Luke's Garage & Gas Station

[Sami]

Welcome Stuart !
Your work is wonderful !

[Stuart]

Thank you everyone for your kind remarks.  I find great satisfaction in being able to create in miniature and to experiment with various fabrication methods, tools and resources to accomplish a final result.  Sometimes it takes a few tries to get it right.  It's a learning process and as each of us shares our successes with one another we all grow in our craft.  Again, thank you for your input.

Stuart

[Stuart]

Let me take you upstairs to the apartment, where Luke lives, and show you around.

As I mentioned earlier, my gas stove is a severe modification of a Dee's Delights 1/12th scale reproduction of a 1920's Roper gas stove.  I needed a gas stove for the kitchen area, but, one of much smaller dimensions than what I could find commercially.  I liked the Dee's Delights product as it seemed less toy-like than many of the others available in this scale.  I purchased the stove model and with the aid of on-line references, began the alteration process.  With the removal of a screw or two from the back side of the unit, it came apart in several pieces.

The first thing to go were the cabriole legs.  As described in the previous post, I used these in the creation of the Orange Crush cooler.  The only other pieces I saved for my new stove version were the burners, the valves and accompanying pipe at the front of the stove and the large oven door.  Everything else went either into my spare parts box or the trash. 

[Stuart]

After removing the larger of the two oven doors I used it as a master to create and cast a plastic urethane version.  I could not use the oven door frame from the original model so needed to develop a new one.  I used the original metal door, built up a new frame from sheet styrene, poured a silicone mold then cast a new door and frame using Task 4 Urethane Casting Resin from Smooth-On.  The stove box is built up from styrene sheet material and the newly cast oven door and frame were placed on the front.  The four stove legs were yet another set of castings I prepared from a Dee's Delight refrigerator model.  The stove top was fashioned from styrene sheet and a hole cut to receive the salvaged burners.  The gas valve pipe was added and an additional couple lengths of Evergreen plastic tubing with elbows to extend the gas pipe to the floor behind the stove.

The Buckwalter decal was created in Photoshop, printed and applied.  And, of course, the whole piece was painted and aged appropriately with stain washes and weathering powders.

[Stuart]

The copper hot water kettle was an afterthought once I had the stove finished.  Since I had not planned on a water heater in the small apartment and only a single cold-water spigot over the kitchen sink, I wondered what I might do so that poor old Luke could at least have warm water to wash dishes, shave and sponge bathe with.  They say that necessity is the mother of invention so, why not a stove top water kettle rigged with a bit of pipe and a valve.

I used a piece of wood dowel wrapped with thin copper sheet.  I built up a lid using disks of styrene then pressed copper sheet into the pattern and wrapped it over the edge.  The handles are brass ones available commercially. The piping is brass tubing and the plumbing fittings are castings purchased from Ozark Miniatures.  I blackened the bottom of the pot giving it the look of multiple sessions over a hot gas flame.

The kitchen sink, accompanying plumbing and single water faucet are all items I created in SketchUp and had 3D printed.  The linoleum flooring is patterned after actual flooring material of the 1930's. This I drew up in SketchUp and then printed on heavy paper.  I scuffed up the leading edge to give the appearance of wear.

The kitchen cabinetry is all scratch built with working drawers and cabinet doors.  The metal bin pulls on the drawer faces were purchased items.

[finescalerr]

You certainly didn't give Luke much incentive to bathe or clean his clothes. Go stand in the corner. -- Russ

[Stuart]

Russ - - Forgive me. I must have forgotten to mention that on Sundays Luke closes up shop and runs into town to attend church services then spends the remainder of the afternoon with his sister and brother-in-law.  While there, he enjoys a tasty home cooked meal while his dirty clothes are laundered in his sisters trusty Maytag washer.  If he feels the need, their bathtub is also available to him.

Can I now step out of the corner?

Stuart

[finescalerr]

You may leave the corner, Stuart, but if Luke takes as casual an attitude toward bathing as you suggest, please send him to the corner in your place. -- Russ

[Bill Gill]

Stuart, I believe the expression is "Now you're cooking with gas!", or at least Luke is. Nice work!

