MDF Gas Station for my 28mm Urban Terrain

My 28mm MDF Sarissa Precision Gas Station being overtaken by one of my 28mm gangs

Although I think I may be at a stopping point on painting up gang members for my 28mm Urban Gang Warfare project, I have lots of buildings I can add to give them more "turf" to fight over. The latest is another Sarissa Precision building from their Retro Americana line, Gas Station - P002. I obtained it from one of those great guys you run into in this hobby, Terry Jones from Wargame Tools. Although he didn't have it in stock when I asked him about it, he picked it up for me on his next trip overseas and brought it back for me. From there, my friend Zeke grabbed it from him at Cold Wars (with my other purchases), and kindly brought it back to me.

I didn't use the Sarissa MDF pumps, instead painting up this resin one from Miniature Building Authority

As with most Sarissa Buildings, it went together VERY easily. I think that is the thing I like best about their products -- they are so simple to assemble. I did decide to NOT assemble their MDF gas pumps because I had previously purchased a resin gasoline pump island from Miniature Building Authority (another great group of guys!). Since my project is based in the 1980s or so, I wanted to make this gas station somewhat retro, like it is entitled. I also want it to be usable for more modern stuff, though, so I tried to think of what gas company hasn't changed its logo much over the decades. Shell came immediately to mind, so this would be a Shell station. I googled images of vintage shell stations to get the color scheme, and began painting.

The front interior section of the gas station - not the simple painting with details added by printed paper

I prepared the model as I usually do -- black prime with Krylon acrylic spray primer, followed up by a 50/50 mixture of black acrylic paint and water. Although this often makes the base colors on top of it need two coats, I like the effect and coverage that it gives. I painted the interior Ceramcoat Rain Gray first, then the outside Ceramcoat Ivory (a nice cream color) with Red trim. Honestly, painting this gas station has made me realize my physical painting skills are deteriorating. Look in the pictures and you will see the mess I made of straight lines on the red trim (the doors are the absolute worst), I am tempted, from this point on, to use even more printed paper on my models -- and as you can see, there is quite a bit on this one already!

Seamus, the leader of the Hilltop Highlanders, patiently waits his turn to use the facilities

I printed out the floors, interior doors, and posters on the walls to decorate this model. I really like the way they look -- far superior to what I could do freehand! I was wondering if a printed door would detract from the three dimensional aspect of the model, but I think it actually adds to it. Same with the signs and posters (and floors). They seem to give it depth. To get these, I simply do Google searches (except for the doors, which I downloaded from a free textures images website. I did have to add the Male/Female bathroom signs to them with Photoshop, which I use to resize the images to the correct size. The service bay was fun to decorate with pinup calendar girls...yes, I am stereotyping what mechanics would put on their walls! But I have been in enough service shops and seen enough scantily clad women in tool posters to base this at least partially on reality!

A couple gang members admire the artwork on the walls of the service bay while Seamus takes a pee

The Shell signs were taken from Google and resized, as well. I really like the side projecting signs. When I assembled the model, this had me scratching my head. I almost didn't put them on for fear of them catching on things and snapping off. It looks like they're secured fairly well from how the model is designed (going through two thicknesses of MDF), so I put them on. I think them painted red with the Shell logo looks great, though. I probably should have done more for the roof sign, utilizing the oval space more than the circular logo does. Oh well. Something to remember for future models.

A good look at the roof and the back of the building, as Seamus assembles the gang

The rooftop is one area of the model that I modified. Instead of simply using the MDF roof, I glued a sheet of textured plastic onto it. I used a brick-like pattern, and painted in deep red wetbrush, followed by a Howard Hues Middle Eastern Flesh dry brush. I think it gives it a much more three dimensional look than flat MDF. However, my plastic didn't attach so well to the MDF, and you can see where to bowed up a bit in places. I should have flattened it really well when affixing it under a stack of books, or something. Another thing to remember for future buildings!

All in all, I think the gas station is a nice addition to my 28mm urban terrain. In my game, I plan to give each player multiple missions for their gangs. The gas station will allow me add some cool stuff, like maybe stealing a car from the service bay! I have a lot of choices which building to do next as I bought a nice stack of them from Terry when I purchased this one. Stay tuned to see which one I build...