My wife and I have noticed that most counties in west Texas still have the old stone county jail building somewhere in the town that is the county seat. It's generally not in use as a jail anymore, but the things were built so well that they still stand. I've still got a pretty good bit of that old Campbell Scale Models plastic stone sheeting, so it seemed logical to build a county jail. The biggest issue is the roof. Few have what I'd call a simple roof. Some have stone all the way to the top and sort of a parapet wall around the top. Others have a hip roof, which I've never attempted in HO scale. Fortunately, there are hip roof calculators online, and the one I chose worked perfectly. A couple of photos of the beginnings of the new county jail building. The next challenge is how to make the bars over the windows...
Slight change of plans on the jail...a friend in Colorado Springs is a retired attorney (only attorney I would claim as a friend) and an Airborne Ranger who did two tours in Vietnam (still has metal in his body from one of the tours). This is now going to be a renovated former jail that has been turned into his office. There's a perfect spot for it on the edge of town. After snooping around on the internet I found some graphics and made two potential signs for him. The wall pieces are cut out and maybe I'll make some progress today.
Here's the first shot of the building in place. The windows and door are painted but not yet installed (roof is just laying on the building). Next step is to cut and glue all the corrugated metal pieces to the roof structure. Lots of intricate cuts with the hip roof... There are two potential signs. I'm leaning towards the sign made out of an old Winchester ad. Haven't decided for certain, and all ideas are welcome.
The structure is just about done. It still needs lots of detailing and weathering--especially on the roof. The corrugated roofing is just too shiny out of the package, so I give it a light coat with a "galvanized gray" color that is mixed out of reefer gray and silver. It will now get washes of rust, blackish-brown, etc.