At one time I believe a gas company mailed customers a scratch & sniff card that had the odor of gas so they could be aware of the smell should there be a leak. Luke's hot water pot shows he's an inventive guy. If you found one of those cards Luke could probably rig up a way that viewer's of his abode could push a button and get a whiff 

[Stuart]

Tanks Bill, I'll keep that in mind.  For now, I will keep that idea on the back burner.   

Stuart

[Stuart]

So.... moving on.  Next, we'll take a look at the small toilet room, or perhaps a better description, toilet stall.

The toilet bowl is another kit piece from Chrysnbon, the two halves glued together, the joint filled and sanded then painted semi-gloss white.  The toilet tank supplied with the kit is the kind that hangs high on the wall with a pull chain. It was also fashioned to imitate wood.  In my situation I did not have the advantage of a high wall behind the toilet nor did I want a wooden tank, so, after a bit of research on the internet I found a version that suited me (see photo). 

SketchUp came into play again as I created a new tank with associated plumbing in 3D format.  Shapeways printed it for me.

To create the appearance of water in the bottom of the toilet bowl I spent a fair amount of time cutting out and fitting a thin piece of clear plastic sheet material.  I decided against using clear casting resin for water as the tendency for the resin to climb the edges, where it contacts the sides of the toilet bowl, would destroy the illusion.  I fussed with the plastic sheet for quite a while to finally get it to fit properly and then glued it in place using clear epoxy.  Next, I further masked the water to toilet edge by creating a hard water ring and adding streaks along the inside of the bowl with thinned down yellow ocher acrylic paint.

The plunger next to the toilet is another Chrysnbon item.

The roll of toilet paper was made by moistening a thin strip of white tissue paper and wrapping it around a piece of plastic tubing.  The moisture relaxed the paper enough so that it held its shape when it dried.

[Carlo]

Stuart, You are doing amazing things with this garage. I love the Chrysnbon items, because they look "real" and not toy-like, as most dollhouse stuff is. I've been using their "wood" kitchen chairs, and stoves too.

[Stuart]

As you round the corner from the ladder up to Luke's living quarters, we find his dining table, really just a plank with legs attached to the pony wall.  Not particularly deep but enough to hold a plate, a few serving dishes and his brass kerosene lamp. 

The lamp is another one of my SketchUp efforts in 3D.  In dealing with Shapeways I discovered that they can make metal castings along with their numerous other printing processes.  If I understand correctly, they use a lost wax method where the 3D file is printed up in wax.  A mold is made using the wax piece.  The mold is then heated and the wax drained from the mold.  In this case, molten brass is then forced into the mold, the mold broken apart and, presto, a brass reproduction of the original design.

The finished piece was bright shiny brass, a no-no in my miniature world, so it needed a good amount of tarnish to make it feel at home in this setting. I also needed to add a wick adjustment knob. Adding it to the original design would have proven too delicate to reproduce well so I opted to add it after the fact. I used a small brass nail.  I chucked the nail into my hand drill and using a jeweler's file, tuned the nail head down to an appropriate size, drilled a hole in the side of the brass lamp and cemented the nail in place. 

The "glass" chimney is another Chrysnbon item.  The lamp it came from was way too ornate for a bachelor pad so I scrapped their lamp body and reused the chimney for my version.  Off course, a clean chimney would not work so needed to add a little soot with dark gray weathering powder. 

I used a short piece of brass tubing to connect the chimney to the lamp base, but it looks awkward, too massive when compared to actual brass lamps of this kind (see photo).  My plan is to carefully remove the tube piece and install a more refined lace-like skirt.  With the use of Photoshop to create the pattern and a metal etching kit from Micro-Mark I hope to make something much more realistic.

The chair is one someone else created and provided in Shapeways online store.

[Ray Dunakin]

Awesome! I especially like the lamp. It looks great even with the solid tube. If you manage to make a lacier version that would be the icing on the cake.

About 3-4 years ago I tried ordering chairs from someone on Shapeways but they were never properly scaled. The first two orders were too small, and the third was too large. I gave up on it after that.

[finescalerr]

The structure is impressive; each detail itself is nearly as impressive. -- Russ