Warehouse Rehab. Autumn Challenge 2015

[Jimmi (RIP)]

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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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To Be Continued...

[ChicagoNW]

I always wondered how you were able to take apart the pre-built models.

[zosimas]

I always wondered how you were able to take apart the pre-built models.

@Jimmi me too

[CaseyJones]

Jimmi, thanks for the tutorial I find it informative being relatively new to the building scene especially scratch built items. So, I look forward to the "Rest of the Story".

CaseyJones

[kalbert]

Nice tricks! Have you got any tips for removing glue blobs or is carefully digging at them the best bet?

[epumph]

@Jimmi

MORE! MORE!

[Jimmi (RIP)]

Nice tricks! Have you got any tips for removing glue blobs or is carefully digging at them the best bet?

You got it. Big gobs are almost impossible to remove without damaging the plastic underneath. I try to cover them up with detail items or, as I just did with the skylights, throw them in the trash and make a replacement. The huge barrels on the loading dock of this building were fastened with globs of glue and that had distorted the top of the loading dock. I'll just find something to place over the bad section.

I'll try to post an update later today. Lost my internet connection yesterday and they finally got it working a few minutes ago.

[Jimmi (RIP)]

OK, back to work. After several false starts on changing the skylights, I checked my box of window parts and found several sprues full of those Pola 3 pane European style windows. After a little trial and effort (and a bit of trimming), I glued them together in groups of five glued to tinted glazing. Glued these into the openings and added a small styrene strip to the top and bottom and painted the area. The three pane configuration looks a bit odd, but they fit and are not as bulky looking as the originals, which now reside in the trash can.

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Now, not to be picking on European styles...but...a lot of their kits have really stupid doors! Slats of wood with gaps all the way around them. This had a single door on one end and a double door on the other end over the loading dock with a gaping doorway next to it with the doors missing. Replacement turned out to be pretty easy.
The single door was replaced with a Tichy #2505 door. A bit of trimming of the doorway and it fit right in.
The other end was even easier. Scrounging through my junk boxes I came across a double door that was exactly the same dimensions as the doors over the loading dock. Then I found an overhead door that was an exact fit for the "doorless" opening.

This was just a matter of a little paint and glue. Below are comparison photos.

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Another thing I like to do is add a foundation, whether the original had, as this one did, one or not as part of the kit. Especially on used buildings you usually find that there are small gaps and oozed glue where the building is fastened to the foundation base. For example:

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I used styrene strips for the foundation. I cut the strips to allow a little overhang at the corners. then as they are being glued I trim the edge in place. Make a neater corner. Before I start gluing them on I paint the upper edge. It's a lot easier than trying to paint that narrow ledge when it's fastened to the building. After the glue sets I paint the wide surface.

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The end walls looked too plain, so I added some trim under the eaves. Same styrene size and method as the foundation.

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What happened to the doors that were removed? I don't waste anything! They were painted brown and glued to the loading dock as pallets to hide the bad spots where the big barrels were.

Tomorrow we'll start on the base for this building.

To be continued...

[CaseyJones]

Jimmi, again Nice work. It's looking good. It'll be a nice addition to the layout. Keep the tutorials coming. For me especially the ones about prebuilt buildings as I have several to work on.

CaseyJones

[dave68124]

Very nice. Love watching your work and thanks for sharing. Any thought to trim out the interior frame of the windows on the roof you added and make them true skylights?

[WP&P]

That brick texture seems very pronounced, with deep reveals at the mortar lines. Do you have any intention of "filling" those mortar lines with a wash of something grout-like? What I have done in the past is to take a bit of tan acrylic paint, thin it with water, and add in a little dot of joint compound (a.k.a. drywall mud), and wash that over the wall. Usually, though, the problem is that the brick sheet isn't very deeply engraved, and this kind of mortar wash really does fill in the lines. It can be tricky to get it thinned just right, and to apply the right amount, so that it only goes in the mortar lines. In this case, though, it should be rather easy to flow on a lot of wash!

[kalbert]

Yes! what @WP&P said. The bricks look like they'd take a mortar wash real well and might give the brick a little depth too. Looks way better already though, nice save!

