Getting my kit together

When I started this project a few weeks ago I thought I was simply going to write a post telling about how I customized Dapol's little Engine Shed kit (# C007) into a sort of back country engine house for an HO-9 diesel which, along with Cal's and Artz lumber yards, would complete the scene on the little diorama that's been bouncing around in the back of my mind for quite sometime.

But as the project proceeded I came to realize that what I should be telling you is "Don't buy this kit" instead of how to overcome its many problems as I set about trying to customize it. And I also realized that I should be telling myself to get off the old kits and old builds diversion I'm on and get back to the projects I'm really interested in, but have been avoiding properly committing to.

Brick Price's engine house in his book, Modeling Narrow-Gauge Railroads

But first, let's back up to where this story begins. I wanted the diorama to have a little engine house near the grounds of the lumber yards for the HO-9 engine that moves logs and lumber to the sheds. Logically the scene doesn't make any sense. It's just a flimsy excuse for displaying some favourite buildings on a coffee table sized layout. I had in mind a little kitbash Brick Price did where he converted the large, two-stall, standard gauge Revell Engine House into a small, single-stall, narrow gauge engine house. I've shown it in the above photo.

However, after studying the size of the 'small' engine house, I came to understand it would still be rather large compared to the lumber sheds. Too large really, and it would dominate the scene. I didn't want that.

After some humming-and-hawing and searching magazines and books and the internet I stumbled across an old single stall engine house kit by Dapol. The architecture is English, but not overly so that maybe it could be palmed off as something built over here in the late 19th or early 20th century by builders schooled in English building methods. 

And, most importantly, the kit was cheap and simple, so I ordered one :-)

Upon its arrival the adventure - and the soul searching - began.

In this example, the doors don't fit, requiring work on the panels and hinges.

As I worked on the kit, it seemed that every piece either had a problem with warpage, lots of flash, large, ugly mould ejector pins, or poor fit that had to be fixed up, and this work was in addition to the relatively minor changes I had planned to make to the model. It reminded me of the highly frustrating trip down memory lane I took with the Revell Gran Turismo.

Ok, to give the manufacturer its due, they do indicate on the outside of the kit's packaging there might be issues with the parts:

"Please note that whilst we strive for perfect quality, due to the age of the tooling, it is inevitable that some flashing and slightly mis-moulded parts will arise. If this is the case and the kit is unusable, please return the kit to your retailer with proof of purchase for a replacement."

The instruction sheet also mentions that softening warped parts by immersing them in hot water can help you get them straight. I don't know what state the parts need to be in to be deemed unusable given that guidance. The kit can be built, but for what on the surface seems like a straightforward beginner level kit, it strikes me as requiring a lot of work. 

 

The packaging mentions that the kit dates back 50 years at the time it was printed. The internet tells me it dates from the early 1960s, maybe 1961, so it has been in production a long time. I'm thinking maybe too long. I can understand the desire to keep it in production, being a cash cow and everything. But, who's it for? I think it would require an unusual amount of work for a beginner to produce a middling model, and a more experienced modeller might take more pleasure from a scratchbuild. Maybe a beginner might simply forego a simple kit like this and just tackle scratchbuilding an engine shed as a first foray into the field.*

I panelled the wall's inside surfaces with styrene to make them flat and uniform

And what were those customizations I had in mind? 

    1. Shorten the foundation brick course so the doors didn't leave an opening of a few feet above the track.

    2. Add a very simple interior so that casual glances inside leave an impression that there is an interior to this model.

Both changes were pretty simple. Some rows of bricks were sawn off the bottom of the building, which meant the opening for the doors on the rear wall had to be increased to compensate. No problem with this.

Some old Superquick brick paper was glued on.

The kit's inside wall surfaces aren't flat. I glued in scraps of 0.040" thick sheet styrene to level up the various interior projections and create flat surfaces for gluing on brick paper. No problem with this either.

I know, corner magnets are the on-trend thing to use til the glue dries, but I still use elastic bands.

However, I must admit, the walls do glue together alright. Although, what you can't see in the above picture is the curvature in the side walls. To straighten them out I scratchbuilt a ladder frame from styrene strips, and then glued that sub-structure into the upper perimeter of the walls, which you can see in the photo below.

Installing the upper ladder frame to reduce wall warping.

The ladder frame suggests rafters, but more importantly, I guess, is that sub-structure more-or-less gets rid of the wow** in the side walls. 

