F.W. Woolworth, Part 1 of 2

The town area behind the passenger station needed a bigger building to break up the monotony of a string of little storefronts all roughly the same size. The Old Bank helped with its added height behind the foreground structures, but I felt that something with breadth was needed as well.

As I studied the various Miller Engineering kits, I noticed that the K.C.'s Hardware storefront could easily be extended; that's when it occurred to me that I could graft two of the kits together to make one big, old-fashioned five-and-dime, something I'd wanted to model for a long time. Indeed, as I researched small-town Woolworth stores, it appeared this would be a great match.

The strange irony is that this building had already gone through a series of revisions to suit the ever-changing town design, and wound up coming full-circle back to its original configuration, which was designed to fit into an odd-angled corner opposite O'Malley's Triangle Bar. This proved to be a rather costly process, as it meant getting kits five and six, and they're not cheap. In the end, given all of the revisions and mistakes, this one structure was the most expensive thing I've built to date (although the leftover parts did make the passenger station possible). The final design was planned to be the simplest possible modification: two kits would be grafted together, the store faces angled to match the bar, to form a five-sided structure.

Since all joints would be soldered, I knew from prior experience (see the photo of the "aborted" version, above right) that the solder would likely flow onto the front surfaces of the building, creating cosmetic flaws that are difficult to correct or disguise. To reduce the flow of solder onto the building face, I first spray-painted the fronts of all parts with metal primer, then thoroughly cleaned all of the back edges with a wire brush in a motor tool.

After removing the right side of the left front part, and the left side of the right front part, I taped the two fronts to temporary soldering jig, using the Triangle Bar building as a guide to determined the precise angle of the building face. Then I made the two 90-degree bends, one at each end of the building face, and soldered the corners to strengthen the otherwise wobbly corners and also make them light-tight.

This is the original Micro Structures K.C.'s Hardware kit.

Here's the aborted version, before the town got rearranged.

The angle for the front is set using a jig that rested on the Triangle building.

The folded corners are soldered for strength and to prevent light-leaks.

The shell is placed on the layout to evaluate its fit and appearance.

At this time I was able to determine how big to make the back wall; I cut the remaining wall piece and butt-soldered it to the end of the existing back wall. Instead of using a jig, I simply taped the last two corners together to allow them to assume the proper angle; the tape lasts just long enough for the joints to be tack-soldered, after which I solder the balance of the joint.

With all of the soldering done, the building was given an acetone bath to remove the "solder-resist" paint and tape residue from the external walls. The clean brass building was placed on the layout to ensure it suited the location as intended. Whether it did or not, this version would have to do, since I wasn't about to make another one. Ever.

As of 12 October 2008, this is where the project stands. More as it happens.

Continue to Part 2
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