Page 17 - September October 2017

very well to kitbashing. Peco Wills Modern also produces a
kit for a modern warehouse unit, albeit for OO. It can be built
as a low relief structure or by combining two back to back a
full standalone building. Like Pikestuff you need to make your own openings for windows using the scribe lines on the inside face. It also lends itself to kit-bashing with all the parts available separately.
Hydrocal (plaster) kits
This is a very niche part of our hobby and is dominated by Downtown Deco who produce very detailed hydrocal models of very interesting buildings, some of which are low relief for the background. They produce models in O, HO and N. They are assembled using the glue of your choice but recommended is 5-minute epoxy glue as it both fills gaps and sets quickly. The models are highly detailed castings reproducing textures such as stucco, peeling plaster and broken brickwork very well. Hy- drocal is very absorbent so painting has to be carried out care- fully as it is quite hard to correct mistakes without losing details on the surface. In the main the structures are off-line and depict rather decrepit properties in seedy areas (usually close to the tracks!). The end result will justify the care and time taken. You have to visit their website to truly appreciate the quality of their castings and the effects that can be achieved. There is a tutorial on their website at: http://www.downtowndeco.com/site/?p=901.
There are other specialist suppliers of similar kits but ranges are quite limited. For example C.C.Crow manufactures some Northern Pacific structures along with one Great Northern pas- senger depot but only in HO.
An Introduction to Kit-Bashing Structures
I got hooked on kit-bashing as long ago as the mid-1960s as an avid reader of the Airfix Magazine, looking for ideas to make variants of tanks and aircraft that nobody else had. I took the same approach to railway models too, modify- ing many of the early Athearn blue box locos I purchased. Variety, they say, is the spice of life and kit-bashing brings a freedom to build it just as you want it to be.
The joy of kit-bashing is that you use your own imagination and research to produce a tailor-made model for your rail- road. It falls some way short of scratch-building using existing parts with a few add-ons perhaps. Indeed it might even be a good halfway house between scratch-building accurately and making do. It might even be as simple as making a low relief structure for a backdrop from a full structure kit. It can also be making a structure to fit the available space. With that in mind let us explore what options are available to us. It is certainly
a good introduction to the early stages of scratch-building, moving your skills up a notch from the “shake the box”
As said earlier Pikestuff kits could easily be a kit-bash. The parts are standard and just need to be cut to suit what you are building. The kits come with instructions on how to build that particular kit. They are however quite modern in design but are available in N too. You will need a new blade in your preferred knife/scalpel and liquid poly glue. A needle file will come in handy too. Be careful not to handle joints near where you are running glue in – you do not want a perfect finger print on the metal siding! Their kits are a good start in what kit-bashing is all about.
The transload warehouse shown above was made from two kits assembled in a straight line with doors cut in where I wanted them to be, in order to accommodate anything from 50 feet box cars up to 62 feet long reefers. It was assembled on a concrete foundation using liquid poly plastic glue applied with a fine paint brush. All openings were filed smooth and square. Doors and windows were test fitted first. It was then painted with a mid-green Humbrol matt paint to give the over- all colour I was looking for – the blue plastic was a tad bright for me. I did paint the roof matt white even though it was white plastic. Pikestuff also produces some add-on kits to create extensions to any of their kits.
Model Power also produces structure kits of a simple nature in N and HO but with added detail, painting and weathering they can be made to look right in their place. Bachmann Industries Plasticville range of structure kits is available in N, HO and O scales – it includes ready-built structures too. There are many other suppliers available.
Laser-cut Wood Kits
This an area where more experience may be required. Parts are generally very easy to remove from the “fret” and go togeth- er extremely well. Construction needs a lot more care- any glue that is used must not smear onto the visible surfaces as that will affect any paint that is later applied. Windows and doors and other details such as chimneys may be either laser-cut wood, plastic (such as Grandtline) or whitemetal/pewter, as appropriate, depending on manufacturer.
For me the leader in the market is the American Builders Limited LASERkit range. They manufacture a very diverse
and large number of railroad-specific structures such as depot buildings, interlocking towers and lineside miscellany. There are also many, mainly rural, offline structures too. Most are available in HO and N but O and S scales are catered for too. See their website at http://www.laserkit.com/laserkit.htm. With care in construction they produce truly excellent models of prototype buildings. The kit parts are usually self-adhesive for overlays but white glue will be needed for major structural joints. Patience is needed while the glue goes off. As the structures are in wood they absorb paint (hence the warning about glue) but look magnificent when completed.
Other manufacturers of laser-cut kits include Alpine Division Scale Models (HO only), Bar Mills Scale Model Works (N, HO, S, and O), B.T.S. (Better Than Scratch – HO, S and O), Blair Line (Z, N, HO and O), Campbell Scale Models (N, HO and O), JL Innovative Design (N and HO) and Laser-Art Structures (N, HO, S and O), plus a myriad of small suppliers that the narrow gauge guys can tell you about. All are excellent and would not survive in such an intensely populated marketplace if they were not.
October 2017 - ROUNDHOUSE 17