I have lots more construction photos than I've shown here, but at this point I stopped taking any. I had done so much fiddly work to correct wonky parts and get to this state, and could see lots more on the horizon, that I thought, enough's enough. No more photos. No more describing what I did. No more nothing. Just press on.

You're right, I glued the windows in backwards - deliberately!

But, it wasn't enough to make me stop the project. I took a perverse pleasure in finishing it, even though I'm not completely satisfied with the result. 

Yeah, that's right, I got some fun out of this build for all the wrong reasons :-) Besides that though the entire ordeal got me thinking about scratchbuilding. Given how simple this building is I probably could have scratchbuilt something similar* for about the same amount of work I put into this kit, but without the associated feelings of frustration. 

The signs were scavenged from the leftovers of a Ma's Place kit.

And it got me thinking about scratchbuilding and kitbashing in general. I realized I've spent a lot of time on other people's projects: Cal's, Artz, and this Brick Price inspired build. They were pleasant, and I certainly learned a lot, but if I'm spending this kind of time and effort on projects, they should be my own. I have stacks of notes and sketches and drawings of my own ideas for scratches and bashes - or mingles as the case may be :-) - that I'd get proper satisfaction from building. I've been on this secondary highway for awhile. Now's the time to get back to the 400-series and hit the gas.

Hey! Close that door on your way out.

Ah, I see the off ramp up ahead. Fasten your seatbelt ... ***

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* Last fall I stumbled across online mentions of a famous layout built by Vivien Thompson called Eastbourne. The posts noted it was presented in the January 1968 issue of Railway Modeller magazine, so I hunted down a copy. It is a great layout and I enjoy her writing style. In that issue there's also a 2-page article called Tetbury locomotive shed by Michael Farr on how to build a little, single stall brick engine shed that's in the same genre as the plastic kit, although it has a water tank on one end. 

Tetbury locomotive shed by Michael Farr, RM, January 1968

The model is a simple and straightforward project, made mainly from card, and Mr. Farr notes it was his first model of a prototype. The brick papers are dated, and there seems to be a problem with proportions, but otherwise, after some minor changes, this, or something like this, would be a good first project in scratchbuilding, that once mastered would be a good stepping stone to other builds. It might be better to try a project like this than spend time fixing problems with a kit.

One interesting thing about this article is that the term 'scratchbuilding' isn't used. The project is simply referred to as modelling. I'll go way out on a limb and suggest that scratchbuilding didn't come into wide spread use until building from kits dominated the common understanding of what it meant to build scale models. Until then there was just model making. That sounds like something I should look into :-)

Oh, before I wrap up this digression I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the issue also contains a 1-page article by Jack Dugdale on how to model rabbits popping out of rabbit holes with the use of relays! Now that is scratchbuilding!

** My father used to refer to warps in wood as 'wows'. A wow had no associated quantitative measure. It could refer to any amount of unwanted curvature from a gentle, meandering bend to Stan Mikita meets Bobby Hull hockey stick wickedness. In this kit the degree of wow varies all over the place.

*** ... and turn up the radio:

Small Lumber Yard in a Big Box

Left: Boxing bought at Lark Spur Line | Right: Boxing bought at last March's swap meet

A week or so ago John and I drove over to the Lark Spur Line hobby shop in Merrickville to see what was new. They had a lot of good stuff, and I was especially surprised to see an old Atlas Lumber Yard kit. Well, I was especially surprised to see the box: it was considerably bigger than the one the kit came in that I used for the Artz Lumber project. I had thought the one I had was an original boxing from 1962, but I suspect this larger boxing is an example of the original.

Smaller box stacked on the bigger box

A plus of the larger box is you get a little clearer view of what's going on behind the building. You can see more of the flat car loaded with lumber back there giving a little better idea about how the building can be used on a layout*.

Apparently this kit was at one time sold at George's Trains

But, the thing that said "Buy Me" was that price sticker from none other than George's Trains. I'd recognize that sticker anywhere as it's from my old haunt back in Toronto. And yes, the kit is complete and appears never to have been opened. 

So, an old kit I'm interested in, still intact, apparently originating from my favourite model railway store from my Toronto youth. It was a rather nice way to cap a trip to Merrickville on a beautiful winter day.

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*Speaking of how to use the kit on a layout, that statement on the side of the box, "Modeled from official railroad prints..." is intriguing. Awhile back I tried to see if this kit was based on a prototype. I didn't find a direct link to any particular structure, although there were many lumber yard buildings of a similar design. I'd like to know what those "official railroad prints" were. Time will tell.

