Looking at the layout I decided I had a bare patch that needed a structure or two. An industrial structure to generate some traffic. I brought this weary structure back from a train show. Heljan. I could not find it in my 2013 Big Walter's book, either it is old and discontinued, or later than 2013 (doubtful). Brick is an ugly color, and the big splashes of dirt don't help it.
So a nice paint job. Krylon or Rustoleum rattle cans, red auto primer for the brick, dark gray auto primer for the roof. I touched up the brick with Floquil boxcar red, which matched the auto primer perfectly. All the windows, and their glasing were glued in so hard I feared breaking something if I pried them out. So I masked each window individually. Tedious but doable.
It still needs some stuff. Interior lighting. Some freight on the loading dock, plus some workers. Maybe a larger loading dock. With a roof over it to keep the freight and workers dry during a New England weather? Downspouts. Signage. For which I have to pick an industry. Machine shop? Foundry? Furniture factory? Steps leading up to the personnel door. Perhaps a largish brick stack. Ideas will come to me.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Who says you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?
Nice.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Great job dstarr!...
Oh yeah, I remember that kit, and to me it always looked like an effort to make double use of parts intended for a different kit, a roundhouse. I have some vague recollection that Model Power might have offered it for a time, too.
But anyway it is shown in the 1988 Walthers HO catalog as a Heljan item, 322-362 selling for the grand total of $8.79. They called it a Steel Supply Warehouse and indeed that elevated center portion would seem ideal for an overhead crane meant for lifting very heavy or bulky steel sheets or fabrications. True, the large dust collector (?) on the roof does suggest furniture factory or other factory dealing with wood, but to me it seems misplaced if indeed the center portion is for a traveling crane - I have seen factories where the dust collector is off to the side and not on any portion of the roof.
And yet if there is a traveling crane in the center of the building, where do they get the stuff to lift up -- or ship out? An access door where one (or two) of the large arched windows in the center side is would seem in order, for rail or for trucks.
In N scale a counterpart kit was just called a Machine Works. Walthers website shows it on the retired models portion:
https://www.walthers.com/machine-works-7-7-8-x-4-1-2-quot-20-x-11-5cm
The odd "swirling" look of the raw plastic was not unknown back then, when there was an effort to "weather" kits simply by mixing another contrasting shade of styrene into the molds. Sort of like marble cake. It was, I think you agree, unconvincing. Unlike marble cake, which is excellent.
Dave Nelson
I've also come to learn over the years that the swirling is also caused by someone not taking the time to clean out the molding machine between color changes. I remember a lot of those old Heljan kits, but did they actually claim that it was supposed to have a weathered effect?
Jim
dstarr Brick is an ugly color, and the big splashes of dirt don't help it. So a nice paint job. Krylon or Rustoleum rattle cans, red auto primer for the brick, dark gray auto primer for the roof. I touched up the brick with Floquil boxcar red, which matched the auto primer perfectly....
I didn't think that the main brick colour looked all that bad, but the swirls of other colours really ruined the look. Your paint job improved things dramatically. There are lots of towns, not too far from where I live, where buff-coloured brick is quite common, and since I named one of my towns after a real town in that area, I thought that the train station might look good in buff brick...
My layout is an around-the-room style, so I built the kit using the rear wall as part of the wall facing the aisle, doubling the size of the building...
The new, unseen, rear wall, all of the interior partitions, and the roof were done using .060" sheet styrene - bought in 4'x8' sheets, it's an economical way to modify or scratchbuild structures. I added a few details like the loading dock and roof dormers, and used Plastruct shingle sheets to give the roof (front side only) some texture...
The brick chimney, a nicely-done plaster casting, was found at my LHS, broken, and on the "used" table for a couple of bucks - a tenth of the cost of a new one.
Just down the street (actually bumped-down there by the structure above) is Ontario Produce Distributors' grocery warehouse, another el cheapo build...
The administrative offices, at left, are, I think, Tyco's Gruesome Casket Company, and the warehouse portion is two Tyco. or perhaps Model Power. drugstores, again built with all walls facing the aisle of the layout. The roof and loading dock were originally built using matteboard (used in picture framing), but I later replaced the roof with .060" styrene, and plan on doing the same for the loading dock.
