A review of Pictorial House Modelling by Edward W. Hobbs

After stumbling across the work of Laurence T. Gieringer I’ve gotten interested in finding the oldest books about making miniature buildings. My archeological approach is admittedly haphazard, but stumbling around did find this 1926 book, Pictorial House Modelling: A Practical Manual explaining how to make Models of Buildings, by Edward W. Hobbs, published by C. Lockwood & Son in their Technical Press Manuals series. My copy is a 2013 reprint published by Read Books.

This reprint is not of the highest quality, although I bought it because of easy availability and relatively low price. The misspelling of ‘Pictoral’ on the cover is a clue. The biggest disappointment is the photographs, which are the pictorial in the reprint’s Pictoral. The photos are rough and grainy, and don’t do justice to the innovative way the original used step-by-step photos to explain construction techniques. Later books like Ahern’s and Stokes’ rely heavily on line drawings to illustrate building methods, but here the presentation is almost 21st century in its use of photos. After seeing this I’m now on the lookout for an original to see if its photos were any good - maybe Read was saddled by poor quality photos in the original.

The reprint also has an odd essay prefacing the main work called ‘Model Building’ that reads like it was added by the reprint’s publisher, but is uncredited. It gives a condensed history of model building along with some observations on where the hobby is today. I would have instead prefaced the reprint with something that gave a little history about the original book and its author, along with some thoughts on where the book stands in relation to others in the field of making miniature buildings. But, maybe that’s what this post is for :-)

The first thing I wondered was, who was Edward W. Hobbs? A page at the Brighton Toy & Model Museum came to the rescue. You can read about him there, but one thing I should highlight is he published extensively on model building and DIY subjects with 27 known books to his name, and for a time was employed by Bassett-Lowke as their ships and boats expert. From his bibliography it looks like Pictorial House Modelling was one of his earliest works, and he followed up on the subject in 1937 with House Modelling for Builders and Estate Agents, also published by Lockwood.

Although Hobbs’ name is on the cover, inside he notes that Joyce Inall prepared many of the models made specially to illustrate this book. It appears that all the construction photos feature Inall as the hand model performing the steps, although that’s never explicitly stated. So, the book appears to be a collaboration between Hobbs and Inall, even though Inall isn’t credited on either the cover of the original or the reprint. Although I’m glad to see the text does credit her contribution.

Speaking of hand models, I found this rather arty video on Vimeo of Jo Ray enacting a selection of Joyce Inall’s hand positions superimposed over photos from the book. It’s hard to describe what this video is about, so have a look:

Pictorial House Modelling (After Miss Joyce Inall) 2015 (extract) from Jo Ray on Vimeo.

Ok, as for modelling methods, the book shows mainly how to construct small buildings from cardboard. For the simplest models, say those comprised of only four walls, drawing the walls as a continuous strip, and then folding the strip into a structure is recommended, as we saw with Railroad Modeler’s Penny Model features. Surface detailing is for the most part painted or drawn on with little in the way of physical three-dimensional detailing. Although, the few photos of professionally built models do show built-up detail. In general, the book’s construction methods are similar to those presented in the 1920 manual training textbook my grandmother studied from in teacher’s college. 

Regarding scale used in the book, Hobbs states: The novice is counselled to make a start on a model of modest size to a scale of 1/8 in. to one foot, a scale that has been adopted for many of the models illustrated in this book. This works out to approximately 3.175 mm to the foot, which is a little smaller than HO’s 3.5mm to the foot, so the construction methods shown are quite suitable for use in HO scale. HO was invented sometime in the 1920’s, and it wasn’t until later in that decade that it started to become more well known in model railroading, so it’s not surprising to see no mention of HO in the book (I need to look into the details of HO’s development as its 100th anniversary will occur sometime in the 2020s).

Should you buy this book? That depends. If you’re looking for techniques to use, I’d say no because I’d recommend more up-to-date tools and methods, even if you’re going to use cardboard. If you’re interested in the history of making miniature buildings, definitely yes. It’s well written, the instructions are clear, and its presentation method of more-or-less step-by-step photos is surprisingly modern. And it’s good for getting a sense of what were probably thought to be doable methods for home hobbyists, although professional techniques seemed to be more advanced.

Long train runnin' at Meadows, Manitoba

These days I'm looking through YouTube for either model or real railway themed videos that strike me as particularly Canadian. Boomer Dioramas is one, and recently I've been going through Steve Boyko's. There are lots of great videos there, but for some reason I've watched the one above several times. I find these long, double-stacked container trains mesmerizing, especially this one rolling through Manitoba. And on the other end of the length scale, there's this one of the Greater Winnipeg Water District train.

