Pasadena Train Station Model - Part 1

The previous exercise was a prototype; something to practice on and get ready for the real model.

The final base is an Ampersand gessoe'd hardboard panel onto which I sprayed a few coats of RustOleum grey primer. The primer left a nice rough texture that I will eventually add hardscape lines and landscape areas to. I cut out a profile board of the floor plan and attached it to the baseboard with carpenter's glue. 

My new method for the walls consists of transferring the elevations to the board by means of a scratch awl - putting tiny pricks through the drawing at the corners and then drawing the plan onto cold press illustration board with an 0.5mm pencil. I then added a light wash of raw sienna to warm up the wall color and to give it some texture. After that had dried I painted the window and door areas with colbalt turquoise light and finished with a dark mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt umber to suggest windows. I will add some finishing touches with pastel after the model is complete.

The walls were glued to the base and the roof was added, which I made by ruling parallel lines 1/16" apart and doing a wash of burnt sienna and cadmium red. I added a little off-white pastel to the roof and sprayed some workable fixative to deaden the brightness and to look more like a tile roof.

My goal in this exercise is not to do a typical model railroad building that is indistinguishable from the real thing, but rather to build a scale model much like an architect would to present his concept to a client. I am also fascinated by British railway modelers who make beautiful structure models out of card stock.