In-ko-pah RR: The Dos Manos Depot

[adt70hk]

Ray

This has been really interesting to watch come together and I've been marvelling at your skills and attention to detail, although I always wondered about the name 'In-ko-pah' and wondered what sort of endeavour you were engaged in....

Anyway curiosity finally got the better of me and thanks to certain well know brand of search engine I found your website....

I have to say superlatives fail at what you've achieved.  Hats off to you!!

Is this something purely for you benefit or do you have 'open' days so people can come and enjoy your amazing work?

Thank you for sharing.

Andrew

[Ray Dunakin]

Thanks! I do have open houses from time to time. We do one February each year for our garden railroad club, and have hosted some layout tours for things like the National Narrow Gauge Convention, etc and every 2-3 years we have the neighbors over to see it. But I'm also more than happy to show it privately for those who are interested. If you're ever going to be in the area just let me know, and if possible I'll set up a time for you to visit.

[adt70hk]

Mar 3, 2016 23:37:47 GMT -5 Ray Dunakin said:

Thanks! I do have open houses from time to time. We do one February each year for our garden railroad club, and have hosted some layout tours for things like the National Narrow Gauge Convention, etc and every 2-3 years we have the neighbors over to see it. But I'm also more than happy to show it privately for those who are interested. If you're ever going to be in the area just let me know, and if possible I'll set up a time for you to visit.

Ray

Thank you very much for the exceptionally kind offer!!  I might just take you up on that!!

However, for one reason or another I've never been to the US for a holiday - perhaps now is the time to change that!!  All I need to do now is persuade my wife that a flight from the UK to your part of the world is worth it!!  

Thanks again for sharing!

Andrew

[Ray Dunakin]

Well, after a lengthy hiatus due to family issues, I'm finally starting to get back into modeling and have made some more progress on the depot...

First off, I finished painting all of the tan-colored, random sandstone. I also painted the balconies to look like concrete, and painted the wooden beams, rafters, and eaves a dark brown. I painted the roofs too, and also put on a coat of base color on the large quarry stone blocks. Here are some pics of how it looks so far:










The sunlight really brings out the texture of the faux stone:




The structural frame of the bay window has been painted white, then slightly weathered:




The flat roof over the waiting area was given a "tar and gravel" treatment. I painted on a couple coats of flat black house paint. While the final coat was still wet, I sprinkled on some white, decorative stone grit from the craft store:




The Spanish tiles were painted a terra cotta color, with subtle variations on several random tiles:




I'm planning to give the quarry stone blocks a colorful, banded sandstone look, similar to the blocks on the Nevada Northern's depot in Ely, NV:




However, I want to change the color a bit. I'd like to match the colors in this sandstone fragment I brought home from one of my Nevada trips a few years ago. Below is a test piece. The color is very close but not quite there yet:




That's all for now. Enjoy!

[John Everett]

Love this!

[Leon]

This is really looking fantastic Ray!

[wbill76]

Now that's what I call dedication to detail...and that piece of sandstone can't be beat as a physical reference!

[Ray Dunakin]

After another lengthy hiatus I'm finally getting back to work on this project. I've started painting the large stone blocks around the base of the structure. I'm trying to replicate the look of banded sandstone. Here's how it looks so far:

[Leon]

Beautiful work Ray! Nice to see more progress being made.

[John Everett]

I was worried we wouldn't see the finishing of the building. The new paint around the base looks bright compared to the very realistic tone of the white stones above. Will you tone them down with a wash or other weathering?

[Ray Dunakin]

I finished painting the stones, but still have to add the weathering, so no new pics of that yet. In the meantime I did some work on some detail stuff.

A few years ago fellow modeler Bob Santos gave me a few of his beautiful, custom made, cast resin detail parts. I've been saving them for the right spot, and this depot is the perfect place for a couple of them. One is a pay phone. I was going to just hang it on the wall in the covered waiting area of the depot, but then decided an old-fashioned, wooden phone booth would be pretty neat.

I built up the walls from various sizes of styrene strips. The panels are scribed siding:






A 3mm warm-white LED was perfect for the small, domed light inside the booth. The top of the booth is held in place with tiny stainless steel screws, #0 x 3/16":






Here's how it looks so far. I still have to put glass in the windows and add some signs:






I had a lot of interruptions while I was painting the phone, and kind of messed it up, but it'll do:




Now there are a couple decisions I have to make. First, should I put doors on it, and if so, should they be open or closed? Open would show the interior better, but closed be easier and would also solve my second problem, namely, how to attach it to the floor? I could just glue it but I try to avoid that, in case it ever needs maintenance or repair. I'd prefer to run a screw up through the floor, but to do that I'd have to glue a block into the interior of the booth for the screw to go into. That would only work if the door is closed so you couldn't see it.

What are your thoughts?

[Leon]

WOW...That is cool looking Ray!

[John Everett]

The door absolutely needs to be open. (RC airplane hinges in plastic??? Dollhouse brass hinges???) But if I understand your problem correctly, you need to hide the screws which would secure the booth to the base.