Artz lumber sheds

Over the past few weeks I've been working on the lumber shed portion of Art Curren's kit-mingling project, Artz Lumber Co.. Even though I've written about some aspects of Curren's projects, especially his connection with E. L. Moore, I've never actually worked on one of his builds. In 2023 I came up with an idea for a little diorama that would feature E. L. Moore's Cal's Lumberyard project and the lumber sheds from Curren's Artz Lumber Co.. This gave me an excuse for attempting a Curren build.

Partial building arrangement for the diorama. Cal's lumber yard is on the left

I've always had mixed feelings about Art Curren's kit-mingling projects, well, kit-mingling projects in general. On the one hand I admire the creativity, ingenuity, and skill Curren brought to these projects, and by all accounts he seemed to be a decent guy. On the other hand I have this feeling that the real purpose of these projects was simply to boost kit sales. For example, if one were to build Artz Lumber exactly as specified in the article one would need 3 Atlas lumberyard kits and 2 AHM farmhouse kits (1 complete one and the back wall from the second). Ok, so a longtime kit-mingler might have pieces of these kits in his stash leftover from other projects, but if not, this seems like a lot of kits.

But, that being said, I like the look of the tall shed / short shed structure. So, maybe the point of Curren's projects was: if the reader took a liking to one they'd give it a try, and maybe it would spark an interest in making custom buildings of their own design. Well, I'd like to think that was the point.

Pieces for the tall shed. Lower back wall piece has had its top details sawn off

As I've mentioned before, you'll need to use the kit's instructions and get a copy of Curren's article for the full details on how to build this project (Model Railroader magazine, Dec '86, or Art Curren's 1988 book, Kitbashing HO Model Railroad Structures). All I'm going to do here is provide some commentary on construction, and fill in some missing details.

You know, while I was making my way through the article I got the impression Curren started the project thinking it would be rather straightforward, but as things moved along found that was not going to be the case. Then, since he was faced with a limited page-count and deadline, had to rush and compromise a bit to get finished. I can't prove any of that of course, it's just a feeling from trying to follow the instructions and photos of what turned out to be a rather tricky build.

Use a razor saw to cut the lower walls to the correct height

Normally when building a plastic kit I discard the base, or cut it back so only the foundation is used. Not on this project. You need that base projection on the left side - the foundation for the little yellow office in the box stock build - for the breezeway between the two sheds, and to help secure the little shed to the tall one. This being the case I just kept the entire base as is and figured I'd blend it into the layout when the time came. Curren notes in his article that he initially cut off this base projection, but later realized he'd need to reattach it for the breezeway.

Upper and lower wall fit isn't too bad

When I work on these retro-projects I sometimes see myself as investigating the ways of model construction of the past. It's one thing to read the old articles or contemplate a kit's parts, but it's another thing entirely to build something as its originator meant it to be built, and dealing with the intersection of then and now along with your own model building desires and objectives. 

Apparently this way of learning by attempting to create objects as their creator did isn't uncommon in the art world. For example, in this paragraph Arthur Danto in his book, what art is, mentions how the artist Mike Bidlo made replicas of Andy Warhol's famous Brillo boxes to understand the entire process of bringing them to life:

"A 2005 work by the Appropriationist Mike Bidlo looks as much like Warhol's Box as the latter looks like supermarket Brillo boxes. Bidlo's denote all the 1964 Brillo Boxes, and this is worth noting. He did what he did because he wanted to understand what went into making them just as he replicated some Jackson Pollocks in order to learn what was involved in a real Jackson Pollack."

I'm doing a bit of that, but let's get back to the business of practical Artz appreciation to delve deeper.

Right wall with details ground off and roof mounting holes filled

The end wall that would have butted up against the AHM farmhouse Curren used as an office is made from 2 Atlas right end walls with the detail associated with the cutting table ground off. Curren's wall didn't have a lower portion as the office's back wall filled that role. This allowed the lower Atlas wall to be used as the front wall on the short shed. So, I had to scratch build a front wall for the short shed from a piece of Evergreen's styrene clapboard siding - more on that later. Also, I should have left the detail on the lower wall as weeks later I decided to include the cutting table and the detail would have been nice to have.

