R.J. Elwell General Store - BEST Kit

Elwell's is ready for the White River Division. I'm sure the train crews will be happy for another place to shop while along the line.

This project begins with What's in the box No. 7 found on June 17, 2014. I also posted Getting Started the next day followed by some photos I took of the BEST display in the next post. You might want to take a second look at these three posts.

The general store went together a lot better than my model of the freight house did which was included in the same kit. The double wall construction helps supporting the structure although I did add some more supports. I began using my Hunterline stain on the walls and roofing. There was some warping in the roofing which needed some extra supports. I used Canopy cement for all the joints. I did not distress the walls as I wanted to keep the walls looking newer. The walls already have a bit of weather in the boards anyhow.

Note
While at this springs Collinsville Ct. prototype meet I spoke to Jill of  BEST for a bit about the Elwell kit. She mentioned that some of the kits are missing the shutters. When I got home I checked and true enough mine are not there. I sent her an e-mail and they arrived in about two weeks. She also sent an extra porch roof/base that she mentioned might also be missing...true enough it was not there. If you have a kit you might want to check. If you are not worried about these parts one can cut a roof from scrap lumber and the shutters are Tichy products that one can get anywhere if not in your parts box already.

Painting
The walls got a wash of Floquil reefer white once the Hunterline stain dries. The windows and trim are painted Floquil Pullman green. The underside of the roof is black. The shutters are painted black also. All plastic is air brushed while the wood pieces are brush painted.

Finishing Off
I am keeping the text kind of short and will let the photo's and captions tell most of the story. I used the nice looking BEST tar paper roofing included on the post office addition and porch. The main structure had metal roofing included that I set aside for another project. I really like the look of slate on this kind of building. I used Northeastern Scale Lumber Co. gray slate HOSHG 1B1. If you want to see more of this structure check back tomorrow. I will have some more finished views of all the wall...George Dutka

All the parts needed to continue on are now painted. I left the shutters and stairway to the end for painting and installing.

The basics are assembled and painted. Now to add the details and roofing.

The painted windows are now applied and the raw porch plank are stained.

The porch planking began with a coat of Hunterline weathering mix followed by a wash of grime and some dry brushing of reefer white while all was still damp. I also added a bit of Bragdon powder once assembled. The windows got glazing that was painted flat finish. I added some paper shades also.

The front porch is about to be attached to the main building. Assembling the porch was easier than I thought it would be. All the roofing was finished by this point.

My shutters have arrived but still need to be painted black. They need to be trimmed a bit to fit properly. The porch roof was also missing from the kit but arrived before I got to that point in construction. The building is about ready for some light  Bragdon powder weathering.

The details are all added to the porch. I did add a few extra. The doors are a two piece construction. I used the top part that should be glued onto the main door as a screen door and left it open a bit. Though it looked better that way and the door behind looked good even if it is not that well detailed.