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...
haha i used to live a jail converted to a house, still had the bars in the windows.... man that was long time ago . they dozed it down right after i moved out......
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.
Being we're into railroading, building a replica of our city jail should be EZ. It used railroad ties for walls and was on the paper mill property.
RR Tie walls would make for a pretty easy build. There's a spot on the old portion of my layout where a series of retaining walls are made out of ties.
The structure is just about done. It still needs lots of details 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.
Thanks. No, the mailboxes are white metal castings that came in a package of six. They were made by somebody like Durango Press. I did an internet search before replying but couldn't find these exact ones. Whoever the manufacturer is makes brooms, shovels, wheelstops for the ends of industrial sidings and yard tracks, etc. There are some 3d printed ones and an assortment package that has some in it by Woodland Scenics. Here's another shot of a mailbox at another location on the layout. If I remember where I got them, I'll let you know. It's been years ago.
Thank you. i think ill have a go at trying to print some. there pretty small but maybe i can get a few printed with out too much trouble.