Ground floor detailing

Once I wasn't feeling as fatigued from the vaccine I went back to working on the HQ's ground floor detailing. When all the walls are in place it will be hard to access the ground floor, so I needed to do as much as I could before the other two walls are glued in place.

I added some joist-like strips of styrene to bottom of the second floor to give it some three dimensionality. The strips, which are 3mm wide and 0.030" thick, give the illusion that the floor has some strength, and they do give the model a little more stiffness. 

The light is an LED strip with a couple of leads soldered on.

I drilled a pair of holes in the elevator shaft for feeding the wires out through a hole in the floor.

Every lobby needs some sort of weird abstract art to signal sophistication to those who enter - or maybe just do a favour to a wayward nephew who needs to unload some art school projects from his storage unit :-)

Either way, a old watercolour cast-off was cut up for these pieces, glued to some scraps of 1/8" artist board so the art would stand-off from the wall, and then finally glued to the wall with some Weld Bond.

On the other side I added some vintage workplace safety posters I found on the internet. A notice board, as well as washroom and exit signs, were also printed out and glued to the walls.

I printed the safety posters slightly oversize and mounted them a little higher than normal so they could be seen through the windows.

I'd have to say that this interior is something of a caricature. It's less detailed and not as grimy as a real equivalent would be, but hopefully I've added enough elements to make it pop as 'real' once everything is in place.

To the floor in the truck unloading area I added some rudimentary safety markings, oil leaks, and dirtied the floor a bit. You can also see that some exit signs were added above the lobby doors.

That's about it for the main ground floor elements. I'm going to add some shelves and tables before attaching the other two walls. And I'm debating installing some support columns for the second floor as the open span seems unrealistic, although they'll block views.

 

Straightening out the lumber situation

Paul knew what-was-what on this mystery all along. He correctly reminded me the lumberyard in question was McGee's Lumber Co. that also appeared in E. L. Moore's Jan '67 Model Railroader article, Turn Backward, O Time, along with the Central Warehouse. McGee's predate's Cal's Lumberyard by a good 6 years. I had completely forgotten I had seen McGee's back in 2015 and shot a lot of photos. 

From what little we can see of Mr. Koteles' model it does appear to match McGee's, although it looks like the boiler room has been placed at the other end of the complex. The only mystery left is I now wonder if the name McGee in McGee's Lumber Co. is some obscure reference to an episode in the old radio show, Fibber McGee and Molly? A few of Mr. Moore's projects made reference to popular entertainment of his day. I'm now lumbered with this question :-)

The Whimsical vs The Prototype

I'm quite enjoying the videos over at Boomer Dioramas. Lots of good ones on both technique and philosophy, and it has an easy going vibe. Highly recommended.

Comparing lumberyards

Yesterday Paul commented that William Koteles's lumberyard looked a lot like E. L. Moore's. In the photo the Koteles lumberyard from Apr '70 is on the left, and Moore's from Apr '73 is on the right.

There are similarities in overall size and shape, but also a lot of differences. I couldn't find anything in the E. L. Moore files about whether the Koteles version was an inspiration. All I could find was that Mr. Moore submitted his manuscript, Lumber and Building Supply Plant, on 30 June 1972 for what would be published as Cal's Lumberyard in the Apr '73 MR.

It could be this was a common form for a lumberyard of 1900 vintage, or possibly E. L. Moore used this Koteles version as a starting point? Maybe the Koteles version is a kit, and maybe E. L. Moore started from that? It's another one of those questions that will likely remained unanswered.

[26 Apr 2021 update: The mystery has been solved! See here.]

Was William Koteles's Ice House an E. L. Moore homage?

I've once again been re-reading my way through a stack of Railroad Model Craftsman magazines from the late '60s and early '70s. In the April '70 issue I came across a building construction article by Willam Koteles called An Ice House For Your Reefers. It's an interesting project, but what caught my eye was the lead photograph, which I've shown over there on the left.

Mr. Koteles's ice house - it's that long structure with the big, black cooling unit on top - is sandwiched between what appears to be a few E. L. Moore builds that he's done.

