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Walthers "Heritage Furniture" background building

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Posted by alfadawg01 on Sunday, January 15, 2023 4:05 PM

Bill

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Posted by wp8thsub on Wednesday, April 27, 2016 12:12 PM

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

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Posted by richhotrain on Wednesday, April 27, 2016 5:10 AM

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/

 

The Model Builder software looks very interesting. Does anybody have experience working with this software? Any photos?

Rich

Alton Junction

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Posted by 60YOKID on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:33 PM

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/

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Posted by wjstix on Wednesday, April 20, 2016 4:29 PM

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.

Stix
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Posted by hon30critter on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 1:19 AM

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!

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Posted by zstripe on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 12:57 AM

richhotrain
What a great photo!  Nice work, Frank.   Rich

Thank You, Rich...just caught Your reply!

Take Care! Big Smile

Frank

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Posted by sdCowboyBen on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 10:09 PM

Thanks

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Posted by skagitrailbird on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 6:34 PM

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.

Roger Johnson
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Posted by jecorbett on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 5:56 PM

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.

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Posted by BigDaddy on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 5:42 PM

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

 

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

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Posted by richhotrain on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 5:30 PM

zstripe

 

 

 

What a great photo!  Nice work, Frank.  Yes

Rich

Alton Junction

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Posted by richhotrain on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 5:28 PM

BigDaddy, that looks pretty good to me.  Yes

Rich

Alton Junction

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Posted by sdCowboyBen on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 5:20 PM

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.

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Wednesday, April 6, 2016 10:14 AM

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.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by zstripe on Wednesday, April 6, 2016 4:02 AM

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! Big Smile

Frank

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Posted by SS Express on Tuesday, April 5, 2016 8:00 PM

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

Building the RDG, PRR, CNJ, LV railroads on the Huntington Valley Basement Lines.......
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Posted by BigDaddy on Tuesday, April 5, 2016 7:44 PM

Resurrecting a dead thread, I'd like to see your ideas for painting this  building please.

 

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

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Posted by n2mopac on Thursday, February 16, 2012 1:57 PM

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

 

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Posted by maxman on Thursday, February 16, 2012 11:10 AM

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.

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Thursday, February 16, 2012 8:05 AM

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. 

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Posted by slammin on Thursday, February 16, 2012 7:38 AM

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. 

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Walthers "Heritage Furniture" background building
Posted by willy6 on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 11:15 PM
Looking at the picture,there is a train loading dock on the front,is there loading dock doors on the back or is it all brick?
Being old is when you didn't loose it, it's that you just can't remember where you put it.

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