Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers - N Scale

[Arlaghan]

I guess it's that time again... time to start up a new project! At first I considered doing a mini-mall with a main store like a Best Buy in the center... but doing a little research I realized that it would take quite a lot of space... It would fit, but I don't want it to be the focal point of my module, so instead, a little burger joint that gave me two years of employment when I was a young'un.

Well, let's start things off with a picture of the prototype. I'm pretty much going to based it on this Wendy's, but I've already had to make some changes to fit the building within it's alloted space of 8" x 10". This will likely be alongside the gas station.

 

[Arlaghan]

What I've got so far:

The pieces you see on the larger mat are some of the walls with windows/doors cut out. The odd shaped piece you see on the little mat is going to serve as a ceiling frame to hold the wall pieces together. Note the odd shape of the structure. This is a technique I developed with the Chevron that allows me to build the structure as a removable piece from it's base, at the same time allows me to have a removable roof as well.

Well, this is all I've got for tonight, I wanted to start this thread so I could document my progress as it occurs, to get a more accurate idea of how long it takes me to do things.

 

[Arlaghan]

Thanks Greg, that's a cool story! I just hopped the train didn't block any crossings like that Dunkin' Donuts story on the CSX!

Well, here's a little more progress before I call it a night. Got some walls up, showing how the frame piece fits into the scheme of things. A thin posterboard ceiling will be glued to the underside of this, with openings cut out for the ceiling panel lights that are typical to this buildings. The roof will have the fixtures holding the LEDs and the wiring will likely pass down somewhere near the back so it's out of sight. I plan to populate this with lots of little LPB's (hence the painting LPB thread) so I think this interior shot should be pretty neat. Let's hope, anyway!

 

[Arlaghan]

Thanks guys. It's coming along slowly, but surely, now that the research/designing phases are over.

Dash, I remember every Sunday before the store opened scrubbing the drive-thru with bleach... the oil stain right below the window was... let's say somewhat permanent. (I have to remember to do this to the gas station as well.)

Here's the outside part almost finished and ready for sanding then priming. I use regular cheap flat white spray paint for this. If you get a good enough coat on there, the glue joints tend to "merge" a little bit more. Sanding the corners also helps. The prototype has two drive-thru windows, but the one I worked at as a teen had only one, and in the interest of space, I shortened it.

 

[Arlaghan]

A little bit of progress...

The removable roof section is created. Obviously, there will be thingies put on here later on (as soon as I figure out what they are) but it does help to keep the corners square. I've also promed the building white. It helps keep the illustration board from coming apart and also smooths out some of the edges.

 

[Arlaghan]

Originally posted by belg
Alex how did you cut the roof to fit so tight turning the building over and tracing?

I take the measurements of what it would be as a square or rectangle and cut that out first. Then I cut out the odd shapes that are missing here and there. Once I've got the exact outline, I then start to test fit it and see where it rubs against the structure... I sand those areas with an emory board (the type for finger nails filing). It's tedious work, but the roof is really the only piece that needs to be so precise.

 

[Arlaghan]

Made a little bit of progress today. I thought that if I wrote down a list of tasks to accomplish, I would be able to skip the "thinking" step that seems to drain so much of my time and make leaps and bounds in my progress - I was wrong. Oh well, at least there's no guessing as I go along.

In this photo, you see the simulated ceiling tile. Basically, it's just a piece of posterboard with holes cut out, painted an ivory color, then lines drawn over it with a black fine point Sharpie. There is a layer of thin tranlucent tracing paper glued to the backside. This helps disperse the light evenly, even with as little as a single LED.

 

[Arlaghan]

In this picture, you can see that "attic crawlspace." It's 5/16" of room between the ceiling and the removable roof piece. This should be adequate space for whatever set-up I decide to go with in placing the lights and wiring.

 

[Arlaghan]

Thanks folks. Val, I tried the embossing trick, but the bricks are so small that you can't tell it apart from one that's not embossed. (I did this on some scrap pieces.) At any rate, it's more work than I care to do so I'm just putting the bricks on straight from the printer.

I first gave the brick print out a healthy dose of fixative, then I cut it into 33mm strips (the height of the building). I measure a piece I am going to put, then hold it in place with a piece of cardstock while I trace any openings from the backside. When I cut them out, I make sure to account for the thickness of the pencil and the tracing. Here is a sample of the results. Is this starting to look like a Wendy's?

 

[Arlaghan]

Originally posted by ezdays
That is really impressive. Can't wait to see if you can build a working Frosty machine though....

Actually I can! You see, every night, they empty out the frosty goop and store it in the walk-in fridge for tomorrow. Then they run sanitizer through the machine a couple times until it's thoroughly clean, then they disassemble the Frosty Machines and send them to the guy in the back on dish duty. Once all nice and shiny clean, they get put into the reservoir on the machine until morning when the cashier assembles it, loads the frosty goop back in, and turns the machine on. Since I've worked every position, I am pretty qualified.

(You never said a working N scale one )

 

[Arlaghan]

You guys sure can down a lot of food!

Made a bit more progress. Did a lot of this during the chats tonight, but it went a lot quicker when I left to concentrate fully on this. How goes the spackling, Val?

The "brick veneers" are all glued in place. I'm ready to start detailing the exterior. This phase of the project was really enjoyable, as the building seemed to make leaps and bounds in progress with minor effort put in - this part was kind of relaxing and easy going.

