Model Railroad Blog

Massive American Can factories seemed to be a staple of many larger cities and Brooklyn was no exception.  The facility of of First Avenue still stands and has been renovated and converted into office space.

 

I finally got around to detailing and weathering the BT switcher, in this case a Model Power Mogul converted into a switcher by removing the pilot truck.  I was curious what could be done in N scale with close up photography.  So far, so good.

 

 

The Flagg book makes reference to an American Can facility along First Avenue, an industry that would be a good fit, a good look for the terminal.  Since the BT is proto freelanced, I’m not worried about making anything close to an exact model, just something that appears plausible.

I believe the photo above is the actual plant which still stands today and has been restored and renovated.

 

I’m using Walther’s American Hardware kit combined with kitbashed DPM to make the representation.

One of the most distinctive and iconic features of WW2 New York was the ubiquitous Belgian Block roadways.  The question becomes how to effectively model them.  Even my HO scale counterparts bemoan how difficult they are to represent.  Cast plaster is a major challenge and a method where it’s hard to control the results  There really aren’t any styrene sheets that work and, even if there were, how do you color them?  How do you cut them so they fit around turnouts?

I decided to go with the photo laminate approach as outlined in my recent article in RMC.  The challenge was creating the images which took me several weeks.  I did go to Brooklyn, and the paved streets are still there but you really can’t get high enough to get a great overhead shot.  The only recourse was to take street level shots, correct the perspective, and laboriously stitch them together.  When you use this approach, clone and copy repetitive seams and patterns really stand out so a lot of time and effort was required to make sure those patterns weren’t noticeable.

The image above is the end result.  I then photo copied a turnout, cut the respective pieces out to serve as cutting templates and cut the street pieces to size.

I found these fine point earth toned color markers at Michaels to use to add color to the white edges of the photo wallpaper.  They don’t wick into the photo paper as much as a Sharpie does and the fine points are a nice feature.

….and here we have the completed structure.  Stand off details include downspouts, lamps, dock bumpers and open window panes.

 

 

The coloring of the DPM sides encompassed a number of dry brushed layers.  First was mortar, followed by dry brushing on a brick color.  After that I dry brushed on a mix of brown and black Bragdon weathering chalks.