1:24 SCALE STRUCTURE PLAN
Manufacturer: Garden-Texture, P.O. Box 10012, Charlotte, NC 28212. Price: Garden or Shelf Railway Storefront Number 3, Drawing Number GT-31393 $6.95 each.
I LIKE PLANS almost as much as models. A good drawing is a work of art and can inspire the creation of a superior model.
Bob Kelley, the owner of Garden-Texture, is an architect and, some might say, an artist in his own right. Certainly the various photos and articles about his outdoor layout in Florida have impressed many people. He has combined his professional and hobby expertise into a series of plans and instructions for assembling freelance large scale model railroad structures. They range from bridges and trestles to on- and off-line buildings.
Our sample plan packets tell how to build a deck bridge, a small wayside station, and a storefront. We decided to review the storefront because no manufacturer now offers anything similar and because the materials and construction Bob suggests make the model feasible for anyone, regardless of experience.
Garden-Texture sends you an instruction booklet with a full-color photo of the model along with the drawings themselves. I hope our small reproduction of the drawing suggests the professional and attractive appearance of the full-size plan. A supplementary drawing has construction details, the roof plan, and cutaway views. Our storefront drawings were 11 by 17 inch photocopies; the bridge and station drawings were blueprints.
The instructions explain how to build the storefront from Precision Products' Plastic Veneer sheets (see the review below). If you prefer to use wood, styrene, or other media you're on your own but anybody with modest craftsman kit or scratchbuilding experience should need no instructions at all-just the plans.
Bob begins the booklet by describing the concept behind the building's design. He also talks about minor changes you could make. Then he goes on to explain, step-by-step, how to construct a substructure, what plastic veneer products let you duplicate his plan, how much you will need, and how to assemble the building. Finally, he tells how to paint and weather it. The instructions are clear and complete but seem to assume you have basic modeling experience. A timid first-time modeler probably first should build one of Precision Products' starter kits; a beginner with more confidence can figure out what to do with no help at all. In short, building Garden-Texture's storefront is pretty simple and a good finished model is within the grasp of virtually anyone.
One comment on the materials: If you use Plastic Veneer, your model will be of "stand-off" quality, consistent with the intent of the manufacturer. On the other hand, it will be weatherproof. If you use wood or styrene construction, your model may end up closer to contest quality but it will probably be more delicate and immensely more difficult to protect from the elements.
Now a note about scale: LGB, USA Trains, and POLA products are nominally 1:22.5 scale but actually exaggerate height by about ten percent. To be consistent with their appearance, any adjacent structure must be 1:20 scale, at least vertically. A true 1:22.5 scale structure would appear undersize and a 1:24 scale structure would look completely out of place since, in effect, it would be 20-percent too small. The best way to combine 1:24 scale structures with those from POLA is to use the smaller buildings in the rear to exaggerate distance and the larger ones up front.
Garden-Texture has produced an attractive series of drawings with innovative suggestions for construction. They should be useful to modelers in any scale.-RR
