Favorite daughter suggested that my layout needed a church to take care of the HO scale spiritual needs of my scale plastic population. I stopped and photographed this charming small church in Sugar Hill NH.
It’s small, handsome, and local. It’s only a few miles off the B&M tracks from Woodsville to North Conway. It’s scratchbuildable if you simplify the upper steeple design. Some time later I encountered this $5.95 plastic kit at Charles Ro.
So I bought it. Came out like this.
Close, but not an exact match. The kit came with rather garish stained glass windows with I omitted in favor of “glass” from a supermarket cookie container. I painted all the contrasting trim bits white, and the roof light gray auto primer from a rattle can. The downspouts are brush painted with Floquil "Old Silver to look like galvanized iron.
And here is the boxtop photo side by side with the model.
I covered the bright green plastic base with diluted white glue and sprinkled “grass” on it. My grass is sawdust from the shop dyed light green.
Swell job! [tup] [tup] or [Y][Y] two thums up either way!
I like what you did. I bought one awhile ago, but have yet to put together. I thought I would search for other less than garish stained glass “windows” to print out.
I also bought the Woodland Scenics Cemetary tombstones and a small kit of a monument stone and fencing to use as a large grave marker of the town’s “most prominent and wealthiest person”. I will cut the large base off the monument to scale it down some. The fencing will fence in the cemetary next to the church, as the older smaller churches around here tended to have a small old cemetary next to them for parishiners.
Nice job. Much more traditional New England look without the extreme contrast in colors. Have one, I think, will definitely do a bit of remodeling now that I’ve seen how nice it can look.
My favorite HO church kit was the Gold Ribbon Cottage Grove Church from Walthers, which has (alas) been discontinued. It has that typical New England look to it, very close to the 1st Baptist Church in East Haddam, for which it stands in on my layout.
You may be able to find one at a train show or at a dealer.
When I was 14, I received a pre-built Model Power church that looks similar to the one you all have shown. It already had a light installed. I painted the inside black and took colored Sharpies to the inside of the window glazing and made stained glass. I extended the wires and added a Christmas light socket to the end and plugged into a strand of lights on the Christmas tree. It really neat to put under the tree with a circle of HO track and make a little town. It along with the trains provide hours of entertainment to the younger kids (and adults young at heart).
