Railroad modellers who love to include buildings in their layouts face several challenges. Among these challenges are avoiding gaps between the kit parts and painting the mortar lines to create a more realistic building.
In the following photos you can see some of the steps I took to accomplish the above, at least partially. This building kit has been released by Life Like under the name Belvedere Hotel, but it is also known as Downtown Hotel. The small clamps I used helped tremendously in keeping the pieces tightly together before liquid cement was applied.
Not perfect, but not bad either, I think. The interior was painted black in case I decide to install a light bulb inside the building. The walls are not "dense" enough to block the light and I don't really want to have "see through" walls.
The last floor and roof are not really glued because I am still thinking about the possibilities. This is also why the gaps between the second floor and roof may appear large. Question: Do I want to install floors? If I do, I have to make it easy to place light inside and change the bulb if needed. This will also allow me to place some people near some of the windows.
This project is a work in progress, but I really want to finish this as soon as possible. I have one more kit like this, so if I am not happy with this one I can always do better with the other one. Eventually, I may purchase a couple more kits and "steal" 1-2 floors from each one so I can build the second one as 5-7 story building.
In the following photos you can see some of the steps I took to accomplish the above, at least partially. This building kit has been released by Life Like under the name Belvedere Hotel, but it is also known as Downtown Hotel. The small clamps I used helped tremendously in keeping the pieces tightly together before liquid cement was applied.
Not perfect, but not bad either, I think. The interior was painted black in case I decide to install a light bulb inside the building. The walls are not "dense" enough to block the light and I don't really want to have "see through" walls.
The last floor and roof are not really glued because I am still thinking about the possibilities. This is also why the gaps between the second floor and roof may appear large. Question: Do I want to install floors? If I do, I have to make it easy to place light inside and change the bulb if needed. This will also allow me to place some people near some of the windows.
This project is a work in progress, but I really want to finish this as soon as possible. I have one more kit like this, so if I am not happy with this one I can always do better with the other one. Eventually, I may purchase a couple more kits and "steal" 1-2 floors from each one so I can build the second one as 5-7 story building.
Lessons learned
With every success comes a failure... or so it seems. There are things I learned from building this kit - although I am not finished yet - and here are the lessons:- Always use clamps. I did that and it was major help.
- File the bottoms, tops and sides of the walls to ensure smooth surfaces.
- Do not color the interior until the main structure is finished.
- Do not paint any areas where glue will be applied. In this case, the gray bases should have been painted after glue was applied.
No comments:
Post a Comment