Republic Locomotive Works Babe's Diner



The package, looks professional, color photo of the finished project is a nice touch, and needed we will see when we get to the instructions.
The contents , some lasercut wood , styrene and paper parts. Some sand for the roof. Printed signs , not really well printed imho.
The instructions, the writing is well readable but the photo's are way to dark , they are hardly of any use.
The kit uses a base subscontruction on which the rest of the parts will be added, the walls are tab and slot, they need a bit of work to make fit.
The front wall needs some cutting and filing to fit the canopy above the door. Imho , this shouldn't be necessary , these sort of mistakes should have been seen with the test build and should have been corrected, the same mistake has been made with the styrene front wall and it's so fragile that this is somewhat more difficult to fix then the wood wall.
The base for the signs painted white
Paper peel and stick painted red, styrene ( I would make this peel and stick also ) painted flat aluminum.
The paper stuck to the walls , not sure why the paper is lasercut in so many strokes , just leave out the stroke for the windows and all is well.
The styrene parts glued with Phatic Glue, you can see how fragile the styrene is, not a problem ( yet ) because there will be additional strips covering this. The corners I added very thin styrene sheet , the glazing just doesn't work that is included in the kit.
Front and back after the next layer of trimmings.
Luckily the spot where I am going to place this on my layout shows only the back, the trimmings aren't long enough so I had to add small pieces , very noticeable on the front, I don't understand why they didn't make then an inch to long just to be sure, you can always cut off a piece.
Signs placed, roof painted and sand poured on the still wet paint, after drying the sand was given a wash with acrylics and wet water, this is the last view from the front
View from the back.
This is where the diner will have it's spot on the layout, now for some trash cans , cars ,people and other kinds of details.