Foscale Radio Station Built By Chris

KLWO Radio Station

HO scale kit offering from Foscale

I have just purchased this gorgeous model made by my good friend, Chris Lyon.

It is the FOS Scale Limited Radio WKLO and Malcolm's House of Music offering.

Chris opted to re-letter the station to read KLWO.

Here is the structure now residing on one of my many shelves.

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Chris recently dismantled his model railroad as he prepares for a move.  All items on the layout were for sale, so I couldn't pass up this great opportunity.

I had wanted to purchase this building, but left it too late and it was a limited run kit which sold out fairly quickly. 

Chris and I both play guitar together and perform, so it is fitting that I have this wonderful model made by him now residing in my home.

KLWO is now a Christian Rock station, but on my layout, any style of music will be heard over the airwaves around that big antenna.

The little red Beetle has always been on my wish list but I never could find one.

Thanks to Chris for throwing it in with the radio station.

This "at level" view shows the unique lines of the structure.

A side view with all those great signs.

Chris tells me that he sprayed the signs first with Dullcoat then wet them so that they would fit nicely into all of the grooves along the clapboard siding.

A view from the rear when Chris brought the structure out to OVAR.

The brown structure to the left is one I built for my friend, John and it just so happened that I brought it out at the same OVAR meeting.

Chris snapped this great shot on his layout.  The building hadn't been officially planted as of yet.

It sure looks nice near the shores of the lake Chris made.

Chris tells me that he used a white wash of Saman Stains and Olive Stain for most of the colouring of the building.  He made use of A/I and Bragdon powders to weather everything.  Some of his details were painted using Velejo paints.

Chris used canopy glue and tacky glue to assemble the structure.  He roughed up the siding and lifted each line of clapboard to increase depth.  To create stucco, he sifted fine sand over AppleBarrel acrylics while the paint was still wet.

Here's an "in-progress" shot.

Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to own this structure, Chris.  

Chris and Mike enjoy a chuckle as Chris holds one of his latest purchases.

All the best in your future move, Chris!

Have a great day!  Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario,Canada

American Model Builders Farmhouse for Hospital Layout Group Build

Farmhouse Build

An American Model Builders HO scale kit

Every year, a group of model railroaders in Ottawa gather to build a model railroad to be raffled as a fund-raiser for their local children's hospital.

I chose to build a "truncated version" of the farmhouse which resulted in some challenging and creative modelling which you will learn about momentarily!

 Many friends from around the world donated items for the build thanks to our friends at the Railroad Line Forum.  

We assembled on a regular basis to construct the layout and different modelers took different craftsman style kits to build.  

I selected this American Model Builders farmhouse to build.  The location for it demanded that I truncate the building on an angle, very cool!

Here is a shot of one side of the layout upon completion.

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A photograph of the other side.

Before cutting up the wooden wall sections from the kit, I first mocked up the structure out of cardboard.  Much better to make a mistake out of cardboard than wood, I say!

I think this will look really cool when done!

And yes, it does!

The farmhouse placed on the styrofoam terrain.

With a few trees I made out of the spirea shrub.

With all of the scenery in place.

Among other buildings.

An aerial shot.

This sure was a fun little project.

The joy was looking at the faces of visitors to the train show.  

It was great that a little boy won the raffle layout.  He was so excited when we dropped it off at his home!  

Thanks for checking in on this very special project which showcases what teamwork can achieve.  

Have a great day of model railroading!  

 Mike Hamer,  Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Group Build of Banta Modelworks Silver Plume Bakery into Something Completely Different

A few years back, the St. Lawrence Division of the NMRA came up with an interesting idea.  The members chose to select a model that everyone would purchase and build.  The model chosen was the Silver Plume Bakery from Banta Modelworks.  

There was one caveat...each modeler had to turn the bakery into something different!  Oh, did I fail to mention that four scales would be represented, N, HO, S and O.  Lots of fun!  Follow along to see some of the creative models the group built.

We met once every two months at a local church basement.  The SLD meets five times a year, so we chose the alternate months to gather as a group for the build.

Remember, you can enlarge the images by clicking on them.  You can return to the default look of the page by clicking outside the image.

This post is not meant to teach techniques.  Rather, it is to show you some of the creative models which were built.  

I chose to turn my model into a barber shop.  I have a good model railroad friend named Bill Meek.  I thought it would be fun to name the barber shop "Barber Bill - No Meek Cuts"!

SS Limited provided the interior detail parts...tons of white metal castings.  Most of us chose to light our interiors with LED's.  The effect is very dramatic especially when you observe the model in low light.

Well, I guess one lad didn't pay attention to the rules of the theme...hee hee!  I smell bread baking!  Big smile!

Yup, he chose to make his bakery into a...well...a bakery!

He did a great job on the detailing and weathering.

I think that I would love to go get a coffee and a bite to ear here.

This lad created a corner cafe out of his bakery kit.

Looks great planted on this mini-diorama.

My friend, Stan, modeled the Tweed News.  It is obviously the head offices of the local newspaper.

Here's someone's structure at some juncture in the process.  It's fun to see the differing paint schemes for the walls and trim.  I believe that it will become David's Wells River Cafe.

The Wells River Cafe takes shape.

Here is the final form of David's structure as planted on his layout.

Aha!  Me thinks this'll be another structure masquerading as a bakery!

My good friend, Chris Lyon, turned his structure into a pool hall.

Chris planted his on a mini-diorama as well and photographed it against his backdrop on his model railroad.

Another barber shop to give me some competition down the street, I see!  Deb and John, great friends, even added a sound chip with old style music playing!

Good friend, Ron, created an O-scale saloon.

With a lot of interior detailing going on.

Cafe Evelyn looks well attended.

Nice exterior detailing by good friend, Alex, in S scale.

Pete chose to create a pharmacy in O.

Pretty shiny new looking roof.

Spending that kind of money, the place must be doing a brisk business.

Good friend, Gilbert, chose to change the kit up entirely and place the doorway to the left rather than the right.  He also added a lot of interior detailing.

The lighting sets his model off beautifully.

Another view of a bakery.

Something new again...a marine supply shop.

Love the roof!

Good friend, James, honoured his son who loves to snowboard.  They made HO scale snowboards from a brochure and cut them out.

They are hanging on the wall inside the shop.

Of course, if you're going snowboarding, you're not heading to school!  Hee Hee!

Another view of the shop in progress.

Yet another barber shop!

Angela followed us on-line and created a lovely bakery as well.

The interesting aspect of this project for me was seeing all the different colour variations in the walls and the trim. 

 Hey, I really enjoyed creating this blog entry!

Thanks for checking in on this fun build.  You should try a build with friends someday.  It's a blast!

Have a top-notch day!  Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada