Garcia's Garage and Auto Repair will be released in July

pre-production model as seen on my APA-lachia module

Barber Shop will be released soon

Here you see the first images of my pilot model for the adobe Barber Shop.
The kit is as easy to build as our Casa Adobe.

It has a lot of added features though.

- Tichy Train Group doors and windows
- Parts to build a Barber Pole
- All necessary parts to build the sun shade
- Bench
- and a set of full color signs to decorate your business

You may paint your Barber Shop any color you like, but I choose a white color for the front and red doors and windows. Many prototype Barber Shops are painted that way.

A piece of brass wire is provided to bend the frame of the sun shade.

 A piece of styrene tube serves as the roll for the sun shade. A sufficiently long piece of red and white colored material is provided to model the shade down or rolled up.

 Different Barber Shop signs and the red/white/blue banner for the Barber Pole are also provided in different styles. The pole itself assembles with 4 tiny pieces.

As another plus I also provided a base with walkway.

I am sure you will like it.

As always feel free to comment and send me pictures of YOUR Barber Shop.

Casa Adobe

Adobe is the Spanish word for mud brick, a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material (sticks, straw, and/or manure), usually shaped into bricks using molds and dried in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and rammed earth buildings, but cob and rammed earth are directly made into walls rather than bricks. These bricks were used to make pueblos in New Mexico. The Anasazi, Hopi, and Zuni peoples used this. (Source Wikipedia)

 

(Adobe house near Las Cruces, NM 1936)

Since modeling the Southwestern part of the United States I quickly realized that many of my structures needed to be build in this style.

Adobe had been in use by indigenous peoples of the Americas in the Southwestern United States, Mesoamerica, and the Andean region of South America for several thousand years. The Pueblo people built their adobe structures with handfuls or basketfuls of adobe, until the Spanish introduced them to the making of bricks. Adobe brickmaking was used in Spain starting in the eighth century B.C. The Spanish Conquistadores also left their trace all along the California Coast with numerous missions and stucco buildings. (Source Wikipedia)

 

The pre-production model of the Casa Adobe above represents a small 2-room house.

I tried a new method to cover the walls with tile grout to represent adobe or even stucco if used in a lighter color and painted.

To do so I painted the walls with a coat of white glue and then sifted the grout over it. Because most of the grout did not stick to the walls and there were still some bare spots, I covered the walls again and wetted them with a spray bottle. This worked out satisfactorily.

After the walls had dried completely I assembled the building.

As you can see now the tabs and slots are still visible.

I mixed a batch of grout with a little wet water and white glue and painted the edges and the inner walls on the roof.

It ended up with a different shade so I decided to dab the whole structure with the new mix.

I inserted the vigas and glued the roofs in place.

 As you can see the grout dries very mat like the real thing. I guess I could not top it with just painting and weathering the walls.

Art Deco Billboard (double sided)

While searching the internet I found another Billboard in the Art Deco Style. A definition with examples of Art Deco can be found HERE and on Wikipedia.

It appears that this billboard is visible from both sides

I designed it with one center piece of 1.5mm MDF and the trim for both sides from 1mm MDF. Again this kit yields 2 additional small spare billboards.

I painted it off white and used toothpicks for the legs.

On the reverse side I attached a picture of old faded and torn down ads.

Both styles will be available for purchase soon. Stay tuned and watch for details.

Art Deco Billboard (TV style)

I'm a great fan of billboards because they really set the era or time frame. When I found a picture of an Art Deco billboard that looked like a TV I decided to model a similar one.

 

After figuring out the different steps in how to assemble such a billboard I again made a CAD drawing and got it laser-cut from my friend.

I designed the billboard in 3 layers on 1mm MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard)

With the tip of my hobby knife I pricked the holes of the "speaker" out.

Then I glued the "knobs" on the engraved spots.

Finally I glued and clamped the 3 layers together.

I painted the billboard with a brown color and glued an ad from the 1940's era into the frame.
You'll find tons of advertisements on the internet. Most are jpeg's and with a little scaling on the computer they can be printed out on a normal printer.

After I had assembled the Art Deco Billboard I thought about what I could do with the leftovers. The panels that had been discarded from the frames give a neat rectangular billboard.

For the new frame I salvaged the small strips from the carrier sheet, which are a scale 6" wide

With my NWSL chopper I cut the strips at a 45° angle.

Then I glued the frame around the edge and voilà, a spare billboard from scrap pieces.

I painted the billboards dark green and applied period appropriate ads.

Now I need to build some legs or probably attach them to the side of a building.

Interested in buying this unique Art Deco Billboard?  SHOP HERE.