Not bad, just rusty




The Tavern’s Walls – Part II

With Thanksgiving done and dusted, I got back to the bench and started work again on my full-size Saulenas’ Tavern build. For posterity, here’s the reference of the original seen on F&SM again:

First, with the walls still flat on my work surface, I got all the base painting done. I started with a wash of Hunterline Golden Brown and then, once dry, applied a semi-thin* 50/50 coat of Yellow Ochre and Camel from Americana/Folk Art. It was a mix I felt most in line with the original, although it still lean toward the yellow side. The plan is to tone this down in weathering.
(* I say “semi-thin” here as the aim is to not apply a perfect coat. I want to be able to see through certain spots to the Hunterline wash underneath)

Then I painted and glued all my trim pieces. The color is Heritage Brick from Americana (I did apply Colorado Red from Hunterline first, but I’m not sure it helped the final base color much.

Before assembling, I printed and glued a couple signs (see below images). The Dutch Laundry sign was a mix of Dutch ads I found online to suit the shape and size I needed, as I couldn’t locate the original sign used. If you look closely, you can see where I have stitched them all together. This is okay, at HO scale you won’t see them. The Coca-Cola sign for the stairs was an easy find and the Rooms 25¢ was a custom print. Again, I took time here to match the original font Paul/George used – a font called “Jester”.

I assembled the walls and then began work on the wall capping. This is $0.30 strip basswood from my LHS. It was painted with Heritage Brick, and after some careful cutting is was all glued in place. The edges are still rough and untidy, but that’s okay. It’s still the ugly duckling phase.

As a side note, I’ve decided with this build to try something new: assemble my walls and then weather the clapboard. I figure it’s still easy to do it this way (the structure is solid) and the idea is it could help gauge the amount of weathering I apply, seeing as the walls are all “in context of one another”.

With the build is in its rough, first draft stage shown here, I’d say I’m about 30% done. Maybe 40% if I’m being super generous.

Still to go:

1) Storefronts
2) Signs
3) Windows, shades and awnings
4) Rooftop and details
5) Sidewalk
6) Street-level details (like the corner post)
7) Weathering

Another step closer to the Saulenas’ Tavern as we know it!

by Craig on November 30, 2020