More Structures

Both new structures will find a place on a street in Farmington.

Two more merchants have decided to move into the growing town of Farmington. L. Miller, a dealer in dry goods and notions, has moved into a gold rush era stone building while the McCormick brothers have established their butcher shop next door in a brick structure.
     Both structures were constructed with Main Street Heritage kits. The Miller building is a combination of two Weekly Record kits, one stacked upon the other. The balcony railing is a Grandt Line product. Typical of gold rush buildings, I added iron shutters on the front doors. They are Model Die Casting parts made long ago for some of their structure kits. Over the years I have amassed several sets of these and am glad to have a place to use them. Their initial purpose was for fire protection but most were retained for security reasons. Today, if you visit California's Mother Lode country, you can still see many of the old buildings with their iron shutter.
     The brick building was from another Main Street Heritage product called Billy's Place. While intended for a small bar, I thought it the right size for a butcher shop.
   

"What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar" so spake Thomas Marshall, Vice-President under Woodrow Wilson. The sign is roughly full-sized.

The Coca Cola decal was made from a sign found on the side of a building in southern Missouri while Owl cigar sign was found on a building in Jacksonville, Oregon. The Coke sign was printed on my Alps printer while the Owl sign was printed on an inkjet printer on Testors inkjet white-backed decal paper. The Testors system is nice. The decal film has to be sprayed with a protective layer which protects the decal when it is immersed in water. In spite of the spray, the film is thin and is easy to work with. I recommend it.
     Main Street Heritage made several small resin-cast structures which are nicely done and easy to assemble. I recommend them highly. It is a bit of a shame, though, in that they appear to have gone out of business. I checked their website earlier this month and it has disappeared. If anyone knows if they are out permanently, please let me know. In any case, you can still find kits on ebay or in stock at some hobby shops.