Building an O Scale Southwestern Trading Post

Yá'át'ééh! That’s a traditional Navajo greeting, and appropriate since today's video is all about building an O scale roadside trading post like those found along old Route 66 on the Navajo Nation. In this stand-alone project, I wanted to try something from a different era than my usual modeling on the Thunder Mesa layout. Some of the modeling techniques covered in this build include:
• Creating realistic aged adobe and stucco finishes
• Old weathered paint on doors and windows
• Watercolor weathering on Illustration board walls
• LED interior lighting
• Do-it-yourself corrugated metal roofing
• Realistic tarpaper roofing
• Modeling flagstone surfaces
• Signs, paper posters and more
Thanks for watching, amigos!
Dave
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Al music courtesy KZbin Audio Library, attribution given where available.
"Country Cue 1" courtesy of Audionautix, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon....
Artist: audionautix.com/
"Greaser" - KZbin Audio Library
"Temptation" - Chris Haugen, KZbin Audio Library
"Glen Canyon" - Dan Lebowitz, KZbin Audio Library
"Rocking Chair" - The Unicorn Heads, KZbin Audio Library
"River Crossing" - ALBIS, KZbin Audio Library
"Pickup Truck" - Silent Partner, KZbin Audio Library
"Top Down" - Dan Lebowitz, KZbin Audio Library

[@trishameigs1554]

I have watched this video numerous times. Partly to keep trying to learn about doing a stucco finish; and partly because I remember the Thunderbird Trading Post. Back in the very early 60’s, my dad would constantly find an excuse to go to Arizona, and we would always stop there. And again, in the mid 70’s, when my husband and I lived in southern Arizona - every time we got anywhere near, we’d stop at the trading post. Thanks for the memories!

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

What a great memory!

[@dscottpeterson6653]

I use Rust-Oleum aged iron on 3 tab shingled roofs. It gives just the right amount of grit in HO. It can then be painted over with a different color.

[@maxcorey8144]

I can smell the cedar. I loved those trading posts as a kid. Native art and craft and tourist junk.

[@2H80vids]

That jig for the wriggly tin roof is a great idea, so simple but I've never seen it done before.✔

[@N-Scale]

Very Cool and would look great with an Indian leaning back in a chair on the porch. Mike

[@chriscreativecontent]

Love this. Love the era too.

[@stevemossmakes2306]

That had to be the fastest 45 minutes of my life. Looking forward to the interior.

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

Thank you!

[@gdog5032]

Excellent work!!

[@jenniferwhitewolf3784]

Roadside America in the 1950s was really wonderful. This project perfectly captures the essence of so many places in my memory of those times.

[@richardsweeney197]

I really am enjoying your videos, and learning a lot, Thank You!

[@stevemellin5806]

Looking great thank you

[@brianrooney2970]

Mad skills bro, love it!

[@paulbottrill8391]

What an excellent looking trading post. Love all the details. Great work of art Dave.

[@ronaldwalters5736]

Spent over 11years on the Res! Reminds me of the trading post between Lipton and Houck along I-40.

[@jackbodenmann7379]

Very Cool! Some great techniques that I will surely use. Jack

[@jvanamb]

Dave, I do enjoy this build. So much so I just watched it the second time without realizing it was the 2nd go round! SO, when you do decide to detail the dio-rama please consider modeling a CIGAR STORE INDIAN. But the figure would stand stoic...until a trigger switch to start the icon moving in place. A motion of the arm. The rotation of the waist. A humorous shock gag will engage your visitors. Jim

[@robertloye9381]

You are really talented!

[@williamdickman7917]

Looks great, Dave. Turned out real authentic looking. I'm with ya on the junk cars and parts scattered around, also maybe a forlorn gas pump with an overhead single bulb lamp kitty corner from the front of the Post. Place a Navajo Cadillac getting gassed up by the pump and I think you got it. Again, well done, luv the signs, too.

[@jvanamb]

Dave, THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. You did something in this episode I have kavetch, whined, carped, & complained about for decades. Building interiors. All to often Master Modelers, Artisans, Influencers, and Craftsman have built structures, with interior lights, and NOTHING TO LOOK AT BUT BARE MATERIAL. Today you stepped up to the plate and gave a minimalist version of life on the inside. Thank you. Well done. To all other modeling Influencers take heed. This is to way to go. Now Dave a request. When you do get around to landscaping the exterior of the shop please go into greater detail of how you constructed the ICE CHEST & the unnamed "C"n"C" soda machine? If you so desired you could, periodically, talk a stroll through Thunder Masa & do an episode on how you scratch built the versions scenic details and props? Anyway Thank you for this semi-detailed Trading Post. Jim

[@theangelsmodellingandrailways]

Another stunning looking build Dave, your weathering techniques are sublime, lots of great info and done with basic products. Maybe have a totem pole of some kind in the scene, unsure of these things, as I live in Scotland, I probably watched too many westerns as a kid, lol. All the best. Brian @ The Angels

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

Thank you. Totem poles are mostly associated with tribes of the Pacific Northwest. I've never seen one in Navajo Land.

[@theangelsmodellingandrailways]

@@ThunderMesaStudio aah, A new fact I have now learned, :) Great work as always Dave.

[@nagainobuhiko3340]

amazing technic !!!

[@Dave-tm7xx]

For the scribing instead of a file stop at a gun shop and check out a checkering tool. Used to cut the checkering on gun stocks

[@davevan8864]

Great work as always!!!! I designed a large O scale 'Mission' style station that never made production. But I do have a set of MDF walls.....maybe I need to build it!!!! Thanks

[@caryhocker]

I would love to see this kit released, and would purchase it in O scale.

[@normanrowe2831]

Another great build. Maybe you can translate the Navajo on the front of the building, the Navaho sign. Thanks. See ya next time.

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

Yà’ át’ é éh is a traditional Navajo greeting and can mean “hello,” “welcome,” “how you doin?” etc.

[@wendgord]

excelent modeling, dave, I like to white glue toilet paper on my roofs for that textured roof look, ever tryed it?

[@lynnmccurdythehdmmrc2561]

Hold the Phone, you used Baking Soda as a "kicker" for the CA? I've been using "Insta-set", and dealing with the over spray and Smell.

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

Yes, baking soda works great. It also fills joints.

[@maxcorey8144]

CA reacts with thread, string, rope, cloth, any powder and sawdust.

[@dscottpeterson6653]

Have you ever tried textured spray paint for stucco?

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

I've experimented with it. I found the texture to be a little too big (out of scale).

[@kenruble5292]

Why not hang the lights/lamps from a wagon wheel like you would see in some of these buildings?

[@jamesl1130]

Have you built a barrel house or a bottle house such as those at Knotts?

[@markdeschane4467]

Where do I find various thicknesses of MDF Sheet stock, Dave?

[@markdeschane4467]

Dave, What is the difference between Laser Board and MDF?

[@caesarillion]

I"m detailing my Hotel/Bordello (backdoor orphanage) "Sawas Dee." It's written in Thai so none of the locals can read it but eventually everybody knows where it is. Sisters of Christ there keep a low profile since a wuskie driinkin' miscreant, new in town, "bustated som windahs in a kase of mistakin identie." Good works prevail. Sincerely, Paul P Publius Venne (Vincent) Agent D&RG Ry... Thank yew...