Colfax Boarding House in O scale
Jim Harper’s been busy again, this time completing a lineside
boarding house to compliment the Colfax Fruit Growers Association structure on the crew lounge
side of his layout. (See the 2019 August Featured Railroad to view the completed Colfax FGA building.)
1) Photos of the boarding house were cropped, edited to remove extraneous foliage, and stitched
together with Photoshop for visual reference during construction of this background building.
2) Construction of the boarding house front face began with openings
for windows and doors cut in 1/16” matboard.
Openings in Evergreen Scale Models clapboard siding to be used later, also cut in the same manner.
3) Balsa wood second floor walkway was weathered with Prismacolor
light brown followed by wash of alcohol and 5% India ink. Note simulated planks and nail holes.
4) Scale balsa wood joists for the second floor walkway were
cut with the "Chopper”. Note the cutter’s
stop block is set to ensure all joists are cut to the same length.
5) White glue was used to attach joists to
underside of walkway.
6) Short left and right walls were made from
1/16” matboard and glued at 90 degrees to the front face to form building corners. Evergreen clapboard siding was then painted with
Testors Camouflage light gray and glued onto building front and side
walls. Evergreen angle styrene was used to
trim left and right corner joints. The ground
floor wrap-around walkway was fashioned with ¼” x 2” balsa (weathered like second
floor walkway) and glued into place.
7) Grandt Line O scale doors and window castings were
painted with Rustoleum Satin Nutmeg and glued into openings. Window mullions were painted flat white. Clear drying canopy glue was used to adhere scale
curtains to .005” Evergreen transparent styrene.
8) Sections of Grandt Line O scale porch railing was
attached between 3/16” balsa wood vertical posts, all being painted flat white.
9) Front and side roof panels cut from 1/16" matboard and attached.
10) Jim found Builders in Scale Ribbed Seam Roofing Material
(P/N 734) difficult to use and opted to create the roof with Evergreen .020”
sheet styrene instead along with .010” x .030” styrene strips. Terracotta Matte Finish spray paint
from Ace Hardware was applied to finish the roof.
I believe you'll agree Jim's boarding house is an exemplary instance of scratchbuilding excellence. Click HERE to send him an email with your thoughts of his modeling expertise with this project.