HOW I DID IT…..Model of Nassau Hall made from a photograph

Nassau Hall was built in 1756 as the main building for what was then the College of New Jersey. It is now Princeton University.

Nassau Hall originally housed virtually the entire university: classrooms, eating areas, the library, the chapel, and residential space for students and faculty. For a six month period it was the Capitol of the US. The building has, among other things, chunks taken out of the stone due to cannonballs from the Revolutionary War. It was occupied by both sides at various times. It also has a lot of ivy on the walls, which was no doubt thoughtfully planted to help cover up modeling mistakes.

Since I am modeling the PRR Mainline through Princeton Junction ca 1956, I decided I needed to have a model of Nassau Hall. Of course no model exists or even comes close, much less in the oddball scale I required, so I decided to build one from a photograph of the building..

Using photographs to make a building is not a new concept. Both Paul Dolkos (in MR) and Lance Mindheim (in RMC) have written excellent articles of how to do that. In fact I have done so with a warehouse on my own layout. But we digress…

For me, when it comes to buildings or scenes, reality is but a starting point. I have no problem diverging from the prototype to fit my space, to make a better artistic composition, to make it easier to build, or just because I think I can do it better. So with that in mind, I am fully aware that you cannot see Nassau hall from the mainline. I also have the front of the building facing towards the tracks (as opposed to away) and I added a bump-out in the front which made the front more interesting. In reality the bump out is in the back and much larger because it contains a large central hall.

I started with a photo of the building, as shown above. And then photo shopped all the trees out:

As you can see, I didn’t care about the roof, clock tower, or lawn, as I was going to make those from 3D components. You can see where I did some of the photo shopping…just look for that recurring fluorescent light.

After I was done with the photo shopping, I printed the building on card stock and cut it out to determine the optimal size. If I was building to a specific scale it would have been easy. But I my intent was to put this into a “near background scene” in an effort to encourage an illusion of distance. So it took several iterations of resizing and reprinting until I got it. I think the actual scale is around 1/100. More on the scene in which this fits later in this post.

When I got the right size, I printed the photo on semi gloss photo paper. I have an ink jet printer, and I found I had to use semi gloss—printing it on glossy paper and then trying to dull it with Dullcote or Krylone Acrylic lost some of the “depth” and lightened the color. I then proceeded to cut out the windows.

I used sharp #11 blades and a glass backing. I needed to change the blades frequently--like every third window. This is a slow and tedious process.

The reason for cutting out the windows is that I pasted an unbacked photo on the back, with a suitable spacer between it and the front photo. This gives the impression of window frames recessed into the stone. The front photo will have a light block behind it (except at select window openings). The rear will have nothing behind it. Thus all the windows will appear opaque during normal layout lighting. But the interior lighting will show through the unblocked windows during night time running.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

To cover up the white edges of the cut out window openings, I used a Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pen, #027 Dark Ochre. I got it from the local art store. These pens use water based-ink and have very precise tips which allows you to control how the ink (paint flows). In particular it is easy to prevent the ink from getting on the front surface.

The color was chosen to match the stone on Nassau hall. I also used it to color all the edges of the cut photographs. By the way, these are very versatile and come in a very wide range of colors. After discovering them I have added several to my modeling/weathering/coloring arsenal

After a rather mind-numbing 5 days I had everything cut out.

Note there are seven pieces. It is hard to tell from the photo, but I added an extra layer of stonework over the arched opening in the front door and the window above it. I colored their edges with the Tombow pen before gluing them in place.

I outlined all the window openings on the back side with .030” thick styrene strip. This provides the depth for the window openings.

In a little bit of serendipity, it turns out that normal liquid styrene glue (the kind that wicks into the joint and ‘weld” the styrene together) does a surprisingly good job of gluing the styrene to the back of the photo paper. I used ScaleCoat Probond. But Tenax 7R or equivalent should work just as well.

To make sure the white edge of the styrene matched the stonework on the wall, I pre-colored the strips with a COPIC # YR 27 Tuscan Orange marker. Right about now someone in the back of the room is smugly raising their hand wanting to know why I used two different markers. The answer: The Tombow is water based, so you can just touch it to the far edge of the cut out in the photo paper and let it wick to the front. But it’s ink won’t stick to the styrene. The COPIC is oil based, so it easily wets the styrene, but won’t wick into the paper.

You need to add bracing to the seven panels: The one with the arch window and door was the most challenging;

Next is to build up the wall sections:

The black matt board both stiffens and straightens the section, and provides the light block. Obviously some of windows are left open to give the effect of randomly illuminated rooms. I used drops of Gorrila Glue Gel Super glue to hold the three layers together. Take care to align the window photograph with the openings in the front wall

For the ivy I used Noch Leaves, primarily medium green with some dark green mixed in. I painted full strength Elmers glue on the wall where I wanted the Ivy to go, and then sprinkled the leaves on, pushing them very slightly down with wax paper and a piece of cardboard. I applied the ivy everywhere there was ivy on the photograph, and in other places to cover all goofs.

