If you drive through any town in the world, you will find a gas station. Big urban cities or small rural towns, the bottom line is everyone needs gas or mechanical services for their vehicle. So it goes without saying (even though I’m saying it) every model railroad needs a service station. Today, the new stations are state of the art and offer just about every convenience that you would need as well. But there is something about those old school gas stations that offer just gas, oil, tires, and repairs. They have that no-nonsense look about them that tells the driver “We have what you need and not much else.” A blue collar, lets get you back on the road gas station you would expect to be run by a guy named “Buck” in coveralls coated in axle grease and oil stains.
Our Black Water Cove layout does not have such a structure anywhere on it. So, when Kenny Crump of KC’s Workshop asked me to do a test build of his new “Goober’s Garage” ho scale structure, and sent me a few photos, I jumped all over it. This kit personifies every small town gas station you would expect to find across America. The straight up cinder block wall, get your car fixed by “Hank” and he will hand write you an invoice. This thing just screamed to me, “Build Me, Build Me.” and I had a hundred ideas in my head the moment I saw it.
If you are looking for unpretentious, which it should be. We model 1930’s and 40’s and it is perfect for us, but it fits literally every era! I dare you to go into any town today and not find a cinder block old school gas station. It might not even be used as a gas station anymore. It might be some other business or just flat out abandoned. But I’m pretty sure you won’t have to look hard to find one. It very well may be right down the street from you.
The Parts Check
When I opened the package and began checking out the parts, I was immediately impressed with finally seeing laser cut cinder block basswood walls. I rarely see it done in craftsman kits, and these were perfectly cut with the mortar lines not only on the walls, but around the ends of each walls corner and inside the windows and doors where the block work would be visible. Many kits don’t even do this with their brick structures. The walls themselves are slightly thicker than the walls of other structures at 3/16″ compared to 1/8, which is perfect because 
it allows for a deeper laser cut and draws out the detail of the mortar lines and block edges without compromising the integrity of the wall. It also had 2 different styles of laser cut garage doors offering all sorts of options which I will explain in a moment. There were about a dozen detail castings from BEST and Rusty Rails, both of which make some the finest details in the hobby. Even a gas pump with the concrete island to sit it on. It also included masonry windows that fit inside the walls window openings perfectly, and it had a really nice laser cut wood billboard with letters that spell GAS. I love those things and they add so much to any business structure. There was a side annex shed to attach to the building with an open faced entrance much like a carport. and your usual assortment of scale lumber for the bracing and build. Plenty was provided and I had left over when completed.
But the single most item that had my attention was the roof card. It was laser cut on top in four separate areas to represent the boards of the roof underneath some tar paper. And the boards even had knotholes! This allows the modeler to show some bare boards under some torn up tar paper if you want to go for that well worn look. The garage inside would definitely need to put some water buckets on the floor to catch rain water. Super cool idea!
The Build
As far as kits go? This build doesn’t get easier. It is four walls, a roof, the 3 sided shed, and the rooftop billboard. It is straightforward and I believe it is meant to be. This kit is designed to give you the ability to become as creative as you ever want to be. Even in it’s simplicity the quality and design of the details is not sacrificed one bit. If you want to build this at its basic, you will still have a fantastic looking garage because it fits in any era and style of town as I mentioned above. But wow! If you even use the smallest bit of your imagination, in no time you will have something truly custom and something any viewer of your layout or diorama will be able to relate to with some nostalgia.
I started with the normal bracing of my walls, then painted the rear of the four walls soft black acrylic. For the front surface of the walls, I wanted to keep it looking like unpainted natural cinderblocks on the majority of the structure, and then paint the top four or five rows of blocks red, based on a photo I had found online of a similar garage (to the right). I painted each wall entirely with a grey rattle can spray primer. The cheap one from walmart was perfect toned. I wanted to use the primer because I didnt want the paint to bleed into the mortar. I then took DAP spackle paste and rubbed it into the grooves with a paper towel. When done, I used a damp sea sponge to remove the excess residue on the blocks. Took two attempts but it cleaned up sweet and it gave an excellent mortar appearance. The laser cut was perfectly receptive to show each line perfectly.
I knew I was painting the top rows of block red, but I planned to age it some with some by lightly sanding that section (just a few swipes lightly with 220 grit) and if it should peel back at least grey block would show underneath. When I received the kit, it had some of the window punchouts from the walls that also were laser cut, so I thought it would be a great idea to paint one the same as the wall and fit it back into the window and just inset inside about 1/16″ from the wall to make it look like it was blocked up at some point in time. Nice little extra feature if you use it. At this point you can add any signs that come with the kit, and I chose some vintage signs I had found online google search of old gas station signs and placed them on with a small bead of white school glue (thinner than normal elmers) after sanding down the backs. The windows were then painted the same Santa Red, and put in place. I used real glass on all windows, cutting them from microscope slides as we explain how in another how to article on this site (We do this now with all buildings).