Item A looks a lot like the Grusom Casket Company from the July '67 issue of RMC, item B is a shortened variation on the Central Warehouse that appeared in the January '67 Model Railroader article, Turn backward, O Time, and item C seems to be a lot like a back view of the brick portion of the Cotton Waste Plant that appeared in the June '67 issue of RMC (although I might be reaching on this one). I do admit to thinking that everything is somehow inspired by E. L. Moore, but in this case, the similarities are similar :-)

And if you were wondering, no the primary construction material for the ice house isn't balsa sheets. Mr. Koteles states: I use mainly cardboard reinforced with balsa or stripwood beams.

[26 Apr 2021 update: That building on the far right is indeed an E. L. Moore project. See here.]

The Pietenpol air camper is finished

Over the winter I've been very slowly finishing the Pietenpol Air Camper rubber-band powered flying model by Peck-Polymers. It's taken so long because I've hesitated at every step as each one presented me with challenges I had no experience dealing with. I know there are several issues with my build, and no doubt others I'll find later, but I like the look. 

Monday we got our first vaccination shots, and I've been feeling a bit fatigued for the last couple of days, so I decided to hold off on the next steps on the HQ conversion, and instead finished the last odds-and-ends on the air camper. The prop was installed, and the engine and radiator were added. It balances out ok, and is now waiting for some good weather for a few test glides to check trim. It snowed today, and with the enhanced pandemic restrictions in place, who knows when that will be. But, until then check out these interesting videos about the real thing. First, Ami gives a great tour:

And then there's this one from Grant with a little more history:

In the second video there's this interesting drawing of a lakeside hanger complete with some railway track for getting your float plane into the water. That building would make a great little model. Maybe enhance it with double-doors on the back wall so planes could be put in the hanger from a rail line that extends out to a parking lot, airstrip, or factory. 

Completed the elevator and utilities block

After setting aside the Jimmy project I felt the urge to go back to the 30 Squares HQ conversion. The job I had been putting off was finishing the elevator and utilities block. I was getting all wrapped around the axle about dimensions and fit and was avoiding this step over fears of screwing it all up. This was a clear violation of principles 1 and 3 :-)

The first thing was to build the wall that separates the first floor lobby from the truck unloading area in the back.

The two wall pieces are built up from 3 pieces of 0.020" sheet styrene. The middle layer is the door layer, and each door has a window opening so one can see if you're going to crash into someone when you open the door. 

I must admit this is a dumb way to build this wall. I should have cut the entire upside-down-T shape of the separating wall from a single piece of styrene. And if you're considering this project, it's something to keep in mind. I did what I did because I couldn't decide how many tenants the building should service, or what the ground floor plan should logically be. I just made up the design as I went along as my thoughts on the design changed. I will say this though, using styrene is forgiving if this is one's design approach.

Once the layers were dry, the two walls were glued to each side of the elevator column. I know I should use one of those weight and jig sets for setting this up, but I find some improvisation works just fine.

Although, you'll see some nasty gaps between the wall edges and the elevator because my laminates weren't that square. I later filled those with putty. The important thing at this stage is to make sure the bottom of the walls rest completely on the ground surface.

On the flip side I've added rooms to either end of the elevator block. Let's say they're for washrooms and HVAC equipment. Prototype-wise, they are much smaller than the real things would be, so consider them simply as expressions of things that need to be there.

The room walls are cut from single pieces of 0.040" styrene, and the trim is 0.020" x 0.040" strip stock. When I built up the rooms and glued them to the elevator block, I reinforced the inside corners with strips of 0.060" x 0.060" styrene.

Once all the parts were built up I did a significant amount of test fitting inside the building.

I had to do a few adjustments to make sure everything fit properly and the second floor remained level. I don't have photos of all that fiddly work - although you can see some gaps where the elevator block meets the second floor that had to be trimmed out. I'll just note that if I had designed this properly from the get-go I likely wouldn't have needed to spend so much time on this step.

Once all the adjustments were made it was on to painting and final detailing.

The doorknobs and elevator controls are just painted on.

The clock on the lobby-facing side is an item from Heljan's kit #B120, the same kit that donated the crown decorations for the Art Metropole.

The windows in the lobby doors are smears of Weld Bond glue. It dries clear. 

Well, that's that for now. 

The next step is to install this thing, along with the lighting, second floor, railings, and wall details.

And no, there won't be any motivational posters on the walls :-)

"This is the end of the line Joe McDoakes."

John sent this little gem from 1955 my way. Come for the colourization, stay for the dialogue.

"You almost stepped on my caboose!"

"Oh well get your caboose off the floor will ya and go to work."

"I got loads of time, loads of time."

