Taco Bell Build

[valenciajim]

This is a very nice model. In fact seeing you build it is making me think I may build one myself.

After thinking about this thread, I am surprised that you built the site around the building first. I would have completed the structure first so I knew the precise footprint of the structure around which I could build the surrounding site. But that is just me. I am truly enjoying this thread.

[Christian]

Feb 12, 2021 19:32:34 GMT -8 valenciajim said:

I am surprised that you built the site around the building first. I would have completed the structure first so I knew the precise footprint of the structure around which I could build the surrounding site.

If I had done that I would have had to saw off the butt end of a finished structure to fit the available site. Or surrender somewhat real looking vehicle access. Or, more likely, put it in a box for my descendants to admire.

[Christian]

Chapter 6 – Graphic Stuff
Very little how to do it this time because this sort of graphics creation is a whole other hobby. If you remember back at the start I wasn’t enthusiastic about the signage that came with the kit. “Lifeless” was my thought. I’ve run across the source material for the included graphics and some is authentic. The Taco Bell signs are photographs printed onto dull sticker material. The posters are not specified to the mid eighties. One is for Diablo sauce which started appearing in 2015.

I reconstructed the signs in CorelDRAW. Various Taco Bell typefaces (fonts) are free. The various logos can also be found on logo sites. Free for personal use. I sized the signs to fit the Summit Customcuts parts.

The window posters came from dated photographs and could have been used in 1985. From the link stottman provided I took the neon sign. I corrected the perspective and sized it for the Summit model windows. I goosed the neon red. The 99¢ special came from a period advertisement. The “PIZZAZZ” PIZZA sign is distinctively 1985. That’s when it was introduced under that name and within two years became “Mexican Pizza.” I couldn’t find but one terrible photo of a PIZZAZZ poster. So I reconstructed the concept. It’s in the ball park.

All that is at the top of the glossy brochure paper printout in photograph one. At the bottom of the page is a manipulated photo inside a Taco Bell mid eighties. I squashed, stretched, and cropped the photo. I sized the height to fit in my model with a bit of a trim at the front wall. I duplicated it and then printed out the sheet. I used HP brochure paper because it is thin, glossy photo paper. The color rendition in my Cannon printer is fine.

Photo two shows what I did with the interior photos. Curved because the eye can’t latch onto something the expose the truth of what is being seen. The locations prevent the viewer from seeing through the building to another window except for the window by the door. That window gets a poster and the view will be blocked. Photographs three, four, and five show it better than any human eye will ever see. When the floor, walls, and roofs are black there will be even less light in there. Just a glimpse that hints that the model is super-detailed. I’m not telling, are you?

I turned to paint. The instructions recommend airbrushing because a brush coat will collect in the brick joins. Well, that’s just like waving a red flag at me. I brush painted the piece cut off the side walls. And tested the colors I picked out. Photo six. The lighter color isn’t there yet. But the trim and false facade colors look good to me.

Oh yeah, brush painting the bricks – the instructions were right. Photograph seven. Coverage is bad and more coats will just make it worse.

Since I was going to spray I cemented in the wall sections that form the false facade. It gets painted on the backside. I left off the trim pieces for now. I also put in a divider between the entry and the take-out window. Brushed for dust, brushed with Polly-Scale/ Polly-S/Floquil/Testors Plastic-Prep and we’re off to the races. Photo eight.

Next time, paint. Maybe.

[sd40dash2]

Quality workmanship right here.

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

That sure is a nice project you have going. The marking tool is something I’ve never seen. I found a treasure chest of tools in an old machinists oak drawer tool chest I found at a garage sale 15 years ago for $100. If only I knew how to use many of them.

The time you’re taking to document and ‘splain your build is great. I know how hard it is to remember to take pics as you progress. Great job on the graphics, too.

[valenciajim]

Feb 13, 2021 2:34:55 GMT -8 Christian said:

Feb 12, 2021 19:32:34 GMT -8 valenciajim said:

I am surprised that you built the site around the building first. I would have completed the structure first so I knew the precise footprint of the structure around which I could build the surrounding site.

If I had done that I would have had to saw off the butt end of a finished structure to fit the available site. Or surrender somewhat real looking vehicle access. Or, more likely, put it in a box for my descendants to admire.

When I have a structure like this that is surrounded primarily by concrete/asphalt parking lot, I usually have a Sintra base. If you have not heard of Sintra, Sintra® expanded PVC sheet is a lightweight, yet rigid, expanded foam polyvinyl chloride. It is used for many visual merchandising and signage applications and is a good substrate for digital and screen printing. I learned about Sintra at an NMRA convention. I typically complete teh structure first and then I either cut a hole in the Sintra matching the outline of the structure or I build a sidewalk around the structure that I glue onto the Sintra sheet. I guess there is more than one way to skin a cat.

By the way, you are doing an excellent job of building the project and of explaining it. I am really impressed with the way the slumpstone walls are cast. I wonder whether this thread will lead to increased sales of this model.  

[Christian]

Chapter 7 – Paint, The Early Days
From here on out the model will be paint-as-you-go. I took the advice of the Summit Customcuts instructions and mostly airbrushed the kit. Rattle can folks are on their own. Tamiya has a vast array of military rattle can colors. Between Tamiya and a local hardware it should be possible to come up with something pleasing.

After Thanksgiving I purged more than half my accumulated model and craft paints. Some were getting up there in years – older than lots of you who regularly post here on Atlas! Most of what I tossed had solidified in their bottles. Particularly hard hit were any paints by Badger Model-Flex. Those darned plastic bottles.

Paints, styrene and other model building supplies are stored in a surplus dorm dresser right behind me. Literally, I have six inches clearance! I’ve never shown a photo of this side of my work “corridor.” Photograph one shows most of the “wall” of cabinets behind me. The other arm of the chair is pressed against my workbench. Model stuff is one dresser and the upper cabinet to the right. The rest is tool and hardware storage from my other life. Photo two is the drawer containing my new military paints and pigments. Vallejo and AK Interactive for the most part. Photograph three is the remains of what had been three drawers of model and craft paint. Sharp eyed viewers will spot a few bottles of Testors Accu-Flex paint which was on the market less than a year in 1996-97.

I wanted a beige for the main walls. The instructions suggest white, but I didn’t find any white Taco Bells in my chosen reference photos. That isn’t to say that there aren’t any out there. It looks to me that the individual franchise owners had a lot of flexibility in color choice. I made my wall color with 10 drops of Badger Stynylrez white, 20 drops of AK Interactive Dry Light Mud, 2 drops of Vallejo Flow Improver, and a generous squirt of Golden Airbrush Medium. Golden and Liquitex airbrush medium thins water borne paints, but maintains the polymer. Whereas water as well as paint brands own thinners dilute the polymer as they thin the paint. Both have their uses. Here I wanted a liquidy paint intending to make several light passes. Which I did.

Photo four shows the based Taco Bell sitting on my Tamiya painting turntable. As well as the collection of paint that went into this first coat. I use a Badger 360 (universal) for most airbrushing. This color mix I shot at 20 psi.

Who says paint hides modeling flaws? Photograph five is an indication that paint makes unseen flaws show clearly. If this was a nice groody building I’d plant ivy and a drainpipe. Nope. Fast food restaurants are pretty clean. It’s too late to work on the joints so I’m just going to ignore them. It's OK, my family members are polite.

I wasted a rich, reddish, terracotta brown for the trim to match several Taco Bells in my collection. It just did not happen with the paint I have currently. My closest hobby shops are in Maryland and Pennsylvania so popping in for a bottle of paint isn’t a solution. Photo six shows three attempts to make a suitable color. I didn’t like any of them.

Photograph seven. I used the AKI mud, undiluted for the trim. I found a similar color used in many of the Taco Bell photos. I didn’t want it, but I’m fine with the paint. It’s really more authentic for the mid eighties anyway. I brushed this and also cut the wall color back into the various oopsies.

Next chapter will finish the initial paint job with the false facade. I need to spray this so I let everything dry overnight so I could figure out the needed masking.

[sd40dash2]

Photo of that cat, please.

[Christian]

Feb 14, 2021 6:47:16 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

Photo of that cat, please.

This is Iris. She just turned twenty. Doing ok. Weighs in at about four pounds, but has always been a tiny little cat.

[sd40dash2]

What a sweetie, sure didn't take her long to claim that warm seat! Thanks for the photo.

