The Old Bank, Part 1 of 3
This is a long, winding tale of a structure that saw a great many changes before it was declared done. Conceptually it began as a straightforward project: build Miller Engineering's Mid State Bank kit as-is, add a couple of their stock neon signs, and call it a day—a quick and simple way to fill a street corner with a fairly decent-looking building.
When I ordered some harder-to-find signs directly with Miller Engineering, I received one of their catalogs with the order. That's where I found Logan Savings and Loan, to my eye a much better-looking structure than Mid State Bank. But I'd not seen it offered by any of the retailers I frequented. I came to learn that it was discontinued, so I set out on a quest to find one, certain there ought to be a one or two sitting around collecting dust on some hobby shop shelves somewhere in this big, wide world.
As it happened, I found two kits, which was perfect because I'd wanted to enlarge the building. I was concerned that nearly all of the structures planned for the central block of the town were roughly about the same size, and I wanted to add some variety. I also wanted to do something about the narrow face of the building—I didn't like the way the windows were designed.
Chris Miller told me the kit was discontinued because it was not a good seller. I was perplexed by this because it's an attractive building to my eye. But once I started working on it, I discovered one reason it might have been unpopular: it's a fairly complex kit, with a much greater number of small, "fussy" parts than one normally finds in their other kits. Assembly as a stand-alone structure is also complicated by problems with the door opening, which is a window when it's built as an add-on.
But I enjoy a challenge, so I set about planning to merge the two kits. The idea was to add a story and also expand the narrow wall to the same size as the wide wall—in other words, make the structure symmetrical. This was an ambitious goal, because there weren't quite enough parts to do it. There would be enough window inserts, but not enough window openings or columns. So, I settled for a three-window wall and a two-window wall.
The first thing I did was separate all of the wall part (with the exception of the three-window side and the angled entrance wall, which I left connected). This was easily accomplished by simply bending the walls back and forth gently; after about three or four bends, they snapped apart. Then I figured out where walls would need to be split and rejoined in order to add the extra story. I positioned a smooth-jaw pliers along the mortar line where a wall would be split, carefully bent it back and forth as before, and it split apart nicely.
The three-column and angled entrance walls went together smoothly; two parts joined at the base of a window row created the new four-story wall set. The two-column wall, however, was a real problem because of the original wider window design. It had to be cobbled together from five odd-shaped pieces. In addition to the many parts that needed to be joined, the column detail parts had to be assembled from numerous leftover scraps. I spent more time working on these parts than almost everything else combined.
Using a file, I cleaned up all of the part edges, gathered up some pieces of etched brass fret to serve as reinforcements, and started soldering. To strengthen the corners, I soldered brass wires into the joints, then clipped off the excess after soldering.
The kit's existing wide back wall part was extended in height by adding a section cut from a Mid State Bank kit. But making the narrow back wall had me stumped. I was also becoming increasingly disturbed about the narrow front wall: it did not turn out as well as I'd hoped, and the abundant flaws left me disappointed. So, I stopped work on the building for a few months.
As it happens, it was actually a good thing that I stepped away from the project for a while, because during that time a number of ideas emerged that would change everything for the better...
The Micro Structures Logan Savings and Loan kit is long discontinued.
This is the Micro Structures Mid State Bank base kit.
A jig holds the wall parts at 90 degrees; joints are reinforced with brass wire.
The wall assembly interior reveals the many joints required for the redesign.
The foundation parts are soldered onto the walls from behind.
The wall assembly is ready for the column detail parts.
The narrow wall column details had to be pieced together from many scraps.
Each back wall is made from two parts, one from the Mid State Bank kit.
The back wall parts are soldered together with a reinforcing strip.
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