Plaza Theater Completed

bostonjim Jul 25, 2018

  1. markm

    markm TrainBoard Supporter

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    Jim,
    I have two problems: the time to spend building it and the creeping elegance for details. For example, having worked a bit at a theater, I know that the concrete in front of the exits will show a wear pattern and I want to model that before the walls go up. Then there are parking lot lines and....
    I usually add wood strips in the inside corners for designs like this. It stops light leaks and I can use them to support interior light baffles. It would be nice if there were more options for the marquee, representing various eras: "Gone with the Wind", "How the West was Won", "The Graduate" and of course "Back to the Future III." It looks like they're laser cut, so I'm thinking about getting one cut. I'll also have to look up some appropriate theater posters as well.

    I've learned a lot from your lighting experience and I'm thinking of controlling my lights with something like the DZ146 DCC decoder or build my own with a microcontroller and use an I²C connection (essentially LCC) to minimized external wiring.

    Mark
     
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  2. zdrada69

    zdrada69 TrainBoard Member

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    As far as Kibri parts are concerned there is good information to kitbashers and scratchbuilders. Under the Viessmann management there is a possibility (at least It was in 2017) to buy "spare parts". You should find that option on Kibri/Viessmann www. You should know the number of the mold you are interested in (those numbers are clearly marked on molds) and just order it via www. As far as I remember they were priced around 3 EURO per one mold + P&P. The only problem I had with this is long waiting time (up to 6 weeks). I hope it is useful information.

    Pawel
     
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  3. Curn

    Curn TrainBoard Member

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    I was not aware of that one, but urban dictionary confirms it. Partick Narry would be spinning in his grave if he found this out.

    Matt
     
  4. bostonjim

    bostonjim TrainBoard Member

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    Hi, Mark
    I'm glad the photos made your lighting decision easier. Please show how it can be done. I foresee dozens of hubs, extension hubs, switches and LOTS of wires. I have another work in progress that has as many lights. That is already two of these set-ups. It can easily run into a space problem. I like your thoughts on the super-detailing. I haven't decided if I'm going to weather this project. The actual PLAZA theater closed in the early 50's. Had a rebirth as a roller skating rink until the early 60's and then was a boarded up eyesore at the end of our block until it was torn down along with the rest of the neighborhood. It is now the site of the Reggie Lewis track center. Whenever you get started on it will be the right time. It is a lot of fun to build. Hats off to Ben for producing such a great kit. That would be great if you could change out the marquee. You make it sound easy to get one made. Who makes them? How do we get in touch with someone who can? I'd probably build another one if I had a different movie title. Take care. Jim
     
  5. bostonjim

    bostonjim TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks, Pawel
    Yes. The info is useful. I need one end wall piece from 6770 to complete a work in progress. Jim
     
  6. markm

    markm TrainBoard Supporter

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    My thoughts on my Snowden lighting is 4 zones: general building lighting, specific building lighting, lobby lighting and marquee. General building stays on all night, specific building, such as the sconces and exit signs only as long as the building is occupied, lobby lighting during show times and exits and marquee until the last show starts.

    The actually LED wiring would be hand-wired and mostly internal to the structure. If you are using 12V and white LEDs, you can safely wire 3 LEDs in series with a 270ohm current setting resistor. You can then wire 3 or 4 of these serial strings in parallel to get up to 12 LEDs per decoder function. If I understand the instructions the DZ146 actually has 6 functions, so I'm also thinking of a couple of LEDs wired up as Mars lights to simulate the old search lights used a movie premieres. NCE makes a small board called Light-It that in DC mode can be used for special effects such as race lighting and flickering fluorescents.

    As for the marquee, I would contact Rich at rslaser (spyder62 here). He does some custom work to customer data files and this might be a project that interests him.

    Mark
     
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  7. z.scale.hobo

    z.scale.hobo TrainBoard Member

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    Jim:

    Viessmann acquiring Kibri is old news... I have manufacturer profile pages for most manufacturers which contain information to the best of MY knowledge ... https://zscalehobo.com/about-viessmann.html

    All these dated Kibri bundled sets you are talking about are still readily available just re-packed into smaller sets at much much lower pricing. Here is the my Kibri 6898 that page is from 2004! ... https://zscalehobo.com/kibri/6898.html

    That 6898 jumbo set was 6892 and 6896

    6892 is now 36807 and 36811 (both available); 6892 was $63 and now these two are only in the $40 range total.

    6896 is now 36811 36813 36817 . originally $83 and now $60 total.

    All the same kits are there just with different numbers or molded into slightly different colors.

    Kibri line is here: https://www.zscalehobo.com/kibri/kibri_numbers.html

    Miller... I have fire station, church and diner (also diner interior and interior lighting) but otherwise as mark mentioned my old customer is listing a bunch on that auction site. Miller has none left ... I have asked him dozens of times. Occasionally he finds some but not any more for the last 59 times i asked him.
     
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  8. bostonjim

    bostonjim TrainBoard Member

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    Hi, Mark
    Thanks for the info on marquee possibilities. I have built a lot of his kits. I still prefer the look of "real" pallets. I like your lighting plan. Mine sort of morphed into something similar when I started making connections to the hubs. I added an auxiliary switch to control the inside lights. Each of the 2 front windows has its own light. The marquee and the White Tower (that's what they were called in Boston) each have one. They are controlled by the switch. The other lights are controlled at the hub. The 3 wall sconces could be wired in a series and controlled as one unit instead of 3. The WS system wouldn't allow this but if you were doing your own wiring it could be done. Since you worked in a theater you have a better feel for the lighting cycles. That's realism. Z scale movie posters would be pretty cool. I thought about search lights, too. Raildig had an article about "mini-spot lights" that piqued my interest in that. Check it out if you haven't already. The spotlight and trailer would be a nice scratch building project. You could model the premiere of your favorite movie. Take care. Jim
     
  9. bostonjim

    bostonjim TrainBoard Member

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    Hi, Frank
    Thanks for the info. I have several unbuilt Miller kits including the diner and light. I finished (mostly) the "City Scoops" kit and it will be a local hamburger place called "Kemp's". It actually looks a lot like the real one did. Another Gulf kit would be a nice find. Take care. Jim
     
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  10. drken

    drken TrainBoard Member

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    I put a bunch of addressable RGB LEDs in my theater so the marquee and side lights can be any color I want, including rotating colors. The lights are just a little bit bigger than the Woodland Scenic ones, so they fit pretty well except for not fitting through the hole cut out for the marque one. Unfortunately, the LEDs rely on very precise timing and don't play well with most anything that does (or uses interrupts) so I've had to develop an Arduino based decoder for them that just reads the DCC signal and outputs the address and state (on/off) to another Arduino via serial (or anything capable of reading serial data) that handles the LEDs and everything else. I'm calling it a DCC translator. I'm almost finished with it (one last bug to fix), but when I'm done I'll post it in the DCC forum.
     
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