[Christian]

Chapter 8 – More Paint
Short post today. I went a bit further with painting, but got distracted. Photograph one. I masked for airbrushing the false facade. I first sprayed what I thought would work. But it was just too dull. So I added a bit or orange and finished off the spray work. Brush from here on out.

I turned to painting the interior. Black with a light blue on the divider between the entrance and the take-out window. Photo two shows why I used the black. You can see where I’ve back painted and where I stopped to take the photo. The orange arrows are a hint! For the black I used Vallejo Panzer Aces Dark Rubber.

I think I have forgotten to tell something about Vallejo paints. Vallejo makes many lines of paint. Four hundred shades and adding more every week. I’ve mostly been using Vallejo Model Air. This is ready for airbrushing and I just drip it right into the color cup and spray away. Model Air doesn’t brush worth a darn. It’s too thin to cover and multiple coats end up blotchy. Vallejo Model Paint is for brushing and it is great. For airbrush it has to be thinned considerably because out of the bottle it is thick. The thickness brushes out smoothly. Vallejo also makes a lot of specialty lines of colors. Panzer Aces is one of those lines. It is matched to recommendations in painting articles in Panzer Aces magazine.

And then there is AK Interactive. And the whole new world of resin paints. But that is for future posts.

Photograph three. This is where we are now. To the eye it is a color match for the Taco Bell photo I can’t post. Not what I had intended when I started painting, but I’m liking it.

The next chapter will address glazing and finishing up the interior.

[Christian]

Chapter 9 – Glazing
That ill fitting joint is still bothering me. Not the kits fault. Me assembling and rushing to take photos. Not noticing the misfit. And the glare off the shiny white plastic. I think that any of the solutions I have come up with so far will make a mess so I’m just grumbling.

Back to putting together the kit. First up is the trim at the top of the false facade. The laser cutting, once again, is flawless. I didn’t have to tweak anything. I used clips to hold the pieces in place, one side at a time. Photograph one. I flowed CA over the top joint with a needle. Then did the other side. I hit it with a blast of accelerator. Photo two. Note, CA nozzles are an ongoing issue. I thud the container on the table to clear the nozzle, wipe the top and then use a new toothpick to wick out the hole in the top of the nozzle. Photograph three. And put the cap back in place. When I think of it I put the CA in the refrigerator.

Now the glass. Nothing looks more like glass than glass. We’ll use some of that in a moment. Clear acrylic (Plexiglas) is all but indistinguishable from glass except for the thickness. Plex is what comes with the kit and is precut for all the windows. Since there aren’t frames or mullions to worry about this makes glazing this model a piece of cake.

There are some downsides to using acrylic Plexiglas in models which is why you don’t often come across it. Without starting a chemistry class – “acrylic” is like “American Cheese” in that most acrylic you see advertised isn’t. It is PET or BPA. Acrylic sold for picture frame glass is usually one of these. To coin a phrase, “acrylic cheese food product.” “Plexiglas” is a trade-name and it is what you want for model glass. A lot of lookalikes call them selves “plexiglass.” Note the spelling and capitalization difference. If it has a protective paper adhesive on both sides it is what you want.

The first downside is that it is thick. The Summit Customcuts material is about 1/16” which is about as thin as I’ve seen it. Many times this won’t be a problem such as most of the doors and windows in this kit. I’m putting posters behind the glass and 1/16” is too thick to seem right. The kit intends the posters to be stuck on the front surface of the glass. Nah!

The second downside is that it is a CA magnet. Any close by CA use will fog the Plex. I’ve put my CA bottle back into the refrigerator. Most materials for cementing or welding plastic will just be cleaners for Plexiglas. Amboid PROWELD and the new ScaleCoat PROBOND contain methyl chloride and will work. Pure methyl chloride works well and rots your innards.

Class over. Lets get those windows in! Window material is nitrile glove and tweezers time. Fingerprints are soooo easy to make! Photo four. I use Weldbond to cement the stuff in place. Not nice neat ribbons. Nope. Big fat globs encasing the corners of the Plex. Photograph five. Weldbond has been around a long time and should be better known to model builders, but that is a discussion for another day. Think of it as industrial canopy glue.

