Breaking ground for the new 30 Squares World Domination HQ

I've been intrigued by Walthers N-scale Backshop kit (Walthers part #933-3227), and their N-scale Car Shop (Walthers part #933-3228), for sometime. I liked all those large windows, and it seemed that either of the kits could be converted into some sort of small HO-scale building. Maybe an old light industrial building that had been saved from the wrecking ball and turned into shops or offices. Maybe a headquarters for the 30 Squares World Domination Media Empire :-)

I looked online for one of those kits, and they all seemed to have high shipping costs. Luckily when the pandemic restrictions eased back a bit I was able to pay a visit to my local hobby shop, and lo-and-behold, I found a Backshop kit on the shelf. It wasn't a bad price, and the only shipping costs were those associated with me driving it back home.

Once I got it home and studied the parts for awhile it was clear something in HO could be built from it. The bricks might seem a little small, but with some careful painting they won't look too bad.

The first step in construction was to wash all the parts. I've been watching videos at QuickKits, and over there Owen recommends washing with mild dish soap and a dash of vinegar. So, that's what I did. I used a plastic storage box as a wash basin.

After some mild scrubbing and rinsing, the sprues were set out on the kitchen counter to dry.

There aren't a lot of parts in this kit, but they are all nicely moulded. The only pieces missing from the photo are the clear plastic inserts that are supplied for the windows.

The first bit of actual construction was to figure out what the entrance was going to look like. I had some ideas going into this, but they were much refined by what I could find in my spares box.

The doors are cut from an HO-scale Walthers 24-Seven Quick Mart kit (Walthers part #933-3477). I bought that kit years ago and started it. I intended it to be a Macs Milk store, but put it aside before it was even close to being done. I figured I was never going to finish it, so I cut the doors from its facade. 

The centre window is a Grandt Line O-scale item I bought years ago. I don't know the part number, but you can see it just fits in the opening.

That door unit on the far left is a moulding that I rejected as looking a little too rustic for this project.

If you were building this kit box-stock as a backshop, the ground level openings are where the rolling stock goes in. Walthers provides brick inserts for them if for some reason you don't want openings, and you just want to close them up. 

These inserts are excellent, and came in quite handy. Instead of building custom inserts, all I had to do was cut openings in the ones the kit provided. 

In this photo all the doors, windows, and brick inserts have been installed in the front and back walls.

The other great thing about the kit not shown on the box top picture is that it comes with 6 roll-down door mouldings if you want to model your kit with closed doors. I used a couple on the back wall, and glued an unmodified brick insert in the centre opening.

The base needs a little bit of modification, but nothing serious. The slots for the rails were filled with putty - I used Deluxe Materials Perfect Plastic Putty - and sanded it to conform to the base when dry. 

I'll likely add a step or two to the front wall, so even these puttied up openings might be concealed by the steps.

The inspection pit openings needed to be covered over.

A new floor was cut from a piece of 0.020" styrene sheet. That thickness brings the floor up to the level of the wall alignment tabs that are moulded on to the base's sides.

I did a bit of an experiment in bonding the floor to the base. I was concerned that styrene glue would put warps and puckers into the floor's surface, so I used 3M transfer tape to hold the two together. The photo shows the tape attached to the base awaiting removal of the carrier paper.

Since one will be able to see inside, I filled the interior side wall pilaster indentations with strips of 0.040" styrene to bring them flush with the wall surface.

These were glued in place with Deluxe Materials Plastic Glue. With the cancelation of Rustoleum's Model Master paints, I'm trying non-Rustoleum products in case all their model building materials are being discontinued. This Deluxe Materials glue seems good. This is the first project I've used it on.

Here's a finished side wall with the upper edge from the kit glued on.

So far, so good.

Once the walls and floor were finished, I temporarily tilted up three walls to start thinking about how I was going to build and detail the interior. And that's where I'm at now: thinking.