A-frickin-mazing, as usual. That view of the track winding its way through the building is awesome. Absolutely fabulous!
Just frickin unreal
Slow to board the praise train here, Ray, but better late than never! Thanks for stepping through things in such detail!
Aloha,
Eric
Thanks guys!
“Well played Ray, though it most likely won’t be noticed, will you be adding some ledgers and paper piles to the office shelves?”
No, I had already spent a lot time on the other interior stuff, most of which doesn’t really show. So when I got to the office area I was getting to the point where I felt like it would be too much trouble for too little pay off.
The project I’ve been working on recently is one with very significant personal meaning…
I finished the exterior of the stone building on the left in 2013:
I designed this building to represent a former bank building which has gone through many different occupants over the years, and is currently home to a custom jewelry shop. It was intended to be a tribute to my brother Jim and his wife Maggi.
After finishing the exterior, I built the removable boxes that form the two interior rooms. Here’s the room for the ground floor:
That was as far as I got – adding lights and details to the interiors got put on hold while I worked on getting some of the other Mineral Ridge buildings put together. After the untimely deaths of my brother and his wife in 2016, I wanted to go back and finish this up, but it was much too painful emotionally. Only in the last few months have I gotten to a place where I felt ready to take it on.
The first item to complete was the door of the bank’s vault. It’s loosely modeled after this vault door in the ruined Nye & Ormsby Bank in Manhattan, NV:
Several parts are missing on the prototype, so I also relied on photos of similar vault doors that I found via Google.
The door and doorframe were built up on a sheet of styrene:
After trimming off excess material around the door frame, I began adding hinges and locking hardware:
Once assembled, I painted the door in an era-appropriate style. I added a slight bit of weathering and scuffs to represent typical wear on a vault in an old building which has at times been virtually abandoned. Then I glued the door assembly to the wall:
Next I made some ceiling lamps, using three different styles of acrylic beads for each lamp:
Wider holes were drilled through two of the beads to accommodate an LED. The base was sprayed with black primer, then hand painted with brass paint:
The remaining two beads were glued together, then glued to the base. Holes were drilled in the ceiling and the lamps were glued in place:
Now I need to make a display case. The lower half of the case was built using sheet and strip styrene plus a couple pieces of Sintra PVC board:
The frame for the glass front was assembled from styrene strips, using a pair of machinist’s blocks to keep everything square:
The rest won’t be visible so it isn’t fancy:
After I painted the case, I glued a tiny LED into the inside of the display area. The wire leads run through a hole and out the back:
I used slide cover glass for the top and front of the case. It was glued in place using clear silicone sealant.
I made a small, round table using bits from an old robot model I bought years ago, plus a styrene rod and some styrene sheet material. The display bust was made of thin Sintra with styrene details.
Another display was made by cutting down a plastic cake pillar and capping the ends with thin pieces of Sintra:
Here is the finished interior:
I used real photos of my brother’s jewelry for the frame photo displays on the walls. The jewelry inside the display case was made by reducing photos of his work and adding a black background. This was printed onto self-adhesive vinyl, then sprayed with flat clear coat. Then I used a very fine brush to carefully apply artist’s gloss medium to each of the items, making them stand out from the flat background.
That’s all on this for now, more later.
Once again, my flabber is completely gasted. Ray, sometimes I don’t know If I’m looking at your model or a prototype. So thanks for making clear in your text which is which.
Honestly, though you walk through the steps, that last photo is so amazing I just can’t quite believe what I’m seeing.
It’s always wonderful to see you pushing that envelope on what’s possible. Exploding the envelope might be a better way to put it.
Thanks so much Ray for your detailed descriptions and pics.
Cliff
Beautiful work as always Ray. Your attention to the smallest detail is amazing.
What a beautiful tribute to your Brother and Sister-in-Law, I’m thinking they would
very much approve.
I went back and looked again, damn, it just doesn’t get no gooder that this.
Thanks for sharing.
Ray,
I started scrolling from bottom-to-top and thought the finished product was your prototype! What a wonderful, wonderful tribute!
Eric
just another Dunakin interior…
… and i’m slowly trying to bring my jaw back up, where it belongs.
Ray, you and the Chilenian, Jaime, are simply modeling in another category, than the rest of us.
Korm Kormsen said:
just another Dunakin interior…
… and i’m slowly trying to bring my jaw back up, where it belongs.
Ray, you and the Chilenian, Jaime, are simply modeling in another category, than the rest of us.
Well said Korm but let’s not leave Chuck out of the group. Take a look here.
Korm Kormsen said:
just another Dunakin interior…
… and i’m slowly trying to bring my jaw back up, where it belongs.
