Lessons from photo staging

I learn a lot about layout improvements when I stage photos. Yesterday being Boxing Day, I got to thinking about Toronto Boxing Day sales in the '70s and '80s, especially at A&A and Sam the Record Man. Given that I have an A&A model, the die was cast, so I took some photos of the lineup outside HO A&A's on Ocean Boulevard and posted one to Instagram. 

Setting things up made it quite clear that I don't have any figures dressed in cold weather clothes, and that my figure collection skews towards older people. When I sorted out the figures I did have, I found a few that wore some sort of cool weather clothing, but I didn't really have enough to stage a proper Boxing Day lineup, so the lineup is a bit sparse. And the street looks a little too barren. It needs things like fire hydrants, newspaper boxes, trash cans and so on. So, lots of improvements to make in the year ahead.

The lighting's not quite right in this one, but the bigger problem is the gigantic camera lens reflected in the window ! With so many 'glass' surfaces on these city buildings, checking for stray reflections requires constant vigilance :-) I like the framing along the bottom provided by the two parked cars and the guy leaning against the fender, but the rest needs improvement. 

I found this one in my files from back in the fall soon after the Mortimer Park overhead was installed. This picture also looks a bit barren, but I do like the feeling of depth and openness. Also, I'm going to build some moveable background flats made from foamboard with photos of high-rises stuck on to provide some view blocking to the background - things should then not look like the edge of the world is just behind some model :-)

A&A ghost sign

The A&A model has a ghost sign - ok, it's not that ghosty - on its back wall. It's non-prototypical; it's simply an homage to an earlier version of the A&A sign than the one I used on the facade.

The ghost sign is an online image, cropped and sized to fit the back wall, converted to black-and-white, and then printed on a piece of clear decal film with my inkjet printer. To set the image, I sprayed it with several thin layers of Testor's Dullcote.

I thought that such a large decal would be a problem to apply, but it went on rather easily. 

A day or so before decaling I primed the wall by brush painting it with acrylic floor polish so that I had a smooth surface to work with. Immediately before applying the decal, I brushed Microset on the wall while the decal was soaking, and after applying the decal, brushed more Microset on top of it. After a minute or two I carefully pushed the decal into the wall's blocks with a paper towel. The decal didn't tear, and conformed quite nicely to the wall's texture.

When viewed from a distance, the sign has an interesting 3-D effect which makes me glad it was added. I sometimes forget that my modelling isn't for a museum or mass market attraction, but has to be faithful to my memory or feeling for a place, not necessarily verifiably prototypical. Things like this help make a model an interesting object in its own right that puts me back on the right track.  

A&A Boxing Day Blowout!

One day only! Deals, deals, deals! A&A's got 'em!

Since the time machine is set to 1982, let's head home with Toronto's legendary Spitfire Band.

Interior for A&A's

There are 3 parts remaining to build on A&A's facade: the interior, the 'A&A Records & Tapes' sign, and the main A&A sign. I've been spending some time thinking about the assembly sequence, as a wrong sequence will make it rather difficult to install later parts. Although I'd like to tackle the main A&A sign first, it turns out the sequence must be from the bottom up, much like the real thing.

I wasn't after a highly detailed interior, just one that would give the impression of activity when viewed from street-level. To keep the interior low-key, I tried as best I could to colour all the inside elements in black, white, and grey. Except of course for the record bins that I removed from Stella's. I repainted them in grey, and sloshed some white wash on the records to tone them down a bit. The little bit of remaining record colour through the front windows livens things up some.

The image on the back wall is pieced together from a number of pictures found from an internet search on words like 'record store interior'. None of those images are from A&A.

The next job is to build a light box for the interior. Unlike the signs, I plan to use incandescent bulbs for light instead of LEDs so I can get a more low-key, atmospheric light.

A&A sign's lightbox

I took a little break from workshop reorganization to add the lights to the A&A sign's lightbox.

The LED strips were cut from a large roll I bought a few years back that are meant for under-counter lighting. They're 12V, and the strip has printed on marks where you can cut off mini-strips.

I know this sounds boring, but I cranked up the new workbench to full height and tried soldering the lights together while standing up as I would if I were soldering something on the layout. Maybe it's just confirmation bias on my part, but I felt it was easier to solder with more accuracy and control while standing in comparison to sitting down. 

In the picture the LEDs are powered with a 9V battery to confirm that they work.

First attempt at a sign for A&A's

It was surprisingly difficult to find what I thought might be suitable colours for A&A's main sign. I finally settled on some Tamyia red and orange in spray cans.

I sprayed the backs of the sign pieces with appropriate colours, but the application turned out a bit mottled - even after some test pieces suggested the paint would go on clean and smooth. Clearly, I didn't properly clean the surfaces.

Also, there was some overspray on the front surface - which I wanted to remain paint-free and glossy - where I didn't fully seal the masking tape. 

