HUDSON RIVER STATE HOSPITAL

“Plans, elevations, specifications, and estimates for the new mental institution were approved on August 9, 1867. Calvery Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted were hired to design the landscaping. Construction on the Main Administration Building began in September 1867 and the first seven patients at Hudson River State Hospital were admitted on October 20, 1871.”

(Reference: https://abandonedonline.net/location/hudson-river-state-hospital/)

Have you ever wanted to visit a place but it was impossible to travel there? Or maybe it just doesn’t exist? Why not build it ourselves!

When I saw this photo of Husdon River State Hospital from the talented Matthew Christopher at Abandoned America I was instantly intrigued.

Courtesy of Matthew Christoper, Abandoned America 

He was kind enough to allow me to use his photo for comparison. You can find this and more of his stunning works at:

https://www.abandonedamerica.us/

This beautiful shot tells such a story and unfortunately, many of these buildings do not exist anymore. I knew I wanted to recreate it the minute I saw it back in January of this year.

So? I formulated a plan. Sort of.

I knew I wanted this to be a book nook due to its long, narrow shape. The issue was figuring out the best scale to work in. I chose 1:24 so it would maximize the length of the hallway visually while giving us the height of the Victorian building’s ceiling. My plan was to try and show a forced perspective look. Plans don’t always come to fruition, especially when A) You’re still a newbie and 2) You’re horrible at spatial concepts.

By counting the floor tiles in the photo, I figured the hallway was the length of 20 tiles. If each tile was a square foot, that would make it a 20′ long vantage point to the back doors. 1:12 scale would make that 20″, so that wasn’t going to work. I went with 1:24 scale which made it 10″ long. (If a train leaves Chicago at 6 pm… ) It is approx 5 1/4″ W, and 4 1/2″ H.

I’ve been trying to make projects out of leftover pieces of previous ones because I just don’t have the storage space.

So for the walls, I started with two leftover pieces cut to size that were pre-made in 1:24 scale for my Madison Seminary diorama. I was experimenting with joint compound & sand on EVA craft foam and was trying to simulate a semi-circular trowel finishing effect on the walls, so these were practice ones that turned out perfect for a dilapidated hallway. I liked the idea because it provided a base that was already weathered and cracking. It was easy to cut through to make windows and could be weathered further without much trouble.

For the windows, I thought I could use leftover fish tank tubing to round out the window frames but it doesn’t hold onto much of anything in the way of texture. I even tried to scuff it up with sandpaper but it’s not a great material for this purpose.

 After the first window failure, I simply turned the entire wall upside-down and tried again to make the closest window view in the nook. This time, I used some wooden dowels from Dollar Tree on each side and they worked much better as far as holding onto joint compound and texturing. I did use the tubing for the top arch as it didn’t need as much support. I didn’t quite get the recessed look I needed. I reinforced the back of the windows with corrugated cardboard.

“Luckily” for me, I screwed up the original backing of my Black Phone diorama so I had an extra brick wall in the correct scale. Looking at the reference photo, I was gauging how far down under the window the exposed bricks were. I hot-glued that patch on since the back was chipboard. Although I don’t think any type of glue would matter much because this joint compound/sand layer on top of foam will crack and fall off if you want it to. But because I knew I’d be covering it with more compound, gesso, paint, and latex I figured it wouldn’t fall off as easily.

So first, white gesso. The color didn’t matter, as again I have a virtual vat of it at this point. I wanted the texture of it to make layering on top of it easier. Some good grip. You know the old adage: “Gesso before joint compound, your project is quite sound; Compound before gesso, your project is a mess-o!” Or something like that.

Next came assessing leftover painted whatnots from previous projects to see what was usable. I guess not much and those scraps went into the maybe pile. Or the “miniature debris container”.

So out came the wooden coffee stirrers. I needed to weather them and give them a chipped paint look so I thought I’d try Jeff Reitan‘s technique vs. using Elmer’s Glue or latex. There’s a great tutorial for this here!

I wet them down and scratched them up pretty well with a wire brush. On all things holy: DO NOT POKE YOURSELF WITH ONE OF THESE BECAUSE OMG… Let alone twice!

So after the stabbing debacle of ’22, I slathered some more water on them and used a craft knife to make some deeper weathering cuts.

I used a dark green as a base coat so it would show through the chipped paint later. So paint, then heat tool to speed up the drying process. I ended up drying that, washed it off and started again.

This time, I put Vaseline down on wax paper, coated it with white paint, and let the paint dry. Mine was almost dry, but not quite. Then matte varnish in strategic places on the sticks where you want the chipped paint effect and put them on the white paint face-down to dry.