Plex can be run though your table saw and joiner, but I guess that isn’t really germane to model building. You can saw through it, but it’s tough going. Easy to score and snap. Photo six. I had to cut one piece because of the divider I put between the entry and the take-out window. The blade thingie at the right of the photo will be familiar to those of you who work with 1:1 plastic glazing, but is hardy necessary for modeling. The back of the point of an X-Acto knife scores well. I don’t even remove the protective plastic. The snap will take more force that the thin styrene we usually work with.

Glass. Nothing looks more like windows than real glass and it isn’t really a big deal to use it in models. The only special tool you need is a carbide scriber for the cuts. Amazon has them for about five bucks and up. Amazon also has microscope cover glass (slips) at about ten bucks give or take for a hundred. I got mine a long time ago from Clover House which seems to be mainly known to readers of NG&SLG. Photograph seven. I use the Badger Air-Opaque Cleaner to clean the glass, but Windex is just fine. The Badger is a closer reach for me. And, a scrap of lint free towel.

Photo eight shows the etched line. You need a firm backing, but not much pressure on the scribe. Usually the pieces will fall apart. Photograph nine shows that I put the scribed line at the edge of my cutting surface and just touched it. Yes, you will break a bunch until you get the hang of it. Yes, it is worth it to consider using glass in any location. Grandt Line and Tichy double hung windows look great with real glass. I haven’t done it, but I have seen glass used in Cannon cabs and the difference is quite noticeable.

Photo ten. I used Microscale Kristal Klear to cement the glass in place. It is like Weldbond, but thinner and I felt the need to brush.

Photo eleven is the conclusion of this model building session. See the windows! Yeah, they are too clean to show up.

Next time we’ll finish off the interior and start to button up the building.

[stevewagner]

Christian, this is a sensational thread I hope to refer to often. Thanks very much for posting it. What is your work surface -- masonite, perhaps?

[Christian]

Feb 16, 2021 8:28:54 GMT -8 stevewagner said:

Christian, this is a sensational thread I hope to refer to often. Thanks very much for posting it. What is your work surface -- masonite, perhaps?

Heavy kraft paper. Lowes calls it "builder's paper." It is heavier than grocery bag paper. It is over a drafting board cover that is fragile and no longer cheap. I use a cutting mat for knife work. When painting I lay pieces of the last projects kraft paper over my current kraft surface. 2.33 feet by 140 feet is about ten bucks at Lowes in the paint department.

[nebrzephyr]

Feb 16, 2021 8:45:45 GMT -8 Christian said:

Heavy kraft paper. Lowes calls it "builder's paper." It is heavier than grocery bag paper. It is over a drafting board cover that is fragile and no longer cheap. I use a cutting mat for knife work. When painting I lay pieces of the last projects kraft paper over my current kraft surface. 2.33 feet by 140 feet is about ten bucks at Lowes in the paint department.

Another option is "butcher's paper", it's is white which I find sometimes easier to see the small parts. I got a BIG roll from SAM's years ago, it will last me 3 life times!! I also use it to line the spray booth, just replace every so often.

Bob

[stevewagner]

Christian and Bob, thanks very much to both of you!

[Christian]

Chapter 10 – Front and Rear
Continuing with the windows we now turn to the posters and neon. Reminder that they are printed on gloss brochure paper. I cut with scissors because photo paper chips along a knife cut. Photograph one. Photo two – I colored the edges with a Tombow marker. Tombow markers are a standard for paper model builders. They don’t bleed into the paper like a Sharpie and they don’t cause paper edges to swell. Lots of colors make edge matching easy. You’ve often seen the rack with my Tombows lurking in the far right of my workbench.

Since CA is a no no around plastic windows I did some testing of my pile of glues that I could use to put the posters in both the acrylic and glass windows. Weldbond and Krystal Klear worked fine, but I liked this Martha Stewart gel best. Photograph three. Another hold over from my occasional forays into paper modeling. I put a dab in the center of the paper signs and pressed them into the acrylic and glass. Careful about pressing too had onto the glass. Photos four and five.

Photographs three and four broke the camel’s back. I had to do something about those corner joints. I’d been thinking about them for days and had all sorts of solutions that were stupid. Staring at the photos I realized that what bothered me were the crisp, laser cut edges. Straight lines. I figured if I could mush up that crispness I might be able to live with the corners. Note, the back wall with the same sorts of joints will never be seen other than this build. And, of course, those joints were pretty good.

