Adapting commercially available buildings to an old west theme.Any ideas?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I am planning to scratch build ,if I have to,an HO scale facade of an old west town as there doesn’t seem to be much available commercially these days for the “Old West” theme.I could however adapt other more modern type structures if need be. Any ideas? thanks ,Cheers! John.

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Hi John, Have you tried here: {scroll it down on first one as it doesn’t load top pic for me}:

http://www.wildwestmodels.com/Welcome.html

http://www.trainsetsonly.com/page/TSO/CTGY/HO-WESTERN

http://www.comstockcarshops.com/OLD%20WEST%20STRUCTURES%20&%20FIGURES.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Cut-Assemble-Western-Frontier-Town/dp/0486237362 {book}

http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/bachmannhoscalekits/id37.html

http://www.caboosehobbies.com/catalog/index_home.php?manufacturers_id=1104

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/wra/wra723.htm

http://www.mts.net/~gisby/owbuild.htm

http://rogersrailroadjunction.com/craftsman-kits.php

for starters?

[8-|]

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I would think some of the section houses and company houses that are available, either laser cut wood or styrene, would look plausible, perhaps because no matter when they were built, they were never intended to be large and comfortable but rather, cramped and cheap.

One thing I notice in photos of those pioneer towns is that homes are not always painted.

What is a bit ironic is that years ago I had a Kibri set of Wild West buildings (the Wild West being for some reason a very popular subject for German model railroaders) where I had the opposite goal of modernizing them. I think Kibri might still offer those structures. They lend themselves readily to kitbashing as I recall.

If you should happen to have old MRs, or the MR DVD set, I’d hunt down some of the EL Moore articles. That vintage of type of building was a favorite of his, and he’d often use balsa wood and a burning tool.

Dave Nelson

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Not sure about backdating modern structures. But I can recommend several folks who offer structures that might fit the bill for old timey looks.

The old Kibri Western structure kits are now imported by BCH International. They show up on ebay and at other vendors: http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/HO-Scale-Structures-s/1441.htm?searching=Y&sort=3&cat=1441&show=30&page=1&brand=BCH%20International

Not sure why they don’t show up on BCH International’s website. May be currently out of stock?: http://www.bigcityhobbies.com/

Then there’s the very inexpensive route, using Tomkat’s handy building thread: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/190349.aspx?sort=ASC&pi314=1