I also made a joint compound sandwich between two sheets of wax paper (no Vaseline). I made sure it was thin, flat, and level and left it to dry. I will break this up to use as a cracked plaster effect. I believe you’re supposed to use Plaster of Paris for this because I found out the hard way this method virtually never dries.

Next came the Dollar Tree foam from the depths of hell to use on the outer walls of the book nook. Because while it’s an easy and affordable building material, I’m convinced no one on this planet can get this paper off completely. Either I’m doing something wrong or it’s a bad batch. Any tips for removing it, please post in comments!

There was a point where I decided my time was more valuable than fighting with this backing paper so it stayed and became a dark shadow under the paint. You win some, you lose some.

There was a two-week period where I just let this project sit because I felt discouraged. I felt like I didn’t have the experience and that it wouldn’t turn out any good. Eventually, with Halloween around the corner, I mustered up enough gumption to give it another shot.

I usually make my brick walls out of joint compound (and sometimes with sand depending on scale) and stencils. This is the first time I’ve tried a popular technique I’ve seen in a lot of videos and that is measuring out brickwork to scale and scribing the lines. It helps to have a small tool to round the corners for a more detailed look. The paint is a mix of Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber.

 Next came time to peel the stirrers off of the wax paper. I think two weeks is enough drying time, no? I sanded them down with a nail file.

Their brother, the Joint Compound Sandwich, was dry as well so I started breaking that up into pieces to fit them over the bricks under the window. I’ve seen this done with tulle fabric for broken cement simulation made with Plaster of Paris. I experimented with the compound because I knew the drying time was quick. Turns out, it doesn’t dry very well when sandwiched in wax paper and not exposed to the air. Who would’ve thunk it? Alene’s Super Thick Tacky Glue and a toothpick worked well for these delicate pieces.

In the airbrush booth, I used a very vintage-looking garish green color for the inside walls as well as the 3D-printed window frames. And badly as well, I may add. I’m still learning to navigate the territory that is airbrushing, but what better way to practice than on a miniature abandoned structure where perfection isn’t needed anyways?

For a peeling paint effect, I used Dollar Tree cosmetic wedges that look like they were pre-chewed to apply latex.

HOLY HELL, WHY DIDN’T SOMEONE TELL ME HOW BAD THIS STUFF STINKS? I learned this technique from Abandoned Miniatures (I love this channel!).

 A second lighter coat for walls and windows, more of a tan color, was used over the layer of latex. While that dried, I accented some of the brick colors on the outside walls. When I returned, I removed some of the latex with a pink eraser in the same strategic areas to which the latex was applied.

For the floor, I scribed tile lines into more Dollar Tree foam. This step took a little bit of fiddling around with perspective and dimensions before I decided to just do an even grid and angle the walls of the book nook vs. angling and reducing the tile size down the hallway. When I tried to do that, it looked absolutely ridiculous. A base coat of gray was then applied to the floor and to speed up dry time I used a heat tool.

A dark wash was applied to the grout lines/cracks in the floor and the excess was wiped off. I took a moment to check my reference photo (as one should do quite often) to determine how I was going to weather the floor further. I decided to use the grout sponge to add uneven splotches and age with an off-white paint as well as utilizing an old toothbrush with the same color on the floor and walls. The floor was then glued to the base of the book nook which just happened to be a piece of an old drawer.

NOTE: If you don’t have a grout sponge, I highly recommend picking one up from Lowes/Home Depot. It’s great for adding paint in areas that need a more organic look. Some of the ways it is used entail rust spots, mold, chipped paint, and deteriorating surfaces. I cut a small piece off to use for this purpose and often will use it with tweezers for better control in such a small area.

The bricks under the window that show through the “cracked plaster” (actually dried joint compound broken up into pieces) were painted dark brown with a small brush though I probably should’ve done this before I glued on the additional pieces.

Next came weathering the inside walls of the hallway. I don’t have weathering powder so I took to dry brushing some brown paint making sure to highlight the edges of all of the peeling pieces. The off-white from the floor was also used to sponge paint spots on the inner walls.

The brick walls that make up the outside of the book nook also received the same dark wash treatment.

Then came time to glue in the 3D-printed windows, which is always a scary step. I wouldn’t recommend hot glue with PLA because it will melt, which is exactly what these did here. I didn’t have a huge issue with that in this capacity because of two reasons: the printed pieces were test pieces that were already stringy and we’re making a dilapidated project anyways.

The windows received a thin layer of Elmer’s Glue and were painted over immediately with a thin layer of paint using a small brush. When the glue dries it will cause the paint to crack. Depending on your project (size, scale, purpose, etc.) you may want to use a different technique. There will most likely be visible brush strokes here.