 

[Arlaghan]

MarkB, I straightened out the wall on one of my research photos, then took a section of 2 bricks and tiled them endlessly to the size I needed, and the printed them out.

Dash10, the fixative I have is 10 years old! I doubt it's around today in this brand, but it's called Patricia Nimrocks Clear Acrylic Sealer MATTE. I imagine it's the same stuff that we know as "dullcote." It's purpose is to spray on charcoal or pencil drawings one they are done to protect from smudging, hence "fixing" them permanently.

 

[Arlaghan]

OK, made a little bit of progress. These stripes were so tedious! And to think I still have a couple more to do. Well, I haven't posted any progress on this lately, so I thought I would start with this.

 

[Arlaghan]

Val, I think I have gotten better at "striping". At any rate, it's not as tedious as it was before. I just make longer pieces!

Ron, I got lucky with that, all I did was start with white, then add brown until it was "close enough". I matched it on the screen and it looked ok to me, but when I checked other photos, it looked a little off. Oh well. The "Good Enough" rule applies here.

Started working on the faux roof that is trademark to Wendy's. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It's just built up stuff of cardstock, posterboard, and paper.

 

[Arlaghan]

Oops! Didn't see the questions/new posts... sorry I didn't respond. I started a new job this week and have a bunch of other activities going on that I just haven't had much time to spend on this project.

Mojo pretty much nailed the reason I use fixative. It's sprayed on the paper to coat it with a protective finish. As an added bonus, it gives the bricks a glossy sheen that make them look painted, which in this case, they are.

My new job is in downtown, and there's a Wendy's near by that I noticed has the "swoopy" roof line all the way around, not just around the dining area like this one does. Also, they have less ground space, so a lot of stuff is on the roof! Parking there is rather tight, too.

Charlie, to answer your question: I did study Architecture, but I never finished it. I've got an associates degree only. If my "5-year plan" falls into place, I might go back and finish it.

 

[Arlaghan]

Hey guys, yep... work on this has pretty much halted since I started my job. I've got nothing planned for tomorrow, so hopefully I can work on this a little to get the momentum going. (Usually that's all it takes to get going at full speed...)

I use the fixative just as a means to "harden" the paper a bit. It gives it a certain stiffness that helps it keep it's edges and keeps the graphics from rubbing off from excessive handling (which is inevitable when working on a model - as you turn it this way and that way to examine it from different angles).

It hadn't occurred to me to use hairspray. I'm only using this fixative because I happened to have some left overs that is almost 10 years old! It dates back to when I was in college! The can is almost full!

 

[Arlaghan]

Ok, as promised, I did work a little bit on the Wendy's today. I wanted it to have a back-lit sign so I had to think up a way to do it as small as possible. Here's what I came up with:

First I printed out the wendy's logo on some paper twice... one in full color, and another in black and white (leaving the color parts out). I glued these two together using spray adhesive so that the black becomes more solid. I sprayed it heavily with fixative to give it some strength. (This was actually done months ago... I just finally got around to using them!)

Next, I took some wood and made a small frame around the perimeter of the sign. Rather than make an encasement (as I did for the Chevron) I opted to glue the wood directly to the sign. I had to carve out some odd shapes to accomodate the stripes around the top of the building. Once this was made, I painted it black.

Once I had this completed, I transfered the size and shape of it to the building and cut out the opening. This was very much a pain as I had to be careful when handling the model but apply strength because the cardstock is rather thick! The final step was gluing it to the building.

In the last picture, you see what it looks like lit up from behind using 2 small white LEDs. I held them in place with my hand while taking the picture - they will be secured a little better when the model is complete. Anyway, that's all I got for now!

 

[Arlaghan]

A small update...

Progress is kind of slow-going, but I'm glad to have picked it back up again! I've finished the swoopy roof bit around the front of the building. Next on the to-do list is finish the stripes around the roofline and then add doors and windows. Then it's on to the interior.

 

[Arlaghan]

Thanks everyone. It's a fun project to work on, and as always, it's a learning experience and an experiment at the same time.

How did you do the curved roof valences Alex? They look so nice and uniform. Fred

The "swoopy" bits (thanks to Shaywen for that term!) are made out of posterboard. Basically, a thick strip (the red one in the picture of the backlit sign) is glued to the building - it protrudes about 1/16". Then, the posterboard is cut and is curved to fit against the building at the top and across the red strip at the bottom. If you keep a constant radius on the curvature, then you are assured uniformity. The vertical stripes are simply made from thinly sliced paper and are spaced out at 1/8".

One trick I do to keep things neat is I paint things before I assemble them. In the case of the strips, I cut them from paper or posterboard and paint them. Then I cut as long a piece as needed and glue. It's a lot easier to touch up some paint than to paint the entire piece once it's glued in place. Sometimes it adds an extra degree of difficulty, as you have to really plan all the colors and stuff ahead, but I think that the challenge is part of the joy of scratch-building!

 

[Arlaghan]

The building's made of illustration board - it's a kind of cardstock you can get at Office Depot. The bricks is just a graphic that I printed out on paper and using spray adhesive, attached it to the walls. I took a picture of the wall and straightened it out in Photoshop. Then I repeated it over and over and printed out a sizeable sheet of it.