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I decided to do this after going to my LHS for some styrene and finding a box of used N scale buildings...cheap! I picked up two for a total of $16.
This is a Heljan warehouse that was pretty well constructed by its original owner. The exception is that he or she used globs of glue to hold the glazing in place. Also it was unpainted. I don't know why anyone would build a Heljan kit and leave it in the multi-color swirled plastic that Heljan uses.
It needs just enough work that I thought I'd show this build as a tutorial. Most of you that do any rebuilding probably know these tips already, but maybe I do some things a little differently. So here is how I'm doing it.
The first picture is the condition it was in when purchased. I have already removed one of the awful skylights. Why would you have framing for individual panes if you are going to put one big sheet of glass on top of them?
Attachment 73846
These were a bugger to remove since they are glued into a frame cast in the roof. I tackled this the same as I do when disassembling roof and wall panels from used buildings.
All you need are a bottle of liquid model cement (I use Testors), two hobby knives, one with a #11 blade and the other with a chisel blade, and a lot of patience. It took me about two hours to remove the four skylights.
First scribe a line with the #11 blade along the glue line. This will show you how tight the joint is and hopefully cut into some of the old glue.
Attachment 73847
Now apply a liberal amount of liquid cement around the area you just scribed. Once the cement works its way into the old glue it should start to weaken the joint. I have found this to work on just about any glue that was used in the first build.
Use care in the next steps since the plastic in that area also will be softened. Give the cement a minute to work, then with the chisel try to gently pry on the parts.
Attachment 73848
If it doesn't budge, give it another coat of liquid cement and try again. It may help to scribe it again with the #11 blade.
Once you can get a blade into the seam, you should be able to work your way around from that point using both blades.
Attachment 73849 Attachment 73850
Once the pieces are separated, give the parts about 15 minutes for the plastic to harden again. Then clean up the area of any tool marks and residue. I used the chisel blade and the tip of a small file, then a little fine sanding. I used the same method to remove the two humongous barrels (about 8 scale ft. high) from the loading dock.
Here is the roof with the skylights removed.
Attachment 73851
Next I painted the building. Did the roof in gray craft paint. The brick was done with the only reddish paint that my LHS had left in PollyScale paint...Soo Line Red. Close enough!
After it dried the roof and walls were coated with a wash made from a little of the dark paint I use for streets, thinned with water. Darkened the brick to a less red color and gave me some dark mortar lines. I painted the dock with an oxide color and painted the yellow plastic barrels aluminum. I tried to modify the original skylights but that ended up being really sucky, so I'll have to build my own. That's where we stand as of today.
Attachment 73852
To Be Continued...
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