Walthers Row House Kitbash, Build Challenge 2016

[restocarp]

I will be kitbashing this Walthers Row House plastic kit for the Build Challenge 2016:

My plan is to modify the kit to more closely resemble a group of Baltimore Row Houses. I would like to grow the group from 2 units to 4. Ultimately this group will form a portion of a module that I am (slowly) constructing for the Four County Society of Model Engineers Layout. This will be my first build thread of any kind, so we will see how it goes....

Matt

[NEMMRRC]

I'm looking forward to it.

Jaime
Narrow Gauge Convention photos

[Raymo]

Great!

[GPdemayo]

Looking forward to your build Matt.....

[ACL1504]

Matt,

I'm following along also. Any up dates on the build?

Tom

[S&S RR]

Matt


I will also be following along.  Very interested to see what you do with this.

[restocarp]

Matt,

I'm following along also. Any up dates on the build?

Tom

Ahh, fall in the construction business. The 1:1 construction world has been a bit crazy recently meaning the 1:87 construction world has taken a backseat. I hope to have an update this weekend.
I have done some work to make up my cardstock mock-up.

More later,
Matt

[ACL1504]

Yea, funny how life gets in the way of our modeling efforts.

Tom

[restocarp]

So, let's see if we can't get this going in earnest.

Here are the parts all laid out:


Previously I mentioned that I was constructing a mock-up. Well, I did to a point and then pushed forward towards work on the actual model. I will likely return to the mock up as I proceed to figure out further details.

Here is my current mock up, a little worse for wear and, admittedly, unfinished.


Here is the front wall. I want the two right units to drop down a grade by about 3 feet.


And here is the end wall. I wasn't happy with the look of the kit supplied wall with its double wide window, so I am going to combine the two end walls to eliminate that feature. The paper mock up will allow me to try the cut before knife hits plastic.


And here is is the cut and join in the plastic wall. Notice I am also eliminating the block style foundation, more on that later.


In order to create four homes out of two, I need a new front wall. First I cut a piece of styrene to the proper over all dimensions.


Then I slice it up vertically and horizontally at the openings.


Then reassemble it without the window locations. Some modification of the openings will be an order. All those little parts are slippery!!


Next I laminate on some brick sheet. This is Plastruct HO Sheet that I had.


And add a little weight.


Meanwhile I cut out the windows and doors and set them up for a quick paint job.


A shot of gray primer.


And some sponge applied white.



A test in the opening shows I may need to revisit this paint job.


So that's where the project sits today. More later.
Matt

[ACL1504]

Matt,

I'm looking forward to this one, great start. By the way, nice "little" weight!

Tom

[MAP]

Great progress on this Matt.  I'll be following along since I've got a few plastic kits to be built and am always looking for techniques to paint & weather.  Keep the progress pics coming. 

[S&S RR]

Matt


I'm following along - your off to a great start.

[Powersteamguy1790]

You've made a great start Matt. have fun building that kit.

Stay cool and run steam........

[restocarp]

Thank you for following along, Tom, Mark, John and Bob. Hopefully I can keep up my end of this bargain.

So, while I waited for the wall laminate to dry, I began on of the trickier portions of this build: how to fill twice as many openings as are supplied in the kit. The first challenge was the front doors. The kit comes with two rear doors that are slightly different, but the same size as the front door leaves. So I began by gluing them together.

Then I built a frame around them to match the dimensions of the existing frame.



Some primer and paint and it is a rough approximation of the original.


The door will not be that visible once the building is completed, so I will probably not worry about adding any more detail to the transom, but we will see.

Once the laminated brick had dried (and loose portions glued again and dried), I added a little bit of detail.

Trying to exactly match the kit supplied front facade wasn't going to happen, so I used the always awesome Baltimore prototype to create the new rowhouse fronts. Many of you Baltimore fans are aware of the mid-century Formstone fad. This is my take on Formstone:
First some Camouflage primer

Then some multicolor details

Side by side with the kit facade:

And attached to the kit facade:

What! No windows in the Formstone?!
Well, I planned on using the windows from the side and rear walls to fill in my new front wall, but, it turns out, they are ever so slightly smaller...




Have no fear Rowhouse Fans! I have a plan.

More next time,
Matt

 

[restocarp]

Next up I began work on the diorama and foundation for this model. I laid out the scene based on the limited space that I have to work with in the ultimate module location.

I am building the foundation out of wall castings from a custom stone wall I built a while ago. The original was built from individual Sculpey stones.

I then made a mold and cast some walls.

Now to begin fabricating the walls.

A little primer:

A quick ink wash:

And that's where it stands. I also fabricated my rear brick walls. The one wall will face the backdrop, and so it does not need a lot of detail. I decided to save my limited windows and leave the wall blank, but I couldn't resist adding a little something to that big brick expanse:

Anybody have any experience working with the Silflor MiniNatur ivy. I had more success gluing it to my fingers and the tweezers than to the building...

'Til next time,
Matt