Scratchbuild DPM interior

FrankG
FrankG's picture
Posts: 30
Joined: 2008-02-18
Average: 5 (2 votes)

 

 

I've completed a scratchbuilt interior for my N scale men's clothing store that I've been posting about recently.  This is made to fit inside of a DPM corner apothecary kit.

Here's how I've constructed it:

- The flooring of this interior is a small counter top sample of Formica, freely available from most home improvement stores cut to size on a table saw
- The back wall of the shop (shown in photos) is simple sheet styrene cut of size.with a paint swatch (again home improvement store) glued to the front of it.  The paint swatch adds a small texture to the wall and you really get a wide selection of prototypical wall colors to choose from.
- The inside wall of the structure (behind the big rack/shelf) has the same paint swatch glued direction inside the structure. This makes it much less critical for everything to be accurately aligned.
- To the back wall (shown) I added a doorway with curtain, a 1940s Stetson ad and a Kessler’s company sign. All three of these printed details I created in Photoshop.
- The door frame was cut from a piece in my scrap box.  It was painted and the curtain attached behind it.
- The window displays are made from strip styrene and cut to a 45 degree angle with a Chopper II. 
- The mannequins in the window are Woodland Scenic with the bottom of their legs removed.  You can't tell the legs are cut down because the window displays sit just below the window's frame on the kit.
- The clothing rack/shelf is made from parts from an HO scale fire escape kit.  The railings of the fire escape form the vertical pieces of the shelving unit.  The rest of the vertical railings were cut away.  The rest of the shelving unit is made from a simple styrene box with this railing piece glued to the front. Two strips were added to form the top molding and the horizontal shelf.
- A printout I created was added for the hanging suit jackets.
- Misc. detail from my scrap box was added to the top shelf.
- The potted plant was a tiny piece of kit sprue with green Woodland Scenics scenic material added to the top of it.
- The display table is just a basic table shape make from strip styrene. To the top of that, I added a print out of folded shirts and a small bit of plastic so the table to appeared more dimensional.
- The checkout counter is a block of styrene with a very thin styrene strip added to the top.  I added a chunk of random black plastic to the top to represent a cash register and a small sign to the front of it.
- Behind the counter, I added a plastic N scale barrel with a silver jewelry bit from a craft store to the top.

I really wasn’t going for award-winning detail for this interior.  The idea was really to convey a lot going on with very little.

I have a ton of info about the building of this interior on my blog.

 


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Follow along as I recreate a post-war 1940s urban environment in N scale, plus tutorials, tips and more: http://nscale.wordpress.com


oldcook43
oldcook43's picture
Posts: 208
Joined: 2006-02-28
nScale.net Site Supporter
Clothing store interior

FrankG,

Great looking interior.  I never thought about building DPM interiors like that.  So I may have to "borrow" your ideas. Nice job and thanks for the idea.


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oldcook43

Still a kid at heart!




a_batey
a_batey's picture
Posts: 36
Joined: 2007-07-06
Its nice to see us Nscalers

Its nice to see us Nscalers showing extreamly well detailed models. Alot of people wouldn't think to take a look inside some of our buildings which i guess is why most of us ignore this area of our modeling.

Nice work Frank 




epumph
epumph's picture
Posts: 107
Joined: 2007-08-20
WOW!

Frank, That is all I can say since my mouth just fell open!

WOW!

Gene 




epumph
epumph's picture
Posts: 107
Joined: 2007-08-20
more on the subject

Frank, I hope that you don't mind me asking but how do you determine the font size when you are creating signs? Can this be done in a word processor like MS Word or do you need special software or do you take real life adds and reduce them and if so by how much?

Wow, I hope I didn't over step any bounds but would assume that there is probable another newbie out there thinking the same thing.

Thanks,

Gene 




FrankG
FrankG's picture
Posts: 30
Joined: 2008-02-18
How I create signs

First, I only use Adobe Photoshop for making signs.

MS Word is ok for placing fonts, but you'll never get a realistic look with the backgrounds or colors.

Photoshop has a really steep price tag -- I only have it because I need it for work.  But Adobe has an "Elements" pacakage that is more reasonable and will do basicaly the same thing.

If you look for "photo editing software" on something like downloads.com, you may find something that will work, but an Adobe product will far out perform anything you can download.

I make signs one of two ways:

1.) Find a photo of a billboard on the Internet.  Anything that looks like a billboard.  You want straight on shots -- it's easier that way.

I try to figure out what size the billboard should be 1:1.  Many vintage billboards were 19' x 8.5'.  So that's always a good starting point.  So I create a new image in Photoshop at 300dpi at 1:160 of the above measurements or whatever I want the final size to be.  Then I just add the photo I took from the Web and size it down to match.

2.) The other process is basically identical, but instead of looking for the art on the Internet, I just create it from fonts and shapes in Photoshop.   

In either case, I usually add a little discoloration and weathering because it tends to be a little more realistic that way.

 I'll see if I can find some good Photoshop alternatives and maybe I'll post a step-by-step on my blog when I have some time. 


--
Follow along as I recreate a post-war 1940s urban environment in N scale, plus tutorials, tips and more: http://nscale.wordpress.com


FrankG
FrankG's picture
Posts: 30
Joined: 2008-02-18
Font size

I guess I didn't really answer your first question.  In Photoshop, you don't really need to pick a font size.  You can layout the text and then scale it until it fills the area you need.  This allows you to set the overall size of the sign and work within it without worrying about font size.


--
Follow along as I recreate a post-war 1940s urban environment in N scale, plus tutorials, tips and more: http://nscale.wordpress.com


epumph
epumph's picture
Posts: 107
Joined: 2007-08-20
Thanks

Thanks Frank, I will liik into the software. My son-in-law is a graphic artist and does a lot of work from home and he may have all the software I would need. But keep the info coming since I'm sure there are others out there who were impressed with your work and would like to try their hand at it. Again, great looking stuff!

Gene 




tedbtrains
tedbtrains's picture
Posts: 316
Joined: 2006-03-02
nScale.net Site Supporter
FANTASTIC!!!Great job, you

FANTASTIC!!!

Great job, you are an inspiration to those of us who want to try interiors for DPM buildings. Keep up the great work, and keep showing us what can be done.

Thanks for thinking outside the box

Ted


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There is a fine line between "Hobby" and "Mental Illness"




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