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I originally went on E-bay to find the small Barber Shop kit that Chris Brimley built. When I noticed Willmodels had a couple of other kits I felt compelled to buy them as well. Although the kit is similar to some of the DPM resin kits, there are some differences & enough that made me want to purchase & construct the 2 story hotel kit. The kit like the others in their line are cast resin, that come with all 4 walls molded in a grey resin. |
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There are 6 separate windows, a door, separate detail molded roof, a molded stone foundation, clear window glazing, & 2 sets of steps. Also included is a molded frame for an exterior sign & a sheet with some waterslide decals of signs, advertising, & a sheet with window treatments. I used 4 main acrylic colors as base coats; Rust-oleum “American Accents” Cinnamon, Rust-oleum “American Accents” Teal, Rust-oleum “American Accents” London Grey, Krylon White. I should have washed the pieces off prior to painting, especially with acrylic spray paints. If you don’t get all of the mold release agents & other resin dust off, your finish can look blotchy. Mine looked alright, but not as good as I would have liked. |
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I find it best to do the majority of painting, weathering, decal setting & detailing prior to assembly, while you can still lay the pieces flat. I applied a coat of Apple Barrel Antique white water based paint over the side & rear walls, let it sit for just a few seconds & wiped it off to create the mortar lines. |
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The front of the building is painted brick & stone. I dulled down the color with some blue gray, dry brushed on. The masonry trim is also the same blue gray color. I didn’t like the front door that was provided, as it was a full door, no glass, & a business like this would have a glass panel door. I found one in my scrap box, cut it to fit, & painted both the front & back doors Delta Ceramcoat raw sienna. |
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The decals aren’t the ones supplied with the kit. Instead of a small hotel, my building is going to be a deli & grocery. The signage on the side of the building, are water slide decals & thinned down paper signs. I sand down the backs of plain paper signs until their extremely thin, then, I apply glue via an Elmers glue stick & apply them to the building. I work them into the surface so they are in the grooves & mortar lines of the building. The sign in the front is by Vector Cut. http://www.vectorcut.com |
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On the back, I attached a Vector Cut security gate over the door & laid some wood decking over their concrete loading dock. |
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The exhaust vent is also by Vector Cut. I think it’s so cool to be able to see the fan blades behind the grill. It gives it so much depth. The roof is straight forward, has good tarpaper lines molded in & they even took the time to fit it around the pillars. I added one strip of painters tape along the front seam as it wasn’t as tight as I would’ve liked. It’s a pretty easy kit to assemble. I used C/A adhesive to join the walls & foundation. I raised the sidewalk in the front so it will match up with its neighbor building, but left the foundation exposed on the other side & back. I also used my favorite Aleenes Tacky glue to apply the clear window glazing, as I’ve found that whenever the glazing is near C/A it tends to fog up the clear plastic. Not that you can see it, other than along the inside roofline, but I really liked their having molded the brick detail on both sides of the side wall pieces. That way along the roof line it looks like it should & even on the interior you see exposed brick walls. |
