Finally got around to opening a Photobucket account and my first attempt to post some pics.
Some time ago I decided to kitbash an old Plasticville Freighthouse kit. I've included a scan of the boxtop picture and some pics of the final bash job. The bay window is styrene with Grantline windows. The front roof section was extended to cover the bay window addition. The platform is a basswood structure with the surface "stressed" with the teeth of a razor saw. Platform ends were cut through to give the appearance of individual planks. It was colored with a brown/black watercolor wash. Roofing shingles are strips of masking tape with tabs cut on one edge. The finished shingled roof was colored with a wash of black watercolor. When thoroughly dried, the edges curled up, giving a nice effect although probably somewhat oversized. Final weathering was done with an airbrush (again my first attempt.) The snapshots were taken out in the backyard with the building and a length of flextrack sitting on a piece of masonite. Ground cover was dummied in with a photo editing program.
Chuck
Grand River & Monongah Railroad and subsidiary Monongah Railway
You really did a wonderful, bang up, job on the plasticville freight house. That kit was a total piece of junk!. (They were the ones that also produced the figurines mounted to those huge foot base stands.) Nice work!...chuck
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
Thanks for the comments. The only things really purchased for the project were the Grantline windows and the freight wagon kit. Even things that we wouldn't dare put on our layouts in their original form can be bashed into something that looks pretty decent. I've made some fairly decent two-dimensional background structures for the wife's 0-27 Christmas display out of old Plasticville structures and scrap box items.
Super job
You turned a cheap looking building into a really nice model.
Is "Cadiz" for Cadiz, California (on the current BNSF transcon)? I have a Santa Fe location sign for Cadiz on our HO layout desert section. I've been to the real place as well.
Plasticville buildings make for great bash projects. I wanted a typical route 66 style motel, but nothing was really to my liking. That is until I found the plasticville HO motel. Combining two kits into one along with a few other details ended up with this:
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
Matt
I've stayed at a few motels that looked just like yours. Nice "bash job."
My Cadiz is in southern Ohio. Other than the name, my model didn't exist in the real world. (but then my railroad didn't either )
The neon signs are a nice touch.
Very nice! Taking an older old school kit and turning it in to a gem like that works well. Nice work.
There is a lesson to be learned here. Rather than look down our noses at these cheap plastic kits, we should see the diamond in the rough. These can be a great source for parts for a kitbash or a scratch built. Or as is seen here, they can be dressed up to make a showpiece. Even the most inexpensive of kits can be dressed up with a good paint job, some weathering, and some additional detail to make a structure a modeler would be proud to place at the front of his layout.
Art Curren wrote a book about kitbashing models. Actually he wrote two of them. It seems that one is named something like "Kitbashing Structures for Toy Trains." It uses a few Plasticville kits as well... to great results, I might add.
Cadiz, California, OR Cadiz, Ohio??? I grew up about 30 miles from Caciz, Ohio.
dlm
Wow Chuck that is one of the best kitbashes I have ever seen....Talk about turning a sow's ear into a....Freight House!! You should write the kitbash up and send to Model Railroader!..Cox 47
Wow!
I have one of those I "fixed up" and "customized" to my liking {not sure I can really call it "kitbashing" though}, but nothing like that!
Yours barely resembles the original any more.
Swell Job!
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Love it! I've got one of those (circa 1958 - hmmm, now I feel old ). I painted it to kill the plastic shine and replaced the platform legs with wooden posts, just that was a big improvement.
Seeing your work... I'll have to take another whack at it.
Jim
Surely part of the pride in craftsmanship in this nifty little structure is that it has its origin in the lowly, dare I say "despised" Plasticville original. It reminds me that in some box somewhere I have a Plasticville ranch house......
The cover -- that's right, the cover -- of the March 1955 Model Railroader featured Linn Westcott (later the editor of MR) and his kitbashed Plasticville signal bridge, in O but they now make the same signal bridge in HO, which he modified using two kits to make a really impressive, even by today's standards, 3 or 4 track signal bridge. In Westcott's words "it seemed to have more railroady atmosphere built into it than many another low-cost plastic model."
By the way, Model Railroader's slogan back in 1955: "The practical how-to-do-it magazine." And Art Curren did write a book on kitbashing for toy trains, "Realistic Plastic Structures for Toy Train Layouts." but for HO modelers he wrote "Kitbashing HO Model Railroad Structures." Kalmbach should not have allowed that to go out of print.
Dave Nelson
WOW!
