Favorite Buildings - Hoboken Terminal

Hoboken Terminal

This terminal is located in Hoboken New Jersey, just across the Hudson from New York.  It had fallen in to disrepair but has been going through a restoration.  Most of the work was finished for its 100th birthday in 2007, including the waiting room and a new clock tower being erected.  The original clock tower was dismantled in the 50's because it had become structurally unstable.  It was originally run by the Lackawanna  Railroad but is now under New Jersey Transit control.

Along with serving rail it has six ferry slips, but they haven't been used for years, last I had heard they were going to dredge out the slips and begin operation again  out of a few of them.  It is a gorgeous example of Beaux Arts architecture and as some of you know I am a fan of that patina color, the clock tower I believe is also copper and will eventually weather to match the rest of the terminal.  

-wallyg on flickr-

-geekninja on flickr- 

Favorite Buildings - Singer Building

In this time of transition, the Dominion running home and the Gordon warming up, I am going to do a little daily series of a few of my favorite buildings.  This may give you a idea of what inspires me to obtain the detail that I demand of myself.  I hope you enjoy.  

Speaking of the Dominion this Sunday will probably be the last update, I know its kind of sad but we all knew that this day would come. 

-picture taken from flickr courtisy of Olde New York-

The Singer Building

Our first building is a sad example of "progress", Im all for progress but not at the expense of a icon of the early 20th century.  Because of it being narrow is the main reason it was demolished, it had been deemed "obsolete & unprofitable".  Up till the World Trade Center disaster it was the tallest building demolished.  It was demolished about the same time Penn Station was raised and the loss of the two lead directly to the strengthened move for historic preservation.

It was built between 1906 & 1908 and was the tallest building in the world for about a year, passing up the Philadelphia City Hall, then being surpassed by the Metropolitan Life Tower.  It was designed by architect Ernest Flagg and he had done other buildings for the Singer company as well.

Question About . . . . . Birds?

Today I had two very similar comments made about my building.  The first came from the greatscaper saying that I should add birds to the sign.  Then a few hours later my brother came over and said if I was going to add pigeons and  pigeon poop on some of the ledges.  So I think I want to add birds to the building.  

I haven't looked yet but I don't believe any are available in N-scale, so like everything else I must create them.  

So my first question is:  Have any of you ever made birds or have you seen some one make them in N-scale?  

Question #2 is:  Do you have any suggestions for making them?

So let me know your thoughts and ideas on this I would like to know.

Dominion Building Update - Rooftop Sign & Columns

You guys probably wont listen to me anymore, I tell you todays post will be arriving later than usual but here it is earlier than usual.  I was able to finish the few things I wanted done for todays post faster than expected and I have a busy day ahead of me so I decided to get it out of the way.

After the poll and a few persuading  emails and posts I decided to forge ahead and erect the rooftop sign.  I had been hesitant to build it because I thought it would be a long and difficult trek the build it and the results wouldn't justify it.  But I've got to say, it went together rather easy and painless.  The 3D mockup I had done stood at 24' tall, I cut a piece of styrene to see how this looked and it felt too short, so I upped it to 30' or about 2 1/4".  

I needed to build six uprights, four would be identical and the other two would need to be custom to fit it with the rooftop building.  I built the uprights from .030" square strip, I wanted to use .020" square strip but felt that it wouldn't be strong enough, but the .030" worked well. 

I was surprised how strong the uprights were after the glue had cured.  

The letters had been a dilemma from the beginning, how was I going to get the font I wanted and have the not look like I cut them out by hand.  I am not a fan of those 3/4" white sign letters and so those were out.  So I started to get a file ready to send and have them laser cut for me, but then I discovered something very cool.  My wife loves to scrapbook and I heavily encourage her to do it because I feel guilty about spending so much time and money on my hobby.  I had been a supporting husband and tagged along to a few scrapbook stores with her, I started looking at die cuts to possibly use to cut the  the letters, but everything was too big or "too cute".  I did a little research and for fairly decent price you can get machines to hook up to your computer and cut any font or clipart you want.  My wife had been wanting a die cutter but just a cheep one that you bought the shapes and manually rolled the paper through.  So to my luck Tuesday was her birthday and I went out and bought her the Quickutz Silhouette (with the intention of using it for my sign).  So the letters are cut from a heavy card stock cause that is about the thickest it could handle, some of the more expensive ones out there can handle .010" sheet styrene.  video at the end of the post of it in action

So after the machine cut out the letters I then glued on two .025" rods while the letters were still semi part of the scrap so all the letters would stay evenly spaced and level.  I then glued on the up rights put it on top for a dry fit and . . . . its way too tall!!!  After some consulting with people I trust I chopped 10' off or 3/4".  That fortunately worked and it felt much better.  I then added the lateral X-bracing in three of the sections and then painted and weathered in the usual fashion.

The other thing I finished was the columns at the main entry, this was another area that I kept putting off cause I couldn't decide on what I wanted.  But I settled on HO scale columns made from Scale Structures LTD. (pt. # 2137).  I had to shorten them very slightly to fit but they worked very well.  

