Hemlock Street Part 4 - The Bakery | 2 Comments - Click Here :

    

Keith Hayes - Dunn’s Buns started life as a Banta Silver Plume Bakery kit. I followed the directions to build this model. The fancy cornice and storefront with large windows makes this building an eye catcher. I was careful to pre-paint all the siding and painted the storefront trim to contrast with the toasty (pun intended) color of the siding. The prototype is on a hillside that slopes down to the rear from the street; my site sloped in two directions.

    Fortunately, Tom Troughton published an article on the web describing how he builds platforms. Tom starts with a piece of tempered hardboard cut a bit smaller than the platform size; he drills holes for the posts and inserts square stock for the legs. Strip wood is glued to the hardboard to create the deck, and some trim applied to the edge to create the frame. Banta steps and some cross bracing finished the front end of the building.

    With the platform built, the rear of the building was still up in the air. This part of the building is too close to the front of the layout for carved foam to suffice. Years ago, I got some air-formed plastic in a stone pattern, and I considered this for the foundation, but the pattern seemed a little large and rough. So, when I saw some Chooch peel-n-stick stone, it fit the bill. The Chooch stone comes in several patterns and sizes, and I selected a smaller stone in a random stack for the foundation.

    A fancy store like this called for a special sign. I could not find any large letters with drop shadows, the black outline below the white letters, but I was able to locate some dry transfer (or press type) that were both in black and white. I got some decal film, and started using the black letters, laying out two sets of each word I needed. Then, I followed with white letters, carefully placing them slightly up and to the left. Last, I gave the decals a couple coats of dull coat and the signs were ready.

I had gotten the Banta kit a while back, as it is a neat model with some fancy cornice detail. The prototype is on a hillside with the rear of the building exposed. As I was planning Hemlock Street, I was inspired by the prototype when I developed the model site contours.

The storefront and cornice detail is accomplished with a couple assemblies--the trim over the siding below. Everything is peel-n-stick, so I built the trim piece up as an assembly and finished everything with a coat of white paint. The siding is--appropriately--a toast color.

Dunn's Buns (pies and cakes) is named after a good friend. I figured it needed some neat drop shadow lettering within the trim on the false front. I have shared that finding large type is getting difficult. I was able to find some Roman type dry transfers in both black and white, and some gothic for the smaller lettering. I created the drop shadow by lettering the black first on decal paper, then adding the white on top with a clear coat to seal the works. Note that the two sides of the model are different, so the two signs have different letter spacing. This was a great way to get a custom sign without a bunch of fuss.

Initially, I planned to use embossed plastic brick sheet for the foundation. Durning construction, I discovered the excellent peel-n-stick stone sheet manufactured by Chooch. This comes in a variety of patterns and several sizes. This is the smaller size in a random stone pattern. I painted some of the stones an accent color. The corner is mitered and this shows the wall before I peeled the sheet off the back to adhere it to the foam. Eventually a trim board will cover the joint at the floor. Oh yeah, every one of those battens is individually applied.

Keith Hayes
Leadville in Sn3