Backesto Block Bldg ~ Grey Area

 What Color Was the Backesto Building?

Studying Historic Paint Color Charts and Deciphering Black and White Photographs for Color Information.

There won't be a definitive answer as to what the color of this building was. So I'm going to have to make an educated guess.

The Latest Historic Colors.

By Bernard Gagnon - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25747618

Tan-grey with white trim and blue-grey accents. Despite using historical colors, I don't believe these are the original colors of the building. Grey is a very trendy color these days (Millennial Grey) for clothes, cars, houses, etc. So the owners, wanting to attract tenants, have pushed the colors toward grey. The designer as well seems to have made some artistic choices such as the corner pilasters being the same color as the main body of the building but with the 'unexpected' white accent in the mid-section. Also the dark blue grey accents below the windows doesn't seem to be a historically accurate choice either.

By David Lyman - Backesto Block Building c1980s

Light tan with dark tan trim and oxide red accents.  Here is a photo of the building I shot some time in the 1980s.  It appears to me that the buildings of the Gaslamp Quarter during this time were a bit over-painted. Very colorful.

But What Color WAS the Building?

Somebody knows. But I don't know that somebody.  Looking at historic photographs though I can glean some clues.  Such as...

The building was definitely two-tone. In this 1910 photo the frieze (facia?) and cornice appear lighter than the body of the building.

In this (unfortunately low rez) photo the corner pilaster and quite possibly to window hoods also appear lighter than the facade. Also notice that the recesses of the corner pilaster are not painted a contrasting color as they are in the 1980's color photo.

And finally, the window frames are clearly a dark color which was common in that era.

So my takeaway from the old photographs are a light facade with a lighter trim and dark window frames.

Historic Colors

Looking at a lot of historic color charts as well as restored historic buildings I have a pretty good idea of what the colors were being used back then.  So using this knowledge I'm able to formulate a reasonable color scheme for this model:

 

Cream Body

White Trim

Oxide Red Accents.

Yes sir!

A reasonable color scheme!

Dandy

#135 ~ Right Turns Only

No. 135 runs like a dream—until it meets a left-hand curve.

After a fair bit of troubleshooting, adjusting, and modifying, I’ve finally made some progress. The car can now negotiate the right-hand curves without much trouble.

But the left-hand curves? That’s a whole different story.

#135 runs beautifully in most respects, it’s smooth, steady, and reliable. It just refuses to cooperate when it comes to left-hand turns.

To get a better look at what was going on, I set up a camera trackside and ran the model past it. Watching the footage back gave me a clearer picture of the problem:

What I’m seeing is the car starting to climb the rails on those left-hand curves. That leads me to think a bit more weight might help keep it grounded and tracking properly.

The challenge is figuring out where to put that weight. I’ve already packed quite a bit into the roof, and I’d really prefer not to load up the passenger area if I can avoid it. So now it’s a matter of getting creative and finding a solution that works without compromising the look of the model.

But that’s part of the fun, right?

Yes sir! ~ It's all part of the fun!

Dandy

Two Building Builds!

 I've Been a Busy Boy!

Busy with Blog Posts, Recording YouTube Process Videos and Building out the Layout.

The Backesto Block building (pictured left) is being chronicled here on this blog, while the Watts Building (far right) is being featured in videos over on the Dan D. Sparks YouTube channel.

San Diego & Southeastern #107 rolls into a bustling downtown San Diego scene.

The full scene set up. Cobbling together what I had on hand, I was able to create a pretty nice scene. This shot was taken from the tripod at the front of the layout.

On the left is the Backesto Block, scratch-built using 3D printed parts. In the center is my Bank of Santa Monica model, originally built years ago as a kitbash of Walthers Merchant Row II—it fit the space perfectly, so back into service it went. On the right is the Walthers Ashmore Hotel, finished to resemble the Watts Building in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.

Autos come from a variety of manufacturers.

SD&SE #107 is a Suydam PE 414 model, backdated to its original San Diego appearance.

A Little Whimsy. And for fun, there’s a couple dashing across the boulevard—actually a dancing pair of figures from Preiser!

So yes… lots of entertainment coming from ol’ Dan D Sparks.

Yes sir~ lots of entertainment!

Dandy

Backesto Block Bldg ~ Score and Snap!

 Using the Tried and True Method of Score and Snap to Assemble this Styrene Building Model.

Score and snap is a surprisingly effective way to model with styrene.

I started by printing out a horizontal flipped image of the dimensional drawing and then gluing it to the back of 1/16" thick styrene. This side will be the interior of the building for reasons I'll explain in a moment.

The first cuts are precisely where the top and bottom of the windows line up.

Snap!  The styrene is first scored about half way through the thickness with an X-acto and then it is bent to snap it the rest of the way. The cutting distorts the plastic, but the snap makes a perfectly clean cut on the other side!  When the pieces are glued back together (minus the window openings) the joint on the snapped side of the styrene will be all but invisible.  That's why the mirrored imaged drawing is on the inside of the building- to hide the cuts. But the exterior side of the styrene will be almost pristine!

The top and sides of the wall are then glued back together minus the window strip.

The windows are carefully removed from the sprue and cleaned up.

The windows will be glued to the exterior of the building (the drawing is on the other side).

The styrene walls between the windows are scored and snapped from the window strip...

...and glued in place between the windows. Notice how the cuts in the styrene are almost invisible on this side of the wall.

The same process is used for the ground floor doors and windows.

