HO scale 1950s Finnuken's Pharmacy

[Bill Gill]

Chuck, if you do look in here and have photos of your father's diorama I'd love to see them.

[Ray Dunakin]

Fantastic work, Bill!  I did something similar in 1/24th and that was a pain...can't even imagine doing it in HO.

Unfortunately the plastic I used to glaze the windows of my drugstore has fogged and yellowed, so all that interior detail can't even be seen anymore. I want to refurbish it and replace the plastic with real glass, which I use on my current structures. I just have to figure out how to remove the window frames without destroying them.

[Bill Gill]

I moved the thread about the gold leaf sign here to combine the entire Finnuken'sPharmacy build in one place

The sign for the pharmacy has been on and off for quite a while. Some time ago Ed Traxler (eTraxx) converted a sign I designed for my layout to a 3D printable piece using SketchUp. I don't remember if Shapeways did the actual printing or another company, but Ed did all the hard stuff prepping my 2D art.

The printing was complicated. Not only was the lettering small, but I wanted the raised letters to have a curved cross section rather than straight sides and a flat face. And, just to make it harder, I wanted the letters printed as they would be on the sign but raised on tiny stems above the carrier sheet so that they could be goldleafed without getting gold on the background.

Amazingly, Ed managed to do all that. Unfortunately I was too klutzy to manage the tricky process of trnsfering the individual layers to the signboard without breaking several of them.

[Bill Gill]

Fortunately Ed anticipated problems and also had the letters printed directly on a correctly sized resin signboard. (First photo below)

I, however, spent a long time trying to find a way to apply the gold to the letters (23k patent gold leaf - the kind attached to a tissue paper backing) I had done some 1:1 goldleaf letters on a sign and a few other items for Mystic Seaport Museum. This project was in a different league.

After many failed experiments I finally managed to get ...acceptable...results. My previous experience involved oil based size for the goldleaf. That wasn't working well at that size, so I experimented with various acrylic materials. Eventually Wellbond PVA glue thinned to milk consistency with water, and with a tiny bit of red oxide acrylic craft paint (so I could see where the glue "size" was applied and it worked.

The signboard had a few printing artifacts that also took so fiddling. if you look very closely, besides the layer lines there are also some faint lines under the G and S in drugs. They are in other places as well that don't show in the photo. Sanding was not feasible annd scraping dind't work well. Eventually this is what I found worked as best as I could at the time:

1. Clean the 3d print with original Dawn dish detergent and warm water
2. Rinse with water, then methanol
3. Prime with flat black spray paint
4. Paint the tops of the raised letters with dark yellow acrylic paint and let cure several days
5. Dilute WellBond to milk consistency, add pinch of red oxide acrylic.
6. paint the "size" on one letter at a time and immediately lay the gold leaf on top of the size and press down firmly with tip of finger.
7. Remove tissue and press again with bare finger tip.
8. Gently brush off excess gold with small soft brush.
9. Repeat for next letter.
10. Let cure for day or so, then touch up any missed spots with same technique.
11. Coat the background signboard with a thin mix of black acrylic, water and matte clear acrylic varnish and imediately sift on thin layer of baking soda using a fine nylon mess teabag to screen the baking soda. Let cure. (The slightly grainy texture of the baking soda hid the printing artifacts on the signboard and very effectively represents the fine crushed black glass "Smalt" often applied to the backgroung on gold leaf signs.
12. Apply thin washes of black acrylic over the baking soda without getting on the letters.
13. Touchup both gold and background several times.

Here is the resin sign after cleaning. it is 2.25 in. (5.72 cm. long). The finished sign at this point is only digitally added to the storefront using GIMP.
Click images to enlarge.

The results aren't perfect, but the results do look passibly like an older gold leaf sign that's been out in the weather for some years.

[Bill Gill]

 One reason I wanted to use goldleaf was because everything else (including a goldleaf spray) was far too grainy for HO scale. (See first photo below). This 3D print was my first version. The idea was to apply the gold to the idividual letters  (printed on tiny stalks to raise them above the base) Then individually apply each letter to the black signboard. The letters were too fragile. I broke some just looking at them.
Ed's second version, with the letters on the background worked better.

The irregularities in the finished Finnuken's sign letters are due to my fiddling with trying to fill gaps in the leaf from working with tiny scraps and doing several touchups.

The second photo shows a full size sign I did some years ago. It had been out in the weather over 20 years when the photo was taken. It has flat rather than raised letters, but you can just make out the textured black smalt background.

[Bill Gill]

Here is a little updated work on the wall behind the soda fountain. Everything is just temporarily set in place while looking to see what arrangement will work best.

[Barney]

A couple of words something like - HO MADNESS - but lovely
Barney
going for an eye test !!

[Ray Dunakin]

Sign looks good, and that interior is amazing -- I have to keep reminding myself it's HO scale.

[Bill Gill]

Thanks, Ray. I must confess your amazing detailed interiors have inspired me to detail the few building on my layout.

[Bill Gill]

After looking at the soda fountain for a couple days and getting a comment from a friend who recalled soda fountains having mirror(s) on the back wall. I agreed and added a pair of narrow vertical mirrors based on the prototype tiny soda fountain still operating near here. I also raised the items on the rear wall a little because originally I forgot to allow for the thickness of the floor when I stuck them on the wall. There isn't a person in the photo for reference, but the height does look better now and I like the mirrors too.

[Ray Dunakin]

Nice!

[Barney]

Plus a very nice
Barney

[Bill Gill]

Thanks Ray & Barney.

[Lawton Maner]

Still looks a little sterile.  You need a rack of glassware and maybe a bowl of bananas but the mirrors are an improvement as they allow the soda jerk to watch the customers while working.

[Bill Gill]

Thanks, Lawton. There will be a bit more stuff around as I figure out what I can fabricate. My experiments for a shelf with a couple sizes of glasses hasn't done well. There will be a customer on a stool with a strawberry shake and straw (see about 1/2 down page one of this thread). A small prototype soda fountain still in business nearby stores the glasses under the counter. I may wind up imagining that.
The other thing that hasn't worked yet is modeling a shelf with glass cannisters full of different penny candies as seen in this reference photo.