Custom Storefront

[spitfire]

Sometimes I get bored with the style of storefront that comes with most kits. Whether it's DPM, Smalltown USA or Walthers they all seem to be circa 1890 or so, which is fine sometimes, but what I see out there more often is storefronts that have been retrofitted over the years.

Below is a shot showing what I mean. The buildings themselves look a lot like the kits you can buy, but the storefronts do not.

So I decided to do something about it.

Here's the first shot that I used for inspiration.

 

[spitfire]

Here's another shot that I'm using for style.

 

[spitfire]

Here I have cut out a replacement for the supplied storefront portion of this kit - an inexpensive Smalltown USA store. I've painted it black using shiny paint to simulate tile.

 

[spitfire]

To get the white striping I'm using alternating white and black-painted styrene strip. I also added a strip to the edge of the top brick part because it seemed to need it.
Here's how it looks.

 

[csxnscale]

Sounds like a good idea.
This storefront looks allright in 1970,1980 timebase which I try to model.
Keep us posted on progress.

Paul

 

[Vic]

Val that's a great idea and would put most any of the buildings you mentioned into the desired time frame.

In the "example" picture that you posted I couldn't help but come up with three scenerios.....

1. The man is dragging the little boy to the barber shop for a
hair cut, which he hates!!

2. The little boy is dragging the man away from the pool hall
because his Momma sent him there to get Poppa to come home
for supper!!!


3. They are both thinking...."Why are we walking when we could
ride the trolly!!!

 

[Will_annand]

Trying to think where in TO would that be?

How about Queen St. east?
Maybe near the Beaches area?

 

[Ralph]

This is already shaping up to be a nifty tutorial. I like the art deco black store front. I've read comments by people in other forums about how they dislike seeing the same structures on everyone's layout. Your's will be unique and interesting!
Ralph

 

[spitfire]

Vic - I like your scenarios!

Will, it's St. Clair Ave W. taken in the 1960's sometime.

Here's the next little bit of progress. Painted the upper storey and glued the 2 pieces together. Next step is to apply a decal I've printed with the store name.

Val

 

[Will_annand]

Thanks Val, that is starting to shape up nicely.

I am doing the 1880s, mostly wooden buildings, a few brick ones. I will be scratch building or kit bashing most of them.

I will keep am eye on your methods, the results look good.
Thanks for sharing.

I lived downtown for awhile at Parliament and Wellesley. Then over in North York at Vic Park and Ellesmere.

Born up here in Huntsville, in downtown Muskoka

When I was young my parents moved to Clarkson, Dad worked at Ford. Most of the time I lived around Mississauga or Toronto. Two years ago I got tired of the city and came up here. Much different live style. The locals complain about the "traffic jam" in downtown Huntsville, all four blocks of it.

They have no idea what "traffic" is.

 

[TR-Flyer]

Hi Spitfire:
Great observation about how the kits may not actually fit into the time period you are modeling. It may help simplify your work if you remember that most of these "modernizations" of old buildings are applied directly over the original. So, some thin styrene textured and applied over the original building may work fine.

In the mid to late 50's and through the sixties, metal fascia systems became very popular for use over "old fashioned" brick row house type structures. We have a number of them in our downtown area. In DC, central liquors comes to mind as a prominent redo of this type.

Awnings and rolling grilles are also popular retrofits, depending somewhat on whether the neighborhood is rising or descending in stature.

Great piece of work, once again.

Regards,
Ted

 

[Matthyro]

Thanks for the ideas here Val. We can all do a better job on our buildings so your post is very timely.

 

[CN1]

Great job and great inspiration Val..:thumb: :thumb:

 

[Arlaghan]

That sure is shaping up nicely! Greater level of satisfaction when you do more of the work yourself, and judging by your craftmanship, you should get LOTS of satisfaction!

 

[Fred_M]

Gee those store fronts look nice, the economy must be better in Canada? Or maybe Walmart hasn't came to town? Check out our downtown store fronts. FRED

 

[Matthyro]

Tough times for Mom and Pop retailers EH Dash. We have a number of Walmarts around the perimeter of Toronto but no room for them on downtown streets so local stores still do reasonably well here.

 

[Badyin Macfadyi]

I'm working on something similar to this.
one of the kits i'm using is the Surrey Custom Models "Morty's Market".

I want to upgrade the store windows to something more modern - a one piece late glass window. Nothing i've tried to date looks right. Anyone any suggestions?

 

[Russ Bellinis]

I'm working on something similar to this.
one of the kits i'm using is the Surrey Custom Models "Morty's Market".

I want to upgrade the store windows to something more modern - a one piece late glass window. Nothing i've tried to date looks right. Anyone any suggestions?

It is kind of spooky when one of these old threads is resurrected and I don't look at the date, then as I scroll down the thread I suddenly see a post by Robin!

Do you have a pic of a prototype you want to model? It is much easier to figure out how to model something if you have a prototype picture to give you ideas of what it should look like when you are done. Often our attempts at modeling don't look right because we are not using a prototype photograph to model from, and what we are doing is not like anything in the real world.

 

[Badyin Macfadyi]

this is the kit. i want to replace the grant lin windows at the front with something modern. I've tried several ideas but nothing looks right.

I'd bookmarked this thread a long time ago. After coming back with it I sat for quite a while thinking about a number of people who are no longer with us

 

[MasonJar]

Some ideas for Morty's Market:

- call it Mortymart
- change the windows and door too - the single plate glass idea is great, so check out some reference photos (try google images)
- change the signs
- change the siding - the stucco could be painted, or perhaps metal siding was put on in place of the shigles
- try a lean-to structure to enclose the "porch" at the back
- cut a new door in the side, and fill in one of the windows with an air conditioner unit
- put a vending machine on the front step in place of the cooler
- replace the trash can with a new style plastic receptical
- remove the rooftop billboard and put some industrial looking stuff up there (AC unit, vents, piping, etc).

Hope that helps.

Andrew

PS - nice to see these old threads come back to life!