Here is the building reassembled. You can really see how effective the score and snap technique is with the clean snap lines.

Then it was a matter of adding the entryways, posts and piers, cornice moldings and whatnot. I had to fabricate the roof peaks, cornices, as well as the belt course (look at me throwing around fancy architectural terms!) with various Evergreen dimensional styrene strips.

When I was satisfied that there wasn't anymore to be done while the walls could be laid flat, it was time to square them up and glue them together in the magnetic squaring jig.

Now with the walls squared I can focus on the parapet roofing and its rounded corner. For the roofing I used Evergreen Standing Seam Roofing.

Plain styrene sheets were used for the rear walls since they'll butt up to its future neighboring buildings and therefore not seen. The chimney 3d prints have also been added to the parapet roof.  

So there we have it. The basic building. So far so good. But there is still a lot of work to be done. 

Yes sir!

There's still a lot of work to be done!

Dandy

Backesto Block Bldg. ~ Gettin' My Kicks Printing Backesto Bits

 The Backesto Bits Sprue has Returned from the 3D Printers!

It took many tries, many revisions, (and many dollars!) to get it to pass the printers standards. But it's finally done! 

Despite following the printers minimum standard of 1mm thicknesses, they pushed back a lot on how delicate the whole thing was. After a lot of back and forth and many revisions, I eventually figured out that their "Fine Detail Plastic" could handle the delicacy. But of course that is their premium plastic and cost a freakin' fortune to print- $272.39!  I could have bought an actual 3D Printer for that kind of money (I'm looking in to it now.). But this has been going on for too long now so I bit the bullet and ordered it. Live and learn. Yes sir- live and learn.

But man- you can't beat that detail! This printed beautifully. The finished model should be ridiculously realistic!

Yes sir!

Ridiculous!

Dandy

Structures ~ Backesto Block Reduex

Reviving the Backesto Block Building Project.

This Time 3D Printing the Backesto Block Bldg's Detail Parts.

After the failed attempt to scratch build and cast parts for the Backesto Bldg and sulking about it all this time, I've decided to try again by 3D printing the parts this time.

Printing the entire building would be pricey.  So instead I will build this building similar to how the prototype building was built; scratch build the shell and add prebuilt details.

My selectively compressed drawings of the Backesto Block and the Old City Hall buildings. 

South side of the Backesto and the Grand Pacific Hotel.

The details (doors, windows, columns, cornices, chimneys, ornaments) were modeled on top of these drawings that I imported to a 3D program (3DS Max). 

Then all the 3d modeled "Backesto Bits" were laid out flat and attached to each other to create this sprue for ease of 3D printing.

Then off to the printer it goes! 

Shapeways = $272.39! (I should just buy my own printer!).

Now comes the wait. Fingers crossed all goes well!

Yes sir! Fingers crossed!

Dandy

#135 ~ Decodering

Installing, Wiring, and Programing a TCS KAM4-LED Decoder.

Train Control Systems Keep Alive Decoder for LEDs.

Hot Glued the decoder to the ceiling right in the center of the car.

The wiring is pretty straight forward except that the Red wires are attached to the trolley pole bases and the Black wires to all wheels:

Red = Trolley Poles

Black = Wheels

Orange = Motor

Grey = Motor

Blue = Lighting Power Bus (positive (+) ).

White = Headlight (-)

Yellow = Rear Headlight (-)

Green = Forward Interior Lights (-)

Purple = Rear Interior Lights (-)

Programing

With the Digitrax Zephyr

Programing the new address to #135:

1. Place car on the programing track.

2. Press 'Program Mode' on the Zephyr. until display reads as 'dir'.

3. Press 'LOCO' button. Display reads 'Ad2' for addresses 1-127, press again to display 'Ad4' for addresses 128-9999.

4. Press '1' and '3' and '5'. Display will read '0135'.

5. Press 'CV-WR'. Display will blink the 'Ad#' and then '0135'.

6. Return the car to the mainline to test it.

Some CV's need to be changed.  The Green wire (forward interior lights) defaults to the Function 1 (F1) button which is fine. But the Purple wire (rear interior lights) defaults to the F2 button which is a momentary contact button normally used for locomotive whistles (the whistle sounds when the button is held down). Which means that the interior lights on car #135 only light when the button is held down. So the purple wire needs to be remapped to the F3 button instead.

Digitrax Zephyr Function buttons. 

I need to remap the Green wire (CV 35) from function button 2 (F2) to function button 3 (F3).

Even though these trolley cars are bi-directional I have designated the open section as the forward end of the car to simplify things (the open section is easier to see into so I want to put my motorman figure in that end). 

Green wire (CV 35) = Front                Purple wire (CV 36) = Rear.

To remap the button-

Program:     CV 35 V=4  (simply confirm this value since this is the default)

                      CV 36 V=16 (from the default value of 8)

Remapping CV's is easiest using JMRI Decoder Pro

Otherwise its button mashing on the Zephyr:

1. Place car on the programing track.

2. Activate 'Program Mode' on the Zephyr. Program Mode light lights up.

3. Press the 'CV' button. Display reads 'ad2' or 'ad4'.

4. Press '3' and '6'. Display reads '0036'.

5. Press the 'CV' button again. Display still reads '0036'.

6. Press '1' and '6'. Display reads the value of '0016'.

7. Press the 'CV-WR' button. Display should blink once as it writes to the decoder.

8. Return the car to the mainline to test it.

And that ought to do it!

Yes sir!

That oughta do it!

Dandy