Mister Beasley, coming from you, I take it as a great compliment. Don’t think I haven’t seen or admire your work. Your creations are a thing of pure study for me. I Thank You.
" … craving popcorn right now" Well lets not stop. Lets get really hungry. I can see Joe and his wife planning the next ‘spring’ outing to the Drive-In.
Popcorn anyone?
Craving Popcorn?
Dave, no idea, not my creation. As I mentioned, it’s at the San Diego Model Railroad museum at Balboa Park.
Dave and anyone else who wishes to know… lol, gheesh all these new names are confusing. All we need now is Wayne to show up.
Here are some pics.
I painted Woodland Scenic Tacky Glue on the bottom. I also painted rubber latex onto the top. The latex rubber acts as a hinge. The Tacky glue, hold the plate firmly against the monitor.
The black plate is made from styrene which has a ‘matte’ finish sprayed with black Krylon Plastic paint. The black plate is held firmly onto the monitor’s glass face using WS Tacky glue.
The black plate is held in place by the white trim. The white trim was left over scrap wood trim that came from the Blair Line Drive In kit. I thought what a better to do the screen.
Being that the screen was built with a small tilt, only aids for this all to push together and held nicely. The monitor slips right into place.
I hope this clears all this up. Now where is Wayne? lol
Thank you for that much, but where is the DVD player?
I used a 7" portable DVD player for my screen. I then built a small shelf below the layout for my larger DVD player where it’s readily assessible. I drilled a hole directly below the 7" DVD, fished an RCA cable up to the DVD’s input connection and hooked up the other end to the larger DVD’s output connection. I also went online and downloaded an original ten minute ditty they always showed during intermission and burned it to a CD. Impresses everyone who sees it!
Thank you.
Seems to me you could buid a rig for an iphone or a tablet too.
And right you are Joe. All these ideas I was contemplating as I looked at the listings on Ebay. Taking a mental note of measurements of all the options. I was leaning towards the 7 inch DVD player. But for N scale, it would seem almost a tad too large, and if not, it would be more of a modern screen. I did find the measurements of the Blair Line Drive In kit. When I had compared those measurements towards the Summer Baby monitor, it seemed like almost an Exact Match!
Then I found the used Monitor for $40 US dollars. I couldn’t believe it. So what if it was burnt in the back, for the price it was a steal, so long as it worked. Now if you had a complete brand new setup, that is, monitor and 3 camera’s … I’m guessing around the $300 dollar range. I wouldn’t know, because the camera’s I picked up were used also on Ebay.
Let me just say, this is NOT a DVD player. The monitor is the Drive In Movie screen. It is battery charged. No wires, but remote control. The monitor can handle up to 4 camera’s. I have 3 camera’s right now. The camera’s can be placed anywhere in the home. Those camera’s do have to be plugged in. Have one focused on the kitchen and I can watch what is going on there, have one focused on the TV, and I’ve got that… and one placed outside to watch the kids playing or cars going by. The monitor is a ‘touch screen’, that can control each camera, the focus / zoom in, turn left or right … and even the up / down. Its pretty high tech. The most expensive item of all 4 is the monitor, in which I got for $40.
Considering the price, the required measurements, I
It is Ironic the way we use high tech to reoresent technology in the past. I mean how many of us really get to go to a drive in or ride steam trains on a regular basis. Yet we reproduce the effect on our layouts with DCC sound and baby monitors etc. You have inspired me to look into building a drive in when I redo my layout next year.
Medina1128 wrote; "Have you considered gluing some small dowels in place, then covering them with plaster cloth?"
Marlon, I thank you for your input. Great idea and I followed up on it using scrap pieces of wood mounting them on some Foam board. I felt like I was building some Basal wood Airplane kit.
I had to measure it all out, actually place cars and take measurements. Took into consideration, the ‘entrance’ and exists’, ‘walk throughs’ for people to get to the Refreshment Stand, Ticket booth, Projection Shack and even did drainage. Swales, as they are called. A depressed area used for drainage / routing water. By using a table spoon I ironed in a depressed area into the Foam board, following the isles and exists. Worked great.
