The Playland Penny Arcade

[Malachi Constant]

The glass block windows were an experiment.  I made strip styrene grids and
filled the squares with "Liquid Nails":

Okay, what's underneath that window assembly?  Silicone mat?  It's gotta be some kinda no-stick surface ...

Really enjoying the build-up of zillions of layers of modern archaeology on this one ...

Cheers,
Dallas

[Ken Hamilton]

I used heat-lamination sheets, which are transluscent before they're sent through a laminating machine.  I glued the
stryene strips onto the sheet with ACC, then filled in the sqaures with Liquid Nails.  It took quite a while to dry all the
way through.  After about 2 days I trimmed the sheets around the frame and installed the windows. I did peel the sheet
of one window with a razor blade to see what would happen, but determined that to be an unnecessary (and time comsuming) step.

(Gratuitous picture thrown in to break up text):



I'm likin' the archeological aspect here, too.  It's working out much better than imagined and I'm glad it appears to be coming
through:  The old building with an added Art Deco facade that's now being torn off prior to demolishing the whole building,
plus the indication of yet another building as seen in the ghost wall (....which, BTW, was an after thought...). 

(Gratuitous Picture #2):



It's fun when a project develops a life of its own as it's being built!

[Chuck Doan]

It's fun to watch it come together too. Very cool.

[nk]

This is looking so good Ken. I really like the glass brick tip. In my alley dio I had wanted to have this kind of glass brick, but could not work out how to do it, so I settled for the ones with parallel lines...now I know. The levels of updating of the style is wonderful, without updating the underlying structure...like new icing on an old cake.

[Ken Hamilton]

Brief update:  Built the chain link fence for in fromt of the empty lot...



...and added some details to the apartment building's alley wall:



(Yeah, I know.....the bricks aren't the right size, but I'm too far along to re-scribe another wall)



This wall won't really be front-and-center, so I'm hoping size won't matter too much.......

[finescalerr]

A few notes on construction details, please. We can guess, of course, but it would be more satisfying to know exactly what materials you use. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

What kind of screen did you use for the fence?

[Ken Hamilton]

Russ, I didn't take any in-progress pictures 'cause I really didn't know how the meters would turn out.
I'm definitely a "short-cut" modeler, as you can see how rough the meters are in this close-up.
They won't be exposed to really close inspection so I just kinda hinted at them.

Certainly NOT a Chuckdonian effort.



The meters are styrene boxes with short pieces of hollow rod glued to them.  The rods were then
sanded down to look like flanges.  Thin wafers of .020" rod were glued inside the "face ring" to simulate
the little dials.  A rounded sliver of aluminum was glued across the middle to represent the big spinning dial.
Finally, clear 5-minute epoxy was dripped into the ring for the glass.  It's cloudy enough (complete with air
bubbles!) to hide the ersatz details, but I'm hoping your mind tells you it's a meter

Ray, the screen is plain, ordinary hardware store aluminum window screen (not the nylon stuff)

[finescalerr]

Yeah, that'll do. Thanks! -- Russ

[TRAINS1941]

Ken

They look real good to me.

Jerry

[Gordon Ferguson]

Nice details Ken, I do like those meters ............... will be pinching the idea of epoxy for the glass covers for something else.

Bricks, they look good to me and I think the variety of types and "sizes" just adds to the real look of what you are producing

[Ken Hamilton]

Thanks, guys.
I had originally thought of putting a tall wooden gate at the end of the alley, but
decided to go with an iron gate and fence so the alley details will be more visible:



It was pretty straightforward to build.  Brass shim stock, styrene rod & angle,
a few NBWs and a couple of photo etched doo-dads...

[Andi Little]

Excellent piece of "Something out of nothing"! - although I do envy your access to photo-etch doo-dads!!! Perhaps I'm a curmudgeon? - but that sort of stuff seems so much more difficult to obtain over here in the UK.

Or perhaps I'm just too idle to search it out?

[Ray Dunakin]

Wow! That's some mighty fine work there.

[Malachi Constant]

Excellent!  The little pointy, open bits are a fantastic touch and add yet another level of "see-thru" detail on the see-thru gate ... ditto with the detailed lock.  The gate will add a lot of depth and define the end of the alley, but allow the "nosey" viewers to have a peek that way!    -- Dallas