Walthers Sunrise Feed Mill

[bagman]

Hi there

Just about to start construction and was wondering if anyone out there has built one of these kits and has some kitbashing/modification suggestions.

Would like to make it look less like a plastic kit.

Appreciate any ideas offered

cheers

[fiatfan]

One thing I did was replace the short loading dock with a longer one.  Right now, I'm just trying to get buildings on the layout.  Once I get it reasonbly well populated, I will ogo back and add details.

 

Tom 

[SpaceMouse]

The best way to make it not look like a plastic kit is to paint and weather it.

[Dave Vollmer]

Here's mine in N scale as a combination feed/fuel dealer:

I left off some of the roof doo-dads and and part of the shed.

[mls1621]

This storage building is the only plastic kit on my layout.  Once the paint had dried thoroughly, I weathered the roof with Polly Scale dust and the walls of the building with diluted India ink.  I'm pleased with how it turned out.

[UP2CSX]

The way the kit is built in two separate structures gives you some pretty good kitbashing opprtunities. You could build in an L shap or even split up the two structures so one is on either side of the rack. The one thing I din't like about the kit was that it doesn't give you the option to have any of the sliding doors open. If I was building another one, I'd attack it with my Dremel tool and get some of the doors open. Extending the loading dock is also a good idea if you are using the dock side toward the track.

How you piant it and weather it will make all the difference in terms of it lookling like a plastic kit. I painted mine mineral red and then distressed it with a small wire brush to give it the "used but not condemned" look. Here's a photo. I think it looks pretty much like wood:

[mls1621]

Jim,

I love the irony of your weathered building, "used not condemned", with the bright and shiney Pratt and Lambert Paint sign in the lower corner of the building.  Very nice work

[UP2CSX]

Thanks, Mike. That sign came from Blair Line. You get a whole sheet of different signs printed on thin styrene. Some look to be photos of old porcelain advertising signs. The paint sign was one of these. I mounted on .10 styrene and then glued it to the mile. You'd swear it was a metal sign if you saw it in person, which is why it looks so shiny. I have a bunch of other signs I can use also but I think too many signs can really detract from the rest of the building. 

[bagman]

 

Thanks guys

You certainly have given me some great ideas to work with.

 Appreciated

 cheers

 

[Tom Bryant_MR]

Bagman, I have the Sunrise kit but have not started on it.  I agree that it is what you do with it. There are many here that have used various methods to improve the kit-out-of-the-box.  Basics are painting and weathering.

I have a Model Power kit that I picked up from a LHS going out of business - http://www.modelpower.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1432. It was molded in 5 colors and very plastic looking.

I chose different colors and did quite a heaving weathering job - this is a gravel loading area so things will get real dusty and dirty.

 

Good luck with the Sunrise kit.

Regards,

[Steve_F]

Tom I'm curious, those backdrops look awesome! Are they photos or something commercial?