The Smoky City

I received this Design Preservation Models kit as a gift from Chris when he took me on a birthday shopping spree in 2021 to The Electric Train Shop, Eastside Trains and Skyway Model Shop. I assembled the exterior walls in late April, and on May 1, I painted the side and rear walls with a mix of Model Master acrylic Railroad Tie Brown, Boxcar Red and Engine Black. During the same spray booth session, I was painting this mix onto the rear and sides of Building 7. The next day, I painted the front with a mix of Aged Concrete, Railroad Tie Brown and Engine Black. I didn’t take any photos of this building at the time, but I logged these steps in the Excel spreadsheets where I keep track of the steps I take. Then, the project sat idle for just over two years, when most of my modeling time was consumed by Building 7.

Building 7 was completed in late April 2023, and about a month later, I was getting very close to finishing Building 4. I was ready …

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Technically, I started this building in January 2020 when I sanded the edges of the exterior walls, but the parts went back in the package until that May. I then took three days to fill divots on the interior walls with plastic putty, glue the walls together, prime them and apply a base coat of paint. I filled the divots because I planned on painting those surfaces for use in the interior scenes. I later decided it was much easier and looked better if I covered the walls of interior scenes with paper, printed with my own custom graphics. The putty would shrink a lot while drying, requiring multiple coats and lots of drying time. It was too much work.

On the base coat of paint, I was going for a warm yellow brick color, like I had seen on a lot of older buildings around Pittsburgh. I used a mix of Model Master acrylic International Orange, Reefer Yellow, Rust and a touch of Grimy Black. Unfortunately, it was way too orange and would have to be repainted, but it sat idle for nine months. In February 2021, I tried to strip the orange paint with 91% isopropyl alcohol, but …

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Building 3 started as the Design Preservations Models kit “Townhouse 1”. It was only the second building interior I had detailed, and my plans for it changed a lot during the process, resulting in some behind-the-scenes construction that looks a little sloppy, but I’m really happy with the visible parts, and that’s what really matters.

I started this project simultaneously with Building 2 in April 2019, but then didn’t touch it again until January of 2020. On March 23 that year, I began working from home, and the state’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order took effect, keeping everyone at home except for essential activities. While people complained about having to stay home, I was actually excited about how much modeling time I’d have. By March 28, I finished painting the exterior, and about a month later, I sketched floor plans to figure out what interior scenes I would build. I decided the signature feature would be a stairwell visible through the door and windows above it, leading to a bulkhead on the rooftop where some women would be doing laundry in a washtub and hanging it up to dry.

I built the stairwell scene as a self-contained module which I …

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