Next was to install the 3 interior open frame walls that hold up the top lumber rack in the lower level. A box stock build would use only 2 of these walls, so the 3rd had to come from another kit. These walls have to be shortened, and I found it rather tricky to get all 3 trimmed so that the top floor is nice and level. It's a trial-and-error job. There's a good diagram in the article that shows how all this fits together, but it doesn't tell you how fiddly the job is.

The interior is painted with Tamiya XF-57, Buff, acrylic, and some wear on the floor boards was brushed on with Tamyia XF-10, Flat Brown, acrylic. Curren mentions he painted the interiors after all construction was done and it almost ended in disaster. He sprayed the interior with a mixture of Pactra Light Earth and mineral spirits, which ended up softening several of the thinner pieces. He noted that if there was a next time he'd use a water-based paint. So, using Tamiya acrylic seemed a good choice in honouring Curren's hard won lesson. Colour-wise though, I chose my colours to match those used for Cal's Lumberyard.

The pencil line marks where the platform is cut for the step down to the opening

I started the top floor by installing the upper platform, which is a box stock lower platform that has had its sides and bottom notched to accommodate the floor's framing.

Notches that need cutting on the bottom of the platform

You see that pencil line I've drawn on the platform's top surface? You have to cut the platform apart there to form a step down to the opening in the back wall.This step is noted in the article, but only glancingly. 

The upper level lumber rack walkway made from Evergreen clapboard siding

You also need to make an internal walkway for the upper level. I used some scraps of Evergreen clapboard siding sanded down to nearly flat. I believe the material is 0.040" thick. The article mentions the walkway, and shows it in the exploded assembly diagram, but doesn't show a photo of it assembled and installed ...

The two walkways are installed

... so here it is! Also shown in the above photo is the upper level frame wall at the front - which also has to be shorted to get it to fit - and the floor framework from a second kit. 

Upper level is finished

The upper level doesn't have much vertical framework, and I'd think on the real thing the roof wouldn't be properly supported. Well, once the roof is on the model this fact isn't readily apparent, so let's move on.

A clearer view of the step in the upper level loading dock

The step in the opening in the upper level is a bit clearer in the above photo. The shed's exterior was painted with Revell Aqua Color #36139, Dark green matte, to match Cal's Lumberyard.

You know, that upper level opening strikes me as weird. Ok, look, I like the look of the structure, but I question the practicality of having what amounts to a loading dock way up there. Maybe these sorts of arrangements actually existed at one time, I don't know. However, it's going to make for an interesting scene on the diorama as long as I don't fret over things like utility and safety :-)

Left: 1960s kit box | Right: Current box

Just one more thing about utility since I'm digressing. When I first started to wonder about how the building was to be used I naturally consulted the kit's box top art for clues. 

The '60s box at least gives a hint about use. You can see a freight car loaded with lumber peeking out from just behind the building on the right side of the box suggesting lumber comes in by train and is loaded into the shed at the back of the building. Out front there's a buyer picking up material with his pickup truck. Off to the side is the cutting station. The box top art, as well as being a nice little illustration, also shows you how the building might be used on your layout. 

The current box top, although showing exactly what the finished model looks like if built straight from the kit without embellishment, tells nothing about the building and how to use it. It's just plopped into the middle of some generic greenery. Close examination shows the model to be rather crudely assembled which I guess goes hand-in-hand with the overall crudely designed box art. I can't imagine plastic model kits of cars, planes, or tanks being sold with such poor box art. The kit itself is not bad - not great, but not bad, good for beginners - and I'd think revamped box art, and maybe updated instructions too, would revitalize this old thing and make it more attractive to potential buyers.

With the tall shed completed I moved onto building the short one. The first job is to cut the walkway portion from the back wall.

And while the razor saw was out I cut off the ends off the base. On the left side one of those small yellow sheds is going to butt up against the wall, and on the right the wall is going to form one side of the breezeway with the tall shed.

As I noted earlier I had to make a new front wall because I used two kit side walls on the right side of the tall shed instead of just one as Curren specified, which meant I was one wall short for this project. My front wall is cut from a piece of Evergreen styrene clapboard siding - the same used on the office for Cal's Lumberyard. It's trimmed with some 0.040" square styrene strips. 

I added a floor cut from a piece of 0.040" thick plain styrene sheet into which I scribed floor boards. I also added some 0.040" square studs to the inside of the front wall so it looked like there was a little detail there if someone peeked in the upper openings on the back wall.

