My under-construction 10-by-5 layout includes a small town with brick and frame buildings, all of which are built from kits. For brick buildings I prefer OGR's AmeriTowne kits, which are attractively priced, easy to build, and have excellent brick, window and facade details, although I consider them to be mainly an exercise in painting. They are also easy to modify or customize, as I intend to do with Granato's Grocery, the model on which I am currently working. Although I will show some aspects of the model's assembly, my focus in this thread will be the features that I plan to add to the basic model.
Photos 1 through 6 show the basic model as built from the kit, with a nine-window sidewall substituted for the supplied windowless sidewall. I painted the window frames, window trims, storefront and brick surfaces freehand in that order using water-based acrylic paints before gluing the walls together. This required care since the windows are molded into the walls and cannot be painted separately. A small flat brush with a straight tip helped to do a neat job although I still had to fix the borders between the different colors several times.
Once the walls were painted, I used rubber bands to align them into position as described in the instruction sheet and then glued the two side walls to the front wall along their inner edges. I also added some 5/32-inch square basswood strips to reinforce the joints at the inner edges. Although the walls were slightly bowed, the tight rubber bands and some masking tape across the outside corners held the walls flat and in alignment until the glue dried. I used Testors cement for plastic models to assemble the walls and to attach the basswood to the walls. Photo 7 shows the reinforced inner corners, glazing, window shades, storefront signs and horizontal basswood strips which will become floor supports. In models of multi-story buildings, I install floors and interior walls to serve as view-blocks, as shown in photos 8 and 9. I added the rear wall after these interior details were in place. This building will be located at the back of the layout so I did not think it was necessary to model the interior of the store with furniture or people as I do with models at the front of the layout.
Photos 10 through 12 show the basic model in position on the layout.
In my next post I will begin to show the additional features that I will add to the basic model.
MELGAR
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