Stephen A. Greene & Sons Building Supply, Part 1 of 2

The release of the Nail Brothers Salvage kit, coincidentally coupled with some revisions in the layout plan, immediately stirred a long-standing desire to model a lumber yard. I'd wanted to include one from the outset, but there never seemed to be enough real estate. Locating it right in front of the coal trestle was also perfect: coal trestles are frequently part of old lumber yards in the Northeast; there were two competing lumber yards in the same town where I grew up, just a few blocks from each other, both of which had coal trestles.

One of the two lumber yards from my youth is shown at right (notice the coincidental color match). The kit would become the core of Stephen A. Green & Sons Building Supply. The main lumber storage building would be made from a Mountaineer Precision Products barn kit.

The Nail Brothers kit received two structural modifications. First, I left off the small addition on the left of the main building in order to make room for the lumber storage building. The leftover parts will be recycled as a small detached storage shed. The remainder of the kit's main contents, which comprised a number of junk castings and signs, were transferred to the ownership of Dick's Auto Salvage.

The other main structural change was the addition of a foundation. This required changes to the base part as well as all of the wall parts—the nice tabs and slots, which make assembly quick and easy, all had to be removed. A foundation was created from 1/8-inch thick styrene, with cinder block edges made from N scale brick sheets. The base part was bonded to this, and then the modified walls bonded to the modified base part. The walls were positioned such that their bottom edges were flush with the bottom of the base part, instead of atop the base part as originally intended.

One minor alteration in detailing was made to the walls: I didn't want the building to be quite as run-down is it appears in its original kit form, which featured a number of missing and broken siding boards. To make the "structural repairs," I replaced the siding boards that were "lasered out" by trimming their remains from the fret and bonding them back in place.

Since the doors and windows would be the same color as the walls, I assembled all of them to the walls before attaching the walls to the base. the only thing I didn't do was install the black paper and window glazing; this would come after painting.

Once the main structure was assembled (save for the roof), I spray-painted it with Rustoleum light grey primer. When the paint was dry, I tinted it with tan powdered chalk to achieve a faded buff color. Then I weathered the walls with brown and black chalks. The back walls were weathered more heavily than the front, and the front colored more strongly than the back, since businesses like these often painted only the fronts of their buildings as a cost-savings measure.

After attaching the roofs, I again departed from the original kit's design by applying metal roofing to the main structure. The long, narrow extension received tarpaper from Paper Creek Models.

As of 26 September 2008, this is where the project stands. More as it happens.

Continue to Part 2
Return to Construction
Return Home

This is one of two competing lumber yards in the town where I grew up.

A typical lumber shed is open along one side and may be one or two stories.

At the back of this property is an old coal trestle, which is quite common.

This is the Nail Brothers Salvage kit "as delivered" by Robert Ray.

The kit walls are assembled using thick CA that's applied with a knife tip.

The light grey primer is tinted to a faded buff color and weathered with chalks.

The partially-completed structure is positioned on the layout for evaluation.

Copyright © 2007-2008 by David K. Smith. All Rights Reserved.
Nothing contained in this website may be reproduced in any form
without the express written consent of the copyright holder.
Robert Ray/Baz Models product photos used with permission.