You said it, Korm. I’m picturing any guest visiting Ray’s layout needs two covid masks: one for the mouth, and the other for the jaw somewhere on the floor… (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
Rick Marty said:
Korm Kormsen said:
Well said Korm but let’s not leave Chuck out of the group. Take a look here.
Any clue as to the scale size of that model Rick? looks larger that our scales, but with no background its hard to tell , awesome model though.
Ray, the medallion at the top of the safe door, how in the world did you paint that? And even in the space you had to work I can clearly see a desert type scenery painting and that work , which will never be noticed or seen well enough unless people shove their cameras into the window and take pictures is what is so amazing.
Do you ever host an open house? I’m in the Phoenix area but would gladly drive the 6 hours there to visit your layout.
Pete Lassen said:
Rick Marty said:
Korm Kormsen said:
Well said Korm but let’s not leave Chuck out of the group. Take a look here.
Any clue as to the scale size of that model Rick? looks larger that our scales, but with no background its hard to tell , awesome model though.
Pete,
It is 1:12th scale, I’m pretty sure.
Pete Lassen wrote: "
Ray, the medallion at the top of the safe door, how in the world did you paint that? And even in the space you had to work I can clearly see a desert type scenery painting and that work , which will never be noticed or seen well enough unless people shove their cameras into the window and take pictures is what is so amazing. "
I hand-painted it with a very fine brush. It’s actually just rough shapes, which gives the impression of being more detailed when seen from a few inches away. The gold “lettering” around it is also just tiny blotches of gold paint. I would have preferred to have that medallion and gold lettering done as a decal but I just wanted to get this done quick and not have to wait any longer on it.
<< Do you ever host an open house? I’m in the Phoenix area but would gladly drive the 6 hours there to visit your layout.>>
We usually host our local club in February, though who knows when we’ll be able to have club meetings again at this point. But if you’re ever going to be in the area we can arrange a visit.
BTW, as I get older I’ve thought more about the future of the layout and what will happen to it after I’m gone, as well as the fact that few people can ever actually see the interior details. Since many of the structures are named after and dedicated to various family members, I plan to eventually put together a “coffee table” style book and have it published by one of those “vanity press” outfits. I can have a section for each of the buildings and include the close up shots of the interiors, etc. Then I give copies to all my family and friends, and maybe donate one to the local model railroad museum.
Rick Marty wrote: “It is 1:12th scale, I’m pretty sure.”
Chuck’s incredible Fordson tugger hoist model is 1/16th scale.
What a great tribute to your brother and his wife. I hope you find comfort in the build. Thanks for sharing.
Excellent work as always Ray !
Thanks guys!
After seven years of constant exposure to the elements, the building’s exterior was in remarkably good shape. However it did need a little bit of refurbishing.
The stones on the front of the building were resin castings. These castings shrank slightly, leaving unsightly gaps, and a few had come loose:
I filled the gaps, using a gritty, acrylic putty made for artists, called “ceramic stucco”. The excess paste cleans off with water. I thought that the gritty texture would be a nice effect but it ended up leaving tiny traces of grit on the stones too. It’s not bad enough to bother redoing it, but if I were to do this again on another building I’d use plain acrylic paste.
After filling the gaps I repainted the entire front of the structure, and weathered it with grime and “bird poop” on the ledges.
The east side of the building was textured and painted to look like random stone construction, very similar in appearance to the real stone retaining wall on the cliff behind the building. This area still looked good, with only slight fading. I touched up the paint on a few stones here and there just to make it “pop” a little.
However, the two signs on this side of the building were badly faded and becoming nearly unreadable. I went over them with some fresh painted, applied by hand with a brush. I made the colors more vivid so they wouldn’t fade so quickly.
Unsurprisingly, the top of the building had the most wear due to pounding rain and hail. In some places the paint was nearly worn off. I sanded them to give the surface “tooth” and repainted them.
Next I went to work making a sign for gallery. This would fit in the arch above the storefront. I used Slater PlastiKard letters and glued them to 0.040" styrene rods. I placed a thin strip of brass between the rods to keep them properly spaced while gluing the letters with solvent. Once the letters were secured I removed the brass.
The entire sign was sprayed with flat black paint. Then I used a fine brush to apply gold paint to the front of the letters. The styrene rods were trimmed to fit the arch, and the sign was glued into place:
Smaller signs for the windows were printed on self-adhesive vinyl. These were mounted on a brass strip and glued in place on the inside of the storefront. Then the storefront was glued into the building.
That’s all for now. The next step is creating interior details for the second floor, which will be the jewelry-making workshop.
.
Holy Cow …