American Flag Company

This is the build of Republic Locomotive Works American Flag Company, for the town of Belleville.

The box.
The contents.
28 page manual with color photo's.
While the walls are drying from there coat of paint I'll start with windows.
Normally I would brace the walls , especially when they are thin like these and for N-scale quite large. But there are interior floors with this kit which make it almost impossible to do bracing and I'm hoping the floors will give it enough strength. The walls warped a tiny bit from the painting, so to lay them flat to place windows I taped them to a piece of shelf.
Then I glued in the first piece of the windows and doors so they were flush with the outside of the wall.
When I had done a wall I would hang it to let the glue dry without it sticking to the flat surface of the shelf.
The outside of one of the walls.
When the glue had dried I glued the backs of the doors in place and put some weights on the walls , partly to keep the doors in place , but also to flatten the walls a bit.
Took me about an hour to install the lower sashes and another hour for the casings.
I don't like the look of styrene window sheets, and using some kind of clear drying glue is also easier, just carefully fill the gaps by spreading glue with a toothpick.
I used this tacky glue , went well for these tiny windows but I am going to order some Micro Klear for when I have larger windows to do.
Next up was assembling the floors and foundation.
These will be almost impossible to see once the building is done , but I know they're there.
I painted the roof black and then stuck the lasercut tarpaper onto the still wet paint.
The roof and floor sub assemblies.
Painted the foundation Polyscale Concrete and smeared acrylic textured paste called Beton Effekt Paste I got at a German craftsstore onto the paint , I used a bit of force to smear it to make the somewhat too coarse texture a bit smoother.
Now how to assemble the walls without bracing, not so easy because clamps and such will likely break the walls. So I used magnets and my magnetic board jig , as you can see in the next photo's.
Assembling the walls to the foundation.
Tried the roof for fitting , ready to paint.
The other side of the structure with all doors and windows in place.
While waiting for some painted parts to dry I started on some sub-assemblies like the watertank. An AA penlite was the exact right size , I soaked the wood part in water and then wound it around the pennlite with elastic bands to create the right shape.
Some of the subs I made , porch , watertank frame, billboard frame.
Glued the watertank sides to the frame , quite easy with the shape already there.
Okay then , N-scale is small and fragile so I took my time cutting loose the lettering of the signs. Very delicately cutting away surrounding pieces till the letters were free. Lasercutting at it's finest , they look excellent.
Before painting cornices and trim I had stuck them to transfer tape making installation easy.
Painted the letters white.
Just something to hold while I'm painting the roof buildings.
The ladder for the watertank.
The instructions in the kit are I believe for the H0 kit, it says use the styrene strips for the watertank , but there are no styrene strips . In stead I used strands of wire.
Using CA glue and a lot of patience it was easier then I thought it would be.
Added the other details to the watertank.
After some painting and weathering I installed the watertank on the roof.
Also did some chalks on the roof .
Elevator house and walkplanks on the roof.
Primed the metal castings.
First paint for the metal castings.
Decks for the staircase and frame for the loading dock roof.
Roof installed and sign placed on loading dock. More weathering later.
Stair treads installed.
The posts for the staircases are cut from a bit too thick wood , so I cut them in half.
Installed the posts.
Front porch and roof installed.
Photo's of the completed building , still some detailing to do.