In a recent article, I shared a method for creating round Coca-Cola signs typically used on grocery stores or pharmacy storefronts. So, in this article, I’ll show you how to build a pharmacy sign and include the Coke signs.

The Prototype

The prototype for this sign comes from the book, By the El, which is an excellent resource book for urban modelers. The book features full-color photography from the 1940s and on.  The photos focus primarily on New York City’s elevated lines, but every page includes full-color storefronts and structures.

The particular photo I used for reference is of Martin’s pharmacy.  The signage in the book is partially obscured by I copied the text as faithfully as possible and decided to keep the name.

Materials Needed

• .060″ (or less) x .250″ strip styrene
• .010″ x .030″ strip styrene
• Sign design
• Poly Scale Tarnished Black and USSR Underside Blue
• Coca-Cola Signs
• Dull Cote
• Glue – Elmer’s Stix-All and CA used

Construction

Basic Sign Shape

To create the basic shape of this wrap-around style of sign, I used two pieces of .060″ x .250″ styrene to create an “L” shape. Full scale would be 9.6″ x 40″ which be appropriate for this type of sign.  The .250″ measure is critical but feel free to use something other than .060″ thickness. Honestly, .030″ would probably be more prototypical but I used .060″ because I had it on hand. I didn’t think the size difference would matter much in this case.

I measured the lengths of each side of the structure I wanted to apply the sign, cut them to length and glued them together with a basic butt-joint.

Painting the Back and Edge Faces

I then masked the front faces of the sign and sprayed all of the edges and back faces with Poly Scale Tanished Black.  The photo above is actually already painted since I didn’t have a focused one pre-paint.

Printable Sign Designs

To use the images above on your own layout, left click on the image to enlarge it to the full-size version.  Then right-click on the image and select “Save As”,  “Save Target As” or something similar.  The specific process for saving the image may be slightly different depending on your individual Internet browser and setup.

Printing the Design

I then printed the design for the two faces of the sign on transparency film using a laser printer. I really like using transparency film when doing black signs because I think the result (although it doesn’t translate well in photos) is more dimensional than simply printing the sign on paper. Also, transparency film hold Dull Cote really well.

I like to print multiple at once and then choose the one I’ve cut out best. For this particular sign, the lettering will be “colored” by the white, unpainted styrene that will be beneath it.

Cutting and Applying the Printed Signs

The signs are cut long, with excess “black” on either end. This gives room to adjust as they’re glued in place.

To glue the signs to the styrene, I’ve used my favorite glue for working with transparent materials: Elmer’s Six-All.  This allowed me to have plenty of time to move the sign film around before the glue set.  I double checked the placement to ensure the words were centered on the sign face. I measured the distance from the lettering to edge of the styrene face and adjusted as necessary.

This glue will also dry clear and you will not see it behind the transparency once dry. Just be careful not to get glue on the face of the sign because it will be noticeable on the toner/ink.

Once the glue dried completely, I used a new #11 blade to cut the film flush with the edge of the sign.

The photo below shows the sign with one face laying flat on the work surface (sign glued on and extending past the edge) and the other (unpainted) face standing up.

Using the same method for the other face, the second sign film was applied. Again, this was done with extra length on both sides and then cut to match the true size of the styrene.

Blue Trim Pieces

The prototype sign has blue trim pieces on the top and bottom of the sign faces. For these, I used .010″ x .030″ strip styrene which I taped down and painted with Poly Scale USSR Underside Blue. This matched the prototype trim color pretty closely. Again, these pieces are much longer than they need to be so they can be trimmed in place.

Apparently, I did not take photos of the actual application of the blue strips (sorry about that!) These were done identically as the transparency film sign pieces.

There are two blue strips per face– one at the top edge and one at the bottom edge. They were glued in place (carefully) with Elmer’s Stix-All, leaving extra length on either side. Once the glue dried, the pieces were trimmed to the edge of the styrene sign frame. Apply one face at a time so the pieces may be trimmed on one face before applying the other face.

Adding the Coca-Cola Signs

Following the steps in my N Scale Cola-Cola Signs article, I created four round Coke signs.

The signs were again to the overall pharmacy sign, again with Stix-All. Following the prototype photo, two Coke sign were added to each sign face — one to each end of each face.

Once these were attached, I double checked the spacing from the edges of the Coke signs to the edges of the pharmacy signs and set this aside to dry.

The final step is to spray the entire sign with Dull Cote to seal everything and to eliminate the shine of the transparency film letters. Then, simply attach the sign to your structure. I used CA glue for this.

Note: In the photos below, I attached the sign to the structure without spraying with Dull Cote so the photos still have some shine and look less realistic than they do when sprayed.  I did this because I still need to Dull Cote the structure and intend to do this all at one time.