I then chose a few pieces of chipped paint coffee stirrers that best resembled the chipped paint in the reference photo and glued them down. Again, depending on the end goal of your project, I wouldn’t use hot glue for a long-term display piece. It just dries quickly and is easy to use. If you’re not quick enough with it, it will leave blobs that make it hard to join pieces together, and then you have lop-sided components. Your alternatives are super glue (providing it’s not being applied to foam), PVA or Elmer’s Glue, Tacky Glue, and Wood Glue.

That being said, of course for my purposes I chose to hot glue the walls together. Don’t yell at me, please.

For the trim around the book nook, I used popsicle sticks in varying sizes. I cut them to length, sanded any sharp edges, hot glued them all around the seams, then filled in any gaps with wood filler. When the wood filler dried, it was sanded down and all trim was painted black.

The back wall was made identically to the outer brick walls, only it’s a smaller size. It and the walls were then hot glued to the floor. Because the project was built at an angle, I cut off the excess portions of the outer back wall. I glued the doors in place that I cut out of chipboard at the end of the hallway and left one slightly ajar to let the shadows show through.

But now I needed a ceiling! I didn’t have a great plan for that. I decided to flip the project over and trace the shape on EVA foam. That piece was cut out and painted with the same off-white paint.

Whilst trying to speed up the drying process, I noticed the paint smelled awful. It was part of a bunch of free art supplies someone was kind enough to donate to me recently and I saw on the label it was from 2006. I then couldn’t decide if THE STENCH from the paint was worse than the latex but alas, no; and using a heat tool made both of them worse!

But I do have to say the results turned out pretty well. The ceiling was then painted a contrasting color gray over top of the latex. I stippled that paint on for more texture to simulate a really deteriorated surface as if the elements like humidity and mold did a number on it. Once again, the pink eraser was used to take off the latex in certain places.

To reinforce the slight flimsiness of the EVA foam ceiling, I used wider popsicle sticks. I traced the roof shape onto them, cut them at an angle, glued them to the top, and finished with black paint. The entire piece is removable for access inside.

For the light fixtures and ballasts, I tried a few different things but settled on corrugated cardboard rectangles with a matching size piece of acetate glued on one side. I sanded the acetate to get a cloudy look like you’d see on an old light covering.

I had some “oops” paint I got at a discount at Home Depot that was a perfect shade of light mint green to mimic the hue in the hallway. I coated the entire surface of the lights and weathered them with brown paint and a grout sponge to look dirty and moldy.

 I had some leftover scrap pieces of small square accents which I glued to the ceiling to hold the “stem” (ballast?) of the fixtures. I wanted to use a round base but couldn’t come up with a convincing-looking one that I was happy with. I cut a few pieces of thin dowel, painted them brown, and affixed one end to the lights and the other to the bases.

There was a long pipe running down the hallway in the reference photo. I used slightly thicker dowel rods, painted them with white gesso, and placed them end to end. To hide the joints, I cut small round pieces of fishtank tubing, attached & gesso’d. Instead of gluing the pipe to the ceiling, I wanted it to hang like it would in real life. I took small pieces of rusty wire (that I found in the gifted art supplies), cut short pieces, and hooked the ends. It was easy to make holes in the EVA foam ceiling to push the hooks into using just a small dab of hot glue. I followed the assembly with brown paint for both dry brushing and the grout sponge technique.

As for the outside, I put down PVA glue and some leftover foliage from another project to make the grounds outside look overgrown and abandoned. I used the same rusty wire to curl up and use as vines poking through the broken window. The reference photo showed much thinner weeds but this was the thinnest material I had to work with. In hindsight, I probably could have gone outdoors and collected some thin twigs. Perhaps next time.

I touched up some paint on the outer walls and exterior windows using a brown dry brush. The 3D-printed chairs were painted with brown acrylic paint and placed in the hallway breaking a few pieces here and there for aged authenticity.

I had been saving up random bits of joint compound, plaster, stir sticks, and random off-cuts to use as debris on the floor. To make them smaller, I put them into my old coffee grinder and achieved a finer layer to spread out Old dried coffee grounds were the base and the lighter-colored dust and debris were placed on top. I made sure to cover everything to make it look like nothing had been touched in decades.

As one last detail, there was a stick on the floor in the reference photo that I tried to match the placement of. After that, everything was sprayed down with isopropyl alcohol and watered-down PVA glue. I used glue dots to temporarily hold the roof on for the final photo shots.

This was definitely a challenge, but I’m so glad I stuck with it and saw it through to the end. There are a few things I’d do differently if I had to do this project over. What would you do differently? Don’t hesitate to leave me comments or questions here or on YouTube. I appreciate the community we’re building!