Large Scale Central

Refurbishing Mama's Bakery No Ka Oi

The Mik behind us, a rocket lost to a tree, a rocket ready to launch, and it is time to hit the next item on the Triple O - 2025 Plans & Objectives, Mama’s Bakery No Ka Oi. This was the result of our 2020 MIK ( Mik 2020 – Mama’s No Ka Oi Bakery ). It happens to be one of my favorite projects, because it was still an all hands, all the time, effort, something that proved to be painfully fleeting.

Equally fleeting was the bright and cheery nature of the bakery. What began looking like this example from the 2020 Mik’s Build Challenge Entrants Photos for voting

…had crumbled to this…

…and similar scenes of decay as shown in or 2025 goals list.

I had been hesitant to start, as artwork from a bygone time decorate this little building. I was prepared, as @David_Marconi_FOGCH had suggested, to carefully preserve those sections of the wall and mount them on a framed collage, if necessary.

First, though, Kid-zilla and I had to remove the bakery from the railroad and inspect the damage up close.

The building itself is pinkfoam core, clad in craftsticks, painted in exterior latex paint, and trimmed with whatever paint the kids had on hand. The roof was clad in crimped, unannealed beverage cans with broken epee blades serving as toppers. The interior used a mesh from an old chair back, scrap foam, more crafsticks, and paper mache “cakes.”

We had expected the local insects would have burrowed into the base. As the pictures show, no, they did not!

Surprisingly, the cobblestone deck, which is actually meat packing trays, took the worst damage.

Clearly, some of the damage is Act of Dogs. Many of the “stones” seemed pushed in, and we can only guess what property of meat packing tray led to that.

The foam core of the walls and roof were solid with no observed damage. We will reuse them in their entireties.

The roof was a mess, with cans peeling off, so we removed all that cladding and set it aside.

The interior, however, with the exception of the cakes, was pretty clean after four years.

We noted that most of the damaged wood was on the roof, where water could seep down and around it or facing Lake Inferior, where Acts of Dog through up tidal waves that lead to water seeping in and around the window.

In most other places, the crafsticks held up pretty well. We peeled off the rotted ones, however, as well as rotted trim, and added them to a “gemuckabucket” for some future, unforeseen use.

Finally, we decided to see what was left under the dreck, so we got some old toothbrushes and a bucket of warm, soapy water, and set-to. As this last shot reveals, the artwork popped back to life.

Removing 5 years of dreck showed that what we have is a touch up, and not a rebuild. Phew! Furthermore, and most importantly, the artwork can be preserved in situ. What a blessing, as that is what locks this building in time and place, if not for Hawaii railroading, at least for the Triple O.

We discussed our way forward. First, we will modify the base to let us bring this building inside when the railroad is in cold iron. Second, we will use our standard roofing material, scrap 1:1 shingles, turned upside down, and painted black to emulate tar paper. This has proven the most cost effective and durable way to roof our buildings, and it will make Mama’s Bakery consistent with the Triple O’s world. We will let the roofing material overhang the ends of the roof a bit to protect the craftstick cladding from the elements. Of course, old boards, frames, doors, and windows will get replaced, sealed, and repainted. Then, I hope the girls will finish it off by adding their graphic talents.

Updates as Progress Merits!

Eric

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That in itself is a win.

When the FEBT restored the East Broad Top motor car M3 the wooden body was pretty much beyond repair, so it was replicated. To appease the purists who worried about destroying histprical fabric, they saved all pieces that were salvageable and mounted them the wall of the shed where M3 is stored.

It does look a little sad compared to the original pictures.

OK, lots of excuses…work travel…overtime rich environment…kids’ birthdays…but the biggest issue? Would you believe we didn’t have the right crafsticks on hand?

Problem solved…

That’s enough for this project and the next 27 MIKs!!!

Kid-zilla and I are hard at work. He has assumed lead. I’ll post some updates tomorrow.

Eric

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that pic makes me smile.

“they” made cheap wooden tongue depressors, lolly sticks and coffee stirrers.

“we” discovered them for modeling.

“they” adapted - selling us : Craft Sticks! even made of “natural” wood.

For my information and history… Eric… How has the Chimey held up?

You’ll need these too…

Kraft Sticks equally as Natural should also be considered an essential building block for young modellers. (About same in taste but less fibre).

Dave, beyond faded paint, it is as good as new. It has been subjected to 65F-95F, direct equatorial sun, and a couple of tropical storms. This is the first time it has come off the railroad since we placed teh bakery on the railroad over five years ago!

Overall, I am really pleased with how well this actually stood up considering the material choices. And, yes @Korm , the frozen food and medical folks have us!

Eric

On to the update…

The first order of business was to remove as much old glue and paint as possible, score the roof with guidelines, and then glue on the 'sticks.

My scoring proved accurate enough! We repeated this on Sunday.

