Bookmarking old school style

I was browsing the Audels guides some more and came across that Loblaw's receipt* stuck between pages 218 and 219 in the discussion on inserted tooth circular saw blades. 

This particular Loblaw's was located at 1877 Eglinton Ave. W.. I wondered if it was still there?

1877 Eglinton Ave. W. sourced from Google Street Views

No. Today it's Dynevor Furniture & Appliances, and the internet tells me it has been there for at least 50 or so years. So, the Loblaws has been gone for a long time and that receipt is ancient.

The small Loblaws stores which were common in the '30s to '50s seemed to have a common look to them. If you remove the Dynevor signage from the building, and then compare the de-signed structure to the next photo of the Loblaw's at Bathurst and Glencairn in the '50s you can see that the basic features are similar.

Loblaw's at Bathhurst & Glencairn in the 1950s (City of Toronto Archives)

My father worked at a Loblaw's in the '40s, and I thought it was the Bathurst and Glencairn location, but it could have been that Eglinton Ave W. one as they were both fairly close to his house. Clearly some investigation is required.

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*The receipt is printed on paper that is surprisingly heavy weight and feels almost like cardboard.

An air sign?

I'm informed that this sign says, "Meet your float plane here." 

Open shore

That white line is raw fascia after grinding off the resin dam edge

I ground off the upper resin dam edge on the fascia since I've decided to create the 'water' with paint and gloss medium. In the past I've had my problems with resin water: bubbles forming, drying time, dust, and leaks. In the spirit of experimentation, this project seemed like the one to give the other method a try. The bonus is that removing the edge opens up the feel of the layout whereas before I had this sense of the scene being closed. It's hard to explain, but the resin edge seemed to block engagement with what was going on. Here's to jumping into the deep end :-)

Some pine tree armatures

Five pines in different construction stages

It seemed like a good time to take a picture of the pine tree armatures since they are now in different stages of construction.

The one on the far left consists of 4 lengths of 16 gauge green stem wire (bought at Michaels) wrapped with 22 gauge floral wire. The loops are the branches before they have been cut open and trimmed to size. The spray of branches at the top of the trunk are loops of 26 gauge wire that have been inserted between the four trunk wires. Once the tree has been wrapped, the trunk is painted with 2 coats of white glue to solidify the structure. 'Solidify' is sort of a relative term. When the glue's dry the trunk can still be bent a little to do a bit more shaping. 

Those two on the far right are trunks in the next stage of construction: the wire loops have been cut open with a pair of side-cutters, fanned around the trunk, and then the newly formed branches have been trimmed to make the tree 'look right'. At this stage I sometimes completely cut off some branches. One might think that's wasteful, but I like to wind on too many loops so when it comes to shaping I have lots of options. Real wild pines often have many broken branches, so cutting some off doesn't degrade the look. I should note that trimming and shaping usually doesn't end at this stage, and I often continue it throughout the entire build.

The two trees in the centre have had their trunks coated with a fine sand and white glue mix to give a bark-like look. Usually two coats are needed to make the wire wrapping on the trunk disappear. Once dry, the trunks are painted. On these trees I tried to paint the bark a greyer colour than I did with the cedars by first applying a light grey mixed from some acrylics, and then overcoating with a light brown wash. They're still somewhat too brown. Well, I continue to experiment :-)

Teased Woodland Scenics Poly Fiber lightly sprayed with brown latex paint

Those centre trees are ready for the foliage base. I use Woodland Scenics Poly Fiber that has been teased out to thin it, and then lightly spray on some brown paint to give some colour variation. Ok, well, my coffee needs a warmup, so I better get back to the forest and throw a log on the fire :-)

Proving grounds gets a sign

The shed gets a new sign just so you know you've come to the right place.