I’ve finally gotten a few photos of my newly started Mobil gas station based on the Al’s Victory Service gas station kit from Walther’s.
The first thing I did was fill modeling marks and other imperfections on the interior walls with Squadron green putty. They also make white putty, but I didn’t have any on hand, so the green will do — even though it’s a little more difficult to cover when applied on white plastic.
I’ve also sanded off all of the numbers that indicate the number of the part in the kit.
I’ve done this specifically because I intend to fully detail the interior and don’t want viewers to look in an open garage bay door and see a huge number “7″ or serveral round indents in the walls.
It’s a little hard to see in this photo, but the next thing I did was scribe expansion joint lines into the floor of the main garage area (left side of the bottom piece). I simply measured out equal distances across the floor. I don’t recall specifically, but I think this was a scale 9 x 11 feet rectangles or so. I think this will add just a touch of detail and make this look less like a piece of plastic once it’s completed.
I then taped down the walls and airbrushed all of the interiors with black paint to prevent light from making the walls glow once interior lighting is added.
I don’t have a photo of it, but I also painted the main floor/sidewalk piece with Concrete paint, then masked the sidewalks and painted the station floors with Model Masters Gunship Grey.
Once I painted the floor, I started to think about the “pit” that is designed into the floor of the kit. This is the large hole in th floor that allows a mechanic to work below floor level under a car.
When I think of a 40s gas station, I think of a hydraulic lift, and not a pit. Not to mention that a lift makes for a good animation possibility.
So, to fill in the pit, I first shaved down the raised edges of the pit with a hobby knife and generally sanded the area smooth.
I filled the opening with strip styrene and filled the imperfections with more modeling putty. The photo above shows the first pass with the putty after sanding. Since it shinks as it dries, I’ve added another coat and will sand that smooth as well.
Also, since the above photo has a lot of sanding debris on it, it’s much easier to see the scibe lines I added to the floor.
Hopefully when I’m done, and this is repainted, it should look like the pit never existed.
I’ll have more on this soon.
Filed under: Structures , gas station, gas station kit, kitbash, Kitbashing, model railroad, model railroading, N Scale, scale model, structure
