I have a dillemma. started construction on a Walthers 3 n 1 modular structure. I messed up the wall construction to where the wall lengths are not the same. I now have a structure that is not square. Also, the roof fits inside the wall caps; of course the roof now does not fit inside this configuration. After all this work, (including preconstruction weathering and painting of window mulions, etc.) I am not sure what I should do. Should I “fashion” the parts to make them fit or do I completely scrap the project altogether? This is a $30+ kit and I hate to just trash it. Some light on this and advice would be apprreciated. Thanks
Welcome to the world of kit bashing!
My experience with walls is that most o the time, I can seperate them on the joint even if I did use the plastic weld.
My advise: If you can’t fae it iwith a patch piece (doesn’t look right or whatever) Find you a spot on it where you either know the problem is, or can whack it out easily, and put a better fitting piece in. Run an exacto blade up the back of it, you shiould beable to get a fairly clean seperation of the plastic.It may not be great, but it beats a hammer. The back tends to show the seams better too, and after its been cut a few times, you may be able to get away with rocking the piece to further that seam until it breaks off, like a perferation.
You may lose aside of the building, but that’s less than the whole building.
Tough break, Tom. Nobody get’s it all right all the time. It seems that I have heard of glue softener’s, removers.But I can’t tell you anything about them. Maybe you could use an exacto knife and carefully cut from the inside of the wall joint to separate the parts. If they come apart ok, you could use a filler to blend the seams back together. Hope it all works out.
It’s hard to give you advice on how to fix the problem (make the parts, etc) without seeing the “damage”. If you assembled it with CA, however, you maybe able to break it apart with minimal damage. Put the whole thing in the freezer overnight; the extreme cold makes the glue brittle and you should be able to break it apart without a lot of damage to the parts.
You’ll need to re-dress the glue joints with sanding and scraping, but you may be able to salvage most of it.
Good luck.
That’s why God made razor saws![;)]
-George
That’s why God made razor saws AND made the late kitbasher supreme Art Curren who showed how to razor saw a kit for its component parts. Think of what you have in that light - a resource. And one of Curren’s favorite ideas was the structure that was constructed at angles to fit the track. You’ve got good start at that. Also a good start at buildings flats.
One thing I have learned years ago. When I make a stupid stupid mistake my first instinct is to throw it away so it is just out of my sight ASAP. And that first instinct is the worst mistake of all.
Dave Nelson
could be worse. like the 20+ inch long four section tall wall i built from walthers modulars that gained a severe curve that actually pulled the wall caps apart somehow.
Make it into a building designed to fit an intersection that is not a right angle. There are a couple here in my hometown.
Fashioning a new roof shouldn’t be that hard. Is it possible to orient the building so the missing side piece is not noticeable? Or perhaps fit in a filler piece and put it up against another building or something like that?
Tom - I feel your pain. I screwed-up the Walthers “Magic Pan Bakery” kit. The instructions that come with the kit are terribly written, and I could BARELY read the part numbers on the instruction sheet! What you need to do is think “outside the box” (pun intended). There is ALWAYS a solution; put the kit aside and think about it for awhile, you will come up with a solution!
Good Luck,
My flawed constructions are known to me as “background” (far from layout edge) models. There are even times the results aren’t worthy of any positive use. Those I call “practice” models and they eventually go into the dumpster after salvaging any “goodies.”
Mark.
Which, btw, was Jimmy’s solution… putting the kit aside…
[(-D]
You could just refashion the parts —shape the roof to make it fit the current shape of the buiding is one thing.
Some of my mess ups ends up as either long abandoned buidings or as kitbash fodder
I am in agreement with many previous postings. If the problem is not cosmetic, that is if the building looks good, then forget about it. The world is full of not-square structures. Scribe the roof to fit and proceed!
If necessary you might want to re-align a road or place a siding next to the building to provide a plausible reason for the shortened side. In the real world they build the building to fit the lot. You have the luxury of building the lot to fit the building.
Not sure how complicated your design is or if you’re doing one of their examples but I used the same kit for my first attempt. I tried making a 4 story factory with 2 2 story additions on it. I had a heck of a time getting the corners to line up so that it looked realistic. I worked on it for months, going back to LHS for more additional walls and roof caps. One roof section was too short length-wise and I had to add plastic to it. I posted pics of it after it was completed in '08:
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/138105/1543196.aspx#1543196
If this is one of the Walthers “modular” kits, you should just be able to order the parts you need to replace.
First, though, call Walthers. In some of the kits I’ve bought from them, they include a card that says they will replace lost or broken parts, even if you were the one who lost or broke them. “We want you to succeed” is what it says on the card.
I agree. I was going to suggest this until I saw his post suggesting it. Around here there are plenty of buildings that are not square or rectangles. Many are trapezoidal in configuration to line up with property lines, streets, etc. some have odd shaped walls on one side, some on two or three walls. Just cut your roof to fit nicely inside your new made-to-fit-the-property-line building.
Hey look on the bright side you’ve just started your kit bashing parts box…lol seriously don’t loose sleep over it I have a box full of those oh crap that was a mistake pieces and parts. You will eventually find uses for the pieces or as mentioned possible use them as building flats or back drop buildings. you can always hack them in half with a razor saw and make two backdrop buildings did that with a Walthers Red Wing Milling structure. Like it so much I hacked up a new kit using the opposite other two sides and kit bashed m up a little and the whole mess made a pretty nice set of back round build complex. A last resort is to try disassembling it with some debonder and start over. It’s worked for me but only a few times was I happy enough with the results to use the building. I think if I removed every structure that had some sort of imperfection on it as a result of my fat fingered modeling I would have maybe a half dozen buildings left.
My friend has a motto good side out bad side faces away for a good reason.
You’re lucky: you wouldn’t believe how much effort was expended to achieve the “not square” structures shown below. [;)][(-D][(-D]
As others have mentioned, welcome to the world of kitbashing. If you’ve used ca to assemble the structure, it will probably fall apart of its own accord [:-^], or you can use the freezer trick mentioned. If you’ve used solvent cement, you may be able to dis-assemble the building by using a brush to apply lacquer thinner to the joints from the inside. Several applications may be required, making a pass or two (again, from the inside) with your X-Acto knife after each application. If you succeed, allow the edges to re-harden, then use a mill file to smooth them. You may have to use a filler on some joints once yo