Recently Updated: Fixing up the master index of E. L. Moore posts

There are a number of tasks that need to be done to start preparing the E. L. Moore book. I decided to get going with some housekeeping and began updating the master index to all the E. L. Moore related posts. The last time that was done was 3 March 2019, and even though I've made a lot of posts on E. L. Moore since then, I've let the index go to seed. So far, I've straightened out some of the index's formatting issues, and updated the entries to the end of 2019. I can see there's a lot more indexing work to be done, although tedious this will help me review the material, and should be useful in putting together a first draft of the book's table of contents.

Scrap-building

Archie's garage built from styrene scraps & leftover mouldings

Scrap-building: Scale modelling with common household materials that would normally be put in the garbage.

Usage: Gluing together Archie's garage was a pleasant evening of scrap-building.

Source: A term attributed to Kaustav Chatterjee in the March / April 2015 issue of N-Scale Magazine article, Scrap-Building: Container Handler / Gantry Crane, by Mouli and Kaustav Chatterjee:

Except for a few, all structures on this layout are scratch-built, or 'scrap-built' as Kaustav likes to call them, because all of these structures are built primarily with various types of cardboard and other household materials that generally would find their way to the waste paper bin.

Scrap-building is not synonymous with scratch-building because scrap specifically refers to the main type of materials used, and scratch suggests any 'raw' material could be used. Although, scrap-building and scratch-building both imply the model in question is not being built from kits. 

Scrap-building is a modern term that harkens back to the venerable history of making miniature buildings and structures from cast-off materials. The L. T. Gieringer quote from 1938 presented in Yard [archaic] lists some of the common materials he used to build structures in the days before specialized hobby materials were available. The times change, and what constitutes common household materials does too, but their use to build models continues on.

from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 3rd ed., 2019.

Bad vibe leads to a good one

I don't sleep much at night, but there's an upside. A couple of nights ago I realized I should try and bundle up all the E. L. Moore posts into a book. That thought gave me a pleasant sense of rightness, whereas you may recall I had recently experienced its opposite.

A few years ago I thought the article I posted to Wikipedia would be enough*. Although it's fine at covering the basics, it doesn't really address Mr. Moore's full legacy in model railroading and his connection to American folk art.

I also thought the blog would be able to tell the fuller story that Wikipedia couldn't. My sense is it doesn't because of its posting-based structure. People cherry-pick what immediately interests them, which is fine, but the bigger picture gets lost. A book would allow for the information to be structured as I think is proper, but haven't been able to do at the blog.

In the past I was hung up on producing a definitive E. L. Moore compendium that included all his articles, along with my posts, analysis, and photos, in one huge volume. That proved to be impossible given all the copyright issues. However, I have enough of my own material here at the blog that I think would do justice to E. L. Moore's story and legacy.

I'm not yet fully committed to the project and will take some small steps to check feasibility. I think I'll create some sample chapters from material I have here, build a table of contents, and see where that takes me. 

This won't be a moneymaker and I'll probably be lucky if I cover costs. I'm thinking a self-published ebook along with a print-on-demand option. That way if Google pulls the plug on Blogger, at least the E. L. Moore story will be out in the world. And, more importantly, what I think is the full story on E. L. Moore's legacy will be properly documented.

*I'm somewhat disappointed with the Wikipedia articles on 'famous' model railroaders. If I didn't know otherwise, from most of them I'd find it hard to understand why what those people have done is so significant. Lots of tv shows and fictional characters have better entries! On the one hand I could go in there and wrestle them all into shape, and add a few more bios, but that seems like a waste of time. I'd rather get E. L. Moore's story straight as well telling about the tradition he comes from, where he fits in, and where it might lead. 

Backing away from the wall

It's been decades since I've felt like throwing a kit against a wall and walking away, but I felt it just the other day with the AMT GMC Jimmy project. As therapy goes, that's not the best result - maybe I should have tried Primal Scream :-) I guess the kit isn't so bad, it just seems like it's been a lot of niggling little things that came to a head when the wheels refused to slide on the metal axles because either the axle diameter was too big or the holes in the wheels were too small. After calming down I drilled out the wheels and pushed in the axles as far as they'd go, but they still didn't go in all the way. I left it at that.

I spray painted the body last week, and although it went on nice and even, after drying it appears that some body panels dried flat and others glossy. I don't know why. I'm thinking this thing is going to be parked for awhile and I'm going to return to the HQ conversion.

