James River Branch: East Theater

East Theater, Part 2 of 2: The Building

Making the theater building was a difficult and costly process as I struggled to make a something that fit the image in my mind. The firehouse kit had the right lines and architectural detailing I sought, but it was too small, so I set about grafting two of them together. My first attempt was close, but I'd made a number of construction blunders, resulting in too many cosmetic issues. These weren't so bad when the building was sandwiched between two others, but since it lost the neighbor to its left, the eyesores became be plainly visible.

No matter how I sliced it, the building would have to be made wider and taller to fit the marquee. Wider was not difficult; the animated sign completely bisected the second floor and, in a stroke of luck, in alignment with the windows. The tougher challenge was going taller. The first time around, I made a valiant attempt to raise it enough so that the marquee sign electrical connectors would be enclosed under the roof; consequently, all of the walls became patchwork quilts and had some obvious joints. This time I decided to try hiding the sign plugs under some sort of structural addition, such as a bell tower or the like, and keep the building as short as possible.

With the sign plug restriction out of the way, the ruling factor for height was where the second floor windows met the top of the marquee. With the lower trim part as the dividing line, the building only needed to be a fraction of an inch taller, suggesting that something like a stone foundation would do the job. With no shortage of scraps left over from the Front Street Bank, this was a no-brainer.

This project was last updated on 1 November 2009. More as it happens.

Two firehouse kits would comprise the theater building itself.

Ten wall pieces are soldered together into two groups.

The two wall group assemblies are soldered together and bent.

The marquee is test-fit on the building and placed on the layout for evaluation.