Kitbashing a mansion A Victorian gem in HO/Ken Kirkwood
T
he president of the Ma & Pa K, a shortline that meanders from re- sort to resort in the California
redwoods, wanted a home that reflect- ed his railway’s prosperity. With the advent of the horseless carriage, he has conveniently ignored reality, but he’s a man accustomed to getting what he wants. Consequently, the only serious wreck associated with the Ma & Pa K Railway would be his own residence. I was fortunate enough to locate a couple of Polar Lights Psycho House kits at a swap meet. I’m attracted to structures with mansard roofs, so I car- ried them away without even taking their wrappers off. Only then came the realization that one of these kits might be a suitable haunt for the railway’s president. Then, to make it sufficiently grandiose but weatherbeaten, I real- ized I might need both kits. At the very least, the bargain basement price for the pair made the idea of putting two together worth a shot.
Upon dumping the contents onto my workbench, it became apparent that cutting up the beautiful roof wouldn’t change the face of the structure for the better. Major plastic surgery was therefore ruled out. Whatever form the mansion assumed, it would sit under that roof. So, with the width and depth of the house carved (molded?) in styrene, the only way to go was up. The actual construction proved to be as simple as possible. Instead of put- ting that fine roof atop floors one and two, the identical wall from the second kit went on top. The only extra effort involved staying with the conventional and avoiding having third floor doors opening into thin air, but even this wasn’t much of a challenge. A third floor balcony in front was fashioned from scraps and leftover posts and rail- ings. A functional walkway and back stairway, admittedly rather spindly and slightly absurd, came courtesy of Central Valley and some stripwood. Accessories do make a model and a soupcon of detailing was added for a little extra flavor. Some Grandt Line lattice was placed under the back porch along with some exposed plumb- ing running up one wall, as well as some N scale finials on either side of the dormer window and a gold painted finial from SS Ltd. to adorn the peak. The cast plastic “stone” foundation pieces were replaced by individual stones positioned with tweezers. Pieces
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
RMC/Dremel Kitbashing Award........
A minimum of $100 and a Dremel Rotary Tool Kit with a variable-speed Dremel 3000 rotary tool and acces- sories are awarded to the monthly winners of the RMC/DREMEL KITBASHING AWARD. Entries must consist of at least two photos (high-resolution digital pic- tures should be at least 3,000 pixels wide; color slides or 5″×7″ or 8″×10″ prints are also acceptable) and a short text. Models must use at least 50% commercial compo- nents; unused entries may be held future editorial use.
of stripwood, wire and shards from a Scenic Express Super Tree that some- how managed to find itself under a book contributed to the clinging trellis and ivy long past its salad days. About the only thing not originally engineered into the now more impos- ing residence was a chimney. The house begged for an impressive one running all the way up one side, and
the chimney in Dorothy’s Home, an S.S. Ltd. kit, might have been ideal, perfect, actually, had I not sold the kit at a swap meet. Fortunately, there are a lot of chimneys out there, available separately or to be rifled from some other kit I may get to in the next centu- ry. I stuck one on top of the roof, but I haven’t a clue as to its origin. There are myriad other details from various manufacturers, such as brack- ets, corbels and finials, that would make the house even more distinctive. The somewhat clunky roof trim could be replaced with something more deli- cate. Grandt Line has some fine rail- ings and S.S. Ltd. has roof trim that would serve as alternatives. The line between floors two and three might be emphasized rather than subdued. Used in conjunction with the leftover roofing resulting from multiple kits, those same parts and a little siding material could make for a handsome carriage house out back. Finding the appropriate filigree for a turn-of-the- (last) century dwelling isn’t as difficult as it might appear, so long as you can think outside your scale. If you are a free spirit you have a little more latitude with scenery and Victorian houses than locomotives and cars. In addition to the wealth of domestic choic- es, there are some lesser-known (in the U.S.) sources of truly unique architec- tural pieces. Langley Models, in the United Kingdom, offers a conservatory that would look great butted up to one of the outside walls of this house. Their selection of doors, windows and other cast details is extensive. Scale Link, also in the U.K. and on the web, sells some great parts for the miniature home builder. Technically, they’re for HO/OO and N, but there are dozens and dozens of parts perfectly suited to period homes adaptable to most common model scales. Once the walls of the president’s house were cemented to the base, but prior to the roof being placed, they re- ceived one of the standard peeling paint treatments: an “undercoat” that looks like weathered wood, a light but liberal dabbling of rubber cement, a sprayed topcoat and a gentle rubbing off of some of the top layer. A little weathering pow- der, a spray of Dullcote (with the dirtied acetate “window glass” already in place) and a yard that had yet to see the likes of a weed wacker and the property de- valuation was complete.
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