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Structure flat in progress

p51p51OGR Forum Member

Been wanting to get going with this flat for a long time now, for the back wall on my layout. I used a 1" thick pine plank as the base, covered with coffee stirrers and Grandt Line door and window castings. Not a lot of money went into the materials, probably less than $20 total (including ten bucks for a box of 1000 stirrers). So far, I like how it's turned out. Here's the sequence of construction so far:

 

 

Tonight I plan on getting as much done as I can. I need to do these to complete it:

  • Windows in place (clear plastic, painted black on the backs and maybe a window shade in one or two)
  • Roofing on the top (simple tarpaper)
  • Rock wall for the foundation. I have plastic sheets for that, I'll be covering them with some ground cover to look like ivy and such. A freight platform will cover most of the front, below the level of the doors (which should be flush with the top of the platform deck)
  • Signs. I plan on adding a sign at one of the doors stating that they're not hiring males with a draft classification that would likely mean they'll go into the military, as well as a war bond sign or two.
  • Many structures on layouts have massive signs that can be seen by the casual observer, but in real life, many businesses don't have big names painted on the side. I'm not even 100% sure I'm going to even put any business name on it, yet. Maybe I’ll just call it “The Freighthouse”
  • Later on I might put an awning over one of the doors as I think it'd be reasonable to do that
Last edited by p51
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p51p51OGR Forum Member

The flat is on the layout now. Here's the final stages for the most part:

And finally, on the layout with the loading ramp:

I still plan on adding:

  • A couple of small signs along the front (including hours of operation and what draft classifications of men are being hired)
  • Bird poop and a couple of scale magazines on the roof
  • Minor clutter/weathering along the loading dock

But for the most part, it's done.

p51p51OGR Forum Member
I just added the signage and a couple of war bond posters to the outside.
 
 
Originally Posted by Sean007:
       
Have you thought about placing some led lamps over the doors?



The rural power act hadn't gotten electricity to everyone in the area until after the war. No light fixtures anywhere on the layout for the year I'm modeling. That said, there were power lines in portions of the area, but not that far into the valley I'm representing (but then again, there were no industries other than small country stores way up there). What few structures I'll have lighted will have flickering yellow lights to look like oil lamps but those wouldn't be outside of course.

At one point I was going to put a business name on this but now I'm thinking maybe not. The draft classification notice I put next to one of the doors has the name, "The Unaka Company" at the very bottom in teeny letters, so small you'd barely see them with a magnifying glass. The name Unaka refers to a school that is in the general area up there and was there in the 40s as well.

This doesn't need to be a factory, really, it could be just a really big freight house for people to come to from the region.

It's so normal today for people to place (ridiculously) oversized signage on buildings on layouts when in real life that wasn't all that common, except when it was a 'signature' building in a big city.

I will need to refer to it as something for op sessions, though...

Last edited by p51
p51p51OGR Forum Member

Still trying to find some good O scale birds to put along the top and yes, there will be bird poop!

As for weathering, not all my buildings are like this. I've noticed that many modelers weather stuff identical to each other. But structures are maintained by the owners on an individual basis, so they shouldn't be weather exactly the same. This building which I'm currently referring to as, "The Unaka Company" in my layout concept was built in the lat 1910s or early 1920s and has never seen much exterior work. Now there's a war on, it's going to stay as it was, at least for the duration...

I decided to put some stairs onto the end of that loading dock/ramp I built for that structure on the back of the layout. There’s a door right next to the edge, and I could see some redneck types putting a stump or something to hop up there. I think a company would have put stairs there but probably wouldn’t have put a handrail. So, I took some O scale lumber, a straight edge, ruler and cutting grid and made some stairs:

Then, I weathered them and put them into place at the end of the dock. I like how they turned out and I now realize I was right that they should have been there:

The door to the right has the notice that the company is no longer accepting applications from men in certain draft categories, which was a very common thing in the WW2 years. The door to the far end has the business times and there's a warbond poster next to one of the freight doors...

Last edited by p51

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