Walthers Motor Hotel


I think the pool really gives it the right feel Jim, I can just see Beverly D'angelo watching Chevy Chase skinny dipping with Christie Brinkley!
As for the color of the water I’ve been to motels like that, just add police tape across one of the doors and you’re set. 😆

LOL That's good!
After my first squeeze and I eloped - we spent our first night in a motel very similar to that in a room on the second floor. We took the only room available and the door would not lock (actually the lock was missing) so we pushed a couple chairs against the door to keep it closed!
 
I started on mine the other day.
I bought a turquoise color in Model Master paint but it was way too watery to brush on and my airbrush is still packed away.
I then went with a Floquil Weyerhaeuser green I had on hand but it seems to dry on the brush before it hits the plastic. (?)
I also painted the wrong side of the railings thinking they mounted backwards.

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I used Model Master "Tropical Turquoise" in the rattle can for mine. the green looks good too (I sprayed both sides of the railings before attempting assembly). Getting the railings to sit right was the hardest part of the kit. Getting all the left opening and right opening doors in the right place was tedius as well. I don't envy the task you have ahead of you adding doors to the pre assembled structure.
 
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Nice setup Jim!

I also liked your coronet 500 picture. What year is it? I owned a '67 Coronet 440 more door that I really liked, but circumstances made me sell it.
 
Nice setup Jim!

I also liked your coronet 500 picture. What year is it? I owned a '67 Coronet 440 more door that I really liked, but circumstances made me sell it.

Thanks. The Coronet I should have been driving, had I not been in lockdown, is a 67. I'm kind of stuck on 67 Coronets. I have three.

Meanwhile, test results show theres no Covid at my house, so lockdown is over. I was able to go out to the hardware store yesterday to buy a couple of plastic "For Sale" signs to use for the motel parking lot. Sprayed the plain back side of the signs "Light Aircraft Gray" but its the same color as the sidewalks and theres no contrast. Once the plastic has been trimmed to fit around the Walthers sidewalks, and the hole is cut in the plastic for the pool, I will respray it in a darker shade. The smalltown USA sidewalks are thinner than the Walthers sidewalk & curb pieces, so they will be glued directly to the plastic sign material, rather than trimmed around.
At this point I know the exact position the motel will occupy, so its time to borrow my buddy's jigsaw and cut the pool opening in the wood before glueing the parking lot material in place.
 

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Beautiful Coronets. I almost prefer them to the '66-'67 Chargers, although I wouldn't turn down a '67 charger. I should have kept the one I had, but it needed love I couldn't give it and I got more than I paid for it.
 
So, this parking lot has to be completely laid out to determine exactly where the plastic paving needs to be cut away for the Walthers sidewalks to fit into along the side street. There needs to be space for vehicles to pull in and out of the car-hop canopy, and for trucks to deliver supplies to the restaurant. I want to use the trees between the parking spaces to break up an otherwise uninteresting parking lot and to continue the palm tree landscaping theme I'm using throughout the Motel/restaurant property. But, I'm not sure I'll be able to fit all four of them in.
 

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Resprayed the motel/restaurant parking lot in Model Master flat "Gunship Gray". Pretty much looks the same as the Model Master flat "Panzer Grey" sprayed on the Mel's Drive-In restaurant parking lot next door. But, it works. It contrasts with the "light Aircraft Grey" on the sidewalks, the "Dark Aircraft Grey" on the main street out front and the Flat Black on the side street. Looks alot better. I painted some leftover bits of the plastic "For Sale" sign in Testors "Turquoise" with a brush and its currently drying. Thats what I'll use to build a pool shaped box for under the water surface once I cut the opening for the pool in the wood with a jigsaw. The "Turquoise" is lighter than the "Tropical Turquoise" that I used for the building details and railings. I'm hoping it will work well for a pool under the rippled plastic sheet when I get to that point. For the moment there is a blue sheet of paper under the plastic water, so the pool looks a little less like industrial waste then it did in previous photos.
 

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Cut the hole for the pool in the wood base, and lined it with the turquoise painted plastic "For Sale" sign material. Pool looks a little more inviting now.
The sharp edges at the corners of the pool and where the pool floor meet the pool walls are not clear through the rippled plastic "water" surface. You can't actually see where the pieces meet from above. But, the resulting effect is clearly of depth, and a defined under water space that is vaguely identifyable from above (once any gaps are minimized anyway as in the last photo with the trees). Though not visible in the flash photography, even the lighting in the room helps with the illusion as the angle of the light makes the edge of the pool deck cast a shadow on the pool floor.
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So, now that the pool has taken shape, the entire street is starting to come to life. This diorama will swallow up alot of 1/87 scale vehicles. On the one side of the street is the Motel with separate office and restaurant buildings, the bus stop canopy and the Mel's Drive in. The Mel's Drive in has an interior as does the restaurant that is part of the Motel kit. The Motel office has lots of big windows but no interior. I didn't glue the roof of the office on so I'll be able to add an interior later.
So here are some photos down the one side of the street as it looks so far. I am now wondering about what adhesive to use on the "For Sale" sign parking lots. I used construction adhesive on the streets and sidewalks, but despite the stout wooden framework on the diorama, it could flex a bit when moving it and if the thin parking lot material pop's off it might not be easy to reattach without distortion. Thinking of something more like a silicone caulk adhesive that stays somewhat flexible. Any input on that?
 