What I did was wipe Vallejo plastic putty into the joints with a fancy Mark Five applicator. Photos six and seven. I really wanted to like this Vallejo putty. But the bottle defeated me. When I bought it I’d hopped for a thin putty for filling hairline cracks. But this stuff had the same body as my Tamiya White Putty. It did not want to come out of the bottle. I finally pried the nozzle off the bottle and dipped in with my dissecting needle. I wiped the needle on my Mark Five applicator and then transferred it to the model.

I walked away for several hours so I wouldn’t mess with uncured putty. When I came back it did a light sanding and then used a needle to clean out the mortar lines. The putty didn’t ball during sanding and stuck completely to the underlying paint. Photos eight and nine. The corners are still rough, but now I think I can live with them.

The back wall has three doors. The plain sort of metal doors that don’t have a way to open them from the outside. Common with fast food. The instructions were really vague on how to install these. I finally figured the at the unmentioned pieces on the laser cut sheet were backing pieces to go over the openings and that the doors were then cemented into the recesses. Photos ten and eleven.

Photo twelve. I “painted” the doors with dry pigments. Cleaning the plastic with my 240 grit block lest the surface rough enough to catch pigment. I used dark gray on the larger doors and silver metallic on the bottoms of the two smaller doors. As the instructions suggested. Photograph thirteen is, perhaps, the last look we’ll have of the back wall.

At this point I wasn’t happy with my photo interior. Those large, clear windows needed more and that’s where will pick up the next time.

[Christian]

Chapter 11 – Those Darned Clear Windows
I got stalled for a couple days figuring out what to do. Usually my photo interiors work well. BUT, those darned large, clear windows gave away the subterfuge. It was obvious at a glance that there wasn’t anything inside the Taco Bell. Finally I gave up and decided to do a partial interior. Tables and chairs along the windows. I rooted through my parts collection and came up with a package of Faller Garden Tables and Chairs. The tables wouldn't work no matter how much I shoved them around. Just not fast food tables. The chairs would be OK and I was willing to give up a few good figures to sit close to the windows. Usually I use the crappy Woodland Scenics figures when putting a figure behind windows. But I didn’t have any sitting WS figures.

I sat down yesterday to start making the dozen chairs. For some reason I looked at the instructions in the section on the windows. Gosh, darn. The instructions recommend car window darkening film. So I pulled out a couple swatches and tested them behind windows. Photograph one. They seemed to be a solution. I cut pieces and since they are polyester I used puddles of Krystal Klear to stick them in place. I temporarily put roofs in place and the dark windows did the trick.

I next cut and fitted the door and window frames which come in laser cut black styrene. I cemented them in place using thinned Krystal Klear flowed in the crack between the frame and the opening in the walls. This held really well because when I wanted to pry them out an hour later I had some difficulty.

Yes, I pried them out. They were too black to show against the new dark windows. I painted them with a dark metallic bronze and put them back. They work for the eye, but, as seems to often be the case, don’t show well in digital photographs. I put the roofs on temporally and took a look at progress. Photos two and three.

I think it is time for roofs.

[sd40dash2]

LOL @ the jar of sauce. YUM.

[riogrande]

I just put some Taco Bell hot sauce from a similar jar on my breakfast this morning! I also save the Diablo sauces when we go to TB.

[sd40dash2]

Any updates on this build?

[Christian]

Feb 21, 2021 3:42:53 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

Any updates on this build?

Wow! 48 hours just flew by. And a few more hours will fly. I got hung up on the tile roof. Lots of study of Taco Bell roofs resulted. Later today there will be a report on that, maybe. The kit's front roof has no prototype that I can find. So, I've been pondering my approach and am almost ready to reach for the knife and styrene strip drawer.

[sd40dash2]

Feb 21, 2021 4:34:12 GMT -8 Christian said:

Feb 21, 2021 3:42:53 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

Any updates on this build?

... styrene strip drawer.

I would love to see photos of your styrene strip drawer. That is an underrated product I have come to really appreciate since building more stuff. It doesn't get nearly the press and attention it deserves.

[Christian]

Chapter 12 – Mad at the Roofer
Well, once again prototype photographs have gotten in the way of a simple bit of model building. Taco Bell tile roofs are not like the roof on the model. Actually, there are several versions of the Spanish tile roofs on the mission style Taco Bells through the years.