Also in the same town is the Elfrida Stove Works. It was, I think, originally a Magnuson kit, but I found it in a zip-lock bag on the "used" table in a nearby hobbyshop. Only the walls shown were in the bag, and most were broken (the castings are apparently a quite-brittle resin). I cleaned them up as best I could, and threw away the parts that were unsalvageable. Most of the rest of the structure, mostly unseen once installed on the layout, is .060" sheet styrene. The original kit would have been well-beyond my budget limitations, but that bag of parts was only a couple of bucks. The loading dock, built-up using strip styrene, cost more than the rest the structure.
In another town, Creechan's Fine Fuels (the green structure centre-frame) is mostly-scratchbuilt, but the Campbell corrugated siding did run up the cost a bit...
After it was built and in-place on the layout, I realised that it needed an office if it was going to accurately represent a major business in this town, so set about building one...
The front wall is a piece of Walthers styrene brick sheet, offered as a scratchbuilding supply. I cut the door and window openings to match castings (left-over from the many Walthers structures on the layout), and built the unseen rest of the structure from .060" sheet styrene. Another cheapy to fill-in the street scene.After that, I decided that the company needed a stable/garage for their delivery vehicles (there was an empty space behind the main structures that a real business like this wouldn't have wasted), so I created the barely-visible building behind the coal shed....
It's made from left-over pieces of .060" sheet styrene, and the only details on it are a couple of simulated vehicle doors on the side facing the layout's aisle - most viewers miss it, but might have noticed the empty space if it weren't there.
This one is from my first layout, a mid-'50s one built for me by my dad. The structure is from the early '60s, though, and I therefore consider it "free" even though it cost me whatever was the going price at that time. I had wanted the two-stall enginehouse (based on, I think, John Allen's scratchbuilt original), but it wasn't available at my hobbyshop at that time, nor was the version offered as "Superior Bakery". Instead, I settled for the "Weekly Herald", the same basic structure but with an ugly tile-fronted add-on for the street side of the building.When that layout was sold, I kept several of the structures, and this one languished, in pieces, in a shoebox for many years. I dug it out for my current layout, and decided to use it as a livestock auction house for the Lowbanks' stockyards...
All of the stock pens are scratchbuilt, which really killed the idea that this scene, as a whole, could be considered "free".
I ditched the ugly tile-front addition (it's saved in one of the parts boxes, though...ya never know. ), replacing it with an almost equally-ugly scratchbuilt board & batten office addition, with left-over doors and windows from other kits...
Modifying bargain-priced structures can yield surprising results that don't have to look out-of-place alongside more detailed, and often much more expensive, current day offerings.
I look forward to seeing more of your structures, David.
Wayne
doctorwayne Just down the street (actually bumped-down there by the structure above) is Ontario Produce Distributors' grocery warehouse, another el cheapo build... _ The administrative offices, at left, are, I think, Tyco's Gruesome Casket Company, and the warehouse portion is two Tyco. or perhaps Model Power. drugstores, again built with all walls facing the aisle of the layout. The roof and loading dock were originally built using matteboard (used in picture framing), but I later replaced the roof with .060" styrene, and plan on doing the same for the loading dock.
_
Wayne, I recognize the old Gruesome Casket/ drug store/ Ramsey Journal et al kits strung together. Haven't seen a pic of that building before. Nice job.
What did you use for the gable end, since those kits have a flat top? I see a sign has been strategically placed over what I assume is a seem.
- Douglas
Wayne, That's a truly nice bunch of structures. Your signage is very good looking.
I like red brick better than I like yellow brick. I can think of many very handsome red brick buildings. The only yellow brick buildings I remember over the years were ugly modern factories, slab sided, no trim, flat roof, or Nevins Hall in Framingham, a weird shaped building to fit a weird shaped lot. I never liked Nevins Hall, even though we did my graduation from middle school in it.
Dave,
Nice work! Some 35 years ago I picked up a box of not very well cared formodel rr things.. In it was that building, partially built. I moved and got away from modeling for awhile. It still awaits some action. Never realized thet the tank was part of that kit. Will have to look it up.
