The Bath House
Updated:
This one is going to be much easier to build since I don't have all the little details to worry about like what will be in the store. I'll be putting some details into the model, but I'm not going overboard. I'm mostly sticking to the little details with this one.
I'm also not going to be using wall paper on this one since in real life the moisture from the showers and washer would cause the glue on the wall paper around them to separate and the paper would fall off the wall. I will be adding other details to the walls to provide some points of interest though.
I left the base to this one like it came out of the box since it was about the size I needed for the Bath House. This will be easier on me since I won't have to cut anything down and I can use the kit walls with minimal work done to them.
Since there really wasn't too much of a modification to the outside of the building I didn't take any of in progress pictures of the basic build. The only modification I really did to the exterior was I filled in the garage door opening.
This is the first coat of primer with some basic filler work done. I still need to do the final putty work and put the second coat of primer on it. Once that is done, I'll throw the paint at it and see how it comes out.
For the interior I built a mechanical room and the basic wall for the shower and bath rooms. Like I did in the store, I added store bought styrene plastic to represent wood trim on the lower part of the wall. I also only sanded the signs at the glue joints since they will never be seen anyway.
This shot shows the area where I plan on putting a coin operated washer and dryer. I'm going to have to build these from scratch as no one makes anything I can modify to work with my diorama.
I did find a paper washer and dryer pattern on one of the doll house sites I visited, but the pattern is out of scale and will need to be modified to look right in the scene.
I'm also going to be building the machines out of plastic signs instead of the paper that the web site and pattern call for. Paper just wouldn't look right and definitely would not hold up. I like doing something once and letting it be if it's at all possible.
This shot shows the waiting area of the building. I had planned on building a window seat type of couch against the walls, but that idea has since been scrapped. I have some old van seats I'm modifying for use in the waiting area along with a photo machine that I have already built.
This shows the wood on the lower part of the walls and the blue green paint I'm going to be using on the walls. I only have the first coat of paint on the wall, wood, and trim right now so that if something happens while I'm doing the final prep work and painting the outside of the building I don't have a finished paint job to worry about ruining.
This is the floor tile pattern I am planning on using for the bath house. Once again this is a doll house pattern I found on the web.
Here is the photo booth I built to go in the waiting area of the bath house. I was sitting at my work table, staring at a pile of scrap plastic and a couple of spare feet I had from shortening a figure's legs so they could fit in the driver's seat of another model and came up with the idea.
I drew the basics out on a piece of paper to see if I could figure out how I wanted the booth to look at without ruining several pieces of plastic trying to get the basic design and shape down. After I had it drawn out, it was as easy as transferring the measurements and cutting everything out.
If you look closely you'll see the toe nails of the person inside the booth are painted. I was sitting here looking at the finished basic build and wondered: "What If..." Well I think the Old School Photo Booth turned out acceptable even though I had no reference to go by while building it.
This is a dollar bill changer that I built to go on the wall of the bath house. This was one of the more simple items I have made yet. It's nothing more than a rectangle of plastic with a printed out graphic glued to it.
Well, that's all I have done on this part so far. More updates will be added as they happen.