I needed one or two additional buildings for a 1950s courthouse square town in a forest industries area with lumbering, creosote treating, pulpwood loading and similar industries around. It occured to me that a suitable business for this town would be a store specializing in workingman’s clothes-- overalls, jeans, caps, gloves, work boots,etc.
I scratchbuilt a minimal building to stick up against the background, but had quite a time finding any appropriate decal lettering. Microscale has one sign decal with a “Army and Navy Store” but I am saving that for a planned scene of an island seaport city near military bases. Another Microscale sign decal has a small “Shoes for Men” sign, but it shows a dress shoe.
I ended up using individual decal letters for the store name, and printing a few smaller signs from my computer.
Is anyone familiar with any sign for a WORK CLOTHES STORE? Anyone ever build such a model, see a commercial kit or any model articles about modeling such a store? It seems it would appropriate for the warehouse districts, mining towns, timber country we often model.
(I will post a pic of my store when I install and shoot it.).
Is there a prototype you have in mind? Do you mean a uniform store–the kind of place where police, nurses, or other professions that wear job uniforms would find work clothes?
For general heavy-duty clothing, that sort of thing could be found at a hardware store, or a general store, or a department store, depending on the size of the town you are modeling. While working folks might wear work clothes the most, they certainly also might need other sorts of clothes–for church on Sunday, for Junior’s recital, for holidays and weddings, for job interviews. In a small community, one clothing store might sell rough & ready Levis and work clothes as well as wedding dresses–and, like most business proprietors, would probably prefer to show the higher-end sort of merchandise they sell in the front window and the sign than the more mundane stuff.
I wanted a Woolworths, so I Googled for it and found an appropriate picture. I right-clicked on the picture and saved it to my computer, and then printed up the sign. I even copied the colors of the awning and made one of those.
I’ve been experimenting with home-made decals over the past couple of weeks, too. So far, the results are pretty good, but time will tell how durable these things are.
Is it a company town? Such items would be sold at the company store.
Or you could use the approprate small town department or 5 and Dime store.
Nick
A Woolworth’s would provide an ideal solution. The 1950s might be a little late for the grand eras of “company stores” but I think there are exceptions (such as Scotia, CA.)
Years ago, such a store might not have a name that would make the product obvious. That is, there wouldn’t necessarily be “Army Navy” or “Uniforms” or “Workman’s Apparel” in the title of the business.
For instance, one of the sellers of military and paramilitary apparel in New York City was known as Weiss & Mahoney. That was the incorporated name of the business. Although I don’t remember anymore what the signage on the building itself looked like, it’s likely that there was mention of the principle specialties. If you’re familiar with the Work’s Hardware store model, you’ll have some idea of what I mean, although Work’s Hardware was an extreme example of this type of signage.
-Ed
I got my Woolworths put together. It’s DPM’s “Goodfellows Hall.”
MisterBeasley … like it, it LOOKS like Woolworths.
Leighant,
Since you’re from Texas, surely you’re familiar with the original Academy Surplus in Austin. Or the venerable Col Bubbies in Galveston.
Just a thought…
Thanks. Originally, I was going to use the DPM “Front Street Building” for my Woolworths, but when I put the awning on, this one looked better. I googled for old Woolworth signs, and found a picture that I used for the sign itself. I also borrowed the colors from the awning in the picture to make my own awning.
Wow, that sign does look great…it’s kind of amazing what the advent of laser/inkjet printers has done for signage on model railroads!