I then used a shop vac to suck out 6 years of gook. I lightly sanded the display shelves and re-stained them. I had to leave, so Kid-zilla took over the painting, giving inside and outside a good coat of exterior latex paint.

He was very careful to keep the paint away from original artwork. The girls promised to touch that up later. Even with more work to come, it already looks much better.

We’ll get the craft sticks Dremeled down later this week, use the scraps to cover the remaining bits of the roof frontage and Dremel those, too. We’ve located our stock of roofing material, so we are on track. Oh, Kid-zilla also cut some new windows today, too.

As for the rotted craftstick and old roofing material, we set it aside in a “gemuckabucket.” Kid-zilla has already put some of it to use. He mixed it with sundry bits that he glued to a base of scrap foam he had painted black

The Triple O wastes NOTHING!

Updates as progress merits!

Eric

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This is incredibly inspiring as the options are endless!!!

Just saying.

:rooster:

The Dutch :netherlands: do have a wonderful rail system too!

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well, i see one problem with these sticks.
too much labour needed, to make them useful. (cutting off the round ends)
or, in case of roofing, cutting away the straight parts between the rounded ends.

(but i’m waiting for delivery of sticks, that are less wide and longer - for passenger cars)

We usually glue them in place then use a Dremel to make them flush when we use these round-ended sticks. The scraps are salvaged and sorted for future projects. Of course, my Dremel may be on the way out…

Eric

well, using high-tec…

here the only use i found for this kind of sticks:

Yes Bill they sure do!

Now the kids gonna want to go the Netherlands and this will be your fault not mine!

Update Gluing, cutting, and more gluing continue. The cutting blade on the Dremel is dull, which hindered progress. Off to find a new one. The SS Ne’ersail was due in from San Francisco with a load of salt fish, linens, and miscellaneous hardware supplies…

Update. Pretty much all of the cladding is in place, and we started to replace the trim.

Earlier, Kid-zilla had ground off the rust and guck from our roof toppers which I made long ago from broke epee blades.

A bit more Dremel work, some trim, and some roofing to go. We’ll give all a coat of outdoor latex paint and install the windows before handing it over to the girls to perform the artwork restoration.

Updates as progress merits!

Eric

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Update:

Progress in fits and starts all week as I recover from my latest round of COVID (fourth overall!). I used time here and there to prep the rest of the building. As the virus cleared my system, Kid-zilla joined in on the painting. We opted to repaint the existing trim in the white latex, figuring it wouldn’t hurt anything and might enhance durability.

We’ll touch that up a bit and turn it over to the roofers. Not shown are the roof toppers that he ground clean the other day. They went to the Palm of Spray Painting for some primer.

We have decided to just repaint the cobblestones. Replacing them would be no fun, and, from typical viewing distances, you can’t see that they’ve become potholes. We are debating where to put the bakery, as we’ve never been satisfied with the siding, as it has to jig-jag around to pass everything. The photos below, taken shortly after we began this project, shows what I mean.

The hole is where the bakery once stood. We have time to figure that out.

Thunderstorms and wet weather will likely preclude further progress, if a COVID counterstrike doesn’t land home first.

Eric

Update:

Between not having the right glue, fighting COVID, and recovering from the same, progress was slow. Still, Kid-zilla and I managed to limp forward. I am finding he will work happily WITH someone, but he is not quite ready to go solo. Given circumstances, this was OK. I got to hang out at a respectful distance as he put his energy into this project. To that end, he measured and cut the roofing material.

Then he took it out to the Palm of Spray Painting to paint the backside flat black. He also primed the broken epee blades he had ground clean. These will again serve as toppers.

As that was drying, he also decided to touch up the “boxes” in our train store stand from 2023 Mik Challenge - Makeke o Haluku’ilio.

The water-based markers had faded or washed out over the years.

For those we are curious, Oldest Son joined us to chat has he worked on his own project.

This is for a demi-cuirass of plate and mail he his fashioning for Hallowe’en and, I think, what will effectively be Live Action Role Playing. Not a railroad project, but it is a result of what he’s learned through his time in the hobby: imagine it, research it, source it, try it!

As for the bakery, Kid-zilla and Youngest Daughter are applying the trim paint as I type. We’ll get the construction cement to allow us to reapply the roofing material. Then we’ll see how the girls restore the art. This is a physically large project, so it precludes starting something else until it is off the lanai. I am anxious to see it done and again serving the 1:24 folks of Haluku’iliio!

Eric

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So as I zoomed in on the pics I asked myself …“they are about what 8 and 14”?

I kinda chuckled and thought “they are doing just fine” !

KDZ is working that X-acto chopper like a pro and OS working the can tabs is awesome…

I was thinking it might be some kind of chest plate/head armor when I first saw the pic. Then I actually had to go back and (sigh) READ to find out I WAS pretty close!

Great work boys!
:rooster:

As I was told “Back in the day” …There is a lot to be said for working with what you have, using basic tools and thinking outside of the box!