Calamity - Newspaper Office - Doors and more!

Things are moving along quite nicely on the Newspaper Office for Calamity. I was able to stop by Caboose Hobbies today and picked out some doors. They are O Scale which goes okay with the Reaper and Black Scorpion miniatures they are a bit big for many of the other minis. However, after seeing some pictures from Bodie CA of people standing in front of a building and seeing just how big windows and doors could be I think I'm okay with it. The doors are cut in and glued in place and I finished off some of the interior detail. At this point all the interior needs is wallpaper and paint and then I can assembly the walls and finish off the exterior details and it should be ready for the table, well mostly ready for the table.

Three different doors

The back door

The original back door

The Front door

Exterior front door with some finishing details completed

The door to the addition

The original back door in place, more details to come

Interior wall with paneling and chair rail

The other interior wall with paneling and chair rail

Extra details added representing both the original exterior with board and batten contrasting with the paneling and chair rail.

Interior of the back wall

Interior Front Wall

Interior back wall of the addition.

Interior wall, door side, of the addition

Interior wall of the addition

Using my magnetic clamps to dry fit everything together and a few citizens for scale

A nice overview of the whole building, more or less together. I'm thinking of a couple of different roof treatments, tar paper with battens for the addition and shingles for the main building.

Calamity - Prototype Buildings - Moving Forward

I was able to take some time and do some basic assembly with the Silver Plume Bakery and the Crested Butte Newspaper Office (Pilot). I pulled out some minis and judged them for scale and I'm pretty happy with the result so I think I can move forward with these two buildings. While I enjoy scratch building structures I also believe in making it as easy as possible so a trip to Caboose Hobbies took place. There I was able to directly compare the windows and doors from Grandt Line for both their O and S scale lines to my templates. While I talk a lot about scale when building Calamity, its not nearly as big a factor as I make it out to be. First I can't let it dictate everything since I'm working in our odd 1/56th scale. All I really need our windows and doors that will fit the openings that I have what "scale" they actually are is irrelevant. There are a fair number of manufacturers out there that make windows in doors in the various railroad scales. The reason I went with Grandt Line is that they give actual measurements of their products in the their online descriptions. With good measurements I can at least get close and ultimately that's all I really need to do, if the proportions look right then it should work just fine. Caboose Hobbies stays pretty well stocked on Grandt Line parts so I have ready access if I need it and if they don't have it I can order it pretty easy. Doors look like they are going to be a bit more difficult to deal with and I may have to actually make all the doors, we can't have everything!

The next decision is what material to use for the construction. I'm leaning towards plastic right now. I could go with the wood and use the matt board as a core, but plastic is pretty easy to work with and I have a lot on hand. I'll have to dwell on it a bit.

So a few pictures of what I ended up with:

This makes a nice odd corner for an ambush

This corner could be a problem, fortunately there is a window to dive through.

Looks good, will still need a front porch though

The Bakery, I seem to have misplaced two of the side pieces that help fill in the doorway. The door is set at an angle across the opening.

My prototypes side by side

Sitting next to my Battle Flag Saloon

And here is how some of my Grandt Line parts might work out:

The results of the shopping trip to Caboose Hobbies. Calamity Citizens checking out the purchases.

Masonry Window, usually used in a brick or stone wall but its nice because it doesn't have any kind of ornate frame so its pretty flexible. A bit tall for the Bakery though

Pretty good fit on the Pilot though. A little wide, I'll have to see if there is a narrower one available. Tiche Trains Group is another parts possibility,

That's almost a perfect fit and I like how it looks.

With a Brigade Games mini standing outside the window.

Still a bit large for the Bakery

Two different styles in the RGS pack

The larger RGS window might be a good fit for the Bakery. Maybe add an a narrower window on the right or left and make the building a bit wider to match.

A little small for the opening I scaled from the plans but its a good look none the less.

I love these windows, I used them in a Halloween Diorama once.

Not a bad look for the Pilot

Way to big for the bakery

These good work on the Bakery

Adjusting the sizes a bit these good work for the Bakery front as well.

Works nice for the front of the Pilot as well.

Calamity - Prototype Building - Newspaper Office

This is the second building in my prototype series. This one came from one of my model railroad books; "Structures of the Early West" by Joseph Crea and Elwood Bell (2nd Edition 1994). This little structure still exists in the city of Crested Butte in Colorado. It has served a number of businesses over the years including the main office of the Crested Butte Pilot. Based on pictures I have found I think its a burger place now called Izzy's.

Much the same as last night. Although it turned out to be a bit bigger than I expected in the end. The initial layout was done on matt board then cut out and sort of stacked together since I didn't bring any glue with me. I do wish I had brought a few minis with me to check the scale though.

On to the bacon:

Still standing! Although it looks like one of the side windows has been moved sometime between the 1975 (1st edition) and now)

Laying it out

Front and right side, lean to is not visible from this angle

Right side, showing the off set lean to

Left side, see how the lean to sticks out into the alley

And from the back