Construction diorama in a custom boardroom table

Donna alerted me to this amazing custom 15 foot boardroom table made from two live-edge slabs of walnut with a large construction diorama in the middle. One can easily imagine a similar table with a model railroad in the middle. The video is a bit long, but the entire build is shown, so it's worthwhile watching.

Lab results

Lost Ocean Line's track plan

With all the unusually good weather we’ve been experiencing this week I’ve had no motivation for modelling. Although, I’ve been dabbling in the lab :-)

I view Instagram as something of a lab where I undertake experiments. Some are me just trying to learn the things that Instagram can do, like figuring out how to create multiple image posts. Right now I’m trying to figure out how to post video clips. Other posts are meant as probes to see what people are interested in; others are just me archiving what I think are interesting pictures. So I try posting what I think are different types of photos to see if anything clicks.

Most posts these days get a fairly ho-hum response when it comes to likes, and most garner around 20 to 30 give or take a few. There’ve been a couple of outliers that have clocked in around 2.5x the usual number of likes. The post of Mels Diner at night on the old Lost Ocean Line Layout was one of those. 

The biggest surprise though was the photo of the Lost Ocean Line’s track plan. One day I realized I hadn’t posted any overview photos of the old LOL layout, so I posted one. It turned out to be one of the outliers in likes, and someone posted a comment saying they’d like to see the track plan. I soon discovered I really didn’t have a photo that properly showed the track plan, but I did have one that sort of showed it - it’s the lead-in one to this blog post. That photo turned out to get around 14x more likes than usual and continues to receive a steady trickle even now. The likes on most posts die out within 24 hours. 

The results of the LOL track plan experiment were quite surprising. Later I posted some track plan shots of other layouts, but no dice with those even as the LOL photo keeps generating a trickle of likes. Maybe the LOL track plan photo attracted an unusual amount of spam? Didn’t seem like it. Maybe people were just tickled by the layout's name and nothing more. Anyway, here at the 30Squares Media Empire we’re continuing discussions about that unusual lab result. Thoughts?

Streetcar on the highway

The weather was nice today so we went out for a long drive in our rolling, socially distanced metal box. We saw that streetcar rig pulled over on the shoulder of the westbound lane. I did a uey and pulled off on the shoulder of the eastbound lane to have a look. It looked like an Alstom Citadis Spirit. I don't know where it was headed other than west. 

Selective Compression [alternate]

Selective Compression: [alternate] The placement of uncompressed objects into a compressed landscape to create the illusion of great distance in a small area.

Usage: I used selective compression to model the scene along Ocean Boulevard.

Source: John Ostler proposes this alternative definition in his article, In defense of freelancing, that appeared in the December 2002 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. Mr Ostler states:

Selective compression is mentioned frequently by model railroad writers; however, it is rarely defined. Here is my definition for it: selective compression is the placement of uncompressed objects into a compressed landscape to create the illusion of great distance in a small area. This definition is different from the usual one, as you can see.

The usual definition is something like this: a technique to remove redundant visual and spatial elements from a building to distill it down in size to just the features that make it useful on a layout [refer to the main entry on Selective Compression for a fuller explanation].

from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 3rd ed., 2019.

Yard [archaic]

Yard: [archaic] A layout-like display that may or may not include a model train.

Usage: My yard includes a model of the town where I grew-up.

Source: ‘Yard’ is an archaic word that predates electric model railroad layouts, but whose roots are not yet well established. Adolph F. Frank, in his 1981 book, Animated Scale Models Handbook, implies that ‘yard’ might derive from the term ‘Christmas tree yard’:

When I was a small boy, it was customary for families to have a "Putz" or Nativity scene as part of their Christmas decorations, which were usually found under the Christmas tree. Many of these families were descendants of old European craftsmen who made ornate and elaborate displays. I'm speaking of a time in our industrial history when a large portion of the labor force was extremely skilled with their hands. They were artistic types - machinists, pattern makers, finish carpenters and other artisans - who being fine craftsmen, seemed to delight in outdoing one another in making these displays. As a result, the Nativity scene slowly became just one part of a much larger display, commonly called the Christmas tree yard. In this yard was found anything from a model of the family home to a model of the entire village in which they lived.

As I grew older, in the late '20s and early '30s, the electric train came into prominence and was added to the display or yard. Automobile dealers took their entire display rooms and built large villages with waterfalls, as well as working trains and automobiles. I was immensely intrigued by these elaborate displays.