Assembly was easy with the template that KC’s included for bracing. It was just offset enough on each in a unique way that allowed it to lock in like tongue and groove of sorts. Never seen it done that way in a kit before but it gave a nice tight fit and cut down on any visible line that would be an eyesore with a block or brick design. Four walls, it was a no brainer.
The roof was next. I was looking forward to this the most. First time ever I actually was looking forward to doing a 
roof card. I’m indifferent to them as I am sure most of you are normally. But with the lasercut boards etched into the top, I wanted to show some exposed roof boarding! So I used my AK Interactive old and weathered wood acrylic set to get a nice faded and detailed weathered tone on three of the four possible locations to expose the boards. I used an old paintbrush to paint white glue on the roof on all areas except the parts where I would expose the boards and covered the entire roof with various shades of black paper strips of different lengths for tar paper. When done, I turned over the roof card and poked my xacto blade through one of the center slots of the laser cut boards so when I turned it back over, I would know where the boards were under the paper. Using some tweezers and the knife I picked away at the paper gently but making it look ragged and exposing the paper so the edges looked worn, torn, and some curling up. I took a few of the scraps I peeled away and cut them square to the size of a board and glued small pieces to a few spots on the boards so it looked like it was stubborn paper that stuck well. A pretty cool effect to try.
The next thing was the side shed that is very easy to build and attach with a sloping roof card covered with tar paper. I did drybrush some burnt umber to give a rich dark brown wood tone.
Laser cut billboards are always fun to do and easy to build and the template for it was simple because the supports are also laser cut and they looked fantastic. Can’t screw this up and was the easiest rooftop billboard I ever assembled. The sign reads GAS. I painted it bright red but it just wasn’t enough for me (never really is) and I carefully hand painted a white boarder around the letters to give it two tones. 
When dry I attached it to the roof and then used some AK interactive rust wash and put a few rust spots directly onto the sign itself and tamed them down with mineral spirits to look like they were running slightly and to give the edges that beginning signs of rust.
Last for me on the actual structure were the laser cut roll up garage doors and the front door. There are two different styles which is pretty cool. Laser cut doors and windows are my favorite because they give more depth to them and a lot of creativity as to how to paint them. It allows you to do two tones because you can paint each piece prior to assembling them together and you get nice painted edges everywhere. They turn out 
sharp. The front door was easy two pieces. The garage doors I wanted a style like the doors of the photo on the garage I found online. Lots of windows. So I chose the garage that was supposed to be many square panels, not windows, and decided to not use the rear backing sheet behind the framing. Instead I cut a few of the center cross pieces out and made big long windows except for the bottom row which would be a solid wood kick panel of sorts. I loved how it turned out so I added a piece of the clear acetate behind it for windows and attached it to the structure.
I lightly weathered the structures blocks with chalk pastel dust in dark greys and light brown along the bottom 3 rows of blocks to show some dirt along the baseline. Then dry sponged some dove grey acrylic very lightly on the roof to give it a speckle effect and used the chalk dust in dark grey and light brown on the tar paper making it look faded and another depth to the roof.
The detail parts were great and I hand painted them after spraying them with flat black primer.
The Extra Stuff and the Diorama.
I wanted to just keep going with this baby! Enough is usually not enough for me, plus I was already hooked. So I 
decided on a diorama that I could add to the layout later yet still show this beauty of a kit off. I cut a 12×12″ sheet of extruded foam and went to town on it. I added many of my own detail parts for scenery from the piles of stuff I have laying around the workbench in bins and containers, and tossed in a few trees and ground scenery, static grass, etc. The vehicle and a lot of the details you see are not included with the kit, including the toilet I thought would look good right in the middle of the yard… I had a hard time telling myself enough is enough and had to slap my own hands away from it after a while. The love and passion of the hobby I suppose.
Overall this was a really awesome kit. There are very few that I have built that I didn’t feel that way, but Goober’s offered a total license to be creative and build that perfect small or large town garage precisely as you envisioned it to be, maybe from your own small town or in yesteryear. There was a lot of thought put into this design with the creative modeler in mind as well as anyone that just wants to cut their teeth on building a wood craftsman kit. I loved it.
You can find this kit available now on KC’s Workshop website. And if you use the special code HOSCALECUSTOMS before July 7, you can save yourself an extra $10 off the price which is already very fair.
Below are additional photos I took outside under natural sunlight and with a bit of background. Hope you enjoy!