Well done!
Doesn't even look like that "freight house"..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I second the comments about finding diamonds in the rough. Recently my first experience with this came when my neighbors returned from a trip to San Francisco, and gave me a gift of a souvenir SF cable car...... sheepishly hoping I could put it in my HO layout.
Of course the scale was too big, so a made it into a TWO story cable car restaurant (just right for HO), adding striped awnigs, roof sign, some food signs, some paint, weathering, a sidewalk in front, a bench, and a person on the bench, a woman walking, and a man just leaving the resaturant door. Turned out great and fit right into my town.
Next time I get my camera out, I'll try to submit a picture. I'm sure many have those SF cable car souvenirs around. I've also doctored an old Plasticville kit to look much different than the original.
Keep on showing us your innovations, Hal
A little more information on the model - I installed a wall to separate the freight room from the "office", and added "studs" to the inner walls (barely visible in a couple photos) and added a couple of crates and drums inside. If I ever get to install it on a layout, lighting inside should show the freight room interior. The lamp over the side door was fashioned from a small fiber optic bundle. The rear freight doors are closed and in their original Plasticville position. The "wire" supporting the smokestack is 4-pound test fishing line. The wooden platform is a separate structure which makes handling a bit easier.
danmerkel I grew up about 30 miles from Cadiz, Ohio.
I grew up about 30 miles from Cadiz, Ohio.
dm:
Pronounced more like "Cadd'-iz" than "Cad-eez", right? I think that's how they said it around there...I used to go down to that area pretty often.
I hope you were able to see the Silver Spade in operation. That's a little side trip I never took during my visits, and I regret it.
Back on topic, I really like the kitbashed freight house and the motel. Nice work.
Very nicely done !
I've always liked that little freight depot and thought it had great potential
thanks for proving the point!
Several of the Plasticville buildings are useable with alittle paint and a few detail additions
The motel in this thread is another good example
I used their passenger shed after applying some paint and details
TerryinTexas
See my Web Site Here
http://conewriversubdivision.yolasite.com/
I like the "poorly maintained - peeling paint" look. Good job, Terry.
dknelson And Art Curren did write a book on kitbashing for toy trains, "Realistic Plastic Structures for Toy Train Layouts." but for HO modelers he wrote "Kitbashing HO Model Railroad Structures." Kalmbach should not have allowed that to go out of print. Dave Nelson
And Art Curren did write a book on kitbashing for toy trains, "Realistic Plastic Structures for Toy Train Layouts." but for HO modelers he wrote "Kitbashing HO Model Railroad Structures." Kalmbach should not have allowed that to go out of print.
Dave (and others),
Many of the kits used in that book are also available in HO scale. I did the one using the Plasticville Switch Tower and it turned out pretty neat. There is also one using two coaling towers that are available in HO scale. Finally, I think that's the book that has about 3 - 4 different stations built from the Rico Station model. The book is also a treasure chest of ideas. Check it out...
Autobus Prime danmerkel I grew up about 30 miles from Cadiz, Ohio. dm: Pronounced more like "Cadd'-iz" than "Cad-eez", right? I think that's how they said it around there...I used to go down to that area pretty often. I hope you were able to see the Silver Spade in operation. That's a little side trip I never took during my visits, and I regret it.
The "z" is pronounced more like an "s" so it is more like "Cad-is." And, yes, I got to see those monster shovels at work. "The Gem of Egypt" also worked in the area and was just recently scrapped as I understand it.
Fellows (and off topic from the Plasticville kitbash): the Silver Spade and the Gem of Egypt were both built in South Milwaukee Wisconsin, my old home town, at the Bucyrus Erie plant, and I recall when one or the other of them was partially assembled and tested out. It towered over the town and ran 24/7, to the vast annoyance of all the neighbors, even though we were a fair distance from the plant. That was a massive shipment by rail on the Chicago & North Western back in the mid 1960s -- hundreds of loads. Everyone in town knew about those projects.
I am modeling South Milwaukee, and what I can of the Bucyrus Erie plant, just a few years later, circa 1968 or so. Bucyrus is about to open a museum at their headquarters so if you ever find yourself in the Milwaukee area you may want to check that out since they are bound to have something about Silver Spade and Gem of Egypt.
Don't know if it's accurate or not, but I've heard on my scanner BNSF dispatchers referring to Cadiz, California as Kay-Deeze. Almost like the coupler...Kadee
Interesting pronunciation, especially with a Forth Worth accent