Curren closed off the right side of the interior with walls from the little yellow shed that are included in the kit. I didn't do that because I want to use the extra mini sheds on the diorama. The article doesn't show what the interior looks like with those shed walls installed, so maybe there's no loss to commonly known historical accuracy by leaving them off. 

A portion of the roof is cut away for the breezeway. I made a mistake and cut away one too many joists and later added them back with a scratchbuilt roof insert. 

You can see in the above photo I trimmed the left side of the tall shed's base so the low shed fits snuggly with the breezeway's floor. It's another trial-and-error job to get the two sheds to fit cleanly together at the roof and base. In the article Curren specifies drilling holes at various places in and around the breezeway for wire reinforcements and staples to securely hold the two structures together. Instead, I used some J.B.Weld epoxy to glue the two together at the roof and base. When the initial bond was hardened I dabbed on a little extra epoxy here-and-there to make sure the bases were secure. 

Gaps in the bases were filled in with styrene scraps. In the above photo you can see some of the epoxy work against the breezeway's left wall. That white strip over on the right is a support for a breezeway floor that I added later. I don't think Curren had one, but I thought it would neaten up the structure, and it would make sense to have a level floor that spanned the length and width of the area.

The tiny shed on the end needs to have its base and roof trimmed so that it will butt up against the low shed's left wall. Initially, I didn't use epoxy to join the two buildings, just regular styrene cement. Later, I got nervous and went back and reinforced the base connection with dabs of epoxy.

The base is a rough mish-mash, but it's solid

In case you were wondering, here's the business end of the structure. It's surprisingly solid, but I still handle it carefully. Eventually the model will have a permanent home on a diorama, so it shouldn't be subjected to much flex once that happens. 

The almost finished structure with orange ladders for safety :-)

We're getting close to the end. Just a few more details.

The breezeway

This is one of those 'The Digital Camera is a Harsh Mistress' photos, but it does show some of the final pieces of work.

You can see the styrene floor added to the breezeway along with a rickety step up to it sliced from some scrap styrene. I added a small extension to the low shed's roof to add back the portion I incorrectly cut off. A styrene beam has also been added below the roof joists for an illusion of support.

In the previous picture you can see the orange ladders popping out. They were painted to match the ones in Cals. I don't see how they'd improve the safety very much, but some token gestures must be made :-) 

Finally, I dusted the exterior surfaces with a little light grey chalk pastel. I'm going to revisit weathering a little once the diorama is in progress. I don't care much for the overly distressed look, so whatever I do the weathering will be light to produce something close to a freshly painted look. A bit of green flocking was glued to the base to make it a little more unified, but that will also be revisited once I get to the diorama.

I can't say I learned a lot about Art Curren's projects from working on just one as this particular one doesn't seem to be typical of his work. A lot of his projects appear to involve cutting several walls into a 3D jigsaw puzzle and then gluing them together to produce a rather interesting structure that one was surprised to see was hidden in the kit's parts all along. I will say though that it was a tricky project, and certainly not one for a beginner, but I'm happy with the result and glad I gave it a go.

Coming Attractions: Artz Lumber Co.

I've been wanting to build Art Curren's project Artz Lumber Co. for a long time and decided this winter is the winter of Artz.

The project needs three Atlas #750 lumberyard kits and an AHM #15303 farmhouse kit for the office. I just want to build the lumber shed so I don't need a farmhouse kit. Artz is going to be a part of a diorama along with Cal's Lumberyard, which has an office on the side. The diorama will be a project for next year. If you're going to follow along, Curren's article appeared in Model Railroader's Dec '86 issue and was reprinted in his 1988 book Kitbashing HO Model Railroad Structures. I won't be copying out the steps in my posts, just muddling along as usual. I'm curious to see how a Curren build goes as I've never done one before even though I've written a few posts about his writings.

In March I was lucky to find an old Atlas kit from the 1960s at the local model railroad swap meet - it's the kit at the top of the triangle in the photo. I'm not sure when this particular instance was manufactured, but the kit was first released in 1962. I did a little looking in Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman to see when ads for it first appeared. The earliest ad in MR appears in the Oct '62 issue, and is followed up by ones in Nov '62 (includes a small picture) and Jan '63 (includes a big picture). After that it appears with some regularity. I couldn't find any ads in RMC for either '62 or '63.

New kits are still being sold today. I acquired those two new ones in the bottom row of the photo just this week, although there was a lengthy search to find a pair at a reasonable price.

Well, I've got the kits. I'm just waiting for the snow to fly!