Photograph one. Here’s where I got into a problem – the large boards on the sides of the roofs of the Summit Customcuts model. I can’t find a photograph of this approach including the prototype for the kit. Not to say there isn’t one out there because the roofs not only evolved, but also changed with the age of the restaurant.

Photo two is how they started out. Real tiles. Expensive, heavy, and a bit of a maintenance problem. In this photo also note the carpenter gothic construction toward the back which I mentioned very early in this build. This is yet another style of that construction.

Photograph three is a bit furry but shows the most common synthetic tile roof on these restaurants. Synthetic Spanish tile can be concrete, metal or plastic. I have no clue how to identify the material from a photograph, but I can spot a synthetic roof. The main clue is that it is very regular, like, well, tile. Clay tile edging is common, but so is plastic, metal, and concrete edging. The modeling note is that the edging is larger than the roof tiles. I found very few photos without this edging.

Photo four you have seen before. This is a detail with synthetic tile roofing, edge tile, peak tiles over the entry roofs and a brown box shape that I have seen on several photographs. I have no clue what it might be, but it is easy to model. It is also seen on photograph three.

The trim on photographs three and four is common. A broad board under the edge of the roof and continuing as a box under the front overhang. The overhang treatment in photograph two is also common, namely mission style corbels supporting the overhang. I’m leaning toward the box treatment since it is more common.

At the top of the roof the flashing on the clay tiles is as in photo two. But the flashing on the synthetic roofs as in photographs three and four is unclear to me. The pale strip is common.

The Plastruct material included with the kit has been around for decades. It is vacuum formed styrene and doesn't have much detail depth. Certainly not a good representation of clay tile. The JTT sheet is also shallow but has the edge and cap detail. Unfortunately, it is 1:100 scale. As is the Plastruct. Noch, Kibri, and Vollmer occasionally offer tile sheet. It is also vacuum formed and shallow.

Folks who scratch build these roofs split coffee stir straws and put the roof together piece by piece. Nope, not going to do that!

[sd40dash2]

What about styrene half round strip chopped up into pieces like the prototype? It looks like they made that roofing out of old pipe. I realize it's tedious work but what else have you got to do? Possibly a high-reward task. What say you?

[Christian]

Feb 21, 2021 5:19:29 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

I would love to see photos of your styrene strip drawer. That is an underrated product I have come to really appreciate since building more stuff. It doesn't get nearly the press and attention it deserves.

Sure. Here it is with cat. The closer half of the drawer is strip stock divided into three groups. The closest group is HO scale dimensioned stock. The second group is decimal stock. The third group consists of rods and shapes and also some wire. The other half of the drawer is sheet stock which is filed in descending order of what I last used. I root through the whole stack when I want something specific.

Sheet stock that doesn't fit is next to the left leg of my workbench which is slightly seen in the photograph at the far right of the picture. Dark gray leg. You can also see where the compressor is located out of the picture behind the metal shelf unit. You can also see how narrow my work space is. To get on the other side of the chair I have to sit down, swivel and get up again. The entry to this corridor is too narrow for the chair to leave intact.

The styrene accumulation goes back decades. When I actually had local hobby shops Evergreen materials were my "always buy something" of choice. I carried a little cheat/sheet in my wallet of what strips were needed to fill out the collection I felt covered my model building.

[Christian]

Feb 21, 2021 6:40:22 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

What say you?

Shakespeare said it best when asked "what color is Penn Central green?"

Away, you starvelling, you elf-skin, you dried neat’s-tongue, you bow-case, you stock-fish!

[sd40dash2]

Feb 21, 2021 6:53:37 GMT -8 Christian said:

Feb 21, 2021 5:19:29 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

I would love to see photos of your styrene strip drawer. That is an underrated product I have come to really appreciate since building more stuff. It doesn't get nearly the press and attention it deserves.

Sure. Here it is with cat. The closer half of the drawer is strip stock divided into three groups. The closest group is HO scale dimensioned stock. The second group is decimal stock. The third group consists of rods and shapes and also some wire. The other half of the drawer is sheet stock which is filed in descending order of what I last used. I root through the whole stack when I want something specific.

