Atlantic Hotel Review

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome to Downtown Deco"><U><B><IMG SRC="04c91560.gif" border=0 width="145" height="86" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome to Downtown Deco"><U>Click for Main Menu</U></A></div> <bR> <div>                                                   </div> <div> <A HREF="tylick1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mike Tylicks OScale Atlantic Hotel"><U><B>Mike Tylick's O-Scale Atlantic Hotel</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="04f589e3.jpg"> <div> <B>Atlantic Hotel /Red's Bar</B></div> <div> <B>#DDR 17 O</B></div> <div> <B>O Scale $79.95</B></div> <div> <B>Plaster, styrene, and paper Craftsman Kit</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Downtown Deco</B></div> <div> <B>4319 Rainbow Drive</B></div> <div> <B>Missoula, MT 59083</B></div> <div> <B><U>www.downtowndeco.com</U></B></div> <bR> <div> In this day of slick styrene structures, with their well done but mechanical electronically milled brick walls, it is easy to forget how inviting hand carved wall textures, and just how well hand work captures the texture of an older structure.  Hobbyists will forever debate the merits of various materials but plaster is certainly lends itself to intimate hand work and to limited production kits.  And, being masonry in the first place, beautiful paint and weathering effects are easily accomplished.</div> <bR> <div> Downtown Deco has produced a line of fine plaster models in many scales for some time.  Although some kits are always more or less available, many others are limited runs sold only to one scale. My experience is that these are usually still for sale from dealer's shelves or from E-bay.  The Atlantic Hotel in this review is no longer available from the manufacturer, but it is typical of Downtown Deco's offerings and should be a good guide for anyone interested in an affordable and attractive structure.  Contact Downtown Deco for a list of stores that may have this kit in stock.  Although billed as having “that `Colorado” look” I feel that the design is typical of older city architecture anywhere in the country.  The design appears to me more suited to light industrial use than as a hotel.  The large blank walls would make excellent background flats.</div> <bR> <div> My kit arrived in a sturdy corrugated box.  Even though the plaster parts were carefully mounted on card backings, the fragile front wall had broken into several pieces.  The damage took only a few minutes to repair with white glue, which I chose to use rather than the recommended epoxy and CA adhesives.    The well detailed and textured plaster castings had little flash and were free of air bubbles.  They fit together well with a minimum of sanding and filling.  I was impressed that I could detect no warping, caving, or distortion in the parts for this large 9" x 8" (9 ½" high) structure.  The Grandt windows and doors were packaged in a poly bag.  Two windows were distorted beyond easy repair.  An e-mail to Downtown Deco resulted in a friendly next day reply, and replacement windows arrived in about a week.  Also included in the kit were several sheet and strips of styrene and wire for the roof and signs, a unique sign stencil, and construction paper for window shades and roofing material.  Concerned that the styrene roof would warp when paper roofing was applied, I substituted a scrap of mat board for the roofing material.  Downtown Deco suggests contact cement for applying the roofing, but I used white glue to avoid glue smears.  I added 1/4" square wood corner bracing (cut on a table saw from pine scrap) for additional reinforcement.</div> <bR> <div> Although the instructions are sketchy, the details are clearly explained, and there wasn't much to figure out with four walls and a roof.  Two color photos are included on the cover, although several line drawings appear within the instructions.  Although the kit really took a little longer to build  than a similarly sized styrene kit- about ten hours including painting- it wasn't more difficult than many shake the box kits.  Less experienced modelers may be intimidated without the additional hand holding of very detailed instructions.  The unusual finishing techniques suggested by Downtown Deco  resulted in an extremely realistic simulation of brick, which  I plan to use again.  The sign stencil proved easy to apply and shadow. It provided a most realistic  painted on sign effect.  Several small paper signs are included with the kit, but the large blank walls just dry out for additional signage, a la George Sellios and Earl Smallshaw.  I plan to add  an outside kitchen and stairwell after these photos are completed.  </div> <bR> <div> The Atlantic Hotel is a most affordable and attractive craftsman kit that, despite sparse instruction sheets, could be assembled and painted by all but the novice.  Downtown Deco is indeed a company worth looking to for interesting and affordable craftsman kits.</div> <bR> <div> <I>Michael Tylick</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> This site and its contents are Copyright © 2000-2008 by Downtown Deco, except as noted.</div> <div> Site design and maintenance by <A HREF="mailto:gerenm@gmail.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:gerenm@gmail.com"><U>Geren W. Mortensen, Jr.</U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>