Mr. Frank might be the Adolph F. Frank who was born in Pennsylvania in 1918, and enlisted in the US Army on 15 Oct 1942, and if so, the dates stated in the quote, along with the date of birth and enlistment, suggest the term ‘yard’ was in use in the 1920s, and maybe the 1910s. Further research and citations are required.

Laurence T. Gieringer in his article 35-Year Old Model City, that appeared in the January / February 1938 issue of Lionel’s The Model Builder, uses ‘yard’ in a casual manner which suggests it might have been a well-known term to the magazine’s readers, although since it’s bracketed by ‘’ it might have been verging on archaic by that time:

“Ninety percent of the material that has gone into my little ‘yard’ has been discarded by someone and includes old tin cans, worn-out sunscreens, old bed sheets, old doors, cheese boxes and cigar boxes,” Gieringer explained.

Mr. Frank concludes his book by noting that by 1981 a model train is more-or-less a given for any layout:

Undoubtedly, you have noticed that I have not discussed the field of model railroading. I did this on purpose, for there have been volumes written on the subject, and anything I could write would be anticlimactic. There is, however, one thing certain: no layout or display would be complete without a model train.

from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 2nd ed., 1999.

Laurence Gieringer’s unacknowledged articles?

MB Mar/Apr '38; He could have been me had I been born earlier

I was wandering through some back issues of Lionel’s The Model Builder magazine, and in the January / February 1938 issue I came across this statement in an article called Contest Winners, which obviously was an announcement of who won a recent model building contest sponsored by the magazine:

Second prize was awarded to Laurence T. Gieringer of 340 North Ninth street, Reading, Pennsylvania. Pictures of the second prize winning railroad, and of the business street for which the award was made, are shown on another page in this issue.

Where was that page? I think they are actually referring to two articles in that issue. The first is 35-Year Old Model City, which has an interview with Mr. Gieringer, discusses his railroad (which was later to be known as the famous Roadside America), and presents many pictures of his work. In my earlier post about Mr. Gieringer and Roadside America I listed this article as being written by him, but it may have been written by a magazine staffer as no author is listed in either the table of contents or article.

The second article, which I think is the page referred to in the phrase, the business street for which the award was made, is Building A Model City. Again, no author byline is attached, and to make matters more mysterious, there’s no mention of Mr. Gieringer in the story. Although, the article is the beginning of a series about modelling buildings along a business street, and the models and techniques look like Mr. Gieringer’s. And then there’s the similarity in titles between the two articles. And then there’s the materials: they’re in the folk tradition, and consistent with Mr. Gieringer’s approach:

The materials, with the exception of a sheet of Masonite, are to be picked up around the house or office. They are cardboard of various thicknesses, a cigar box or two, sides and end of an apple box, common iron wire, a 1” plant [sic] [JDL: I think they meant ‘plank’] of white pine, cypress or other soft wood, some scraps of cellophane, tracing paper and few green bottters [sic] [JDL: from the article’s text it looks like they meant ‘blotters’].

I’m going to speculate that that article, as well as the others in the series, was either written by Mr. Gieringer, or ghost written about his work by a staffer at the magazine. The article states what’s in the series:

Buildings to be pictured and described in this series will include 

 a corner drug store; 

 stone cathedral; 

 bank and office building; 

 apartment hotel;

 movie theatre with roof tanks and air conditioning apparatus; 

 hat store with upper floors given over to a ladies’ ready-to-wear shop and an artist’s loft studio; 

 a building housing a double store with modern, recessed show windows and a gas station.

Building A Model City covers the corner drug store project. Here’s where the others were published - well, at least the ones that I can verify so far:

1938

Jan / Feb: Building a Model City (describes how to build a corner drug store)

Mar / Apr: Model Stone Church

May / Jun: Bank Building for the Model City

Jul / Aug: Miniature Apartment Hotel

Oct:       Constructing a Model Theatre

I haven’t yet found either the hat store (although I see a picture of it in the Constructing a Model Theatre article) or the double store with gas station, but this table of contents entry, Three Stores Under One Roof, in the Nov / Dec 1938 issue looks promising. The problem is the article itself appears to be missing from the archive - the archive’s maintainers inform me that the pages are missing because they were damaged or missing from the original they scanned. 

I’ll update the list when I find out more; however, I think it’s clear that we’re seeing a number of classic Laurence Gieringer projects that possibly haven’t been identified as such. And what if they weren’t by him? They’re still a fascinating look into model construction techniques circa the late 1930s built before the introduction of widely available specialized model making materials.