I don't have a Heritage Furniture kit, but I have built several other Walthers Background buildings. The side not shown it the photos is blank, just plain styrene. They are designed to be placed against the backdrop.
I don't have this kit, either. I have the Arrowhead Ale background kit, which only came with 3 walls, and the Centennial Mills kit, which has a full back wall with windows and loading docks.
So, you can't generalize on these background kits. I plan to use that back wall as a completely separate building. Thanks, Walthers. I appreciate it.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Well, I do have a Heritage Furniture background building. Unless the kits have changed, there is no back wall. I made my own. Plus the front and side walls are not brick, but more resemble a concrete structure. This is in HO by the way. If Walthers made this in another scale, then we might be talking something different.
They make the same kit in N scale. I just purchased one. All the above is true of the N scale kit as well.
Ron
Owner and superintendant of the N scale Texas Colorado & Western Railway, a protolanced representaion of the BNSF from Fort Worth, TX through Wichita Falls TX and into Colorado.
Check out the TC&WRy on at https://www.facebook.com/TCWRy
Check out my MRR How-To YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/RonsTrainsNThings
Resurrecting a dead thread, I'd like to see your ideas for painting this building please.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I have a partial shot of the lower half of my HF building. There are loading docks on both sides for trucks, and the back is open. I made my own backing from a ceral box......Rich
BigDaddy Resurrecting a dead thread, I'd like to see your ideas for painting this building please.
Henry,
Dead thread or not...here are a few shots of how I did mine. The first floor has a detailed interior....I try to do that on all structures. I made the two rail doors into truck doors also....makes for interesting switching...seeing as how the siding is shared by other industries....
Take Care!
Frank
4 years ago when this thread was new, I mentioned that I planned to use the back wall of my Centennial Mills kit to make another background building. Here it is:
The wall comes with the grid pattern you see in the picture. I masked the grid with blue painters' tape and used slightly different paints. The lighter color is a Rustoleum textured paint, and the grid itself with the specks of black is a Rustoleum textured and speckled paint. These are hardware store rattle cans. I like them because they both have a rough surface which breaks up the true flatness of the plastic casting and eliminates "specular" reflections from lights.
I turned it into a wholesale fruit place. It's not rail-served, but the loading doors are nice for trucks large and small. Drosophila Melanogaster, by the way, is the official Latin name for the common fruit fly.
I have all the background buildings that are sold by Walthers but I have two problems. One is that do to a disability the base is 33" high plus 2 inch foam. So I can look out and see most of the layout. When I am sitting on my wheelie chair I am at eye level. 2nd is that there are never enough background biuildings. I have three including Heritage Furniture. Just "down the road" is my lumber mill so it certainly makes a lot of sense. Does anyone know where I can get other buildings or backdrops? I did go online and found a "background" buildings site which is 5 ft long after I spray glued them in a row.
BigDaddy, that looks pretty good to me.
Rich
Alton Junction
zstripe
Thanks Rich!
Ben this is my second foray into the hobby and as sort of a newbie, I can't answer your question, but you would get more eyeballs if you asked in a new thread.
I don't mind having my thread hijacked, as I did it myself on this very thread, but a lot have people have looked at this thread and may not be interested in this particular building or think there is nothing to see here on a thread that started a couple years ago.
There was a recent thread lamenting the passing of a background company, so there are probably more companies that don't have an internet presence and wouldn't turn up on a google search
I have the full sized Heritage Furniture kit but also numerous Walthers background structures. None of the background structures came with a back wall. I made back walls from blackened card stock. The only thing you really need is to not allow the backdrop to show through the windows. Another option would be to paint the inside of the windows black or gray.
CowboyBen
You don't need background buildings. You can make a (or sometimes two) background buildings fro regular full sized kits. Almost all commercial and industrial building kits can be "put on a diet." Most of the time you can find a way to cut the side walls to reduct the depth. You have to be mindful of the window and door arrangements to be sure you aren't cutting between freight doors on one side only to discover that to equal the depth on the other side you would be cutting another freaght door in half. But there is usually a way to make it look right.
Take a lok at the Middlesex Manufacturing kit by Atlas. It offers several kitbashing opportunities.
Thanks
richhotrainWhat a great photo! Nice work, Frank. Rich
Thank You, Rich...just caught Your reply!
Henry.
The 'shields' you are referring to are actually called keystones. For your building they are just decorative but if you were building a real stone or brick arch the keystone is what keeps the whole thing from falling down. On some structures they may look just like every other stone or brick in the arch, but they were often used as both decorative and structural components in fancier buildings.
The painted panels came out very nice by the way.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Normally the background buildings just have one large wall that faces the tracks, two sidewalls around 1" or so deep, and a shallow roof. However the Centennial Mills kits comes with both the long walls from the full (Red Wing Milling) version, I expect so you can use either side depending on what you want to do. I did something like what Mr. Beasley shows in his earlier post, used the wall I didn't use to create another background building.
sdCowboyBen Does anyone know where I can get other buildings or backdrops?
Model Builder software by Evans Designs allows you to print background buildings on your printer. The building is then mounted on foam core or the like. These can look pretty good!
http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/
60YOKID sdCowboyBen Does anyone know where I can get other buildings or backdrops? Model Builder software by Evans Designs allows you to print background buildings on your printer. The building is then mounted on foam core or the like. These can look pretty good! http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/
I kitbashed a couple structures from the full Walthers kit, but finishing for the "background building" would be the same.
I painted these with Testors "camouflage gray," then added washes and dry-brushed acrylic to create the look of weathered concrete. I also used some chalks.
Rob Spangler
Another dead thread revival.....
These photos might spark some ideas:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_City#/media/File:Bush_Terminal_Industry_City_Fiber_Construction_2016.jpg
https://www.showcase.com/80-39th-st-brooklyn-ny-11232/25195181/
Bill
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig"