Friday, October 15, 2010

PIZZALAND

While at the free-mo set up last month at Peachcreek Shops, I picked up the Blair Line, Pizzaland Kit for a nice price.   This is a laser cut mostly wood model of a prototype building in northern New Jersey.   Besides being an interesting piece of roadside American architecture, the building was featured in the opening sequence of the HBO series "The Sopranos".  



Most of you know I like building in styrene, which has it's own difficulties, but a wood kit is not without their own quirks.   I built a few Campbell kits as a teenager, but this is actually my first laser cut building kit.   The instructions recommended spraying all the wood panels with a coat paint, non-water based preferred.  I skipped this step, figuring on painting the structure after partial assembly and shortly found out why the parts need to be sealed with paint - the white glue I was using for assembly was quickly causing the wood to cup or warp.   Some quick clamping and tape saved the day.

The kit was easy to put together and I am pleased with the final results, although I still might add a bit to the finish.  I used mostly cheapo craft paints for the finish - the only real problem I encountered was that I should have thinned the white a little, or for that matter, whenever you are doing a larger areas.  The prototype looks to have a rough parged finish, so it probably is ok that my finish was a little rough.  The signs are self adhesive lables, except for the main Pizzaland sign on the fascia that is laser cut.  

2 comments:

Steve Watson said...

I've done a few laser kits now, and I enjoy them a lot (American Model Builders, Blair Line, Banta). I've glued them with Liquisilk for concealed joints where I can just glob on a thick bead, and medium-viscosity CA for the visible work. I brush-paint the parts with Tamiya acrylics, as the alcohol-ester carrier won't warp the thin wood like (or at least, as much as) water-based paint would. Still have to brace across the grain with square styrene, though.

Anonymous said...

THanks for the info - as I said in the blog I'm pretty much on the white glue level when working with wood so I appreciate the help