Backesto Block Bldg ~ Windows of Opportunity

Modeling Open Windows

Modifying the Models Closed Windows into Opened Windows.

Modeling the building with opened windows adds a lot of charm and character.

And realism since this was the main factor for regulating the buildings temperature back in them days.

Repeating window patterns.    Here is what I am faced with.  Let's break up that monotonous pattern a bit.

Printed Closed.    Because of the 1mm minimum thickness required for 3D prints at the time, I had to model the windows in the closed position.

Flat File.    Taking advantage of files that have the smooth sides, we can file in one direction in the corners.

De-sashed.    The lower sash is filed away. Then the sides of the sashes are filed up to the desired height of the opening.  The flat side of the file helps us to not file into the window frame.

Sashed.    Then the lower sash is replaced by an equivalent length of styrene.  Because the upper sash would be behind the upper window, I'll add it after the window glass is installed later.

That lived-in look.    The random opened windows resemble musical notes to me (oh dang!- I should have arranged them as a bar of some popular music.).  This will help give the building that lived-in look.

Yes sir!

A lived in look!

Dandy

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

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

Well Whatdaya Know ~ All Rubber Are Not Alike

Quality Rubber - That's The  Secret Ingredient For A Successful Mold.

      What with the Backesto Bits already to go, its time to make a mold of them all. But when I went to go fetch the left over rubber compound from the Streetlamp Project, I found it has a short shelf life and had hardened.

Anxious to move forward with this project, I stopped by the craft store to pick up some of their casting rubber~ Amazing Mold Rubber. And after some time and effort, well... I found it ain't so amazing. I'm sure its fine for most crafts, but not for precision casting. In a nutshell, it shrinks!

Recycling the box from the streetlamp project, it turned out to be just the right size for this project.

There it is! In all its pink glory. Or so I thought.

The shelf life of the resin is much better. It cast just fine and faithfully with no shrinkage. But when I compared the castings with the originals, there was about 10% shrinkage with the "Amazing" rubber.

So, I'll pay the small extra for the much better quality of the Oomoo rubber compound. Lesson learned.

Yes sir! Lesson learned!

Dandy

Structures~ Backesto Bits

I've seen folks make 3D prints of small buildings, but not of larger buildings. I'm a little skeptical how they would turn out. But casting parts isn't out of the question.

Windows, doors, columns, cornices, and chimneys.

There are some seriously repeating patterns on this building. So my plan is to build one and cast many.

I first built a window with 3D Studio Max so that I could get a 3D print of it and cast that. But for some reason Max has issues with Shapeways and et al.

So the heck with it! I'm going to build them up with styrene. These things are tiny in HO scale, I had to apply the cement with a syringe!

I think I've got everything. The next step will be to make a rubber mold of these and then I can cast as many bits as I need.

Yes sir! Cast as many bits as I need!

Dandy

Structures ~ The Backesto Block Building

Dimensional Drawings for Modeling the Backesto Block Building

Here is my working drawing for constructing a model of the Backesto Building for the layout. I'm starting with this building for a couple reasons. One, its one of the most ornate buildings, thus more time consuming to build. So I want to get it out of the way early. And Two, for its historical significance:

The Backesto Building figures prominently in this photo of the opening day of the San Diego Electric Railway. I greatly desire to duplicate this scene in model.

Originally built in 1873 it was San Diego's finest building at the time. It was later expanded a couple of times.

Amazingly, the Backesto Block remains intact today as part of San Diego's Historic Gas Lamp Quarter! Although without all those chimneys (probably an earthquake hazard). The building is about 224 feet long with another 84 foot addition (to the right). I don't have that kind of space so my model will be an abbreviation of that at 70 scale feet.

I photographed the building extensively for the dimensional drawing. I tried to get shots that not only reveal the layout of the building but also the profile of the building.

Did I mention the building is ornate?

The head-on shots show the layout of the building of course, but I also need shots that reveal how far details protrude from the walls.

I lucked out and found this old newspaper clipping revealing how the roof of the Backesto looked in the 1880s. I would have never guessed that pitched roof design hidden behind the parapet.

Early Modeling Attempt

You've probably noticed this building appearing in the background of some layout construction shots. Its my very early attempt to build the Backesto, I'm talking decades ago! Its pretty crude, one of my first attempts to scratch build with styrene. But the fact its held up so well for so long is a testament to the strength of styrene. Its good stuff!

The structure is a corner building, so here is the South side. One of the expansions is suggested on the left. During the Backesto's early years it had a couple of blank walls that had advertisements painted on them.

The era I'm modeling (1890s), Schiller and Murtha occupied the ground floor.

I think the Backesto Block building is a gorgeous building. I'm looking forward to modeling it. This time as a fine model. Yes sir! A fine model!

Dandy