Sheet stock that doesn't fit is next to the left leg of my workbench which is slightly seen in the photograph at the far right of the picture. Dark gray leg. You can also see where the compressor is located out of the picture behind the metal shelf unit. You can also see how narrow my work space is. To get on the other side of the chair I have to sit down, swivel and get up again. The entry to this corridor is too narrow for the chair to leave intact.

The styrene accumulation goes back decades. When I actually had local hobby shops Evergreen materials were my "always buy something" of choice. I carried a little cheat/sheet in my wallet of what strips were needed to fill out the collection I felt covered my model building.

What a beautiful calico. I had one of those for 12 years, a real sweetie. Thanks for the additional photo. I like your styrene storage which is very organized. Agreed about the extra hobby shop purchases. Today, my online rr purchases lean heavily towards venues which stock a lot of Evergreen shapes and sizes. Like you, I have a wish list of shapes for my stock so I'll usually add $10-15 or so in strips to the engine order. Same as what you used to do, just online rather than in person. It's good that some of the online vendors stock these sorts of things and not just engines and freight cars.

[stottman]

Christian-

The German made Tile roofs aren't going to match because they are copying German roofing tiles, which are flatter then "Spanish" style tiles used on American Taco Bells. In fact, modern German tile roofs are actually various plastics.

[Christian]

Chapter 13 – Lucky Day
I worked on the roof and things actually went mostly as planned! Wow! I rooted through my parts box and didn’t turn up any corbels or suitable roof brackets. I went with a boxed cornice. These are fairly consistent among many photos I’ve collected.

But first I needed to work with the tile sheet. The building dimensions are flexible; the fabricated sheet is what it is. Photograph one. I found the included piece of the Plastruct tile roof was cut slightly out of square. The roof is large enough that that needed to be fixed with a square and a knife.

Photo two. I found that the tiles would have a logical cut over the width of the kit’s sub-roof leaving a bit of a flange on both sides. That flange will be covered with the wrap over tiles.

Photograph three. Not so lucky with the drive-through roofs. This will be a case of making the sub-roof wider to fit the logical cut in the tile.

I cut the tile piece to width for the drive-though roofs and then partly cut through the center so that I could fold the peak. Photo four.

Still planning those wrap over tiles. I thought maybe a thin coffee stir rod cut into tiles might do the job. I tried my nastiest solvent and it didn’t touch the straw plastic. Photograph five. It’s too close to the windows for me to risk fogging from CA. Other possible adhesives, solvents and cements don’t feel suitable. So, the tiles/straw is out. I’ve got other choices.

I mentioned in my last chapter the flashing at the top of the tiles. I put it in place now so that the tiles could slide up snug. I used a strip of HO scale 1X8 and trimmed it to length after the glue firmed. Photo six. All the photos I’m using for this detail indicate that the color is lighter than the false facade and not the same as lighter colors used elsewhere. I prepainted it with a lighter color that I’m not using elsewhere.

Photograph seven. I used a small T-Bevel to set the angle of the cut on the cornice piece. I found that HO scale 4X10 would let the drive-up roof tile slide to the wall and avoid notching. 10 inch looked good so that is what I used. I trimmed off the tabs from the Summit Customcuts sub-roofs that were intended to hold those strange side boards. I cut the 4X10 with a saw and dressed the cut with my sanding block. The lower end of the cornice is cut square. I test fitted both sides and then used the first cornice piece as a pattern for the second. A T-Bevel is handy, but you can do the same angle setting with a square.

Photo eight. I painted the edges that would be against the side walls to avoid masking later. When that set I bonded them to the sub-roof. I didn’t bother dressing the seam since the wrap over tiles will cover the miss matches. You can see the seam in the final photo.

Photograph nine. I used another piece of 4X10 across the end of the roof. Again, cement and then trim. I used flush cutters and a whip of the sanding block.

The drive-up was done in a similar manner. 6X10 brought the sub-roof out far enough for the tile joint. In this case the trim went on the side of the sub-roof rather than under. I put nothing across the ends. Most/all the photos showed no cornice on the ends. The photos did show gutters and drain pipes. But that is for another day.

I painted the cornices and roof edges and took photo 10.

Later I dry fit the tiles and, gosh darn, it’s looking like a Taco Bell. You’ll see that after the next session.