I have a open week coming up, so I hope to have most of the left overs done for next week, if I finish what I want next week will be the last Dominion Update (sniff).  I have a few new structures that I scratch build and I have a few old projects that I need to finish.  So what ever I do next it will be smaller than the Dominion, but don't worry they will be fun.

Chris

initial upright size

this is a very bad video of the Silhouette in action

Photo of the Day/Note on the Dominion

So what are we looking at?  First off I am fairly certain this is the Illinois Central yards in Chicago.  The two incredible landmark buildings are the Wrigley Building (left) and the Tribune Tower.

Just a little note for everyone on the Sunday Dominion update, I am trying to get a few things done, so I have something to post on, the first part is small but made a large difference.  The other isn't huge but six out of eight of you will like it, that is if I can get it done.  Also Sunday like the rest of the week is going to be busy, so the update wont come till latter than usual.

My Copper Patina Mix REVILED!

The most common question I have had since I began the Dominion Building over a year ago is "what did you use or how did you get the patina on your roof?"  I even had one person ask if I was using "reindeer piss", he was joking of course.  

I feel like everyone thinks I am using some kind of secret formula, but I guess I come forward and revile the smoke and mirrors I use to create the magic.   So here it goes . . .

I just mixed three colors of paint!

Kind of disappointing huh?  Now here comes the real disappointing part, I don't know what the exact mixture is!  My guess is 1/2 green, 1/4 blue and 1/4 white, the reason I don't know is I just kept adding blue or white to the green till it felt right.  The key is the blue and I would add it first, then lighten it up with the white.  

Now here comes the next trick to making it look real.  Once you have the paint down and you have given it ample time to cure, attack it with a very liberal coat of india ink/alcohol, but do it fast and then don't touch it because the alcohol will wash away the paint.  When it dries you can add further coats if needed but the first is good enough, I will usually touch up spots and add shadowing later.  Then after it is dry add highlights and some texture by dry brushing with white paint.  But remember you NEED to weather it for it to look right, just the paint mix alone wont work.  

But thats about it, sorry if I disappointed you.  If you still have further questions please ask me and I will try to answer it.  

These are the exact paint colors I used to make the patina and the resulting color (I think my mix could use a little more blue), any other brand should work just fine as well.

Dominion Building Update - Sidewalks

This Sundays update is coming to you early for obvious reasons (Go Steelers!).  I also need to apologize that I did not get anywhere as much work done as I wanted to.  It has been a busy week and a very nasty cold has swept through my family, I am just now getting it.

So the few things that I did manage to complete are the billboard on the one end that I posted about a few days ago.  The other is a plate for the building to rest-upon, and make the building look a little more finished.  It will be nice to display it on the plate because it will be a few years until it has a permanent home.  

The plate was cast from plaster in a mold that I built from styrene.  I sprayed a little Pam onto a paper towel and gave the mold a good rubdown.  The Pam acts as a release agent because you cant flex plastic like a rubber mold.  Also don't spray the Pam directly on the mold, rubbing it in with a paper towel is sufficient and gives you an even coat.  If you are careful with the mold you can get a few pours out of it, which comes in handy when you don't mix enough plaster and by the time you get the next batch ready, the first has setup too far to work it (not like that has ever happened to me).  I popped the casting out after just a few hours so I could easily add the expansion joints in the sidewalks by using a dull #11 X-acto blade.

Once the casting was mostly dry, I began staining (not painting) the plaster with washes of my favorite India ink/Alcohol mix, if have been following me you know that I love this stuff.  I stained the sidewalks, curbing and gutters with a fairly light wash (test it first on the bottom or on an area that wont be visible).  Make sure that you scribe in a line separating the street and the gutter, it helps to prevent the darker street wash from bleeding into the lighter.  I was very liberal with my washes to ensure that it was getting into all of the seams.  The street is simply a darker wash, I added a little more ink into the existing mix (a little india ink goes a very long way, so use it sparingly).  

The storm drains were very easy to make but add allot detail.  On the mold I had glued a 3/8" long strip of styrene.  Later I painted some .010x.080" strip a dark grey, cut it to length and glued it in.  The lamp I bought from Miniatronics (72-032-01), and it is very close to the bishops crook style that was used throughout New York.  It was molded in black so I panted it a olive drab to match a few pictures.  I made up the street signs from paper and styrene, they were a little more time consuming to make than I thought but I think they look okay.  The fire call-box I built from styrene again, then painted.  I used figures & benches from Woodland Scenics for the bus stop but I made the sign, I have a few more figures that I will add later as the building gets closer to being done.  The mail box is from Period Miniatures, I think.  Then I added a few things of garbage.

I still need to add a few fire hydrants and couple minor details, I don't want too much so the attention stays on the building.  Unfortunately next week is looking grim for construction time, so we shall see what I can finish up.  Please ask if you have any questions on something that I may have missed or didn't explain very well.  Sometime this week I will post about how I created the patina on the roof, I have been getting many questions on this.

Sorry about the blurry pictures, I need to download that Helicon Focus program.