Jack & Benny's Old Time Diner

Jack & Benny's Old Time Diner is a Sarissa Precision 28mm MDF building - here being defended by the Linden Daos

 After purchasing the Sarissa "City Block" 28mm MDF buildings from Wargame Tools LLC, and being incredibly pleased with them, I ordered some more buildings awhile back. Two were for shops or businesses for my city, and the third was a factory. I had already painted up the smaller of the shops before, and so started in on the second one a week or so ago. I was actually quite shocked how much larger this second turned out to be! It measures 10.5"x9.25" length by width, and is 3.5" tall. Thankfully, it will fit in the boxes my terrain gets stored and transported in!

The sign, awning, interior floors, and graffiti are all printed paper glued onto the MDF surface

 I decided to make it into a diner, so actually Googled famous diners in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio. It was hard to pass up a name like "Jack and Benny's Old Time Diner," so I picked that one! For some reason, this shop went together easier than the first, smaller shop. Maybe I am just getting better at assembling and gluing these together. I use Tacky Glue and use rubber bands to hold pieces together while the glue is drying. This building has a combined wood and brick exterior, along with a long awning running along the front of the building. The awning was definitely the trickiest part to assemble, but it went together well.

Hated rivals of the Daos, the Bexley Blockwatch checks out the premises, including the roof flocked with gray ballast

After my less than impressive paint job on the smaller shop's awning, I decided to print out a striped pattern and simply glue it on. First, though, the assembled building and separate roof/awning piece was primed with Krylon Fusion black spray. I then painted the wood exterior in sky blue, following that up with a white dry brush. Next, I painted the bricks red brown, dry brushing them Howard Hues Middle East flesh. Next, I picked out the trim and doors in a medium blue, dry brushing it a light blue. I finished off the exterior walls with a light black wash.

The interior of the building is divided into three areas, which I envision as the diner seating area, kitchen & office

The interior walls were done in a craft paint "Quaker Gray." I painted the doors the same blue but left out the dry brushing because I figured the interior would not be weathered like the outside. Then it came time for the floors. I had decided on a black and white checkered floor -- that seemed suitably Diner-ish! I downloaded a Google image of a black and white checkered pattern, resized it in Photoshop, and then exported it into a PDF file for printing at the local print shop. I actually created my own blue and white stripe pattern for the awning and similarly printed it off at the Staples office supply. Likewise, I created my own sign for Jack & Benny's, to be pasted onto the front of the building.

I really like the floors of the diner - the black checkered pattern really makes it stand out

The awning is part of the roof, which I did similar to previous roofs on Sarissa buildings. I like the way the gravel flocking gives the buildings a three dimensional character. One issue I sometimes have with MDF buildings is they can look two dimensional without proper texturing or modifying.

The Grandview Gurkhas have tagged their own wall of the diner, which is sure to provoke a rumble with the Daos

I had gone back and forth while doing these Sarissa Precision buildings on whether to "urbanize" them. Since I will be using these for my urban gangs project, I finally decided to give it a try. I decided to print off graffiti for the walls, too, rather than try freehand painting it on. I did a Google image search of graffiti and found lots of cool images. I picked out two for the long side walls. Then I found a website that lets you type in your own graffiti lettering and save the file. I created a "tag" for both the Linden Daos and the Grandview Gurkhas. In Photoshop, I pasted them onto a "transparent" background, then pasted that image onto the colorful graffiti I had downloaded. The graffiti was rectangular, so in Photoshop, drew an irregular black outline following the images of the graffiti to be the border. I cut these out, painted white glue onto the back of them, and stuck them onto the walls.

The printed graffiti is a nice touch, I think, but could be supplemented by more plain graffiti on future buildings

I like how the graffiti adds a splash of color to the wall. I think I made the graffiti too large, though, and will double-check my measurements next time. All in all, I am very happy with how Jack & Benny's Old Time Diner turned out. Doubtless, it will be the scene of many turf wars once my Urban Gang Warfare project is underway!