[Bryan]

Gents, don't forget to "Rate This Thread" (in the thread header)...

[Jimmi (RIP)]

Very nice. Love watching your work and thanks for sharing. Any thought to trim out the interior frame of the windows on the roof you added and make them true skylights?

They are true skylights. While in the photos they look black, the glazing is actually just a black tint.

[dave68124]

Ok, I don't think of skylights having the internal frame, but really doesn't matter either.

[Jimmi (RIP)]

Not too much to show today. Most of it was just normal model procedures.
As far as the brick goes, I generally use a light wash for mortar lines. I wanted this to have a darker industrial tone to it. Unfortunately, like most N scale models, these bricks are way oversize. I would guess they are about a scale 5x12. No matter what the mortar color would be they will look oversize. WP&P...Never thought of mixing a little joint compound with the paint. I'll have to try that on the next brick building I do.

First thing I did today was to cut a piece of styrene sheet for a base. I chose to make the base 8" x 10" because I will probably end up putting this up for sale and that's an easy size to ship.
The three sets of windows in the first photo is something I came across in one of my junk boxes. Same type of brick and arched windows as the building. That gave me an idea of how to break up the long plain rear wall on the building.

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Placed the building on the base and cut some thin styrene for the areas that will be paved and glued them in place. Not really necessary but it raises the paved area a bit and the rest will be stone so it will leave less of a bump at the transition.

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Sprayed the base with flat black as a primer since I use acrylic craft paint for the paving and it doesn't stick well to raw styrene. While that was drying, I cut the window sections into three parts. I glued them into a three sided square and painted to match the main building. Built a base for the addition as a foundation to match and glued the walls on top, then glued the whole works to the building.
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If I get some free time tomorrow we'll get started on landscaping and signs.

To Be Continued...

[Jimmi (RIP)]

THE CONCLUSION...

Lots of photos today.

Started out by painting the area on the loading dock long side with grey craft paint. This was just in case any of the base showed through after landscaping.

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After that dried I squeezed out some full strength Elmer's, then spread that out with a wet paint brush.

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The paper shield is jut to keep from spraying too much alcohol/water/detergent mix on the windows.
I built the lot with several layers. First was a sprinkling of brown sand, which was then pressed with my fingers into the wet glue. Then it was sprayed with the wetting solution.

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Dropped a couple of pinches of ballast across it just to add texture, then another sprinkling of sand. Sprayed it one more time. Sprinkled a little green grass and random green weeds.Then soaked it with thinned Elmer's. My bottle is marked 50/50 but is actually more water and alcohol than glue. At this point it looks kind of like a muddy mess. A final thin layer of sand was applied over everything. Not enough to completely hide the grass. This needs no more glue since it soaks up enough of the excess glue to hold it in place. Then set it aside to dry. The rear lot was done the same way except with more bushes and grass.



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While that was drying I made the signs. These were printed on thin card stock. The company name on the roof was glued to thin styrene. Glued a strip of black painted strip across the top. Now for a real tip...
I thought it would be a good idea to glue a piece of angle stock to the bottom of the sign so that it would fit nicely on the roof ridge. Try gluing a sign to the outside edge of an angle! Super glued nicely to my fingers, but almost impossible to hold it in place. That ended up being a "good enough" job. I then painted the macadam surfaces with my "go to" all purpose almost black.

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On the office end I added the company name. This was glued to styrene first. The other signs are just card stock. Also installed steps to the office door and a fire hose cabinet on the left.

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The pop-up tells me I can't post any more pictures, so...
Continued on next reply...

[Jimmi (RIP)]

OK, Here are three more photos of the (almost) finished building. That's it for now. I may add a couple more details but this is basically finished.

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Thanks to those who followed this re-build. Basically doing a used building is the same as any other building model. The main difference is that sometimes you have to disassemble parts and usually it will need a complete repainting. I find it really fun to take somebody elses' shoddy work and turn it into my own shoddy work!

I'll leave you with this before and after shot.

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[Scotian_Huntress]

How do you make rain gutters and downspouts (assuming you will)?