On the Layout: Front Street Highrise Construction

     Summer is my busy season in the basement working on the layout.  My work schedule allows me to spend much more time accomplishing things on my To Do list.  For the last two weeks I've been working on my latest highrise project.  Custom Model Railroads makes this Building Under Construction kit.  CMR makes most of the highrise buildings found on my layout.  This was a terrific kit to build.  I highly recommend Custom Model Railroads if you're looking for tall city buildings for your layout.  

Building Under Construction kit by Custom Model Railroads

Kit pieces come bubble wrapped and bagged in ziplock bags to help with identifying parts and keeping things organized.  The back directions identify each part with a picture and part number.

    The directions suggested that I paint parts as I go along instead of waiting until everything has been put together.  The paint job was pretty simple for the building.  I primed the acrylic plastic parts with gray primer and then painted each piece with Krylon Camouflage Khaki.

It was important to keep the vertical supports perpendicular to the baseplate.  I used 3-2-1 blocks to help keep each support straight as the glue was drying.  

    I used Bondine Plastic Cement as my glue of choice.  I like that it can eat through paint, which was needed for this project.  The bottle comes with a brush, but for the hard-to-reach places on the kit I used CMR's glue bottle with a fine point needle on top.  I picked one up in January at the Springfield show knowing I would be building this kit in the summer.  One thing that was very helpful to avoid gluing pieces to my workbench was placing wax paper under the base of the building.  It worked like a charm!

Once the first floor is built the middle floors are just a repeat of the previous floor.  Each floor gets painted, time to try and then the next floor is glued.  I needed to scrape the glue off the vertical support columns each time I started a new floor.  I did this by applying some Bondine to soften the paint and then used a #17 blade to chisel the paint off.  

    The process was slow because of the need to paint each floor and then clean the parts that needed gluing, but the steps were pretty repetitive for each floor of the building.  I ran into a problem on the upper floors when the paint started crazing.  I'm not sure why it happened, but some light sanding and reapplying the paint took care of it.

Progress continued to be made.  This floor was where I needed to extend some of the vertical column and the supports on the right ended.

The 3-2-1 blocks came in handy again.  The directions suggested using some of the top floors to get the additions to the vertical columns going straight up.  The floor below the blocks has just had the supports glued and are currently drying.  There are still a couple more floors to go.  It has taken about a week to get to this point.  These kits are not designed to be done in a day.

I finally made it to the top floor!

  The construction elevator was built according to the directions, and I painted it using silver and orange paint.  I eventually secured it to the building using Canopy Glue (which is another great glue to use).  I used canopy glue because it does a great job tacking down pieces, but it can be removed, if needed, without damaging the paint.

It was time to work on the construction elevator.  It was important that these parts stayed at straight as they could.  I certainly didn't want to have a crooked or leaning elevator once it was upright.

Everything was painted and I glued the elevator into place (on the 6th floor).  

 I made some changes to the top floor.  Following a picture that I took of the building CMR had on display a few years ago at Springfield, I cut off three of the pillars at floor level and added some piano wire to simulate the rebar that would soon be surrounded by cement to build the supports for the next floor.  It gives the building the feeling that there are more floors to be added.  When the frame of the building was finished, I started adding the walls and windows for the first two floors of the building.  I use Tamyia gray primer for the cinderblocks and silver paint for the windows. 

This was an O Scale kit the CMR has built and displayed a few years ago at Springfield.  I used it to get ideas for the kit I was building.  Notice the top floor as some columns that only show the rebar.  You'll see in the next picture that I strayed from the directions and did the same thing.  I also liked that they had orange safety fencing at the edge of each floor.  I plan to add this to my building at some point.

The three columns to the right now just the rebar.  

It was finally time to add the walls and windows on the first two floors.  The cinderblocks were painted using two different primers.  I started with a darker gray to show the mortar and then spraypainted a lighter gray for the cinderblock surface.

The finished building before moving it to the layout for the first time.

The first look while on the layout.  It was now all about adding details and getting the scene completed.

    Once the kit was built, I moved on to some of the details to complete the scene.  I used the sidewalk shelter from a Walthers kit.  I needed to alter the length just a bit.  I painted construction barrels from Miniprints Road signs were printed on regular copy paper and backed on .010 styrene painted black.  The posts were made using .040 styrene.  I painted a Busch container to use as a construction office. 

A sidewalk shed I built years ago is finally being put to use.  I needed to trim a few inches off of it to fit the scene.  I built the signs while I was waiting for the glue to dry from my kitbash.

I used an image for a skyscraper under construction in Toronto for a prototype.  These two signs were seen along Front Street.  The trucks entering sign on the right was a little difficult to find, especially in orange.  I ended up just printing the picture in back and white and using an orange Sharpie.  Both signs are backed on .020 black styrene.

I tried two different color schemes for the job site office.  I decided to go with the one on the left.  The modular office on the right will end up getting use somewhere else on the layout.

    Inside the building I added some pallets of cinder blocks some round styrene tubing to represent pipes and conduit.  The kits already had predrilled holes on each floor to be able to add these details.  I would still like to add safety fencing around the perimeter of each floor.  I also need to add some safety tape on each elevator opening.  The scene is missing construction figures, I am searching for some that I like.  I also want to add a Welding lighting kit I bought once-upon-a-time from Bakatronics.

Pallets of cinderblocks are placed in different parts of the first three floors.  You can see some on the third floor.  Also notice the white pipes running from the ground floor up to the top. The pipes are just styrene tubes.

    The final step was to paint the benchwork the same earth brown used on the rest of the layout and then add Scenic Express's real dirt for the driveway.

Plenty of detail has been added on the ground.  I'm really happy with how this came out.  The sidewalk's curb cut has been painted orange.  This is based on a prototype photo of a Toronto construction site on Front Street.

    It took me around two weeks to get everything complete.  I am happy with the construction site and look forward to my next Custom Model Railroads kit.  However, I am running out of room for additional skyscrapers.  In a future blog I'll talk about the different high rises found on my layout. 

The new high rise construction site as seen from the front doors of Union Station.

Union Station hides most of the details in the scene.  This is what it looks like from the aisle of the layout.