Sounds like it's been around awhile.
Have fun,
Richard
Thanks for your kind comments, guys.
Doughless Wayne, I recognize the old Gruesome Casket/ drug store/ Ramsey Journal et al kits strung together. Haven't seen a pic of that building before. Nice job. What did you use for the gable end, since those kits have a flat top? I see a sign has been strategically placed over what I assume is a seem.
Wayne, I recognize the old Gruesome Casket/ drug store/ Ramsey Journal et al kits strung together. Haven't seen a pic of that building before. Nice job. What did you use for the gable end, since those kits have a flat top? I see a sign has been strategically placed over what I assume is a seem.
Your question prompted me to take another look to refresh my memory. The long side of the warehouse is comprised of four long walls from the Journal/drugstore kits, and one short wall. Another two short walls were used on the ends of the warehouse, and the fourth one was cut up to form the gables, as you guessed.
As for the signs, David, I did some myself using dry transfers, but my brother did the artwork for the majority of the other ones, including the decal that makes up the long sign on Bowyer Industries. Most of those he printed on his own commercial-type printer.
He also did the artwork for the latest batch of signs, but sent them to a commercial printer which he uses for his own business needs, and they're mostly destined for use on the partial upper level which was recently added to my layout. It's a work in-progress, although not much of that has been happening lately.
Here are a few of the latest ones - most need to be Dullcoted and all need to be weathered. All are based on local industries which exist, or once existed, in or near my home town...
...and here are a few that my brother printed himself...
When I was 3 or 4 years old, the wording on the prototype version of this one always made me giggle...Imagine! The word "Underwear", printed on a sign!
...and a couple of my own efforts, done with dry transfers...
dstarr Looking at the layout I decided I had a bare patch that needed a structure or two. An industrial structure to generate some traffic. I brought this weary structure back from a train show. Heljan. I could not find it in my 2013 Big Walter's book, either it is old and discontinued, or later than 2013 (doubtful). Brick is an ugly color, and the big splashes of dirt don't help it. So a nice paint job. Krylon or Rustoleum rattle cans, red auto primer for the brick, dark gray auto primer for the roof. I touched up the brick with Floquil boxcar red, which matched the auto primer perfectly. All the windows, and their glasing were glued in so hard I feared breaking something if I pried them out. So I masked each window individually. Tedious but doable.
I have several completed structures that I did early on and never painted. This encourages me to mask and spray.
Rich
Alton Junction
richhotrain...I have several completed structures that I did early on and never painted. This encourages me to mask and spray.
Rich, a lot of kit structures use mostly multiples of the same doors and windows. If they're not too large, get a roll of wide masking tape, and, working on a sheet of glass, put down strips of appropriate lengths, sticky-side-down, placing each successive strip directly atop the previous one. I'd guess that three or four layers would be suitable, but a little experimentation will determine how many will work best.Measure one of the windows/doors which are to be masked, then transfer those dimensions to the tape. Using a suitable straightedge and a sharp blade (X-Acto or ordinary utility knife) cut through all layers of the tape, then peel off each identical piece in-turn and apply to the structure.If the windows in question are larger in both directions than the widest tape you can find, you can still mass produce the masking by doing each window in two (or more) pieces, applied with one piece overlapping the other(s).
After I assembled the main parts of this structure from two Walthers American Hardware kits, modifying some aspects of it...
...I airbrushed all areas that were meant to represent brick...
The brick areas were then masked and the entire structure airbrushed to represent concrete. Some areas, especially those on the one end where strips of sheet styrene had been addded to represent concrete framing not on the original castings, had to be masked to suit each brick panel, but the majority of the brick panels used several repeating shapes and sizes. For those, the masking was easy to mass produce. It's shown here, painted with the concrete colour, but with the masking still in place...
After the tape was remove, I applied pre-mixed drywall mud to add mortar to the brick panels...
...and once cleaned-up, the structure was ready for weathering...
The assembled windows were added after the weathering...
Here we have some clutter on the loading dock and a doorstep at the personnel door.
Here it is on the layout. Interior lights work.