The Playland Penny Arcade

[Malachi Constant]

So much depth!  Mirror tricks in the hallway ... ornate details on the outside ... all sorts of goodies already and more to come.  Cool.

Cheers,
Dallas

[Ken Hamilton]

Thanks.......
Got the roof ladder and platform done tonight. 
The little platform still needs a couple more supports.





I don't know how long this Building Spurt will last, but it sure is fun.

[Ray Dunakin]

Those railings are terrific!

[finescalerr]

Yep, the fire escape adds a lot. -- Russ

[Ken Hamilton]

Tonight's progress:  The lower platform.







Still needs bottom supports and rivets, then I'll tackle the stairs.  Don't quite
know how I'm going to do the stairs, but that's it for tonight........

[Ray Dunakin]

What are those fancy railings made of? Looks like brass.

[Frederic Testard]

These railings are wonderful, Ken.

[Malachi Constant]

What are those fancy railings made of? Looks like brass.

Hmm ... might be able to find those on "somebody's web site" here:
http://www.wildharemodels.com/


Ken ... Know that I've used all those smilies, I'm desperately looking for one that's drooling!  Gorgeous work ... think you'll be swarmed by pigeons in the near future.

Cheers,
Dallas

[Ken Hamilton]

Thanks......
The railings are brass.  They're from an early photo-etching experiment when I was playing
with line width and material thickness before I knew all that much about the process.



The sheet I drew included some big-scale fire escapes that weren't designed too well,
but the platforms strips and railings were usable.  That's what I used here.

[granitechops]

Love that Coffee Shop door Ken, with the metalwork at that snazzy angle, is that Art Deco type or later?

[Bexley]

Yeah, I'm totally stealing that door design.

I mean borrowing. Yeah, that's it.

[Ken Hamilton]

Don, the remodel of the building is meant to look "kinda-sorta Art Deco in a 50's Luncheonette sort of way".

Here's the latest progress. I got the stairs finished and added the last of the rivets,
so the fire escape is pretty much done.



The two platforms were pinned to the building while I anchored the stairs and secured the "sliding ladder" to
the upper platform, which tied everything together even more firmly than I thought it would. 
The roof platform and ladder-to-the-roof assembly is a separate piece...



The last act of the night was to shoot the whole thing with a quick coat of primer,
pin the fire escape back onto the building and take one last picture....



I'm leaning towards green for a final color.
Thanks for looking and for all the nice comments.
Time to call it a night......

[Scratchman]

Ken, the fire escape is very nice. Your work is all ways so clean and will done. I'm looking forward to seeing the next steps.

Gordon Birrell

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/77318580@N00/

[granitechops]

Ah, got it Ken, "kinda-sorta Art Deco in a 50's Luncheonette sort of way".
I like to get the thinking behind a project, good flavour,.
To me personally, some of the original Art Deco features are a bit over the top when crammed all together on one building

Its  looking good

"sliding ladder"
not being familiar with such fire escapes, I was a bit puzzled by that bottom ladder bit, got it now, it slides vertically. I had seen the type on the films where the bottom section swings down, & as a driver was aprehensive about a meeting of steel & passing vehicles!!

Just a question, as such ladders were steel, were they sprung or counter balanced in some way, so a little old lady with little strength could use them?

[Ken Hamilton]

Don, I had wanted a "swing" type of stairway to the street (like this....)



...but felt it was a bit to clunky and overbearing for the scene I was building. From what I've seen,
there are two typsd of "sliding" ladders:  One with a counterweight and one with a hook to hold up
the ladder until it's needed.  I made the one with the hook:



One end of a rod is anchored to the frame (top circle) and the other end hooks to a wrung
of the ladder (bottom circle).  When required, the "escapees" unhook the ladder and let it
fall (or, rather, slide in the frame) to street level.  It might be a little rough for a little old
lady to activate, but I'll bet she'd have enough of an adrenaline rush to get the job done
if it were her only way of getting out of a burning building! 

Here's one.  Look closely and you can see the rod holding up the ladder: