We were discussing awnings in the the photo section and how common they were (and still are, in many places). I have a slightly different question. Take look at the awnings on the upper stories of the building on the left:
Some are half-triangles, some are half-circular, depending on the window shape, and others are rolled up against the windows frame. This was a common sight in cities and towns right up through the 60’s. I think I have storefront awnings down pretty good but these kind of awnings have me stumped. Has anyone done these and do you have any advice to offer. Thanks.
This is a job for cardstock. It’s simply a heavier-gauge paper that will still work in your computer printer. It’s thick enough to hold up in a model, and it can be bent and folded easily. You can print it with stripes, too.
I think the most recent article in MR on awnings a few years ago (it might have been Earl Smallshaw but I am prepared to stand corrected) used aluminum foil. For the rounded top windows you could form the top of the foil over a dowel of the right size. The stripes would be an interesting challenge. Woudl you paint the foil with stripes first, and then cut and form it? Might work. Forgetting the stripes might be the best idea so long as you get the shape and the “texture” right.
I worked in an old office building that initially did not have modern air conditioning so every afternoon someone would come in and lower the awning on my office window. It was plain cloth – no stripes – but obviously very thick canvas. This was in the late 1970s so this is not just an old time thing.
In the current issue of how to build realistic layouts, Jim Kelly talks aboutbuilding a yardmasters tower, and on page 45, he talks about making awnings on the computer and printing them on photo paper. Page 44 has a picture of the printed awnings. Hope this helps.
I think I could come up with some kind of template in MS word, using cardstock as suggested. I’ve used it before for awnings and it works fine. I have to work out the geometry of the street facing side, the two lower sides, and the short drop for the front. Once I have the template worked out, I can exand or shrink it in Word to match the window opening size. I should be able to print it out, fold on the dotted lines, so to speak, and just glue it in the window. This works for a window with a straight line top. I still haven’t figured out any easy way to handle windows with a curved top or the folded back awnings though. Hmmm…still thinking and tapping foot…[:-^]
I bought a group of DPM structure kits a while ago and one of the buildings had some arched windows in the 2nd floor. Included were some curved awnings made of vacuum-formed styrene. There’s another idea for you. I’ve seen several articles around the www on home-building a vacuum forming fixture…haven’t tried it though.
Vacuum forming awnings would be a viable idea if every building had the same width windows but, unfortunately, they dont, so you’d have to come up with an awful lot of different forms.
I’ve got the geometry worked out for square windows and find that cardstock is actually too stiff. Regular printer paper works better. I’ve got a basic template worked out in Word but the tricky part is being able to work with actual measurements for different sizes of windows. I may try Excel too since I think the drawing tools give you the chance to work with actual measurements. That’s really the only variable. Otherwise each window has about the same type of awning. I’ve done a few and they don’t look bad so far (once I paint them to cover up the dotted lines [:)]) but I still need to find a way to easly change measurements with the same template.
Well, I’ve been slaving away over a hot computer and I think I’ve come up with a dcent template for square top second story windows. Excel seems to be the best tool in my arsenal since it has a reference to size in pixels and colimn width when you resize a drawing. I’m still trying to work out exactly how those work out in real life measurements but I’ve done a few by eybal and they aren’t bad. I’ll bet this would be easy in AutoCad, assuming I had it and was smart enough to use it. I wonder if I can talk my engineer son into getting involved in this? [}:)]
Here are a few pictures to demonstrate some of the awnings so far. The first is a small awning and then a much larger awning on the next building down:
This one is a larger, more modern style of awning. I’m not too happy with this one but I think it does match the shallower modern-day awnings:
This is just a street scene with some of the store front and sceond story awnings. I couldn’t get them all in because of signs and building setbacks but I’m trying to emulate the cluttered look of main streets in the 50’s and 60’s:
All the awnings are printer paper with the fold lines on them. I use a dull xacto knife to make the sharp bends you need for an awning. I used AC to hold them inplace inside the window frame and then painted them with different colors of cheap craft shop acrylic paint. I actually like the effect of this paint on the paper because it’s a little rough compared to something like Polly Scale, which makes it look more like cloth that has been folded repeatedly.
I’m going to try my hand next at some awnings that are rolled up against the window frame. How to make an awning with a curved