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Looking down the opposite side of the street, is the bank, the car dealership with separate body shop, and across the angled intersection, the site for the Walthers service station to which I will be adding a scratch built canopy over one of the pump islands. I'm waiting on backordered details and Phillips 66 signage from Walthers before I start that build. I wanted to do a Phillips 66 station because the triangular wing like pump island canopies that they used, back in the day, will go nicely with the architecture on the rest of the street. The gas station will have an interior, the Plasticville bank has an interior and the car dealership has a showroom to display a couple cars. Although it wasn't really done on purpose, it looks like most structures on this diorama have interiors.
 

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Wow! It looks great. As far as vehicles are concerned, perhaps there's two or three too many at the motel, unless you're at 100% capacity. Diner and restaurant look plausible as far as vehicles. Bank is iffy!
 
Wow! It looks great. As far as vehicles are concerned, perhaps there's two or three too many at the motel, unless you're at 100% capacity. Diner and restaurant look plausible as far as vehicles. Bank is iffy!
Yes, a few empty parking spaces would certainly be appropriate. Realistically though, the motel/restaurant parking lot is likely painfully inadequate if all 24 rooms were occupied and all the tables in the restaurant were full of patrons. For right now, the motel/restaurant and the Mel's Drive in, the cars are in place so I can figure out the number of parking spaces that will fit, positioning and angle of the lines. The Drive in is a bit more complicated because the spaces are arranged around the circular dining room. I'll need to find the center of the circle to make the parking space lines look right. No excuse for the full parking lot at the bank though, since the spaces are already marked out there. Still, if you think about it two tellers, a bank mnager and a loan officer along with six walk in customers would account for all the cars parked in the lot. Assume its lunch time on a pay day Friday. I have enough 1/87 scale vehicles to fill up this diorama, and my basement HO train layout and still have alot left over.
 
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Hey the pool looks great!
I wonder if an end ladder from a caboose could be used as a pool ladder?
A diving board should be easy enough to build.

Now where did I put that speedo...
 
Hey the pool looks great!
I wonder if an end ladder from a caboose could be used as a pool ladder?
A diving board should be easy enough to build.

Now where did I put that speedo...

Thanks
Good idea for a pool ladder. I have been considering getting the Bachmann swimming pool from the local hobby shop just for the diving board (could also use the chairs).
With the pool done as I made it, it will be easy to add people to the pool. Just saw them in half and glue the bottom half below the water surface, and the top half above the water surface. I did the two swimming pools on my HO layout the same way (one a motel pool and the other a backyard pool using the Bachmann pool surround).

Oh, and keep your pants on. No Speedos allowed. LOL!

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Nice work!

Like Willie said, there may be too many cars at the motel. Depending on the time of day, many of the motel guests may have their cars elsewhere.
 
I ended up using 3M General Purpose Spray Adhesive to attach the thin plastic parking lot material for the motel/ restaurant and for the Mel's Drive in. It took a few attempts to get the flexible and sticky parking lot pieces in the exact correct locations. Each time I had to yank it back off the wood base to reposition it, I thought I would ruin it, but it, but eventually I got it all down in place. Once that was down, I could use the construction adhesive to attach the rest of the Walthers sidewalks and curbs. Between the Motel and the Mel's Drive in, I used the Walthers curbs without the sidewalks.
Other than the trees that will be around the Motor Hotel property, there really isn't much vegetation on this diorama. But there is a grassy area between the motor hotel and drive in, and there's an actual lawn in front of the restaurant building. I took some pieces of 1/8" thick styrofoam sheets, and cut them to shape, to match the height of the Walthers sidewalks and curbs in those areas. I painted the styrofoam flat brown, then sprayed each piece with spray adhesive and sprinkled Woodland Scenics turf on them to represent grass. In some areas, I sprayed more adhesive and again sprinkled on more grass to cover some bare spots. When the grass was dry on the styrofoam pieces, I turned them over and sprayed more adhesive on the bottom of each piece. Then fit the lawns into place like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I won't be gluing down the buildings, but I did spray adhesive on the bottom of the Smalltown USA sidewalks that make up the pool surround, and put those pieces in place. That will actually help to keep the motor hotel in place so it doesn't slide or get bumped out of place too easily.
Next step will be the tedius project of making alot of parking spaces.
 

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Marked all the parking spaces for the Motor Hotel/ Restaurant and the Mel's Drive in. Now the space is defined without the need for quite so many vehicles. But now my back is sore from leaning over this thing for all those parking space lines, and my fingers are sore from the detail work.
Still to do are ballasting the track, installing trees, signs, traffic lights and fences, and then it will be time to start adding smaller details. The corner gas station won't be built and added to the scene till the backordered details and signage arrive.
 

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Not a whole lot of progress today, but I did drill holes for the trees. I can at least remove the cumbersome tree bases now and at the same time know exactly where the trees will be planted. Many of the holes were drilled right in pavement or sidewalks. I have the metal grates on order that surround the base of the tree trunks to allow the tree access to rain water when planted along city sidewalks. Like so many other things I've ordered for this diorama, those too are back ordered from Walthers.
 

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