# New buildings for the J&B



## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Jean's been after me to build up my town a bit, so I decided I needed a hardware store and a cafe. These are rather small buildings but are made to 1:20 and made to complement my bank. It's almost ready to put outside, but I thought I'd go ahead an post what I have. I don't think the weather will allow me to put it outside for the next few days.



The front is a single piece of corrugated plastic (about 3/8" thick). The ends and back are made of the same material and covered with Precision Products brick sheet.

Openings were cut for the windows. All windows were custom made as I wanted different sizes. They are glazed with 1/16 or 1/8" acrylic, depending on what I had on hand. The hardware windows are built up with styrene and glazed with acrylic as well. I found some old junk and stuff and placed them in the windows.

Since I was sort of detailing the hardware store, I thought I'd go ahead and "populate" the windows with people that I've operated with. I scaled some pictures to 1:20 then printed them on vinyl, mounted this on plastic and glued them behind the windows. The hard part was finding pictures that would work. Most of my photos have been taken outside, or could not scale correctly. 

The buildings will go between my gas station and bank; they'll replace the barbershop and drug store. The old buildings will move to the other side of the street for now.










The roof pieces were made from some styrene I had on hand. I painted them with a textured paint and then added some roof vents. Screen backs up all the vents, to help keep out the critters.


----------



## Dave Ottney (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

Marvelous and as always inspirational. 
Dave


----------



## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

Bruce, you make it all look so easy. Very nice work. Have a happy holiday.


----------



## Richard Smith (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

Two more masterpieces under your belt. They look great Bruce!


----------



## chaingun (Jan 4, 2008)

*WOW!







Them some great looking buildings Bruce.*


----------



## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi Bruce, 

As always, good looking buildings and I like the interior details.

Thanks for the ideas and photos.


----------



## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks. Lots of fun doing this one.

Here are some closeups:

I started off by modifying a "Fine Folk" figure. The hat was replaced with a cap; beard and glasses added. Plus an early RCS controller in his right hand.  The cigar is just a piece of brass rod.










Ric Golding and Fred Mills:









Ken Brunt:









Bob McCown:









Doug Matheson and Andy Clarke:









Gaetan Charette:









Richard Smith:









Ralph Dipple:









Bart Salmons:


----------



## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

Wonderful stuff Bruce!! The images of all the train buddies in the windows and doors is outstanding!! So is the Goodson figure ('cept Dave ain't that good-looking - hehehe  ).


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

Oh my! This is terriffic!


----------



## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Bruce.... That's great. Love the way you used the images in the windows. You might know that Andy would be in the middle of it causing all kinds of..............


----------



## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

This IS a tad bigger than the buildings it will replace.









I'm pleased that the sunlight gives enough light to see the details.


















More people here as well: Matt Brown, Andre Schofield, Gary Buchanan, Jane Clarke and Jan Golding and Dave Goodson.


----------



## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

That is such a neat idea, the pictures in the windows. THANKS!


----------



## docwatsonva (Jan 2, 2008)

Those are truly great buildings Bruce. It's interesting how much bigger they are. I've got so much time invested in 1:24 structures that I can't imagine, at my age, starting over and replacing them with 1:20.

Doc


----------



## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

I put the final signs on the windows of Goodson Hardware; I used my Brother P-Touch printer to print white on clear and just stuck them to the windows. 









It fits right in place between the gas station and the bank. The previous buildings were moved to the other side of the street. I do need to clean up the layout a bit, but I think I'll wait for nicer weather.


----------



## Bob Pero (Jan 13, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

Bruce, your modeling skills are amazing. Very nice work, especially the window display in the hardware store.


----------



## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks again.

Since the buildings are sealed pretty tight, I like to have some ventilation. The roof hatches actually cover screened openings, but I also wanted to build some decent smoke stacks; but I was stymied trying to make a good top. The other day, while poking around at Wal-Mart, I saw some chair glides, so I bought a set. 


