Pop's General Store by KCs Workshop - Build With HO Scale Customs - #003

I like the design of this kit!  It reminds me so much of small stores I've seen around the deep South.  Let's work some more!

 I missed taking pictures of working with the windows and doors, but they go very quickly.  I sponge painted them green after a primer coating.  The front doors and screen doors were assemble and installed on the front wall.  I left the screen doors open so I can add figures to the porch later.

 After installing the windows and doors I assembled the walls using 1-2-3 blocks to hold pieces in place.  There is a roof support that goes across the top.

 Now it is starting to look like a building!

 The roof sections are next.  Cleverly KC's Workshop put in several types of roofing so you can try your hand at different things.  First I put the corrugated metal roof on the back extension.

 Using raw umber, burnt umber, raw sienna, and burnt sienna I dry brushed rust on the roof.  I should have cut the corrugate into 2x8 sections, but I didn't want to invest that much time in it since it is in the back.  I decided to to use the visible planks roof section. Once it was dry I went back over it with Dr. Ben's weathering powders to give it a dry texture.

 Next I put on the shingles for the small extension on the side porch.

 I assembled the front awning using boards and cardstock.

 To make the tar paper (mine was missing from the kit and I didnt have any construction paper around) I painted several large self-adhesive mailing labels with a light grey primer, and then cut them into HO 3' strips.  The crack n peel label backing was peeled off and I stuck them onto the roof.  On the sections where boards were exposed, I just roughly tore the paper.

 Every once in a while I'll take a look at the picture.  I gave up on the instructions a long time ago and am totally building free lance now.

 I gave the porches and ink wash and glued them to the structure.  I also build the side awning and tar papered it.  Using a tiny brush (00) and some shiny black paint, I painted tar lines on the awning.

 Porch supports were then installed using the 3/16" square beams which I had painted green earlier.

 Climbing up on the roof, I took a bucket of hot tar, and in the 100 degree South Carolina sun, I put tar on the seams of the tar paper.  The asphalt smell of the hot tar stings my nostrils.

 One side of the roof....

 And the other....once it dries we'll weather it.

 The kit doesn't include any detail parts (the nerve) so I contact BEST Trains and ordered some chairs, vegetable crates, Coke button signs, a Coke machine and an ice maker.  Nothing tastes better than an ice cold Coca-Cola!

 Now that chair is tiny!  Gonna try to find an old guy to sit in it somewhere on the porch.

 Have to switch to the trusty visor to see how to start filing and shaping the parts.

 While I'm not building this for NMRA Merit Award points, I do plan to show it in a contest.  If you put scenery around it then it is a display and will be scored in that category.  Really I just want the model, but I'm going to build an uneven support structure for it so it needs some ground in order to make it look right.  This base is too big.

 This one is too big, too...

 Yup, this is better.  Just enough scenery for me to put it on uneven earth.

 I'm not going to light or detail the interior, but you certainly could very easy.

 I've weathered the roof with Dr. Ben's Scale Consortium products.  These have always been my go to washes and weathering powders.  Nothing works better.

 This is a small model, just about the size of my hand.

 The front awning is tar sealed, then heavily weathered from years of neglect.  The wood headboard has been more weathered.  The wall where the front design work meets the support wall looks terrible, having a great big gap.  I went to the wood box and got a strip of wood that I painted and cut to make a cap over the front.  That looks way better.

 The smoke stack in the kit is way too big for this model.  The most this place would have had was a pot bellied stove.  I dug around in the parts box and found an old smoke stack which I painted black then heavily rusted using the same techniques as the roof panel.

 Slowly it is coming together.  Now for the sign!  Um...THE SIGN!  Um...ok...where is the darn sign.  I painted it....I know it is here....AARRGH!  To this day I haven't found it so we'll have to make one.

 After having filed and sanded the castings I taped them to a Masonite board and spray painted them with an airbrush primer grey by Modelmasters. 

Casting come in a plastic resealable pouch that I never could get open, so I made a Samurai cut accross the top.  Notice the roughness of the sides of the castings.  We'll have to file them down.

 Here you can see one of the Coca Cola signs.

 I put the door handles (bars) on the screen doors.

 Here I have painted the chairs and am test fitting them to the porch.  I may only use one.

 This will give you an idea of the size of the model.

 With the help of Dan Pugatch who provided me with some great signs, I printed the signs on copy paper in color.  Then I heavily sanded the backs and lightly sanded the fronts to make them thin and worn looking.  They were glued with Elmer's School Glue to the bulding.

 My grandfather always had a chew of Red Man, so I had to put a sign up for him.

 NuGrape was my favorite drink as a kid, so it gets a prominent location, as does the Coca Cola poster.

 The store sells ice so we have ice signs.  I also took the signs in the kit and made a wooden backing for the store front.  The sign is held in place by rusted metal bars.

Above and below are a black and white, then color photo.  Take a look at both and see how much clearer the details are in the B&W.  This is how I start repairing and tweaking the final model.  The camera, especially my other one with 26mega pixels does not lie and every error and flaw reveals itself.