When all the walls were done, I assembled the building and all the internal supports. The back wall is just a piece of double thickness black matt board:

Bracing was either basswood or ABS angle. I also assembled and cut all the gutters from styrene strips. After some experimentation, I decided the best representation of the aged copper gutters on Nassau Hall is a base coat of Rustoleum Roof Accessory Paint, heavy washes of Polyscale GN green, and a light wash of Vallejo Oiled Earth. The gutters are fixed in place with adhesive transfer tape. This is basically a double sided tape with no backing, and is available from Chooch as well as many other sources.

To build the roof, I first built a mock up from cardboard:

I made the real roof from O Scale Plastruct Shingle sheet. I know the shingles are way out of scale. But I found that using HO Scale slate roof produced tiles that were way too small to be seen and it looked like one big sheet. I used styrene formers, and Gaffers Tape for the flashing:

The tape also helps seal against light leaks. More on that later.

I painted and weathered the roof with Rustoleum Dark Gray Primer, dry brushing and some weathering powders.

To make the building light tight I did not need to worry about the walls because of the black mat board used for stiffening. But I did need to worry about the corners and the joints between the roof and the walls. To seal those I used DAP Alex Plus Black Latex Caulk

Apply the caulk to a piece of cardboard, and then use a wooden coffee stirrer to apply it. Change stirrers often to control how much you apply. The caulk takes a day to fully cure, but it is very effective at sealing light leaks. Use a flash light to illuminate the joints as you are applying it to make sure a second application is not needed.

For the lighting I added two Woodland Scenics stick on warm white LEDS:

I used the Woodland Scenics “Just Plug” system, as it enables individual control of the LEDs as described below.

The clock tower was problematical. I tried all sorts of things which did not work. I finally compromised and used the clock tower from a Plasticville Independence Hall kit. It’s a bit too fat, but otherwise has the correct height and architectural elements. If I had 3D printing capability I would have made my own. But I don’t, so I didn’t.

I had to fabricate a base for that fit the roof with its three ridge lines. It took a couple cardboard mock ups and some junior high school geometry to get something that fit. I painted the white stone part of the tower with Rustoleum Chalked “Linen White” spray paint. And the copper domes were painted washes of black, GN green, and reefer white. The inside walls of the clock tower were coated with Liquid Electrical tape (so the walls don’t glow) and then painted with the Chalked Linen.

I illuminated the clock tower with a central LED recessed in the roof. Exterior up lights (per the prototype) would not work here because they would cast shadows on the wall.

To get the black flashing around the base, I used Tamiya Tape to mask all but 1/8” on either side of the base/roof joint, and then “painted” between the two with liquid electrical tape:

When I pulled off the tape, the separation line was not straight, as the liquid electrical tape ended to tear with an irregular edge. I got the brilliant idea of remasking, and applying Flat Engine black acrylic. When I pulled the tape off I found, much to my horror, paint had wicked under the tape. After the customary episode of panic / anger, I reasoned that Mean Green will remove fresh acrylic, but not cured liquid electrical tape. My reasoning was uncharacteristically correct, so I recovered from that potential debacle.

I then remasked, and used a Sharpie to make the demarcation line straight. This approach worked perfectly. A few light mists of Dullcote, and with the application of the finial (aka a gold painted push pin),Nassau Hall was done;

And now for the rest of the story…. On my layout, this building is placed on raised ground behind where the track to Princeton starts to diverge from the four track main. The building itself is partially obscured by trees. Although some trees were made deliberately “lean” to help the viewer see some of Nassau Hall, the only thing I want the viewer to see clearly without effort is the clock tower poking above the tree line.

It gets better. Behind Nassau Hall I built a representation (impression?) of the town of Princeton. Here is an aerial view, which can’t be seen unless you climb up onto one of those TopSide Creepers from Micromark:

Along the back, from left to right, are 1) a random row of storefronts typical of Princeton Township ca 1956 (Walthers N Scale Merchants Row II), 2) The original First National Bank of Princeton (played somewhat accurately by a slightly modified N Scale Lunde Studios Bates Hotel), 3) The lower Pyne House (A tudor style building played quite inaccurately by an N Scale Bavarian restaurant), and 4) Another random row of storefronts typical of Princeton Township ca 1956 (this time played by a kitbashed Walthers N Scale Merchants Row II). Notice there is no street as the ground is well below the viewer’s sight line. Notice there are, however, street lights (N Scale Woodland Scenics) because they are above the viewer’s sight line. They are also in the middle of the non-existent street, because if I put them in their proper position in the sidewalks you couldn’t distinguish the street lights from the building lights.

Again, the viewer can see only parts of these buildings. And not all the buildings can be seen from one vantage point. The viewer has to move around to see them. I think that adds to the fascination. I also think it is alluring, mysterious, and just plain mondo cool to see all those lights shining through the trees!

I said before I used the Woodland Scenics Just Plug system. I had never used it before. It is a rather expensive approach, BUT as there are 16 LED’s in this section, and I needed to have individual control of the intensity of 12 of them, it was a wide choice. I built this diorama (for lack of a better word) on an individual platter which I could make on the bench, and then insert into the layout. Here is the underside showing all the wiring: