# Dave's Antiques



## DaveInTheHat (Nov 13, 2011)

This is my first laser cut craftsman kit. I got this kit with a gift certificate that I won in a contest. I've actually been a little nervous about building it. I'm not sure why. Perhaps because the cost is about a third of what I spend per year. My hobby money is very limited. I probably spend about $100-$150 a year, most of that goes for paint, glue, building materials, a few people, and cars. So, having a craftsman kit to build is something kinda special for me.

I was really impressed with the kit. It's made by Best Trains. The box is really nice. Embossed printing and its like something that jewelry would come in. The picture of the finished model is really clear, which makes it nice when you need to see small details on how things go together. This was a really nice kit to build. I thoroughly enjoyed it.










Inside the box there's a couple pages of great instructions and all the pieces have been carefully packaged and thoughtfully arranged.



















This is a simple kit. All the pieces are cut perfectly. The windows and doors at made by Titchy and fit in the openings without any problems. The metal castings are nice. They do need a little bit of clean up, but nothing major. Mostly just a little flash.










The are two ways to build the kit. A short version and a long version. I chose the long version with the addition on the back. The wood for the kit is color coded which makes it really easy to use the right pieces in the right places without having to measure anything. Only the corner pieces and the trim around the roof need to be cut. That was done quickly with a razor blade. I used Titebond wood glue and had the building together in about an hour. Most of that time was waiting for the glue to dry. I added 45 degree pieces in the corners to help keep is square.










After the walls were together and cleaned up a little from some excess glue I gave them a coat of ink and alcohol.










I sprayed the building with Aqua Net hair spray and threw salt all over it.










I sprayed it with coat of Folk Art Antique white.










Next a heavy coat of Folk Art Black Cherry.










I rubbed the salt off with a small wire brush and painted the trim Antique White.










The windows and doors went in easy. I did run into a bit of a problem with the "glass" that came with the kit. It has a printed outline on it and I cut it on the wrong side of the line, so they was all too small. I ended up using Scotch Tape for the glass. Sticky side out and then a coat of DulCote to keep dirt from sticking to it.
The roof is card stock and it's cut to fit. It fit perfect. The tar paper is peel and stick stuff that works really nice.










The roof shingles are peel and stick too. They're in strips. A little tedious, but I love them. They look really great.










So this is finished until I get it mounted to a base.










After I get it glued to a base I'll do some weathering and add the signs and the castings and all that other little stuff. I'm planning to have those Woodland Scenic painters painting the building. I'll have a small section with fresh paint on it. I'm thinking about having some other construction going on too. Sort of like the building is being rehabbed.


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

Like everything you do "Looking Good". :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Magic


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## Model Train Structures (Oct 10, 2013)

Looks great, and I look forward to seeing it completed.

D.A.


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## DaveInTheHat (Nov 13, 2011)

I started on the building that's going to be next to the antique store. I started with this kit.










It's got a lot of stuff in it. Lots of little castings and details. Seems like a pretty nice kit. 










The side walls are board and batten on the bottom and horizontal siding on the second floor. I glued studs on the inside of the bottom walls and then glued the top walls to the studs so that I wouldn't have a glue seam between the two different sidings. 










The kit comes with stuff to make a flat roof with exposed rafters. I though it would look strange so I made a roof out of illustration board.










The roof looked a little empty so I made some dormers.










While I was waiting for paint and glue to dry I painted all the windows and doors dark green.










The dormers got siding that I made by gluing on overlapping strips of card stock. Then I put on Campbell's paper shingles. So, the whole roof is made out of paper. I gave it a coat of medium gray and painted the siding on the dormers antique white. The building got the salt treatment and I coat of antique white. I'll start chipping the paint tomorrow.










Here's a link to more pictures: http://public.fotki.com/daveinthehat/davetown/daves-antiques/


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## DaveInTheHat (Nov 13, 2011)

I used this wire brush tool to knock the salt off. Going with the grain of the wood. It takes a little bit of the paint off. Rubbing it with firm pressure changes the color of the paint a little bit.










This looks a little better. I want it to look old without giving it that "haunted house" look.










I'm still going to do more weathering with paint and pastels.


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## DaveInTheHat (Nov 13, 2011)

I got a little more done. Progress is slow because my hands are bothering me a lot.
I used real glass for the windows. I never did this before. I like the way it looks.










I'm close to being finished this building. Details need to be added and weathering. I replaced a few of the laser cut parts with my own version of them.


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## cole226 (Feb 8, 2013)

Dave, the builds look good.:smilie_daumenpos:
have a great holiday.


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## DaveInTheHat (Nov 13, 2011)

Kinda slow progress here. I've gotten a little weathering done on the buildings and work done on the base.




















I made some trees. I don't enjoy making trees.


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## MtRR75 (Nov 27, 2013)

I like the variety of shapes on your trees and shrubs. What did you use for armatures?


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## DaveInTheHat (Nov 13, 2011)

Thanks. The tree armatures are from Woodland Scenics. I use players to twist and bend them. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## DaveInTheHat (Nov 13, 2011)

The buildings are now mounted to the base. 
I've been spending time working on the landscaping and painting all the little stuff.


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## DaveInTheHat (Nov 13, 2011)

I'm getting close to being finished this diorama. I spent a lot of time working on little things and adding details. I had sort of a change in my plan. I decided to make the bigger building the antique store and the smaller one something else. That didn't really work out ether because I ended up with more stuff than I thought.

This is just a portion of the things I came up with.










Just to give a perspective of the size, here's a tea cup in my hand.










I made a sign for the front of the building out of wood and paper.










I must have rearranged everything about 100 times. Here's a couple pictures with all the stuff in place.


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## cole226 (Feb 8, 2013)

*Antiques*

'american pickers' could clean up on signs and gas pumps!!:sold:


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## MtRR75 (Nov 27, 2013)

Amazing. Where did you find all of that "junk" for the antique shop?


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## DaveInTheHat (Nov 13, 2011)

Some of the stuff I made from scratch. Some are metal castings, cheap kit left overs, stuff like that. I got a lot of stuff at train shows. I always look for the box of cheap stuff on the floor.


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Outstanding, Dave. That sidewalk looks like my store room!!


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## Zero Cool (Dec 4, 2013)

I see you have everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink.:laugh: I agree with Cole, American pickers would be there for hours trying to talk you down in price. Looks really good! :smilie_daumenpos:


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

What a superb diorama! All you need now is a few people picking the stuff over.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Dave, you do great work. Very impressive, especially for a guy on a limited budget.

I'm glad to see you discovered my friends as Bollinger Edgerly Scale Trains (BEST). They are really nice folks, and as you've discovered, make great stuff. I have hundreds of their castings.


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## KAL5 (Sep 4, 2011)

Wow that's Great work love all the detail. How much for the Coca Cola Button


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Dave

That is some amazing stuff. I've been to a lot of train shows but I've
never seen anything like that. I'll have to look at lot closer from
now on.

Don


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## DaveInTheHat (Nov 13, 2011)

Here's the final pictures.









































































Here's the link to all the pictures I took while I was building this: http://public.fotki.com/daveinthehat/davetown/daves-antiques/


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Mind boggling. That set of dishes in HO scale. Gasp.

The power cord on the back of the coke machine. Wow.

Everytime I look I see something else.

Magnificient.

Don


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

There are no words to describe this...there are no superlatives sufficient to explain the detail that we are looking at. Dave, it's incredible!! :appl:


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

I'll agree with Fire on this. Such amazing detail.
Where in the world do you get all that stuff?

Magic


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## DaveInTheHat (Nov 13, 2011)

Thanks!
Some of the pieces are castings, others are little things from cheap plastic kits, others are scratchbuilt.


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## DaveInTheHat (Nov 13, 2011)

I made a slide show of this build. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=829KYJaM518


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