After that I did place ‘party foam’ (1/8th inch thickness) over the wooden risers, in which that shall be the pavement. I have since painted the party foam one coat of a mixture of WS Slate gray and WS Earth undercoat.
So far everything is working out and Thanks to your idea.
Thank you very much.
Keith
Joe, quote; “You have inspired me to look into building a Drive-In when i redo my layout next year”
Well I am pleased to read that. No greater compliment than that. But right now I feel more like a Crash Test Dummy. You can learn from my mistakes and my triumphs. Here is where I am at and wait till ya get a look at these pics. I’m fairly pleased with the results so far.
I used the Party foam to cover the wood risers glued onto the foam board. In which you can also see the undulated rows for cars. Well I hope you can see them.
I also painted a base coat to the foam. In which you can also see the ‘seams’ of the party foam as well, also see the imperfections.
I applied some putty to cover the seams, and here is where I am at this moment, in between drying times. (pics later on)
Take one of your cars and mask of everything except the windows with blue painters’ tape. Spray the car with Dull Coat, and when you pull the tape off you’ll have a car with the windows all fogged up.
Yeah, I grew up with Drive-Ins.
Fogged up windows? Yeah~ Things did get a little steamy back then. If only I was that far along to do windows.
Today I just finished up on the pavement. What a mess. lol … Me AND my BiG Mouth~ Whew, glad that was over with, but wait there’s more.
Not only did I finish up on the pavement, which has a gnarly look. But I also did Speaker Poles. Straight pins cut in half. One half to represents an empty space and one to look like both speakers are in the cars. I’m pretty happy with the results. Although, cutting, mounting them onto the foam board, spray painting them white and topped them off with a touch of green, well, made me wish I was back doing pavement.
Not only that, my wife and I laid out the buildings to see how everything looks in relation to the Drive-In.
Take a look. I can’t tell you how many times these buildings were moved. Women really love that sort of thing. This is one of the first times we’ve seen something like this We’re both pretty Jazzed right now.
Keith,
[tup][tup][tup]
Going a bit Off topic Is that Old Fashione dMcDonalds in the background a kit.
Nah, hardly going off topic and a good question. I believe its a Christmas Ornament, by Hallmark. Found it on Ebay. Seems to be perfect for N scale, but hardly a kit. Looks like a fun one for someone to put lights in. The whole insides should light up real nice with the glass and colors.
I do plan popping off those plastic bushes and adding my own.
As for topic, Mc Donalds was a thing for SoCal. The very first started in a small town called San Bernandino, CA in the early 40’s. The second one, built in 1953 was about 5 miles from my home in Downey, CA.
I found one of those for sale on Ebay. It is indeed a Christmas Ornament . Since I Model in HO I decided that the $50 minimum bid was too much Still I like the idea I think Vollmer sells an HO kit but I probably wont have room for it on my main layout but perhaps in my secondary display yard.
I found one of those kits at the Great American Train Show in Timmonium. It was a cheap kit with a few plastic parts. Since I used to work in one of those buildings back when hamburgers were 15 cents, I would like to have had it even though it was Plasticville quality. Unfortunately, the guy who had it thought it was extremely valuable so I had to pass on it.
Just some follow up pics.
I had to make a template to actually place the positions of the Speaker poles. One reason was to follow the curvature of the wooden ribs in the initial construction. Another reason was to be exact as possible in their placement. Special consideration at the end of the isles were important, thus another reason for the template.
The two white lines represent the ‘walk thru’ to various rows. Sewing thread strung with to hat pins were used for a temp marking of the lane.
The Speaker poles are made from ‘straight pins’ cut in half and painted white with a green top.
I am far from being finished, but if I didn’t stop and take a pic or two, there wouldn’t be much to talk about.
Keith
