the new paint blend in a bit better.
NWL
Just catching up on this awesome project- what a transformation. Real craftsman quality here and a great preservation effort
Jim
An update on the base. I really like how the sawdust effect is turning out. It seems to match the original grass perfectly.
I have had a few areas where the sawdust did not stick to the paint very well, so I applied more paint and sawdust. There were also a couple of areas where there was a distinct edge to the original grass area and the new areas, so in order to build these areas up, I applied more paint and sawdust. The goal is to get the grassy area patches to match the original contour perfectly.
NWL
For the top coat of paint, I decided to thin the paint with water (using latex paint) so that it would soak in a bit better and not be as thick.
I think it turned out great. Here is a view of the largest area that received a patch.
Here is the before picture
And the after picture
A close-up of the texture
If it weren't for the slight difference in the color due to the original paint being dirty/aged, it would be difficult to tell that this has been patched.
NWL
@Jim Waterman posted:Just catching up on this awesome project- what a transformation. Real craftsman quality here and a great preservation effort
Jim
Hi Jim, same here!
NWL, you have done a masterfull job! Admire your ability to tackle one job at a time and not cut corners to save time. Best, Dave
Bump. It has been over a year since my last update on this. I am nearing completion on the restoration. I finally got around to creating a new roof for the clocktower, as the original roof was caved in on one side. The original roof with damage on the right side
The replacement roof (not yet attached)
I also had to graft a piece of wood to one of the eagle tower/stands
A piece of Balsa wood crafted to match
glued and nailed in place
Next up, pictures of the completed restoration. I have the station assembled, with the exception of the addition of the shrubs. I washed the original shrubs this morning to remove 95 years of dust and dirt and am waiting for the natural sponges to dry, before re-attaching them to the base.
As promised, here are the photos of the completed project. I finished it this morning, gluing the original shrubs in place. So this station has had a partial restoration and thorough cleaning. The roof of the clocktower has been replaced, a piece of wood was grafted on to the base of the left rear eagle stand/base, all green roof surfaces have been repainted, all hedges have been replaced, some grass/textured surface on the base was replaced, and the entire base was repainted. The building received a thorough cleaning and the original shrubs were spray washed.
@Nation Wide Lines posted:As promised, here are the photos of the completed project. I finished it this morning, gluing the original shrubs in place. So this station has had a partial restoration and thorough cleaning. The roof of the clocktower has been replaced, a piece of wood was grafted on to the base of the left rear eagle stand/base, all green roof surfaces have been repainted, all hedges have been replaced, some grass/textured surface on the base was replaced, and the entire base was repainted. The building received a thorough cleaning and the original shrubs were spray washed.
Looks amazing.
Turned out really nice!
WELL DONE!