Could you glue the booth to a larger Sinitra/Hardy Backer block which was then embedded into the surrounding concrete as you've done with some of the larger buildings?

If the booth must be mounted with screws, could you use slender machine screws driven in from above? Paint the screwheads to match the floor or countersink them deep enough to place a little plastic cap over each screwhead.

How will you hide the four screw on the roof? whatever you do there should also work in hiding hardware in the floor.

[Ray Dunakin]

Thanks guys. I think what I may do is use a couple of small rare earth magnets, one embedded in the floor of the waiting area and one on the bottom of the booth. As for the screws on top, you won't be able to see the top of the booth once it's in place.

I wish I hadn't botched the paint job on the phone's dial. Then I made it worse trying to fix it. The casting was perfect.

[John Everett]

Yes!

[Ray Dunakin]

I had made such a mess of the dial, that I decided to try to fix it even though the phone is already glued into the booth. I carefully reached in with a tiny piece of emery board, and sanded off the existing dial. The I scaled down a photo of a real dial, printed it onto self-adhesive vinyl, cut it out, and mounted it on the phone. I touched up the edges with bit of black paint. I also added some small ads and posters to the interior of the booth:




Another casting I got from Bob was a pot-bellied stove -- just what I needed for the interior of the depot. I used a piece of brass tubing for the smokestack, and also glued a block of Sintra PVC to the bottom. This allows me to secure it with a screw from under the floor. That part of the stove won't be visible through the windows of the depot:

[Leon]

Nice redo on the phone and the stove looks great Ray!

[John Everett]

The picture postcards are a good add as well.

[adt70hk]

Ray, some top, top work as always!!

[dennis]

A joy to look at Ray well done.

[Ray Dunakin]

Thanks, guys!

[Ray Dunakin]

Lately I've been busy installing and wiring the depot's lights, both interior and exterior, as well as making some more interior details, installing doors and windows, etc.

I made ceiling lamps out of clear plastic beads and brass-plated plastic buttons, with 3mm LEDs:




Here are a couple of the simple background details for the interior -- a wall clock and a safe:




The safe is tucked into a corner and will only be partially visible through the bay window, which is why I didn't put too much effort into it:




This next photo is a bit out of focus, but it does show some of the ceiling lamps:




I also made a vintage typewriter for the station master's desk, just inside the bay window. I'm not very happy with the keys but it'll have to do. I couldn't think of any better way to represent them:




That's all for now, more later.

[John Everett]

It's so good it makes me angry!

I'm guessing the safe is your printed vinyl over a Sinitra block.

But do you have any progress pictures of the typewriter?

[Ray Dunakin]

Yeah, the safe and clock are just printed vinyl stuck to blocks of Sintra PVC. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the typewriter under construction. I was so busy with it, and had to redo parts of it several times, I never thought to take pics. The basic shape is a block of Sintra with styrene bits added to create the details.

[Leon]

Nice work on the additional detail pieces Ray!

[deafpanzer]

WOW! Your work never cease to amaze me and my jaw keep dropping further down and down...

[Ray Dunakin]

Thanks for the kind comments! Here are a couple more details… First is a desk fan, which I made from the engine fan and jack stand out of a model car kit, plus part of an old Gundam kit and a few other bits:




Next is a telegraph receiver. Kind of crude in closeup but actually turned out much better than I expected for something so tiny:




And then here's a shot of the desk top, with the items temporarily in position to see how it all fits. I may end up moving the fan to the ticket counter, and replace it with a lamp. This desk will fit into the bay window:



.

[Ray Dunakin]

The window shades were made from strips cut from a Tyvek envelope, painted "antique white", and sprayed with Krylon UV resistant matte clear:





These were glued to thin styrene strips mounted on both sides of each window. Lace was then added where needed, to represent curtains:








Here's a door with the window shade and doorknob installed. The doorknob was made from a tiny, genuine crystal bead:







The balcony railings were made from brass etching, sold by Scale Link in the UK. To make them long enough, I had to butt two pieces together and solder them. Then I added a thin brass rod over the joint, both to reinforce the joint and to strengthen the post. I also add rods to the corner posts:






Strips of 1/32" square brass rod was soldered along the top edge, on the inside, to stiffen the railings. A pair of machinist's "1-2-3" blocks were handy for keeping the etchings flat and holding everything in place during soldering. Excess posts were cut off:










The railings were sprayed with self-etching primer, followed by gloss black, and then UV resistant matte clear. Then I used Sophisticated Finishes' "iron" and "rust" solutions to weather it:



.

[Ray Dunakin]

At long last, the Dos Manos depot is finished!











The signs were printed on self-adhesive vinyl, then touched up and weathered using craft acrylics:





Details of the north side:









The south side:










I ended up making the door closed on the phone booth. Doing so solved several potential issues. I may add a bench or two inside this waiting area:








I'll shoot some night shots this evening.

Although the depot structure is finished, I still need to a bit of work on the foundation and sidewalk. I also have to connect wiring to the depot site.

.

[vlpbruce]

Great work as always Ray.