Basically, I need to cut 2 new pieces and try again.

A&A Records gets entrance doors

I spent some time finishing the main entrance by adding doors and associated windows. This area is all freelance guessing from photos, and is only slightly prototypical - although, it doesn't look all that bad. There's a slight twist in the doorway, but I should be able to work that out.

Right now I'm pondering the colours for the main sign. Surprisingly, they're a little tough to work out as they appear slightly different in various lighting conditions. 

A&A Box

I decided to go ahead and build up the A&A building.

Note: There's nothing prototypical about the side and back walls. What follows is pure fantasy.

The sides are cut from 0.060" styrene and faced with styrene brick paneling.

The back is also cut from 0.060" styrene, but it's faced with a too large O-scale block styrene panel that I had in my supplies box.

That door unit is from Walthers' Bralick building kit that I had left over from Mr. Scott's.

That big, open expanse of blocks is going to be covered with a black and white ghost image of the A&A sign circa 1975 or so. That's a paper print that I've made to check for size, but I'll use it to make a decal.

I'm not sure what I'll do next, maybe finish the entry area on the front facade. Maybe I'll do nothing because the weather here has taken a turn for the great, and this might be the last bit of summer :-)

A&A facade framework

The skeleton for A&A's facade is more or less done. It's cut from 0.040 inch styrene and skeletal is the key word here. There wasn't much left after I cut out the openings for the windows and lightboxes.

The corrugated signboard is also 0.040 inch, so when it was glued to the skeleton it firmed up the structure quite a bit.

I think the frames for the signs will be the next step, or maybe the frame for the entrance.

A&A sign board

I had some corrugated sheet plastic left over from the WBB project and used it for the A&A sign board that the letters will attach to.

The plan is to place a light box behind the letters that'll shine through the opening in the sign board and light up the letters. I cut the opening with a 5mm border, but after thinking a little more about this structure I'm going to cut it back to 1mm. I think that'll be sufficient for getting the letters and their supporting structure securely attached.

Letters for A&A Records

I did a bit of work on cutting the basic shapes for the A&A sign from clear plastic.

First, the two pieces were cut from the drawing, which was done on a sheet of Bristol board, and then used as tracing templates. Once the shapes were traced on the plastic with a fine-point Sharpie pen, they were carefully cut out. 

The first attempt on the inner piece caused a nasty crack to develop while cutting the base on the left A, so it was scrapped, and a second was made - good thing I used a template to make drawing shapes easy. These pieces need a lot of cleanup, but it's not too bad a start.

A&A façade drawing

I dropped by the drawing board and drew out A&A's facade. I like to do these things with traditional drafting tools instead of software because I feel pencils and rulers help me better understand a project. 

A&A's façade underwent a number of stylistic changes over the years. I've chosen one that I think dates to the early '80s. Also, I think this version will give the most impressive night photos.

Dimension-wise, this model's façade is working out to be about 50' tall and 43.5' wide. And you can see that the main signs will take up about 2/3 of that area.

I'm thinking about being more ambitious with this project. That photo over on the right is sourced from Wikipedia, and it tells me that version of the façade dates from around 1975. The ambitious part is I'm wondering if this façade could be put on the back of the building. Basically, the model would have two façades - think of it as if it were a record with an A and B side - and you'd just flip it around to the side you want to see. Although, that is one complicated façade they had back in '75! I'll have to see how I feel once the main façade is built, and then I'll decide about adding one on the back.

A&A's on the drawing board

I've set the Natural History Museum aside for awhile now that main construction is over. I'm going to leave the roof and interior detailing for whenever it's time to place the building on the layout. 

I've been hearing A&A Records call me and I can't resist. Last summer about this time I made a cardboard mockup in HO, and now, a year later, I want to try and build up the facade. From the internet I found a photo and have worked on adjusting it to be close to HO by comparing figures that are near the front windows with some in HO scale. Right now I'm working on creating a scaled drawing and figuring out how to build the various components.

I pulled Stella's from the shelf to reminisce and figure out what remains to finish it - I've had high hopes for this, but it's never set my imagination on fire. Those are the record bins and cash desk. I've added some posters and indexing since I last worked on them. Maybe I'll get the urge to add records, or maybe I'll just listen to Sheryl Crow :-)

A&A mockup

I'm fiddling around with ideas for scenes and buildings on the Alta Vista TC. One of my bucket-list builds is A&A's Yonge Street store, which was demolished many years ago. I found quite a number of pictures online, and even one that seems to be suitable for use as a template for the facade.

I sliced the facade from the larger image, and fiddled with the size until some HO figures were just about the same size of the silhouetted figures on the sidewalk. I'll use the b&w image for creating the parts - although a number of the shapes will need to be straightened up - and I printed a colour version for a mockup to see how it might look on the layout and get an idea of its size. It's a little bigger than the prototype, but it looks about right, and the little extra height will increase its presence.