They come with a center nail to stick in the chair but I cut that off. Next, I drilled some holes and added four brass pins to the glide. I turned this over and glued it on to the cylinder. Painted it black. Yep, this works.


----------



## Mike O (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

Bruce, 

Very nicely done. Nice interior effect also. 

Mike


----------



## Robert (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

The peg boards in the window of the hardware store, is that perfed circuit board that you used? It looks really good. 
Robert


----------



## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

Nope...just a picture of a hardware window I found somewhere. I ended up using the same picture on both sides.


----------



## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

Nice buildings! Great idea about adding pics of friends/relatives in the windows  Your modification of the Fine Folk figure also deserves notice. Very nice and the cigar is genius and looks real.


----------



## jbwilcox (Jan 2, 2008)

I'd swear that was TOC standing in front of that store.

Can you explain how you did the pictures in the windows?

Thanks


----------



## snowshoe (Jan 2, 2008)

Great work as always. Maybe someday I can get down that way and meet you guys. Espedcially since im that that far. Im thinking about the york this year, will see.


----------



## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks. The hardest thing about the pictures is coming up with ones that will look decent behind a window.

I would have liked to have more inside shots, but since most of my pictures are taken outside, it wasn't a choice. 


Once you find ones that you can use, you need to scale them to the right size. Now, I don't know the heights of everyone, but I can at least make them close to some of my purchased figures. In fact, I used the figure in front as my comparison. I'd print out a page and then hold the figure up to it and see if the people were about the right size. It's not totally critical, but the closer to your scale the better. It is amazing how different that figure looks, with just a little modification from the original.


My first page looked like this:










On later pages, I tried to put more people on a page; but this was my first attempt. 


Once I got the people on the page to look about right, I printed them out on the papillo inkjet white waterproof vinyl - adhesive backed. I cut them to about the size of the opening and mount them on a sheet of styrene. Next, I sprayed them with a coat of Krylon clear satin.


In this case, I put all of them on one sheet of styrene and glued that about 1/2" from the window and doors. The others were glued directly behind the walls, so they were only about 1/8" inch from the back of the windows. 


For the cafe, I found some pictures of curtains on the web and printed them out as well. They are glued in place right behind the windows. 


And, you get this look.










The key here is that you will NEVER get this close. A typical view will be more like this:










But, it still helps to fill in for when you do get some nice closeups.


----------



## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

Paste the photos onto a piece of card stock, then cut the person out (or, rather, cut the background away!) and then put the cardboard figure deeper in the building away from the window. If there is ony one window it will be hard to tell that it is only a 2-dimensional figure inside, if there are two windows, place the cutout photo on a room wall deeper inside the building opposite the windows so the view from both windows will still onlly reveal the image and it will be hard to tell it is only 2-dimensional. 

With the background cut away you can use outdoor photos.


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

Bruce, you need to change the car in front of the hardware store to a Jag sedan! 

The building looks great! 

Regards, Greg


----------



## rbwhale (Sep 15, 2008)

Beautiful job...but can I pick your brain? I'm thinking of using the Precision Products brick sheets for a large (27" by 13") building, but how do you make the window frames and the brick sheet fit together so nicely with no gaps? Also, how did you paint the brick, especially the way you did the mortar lines? Finally, would Grandt Line windows, which have a flange that might help hide slightly oversize openings, work?

Thanks
RB Whale


----------



## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

Pretty darn clever, Bruce. And ya sure captured TOC. But where's his beloved Jag-you-are? Or one of his vintage flatheads?


----------



## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: New buildings for the J&B*

I thought that vintage Ford out front would suffice. That's from 1909, and we know that TOC wants his cars to be tried and true...


----------



## Dougald (Jan 2, 2008)

Bruce

Great idea and very good execution. My mind is boggled at Fr Fred Mills, Rick Golding and Ken Brunt as "models" with Dave Goodson making the scene as a full fledged figure ...

Very nicely done!

Regards ... Doug


----------

