An On30 Boxcab Locomotive Kitbash

Fun With Diecast -- Paint Detailing And Weathering

Build A Cottage Style Gas Station

Click here for the plans (PDF, 5 MB). The plans include printable windows, doors, trim, and printable brick texture.

Basic Model Window Scratchbuilding

An O Scale Campfire From A Flickering LED Tealight

How To Remove Foil Backing From Acrylic Rhinestones

Modeling Stonework Using An Embossing Technique

Here's an easy method for modeling stonework using DAS air-dry clay.

Scratch Building Southern Pine Trees in O Scale

A Mid-Century Motel In O Scale - Part 4: Lighting, Stonework, Completing Assembly

The motel build is complete!

Here are some printable textures I used in the build. Some I posted before, but I've compiled them into a single PDF. Check print "actual size" in your printer dialog for O scale.

And here is the build vid:

"Daisy Cola?" I Don't Think So.

Wow. Has it been almost a year since I posted anything?

Well, that's the good thing about a hobby. You can leave it for a while and come back anytime.

I've been quite busy modeling. Remodeling, actually, in real life 1:1 scale. I redid a kitchen, plus finished several other smaller projects.

As rewarding as that is, it's fun to get back to miniatures.

I bought a set of Woodland Scenics O scale bicycles, which came with a few youth figures and a soda machine. The machine appears to be based on a Vendo, with a color scheme strongly inspired by the famous name-brand cola with the red label.

However, it's labeled "Daisy Cola." I guess Woodland Scenics didn't want to go through the hassle of licensing rights and all that. (Although I don't understand why companies don't grant permission regularly for reproduction items -- it is free advertising, after all.)

I wasn't going to be happy with Daisy Cola. I decided to make a change. Using a color laser printer, I printed a few copies of the classic Coca-Cola logo in various sizes.

I painted over the Daisy Cola logo with some white acrylic. Then I applied the new logos using a method I learned about years ago in an article about Fine Scale Miniatures' founder George Sellios. I sanded the back of the print paper until I got it as thin as I dared, then applied it using thinned white glue. It's not quite as effective as a decal, but it's pretty close.

I also applied smaller logos to the sides. While I was at it, I touched up the paint elsewhere on the machine. I darkened the door panel to look more like glass, added some spots to the dispenser rack, and straightened out the lines a bit.

That's more like it. Although I'm still partial to my scratch built O scale soda machine.

A Mid-Century Motel in O Scale - Part 2: Installing Trim and Making Doors

In this update, I install trim and stops in the openings on the front walls, plus fabricate doors from paper. Here's the build video:

A Mid-Century Motel In O Scale - Part 1

I've had this project in mind for some time. I've been wanting to capture in miniature something that was part of American life in the mid-20th century and dotted the landscape: a small motel.

It's difficult to model a typical motel of the mid-20th century, because there were no "typical" motels in the days before huge franchises and corporate chains. They were often individual or family-owned businesses. While they shared some characteristics, most were unique.

They were built in a mish-mash of architectural styles, including Streamline Moderne, Space Age motifs, Prairie Style, Greek Revival, Colonial -- you name it. Kitsch wasn't limited to the Doo Wop motels of Wildwood, New Jersey. It spread from coast to coast, reflected in eye-catching and inviting motel designs across the country, and in the signage that called attention (and guests) to them.

What I wanted to do was capture a few things that appeal to me personally. I like motels from that era that reflect Mid-Century Modern influences, and I like the smaller places. I like a mix of building materials. I also like neon accents and lighted signs. I plan to incorporate all that in this build. I also plan to do some interior detailing and lighting.

Vintage postcards are a terrific resource for ideas and period design. You can pick them up in lots from various sources. I used a couple as references for my build. The pictures in this article are scans of cards in my personal collection.

I decided to combine two designs I liked. One building in particular appealed to me for its use of stone (which I find fun to carve), and its boxy, "modern" design. I liked its open deck too.

I liked the sign from another motel, and it had the advantage of being tall and vertical, which would fit nicely on the stone facade of the other building. Putting the sign directly on the building, rather than building a freestanding one, will save space.

(Incidentally, both of these real-life structures are still in use. One was converted to a tourist shopping mall, the other is still doing business as a motel under a new name and new ownership.)

This particular project will differ from many miniature building or model railroad projects in that there won't be much aging or weathering applied to the finished structure. Motels of that era competed for guests, and few tourists wanted to stay in a "run down" place -- at least, not as their first choice. So most motels were maintained by their owners in crisp, clean, like-new condition.

Whether building for a model railroad layout or a diorama, "compression" is the way to maximize effect and minimize the space a structure takes up. You keep the important details, and reduce the size of the rest. For example, my motel, when finished, will have only one guest room. But that's okay -- imagination will fill out the other thirty units or so.

I'm also reducing the overall footprint of the structure in a way that would be impractical in real life, while still keeping it a plausible size. And I'm reducing the height of the stories by about 6 scale inches. (This is something often deliberately done with real structures in theme parks to give them a charming appeal.)

Here are the plans (with dimensions in scale feet and inches) and the first build video.