I have a question for all you experienced kit builders/kit bashers/scratch-builders out there.
I picked up a DPM kit today (Schultz’s Garage) at my LHS. I’ve put together a couple of these kits before and like the brick detailing very much. This evening I was able to sand, glue up, and square the four walls. Right now I have the shell sitting on the layout, drying overnight.
As I was fitting the sliding garage door and front door (that come with the kit) to the front of the building to see how they looked, I thought about the possibility of trying to detail the interior of the garage. This caused me to muse about eliminating one of the sliding garage doors so that it looked like it was in the raised position, so that the interior could be viewed. This then caused me to look at the detailing on the kit doors and windows, which are somewhat plain and crude looking.
Now, I could probably “spruce” up (detail) the door and window treatments that come with the kit. But I was wondering if anyone has ever tried fitting (or retrofitting) another manufacturer’s doors and windows (e.g. Tichy) into a DPM kit? Are there any that would just pop right into the opening? If I have to alter the opening then it’s not going to work, because the brick face on the inside the window frame would have to be removed.
Since the DPM kits are very plain in the inside, and a garage is chock full of pieces/parts, tools, and equipment, perhaps it would be more trouble than it’s worth to try and detail the inside. Even so, I was just curious if anyone has ever tried substituting the windows and doors that come with the DPM kits with another brand. My other option would be scratch-building a simple window and door frame of some kind, in order to achieve a more realistic look. That might be worth looking into.
I think that Schultz’s might be quite an old kit. I built one from an E-bay purchase and the age of the packaging made me think it had been around along time. The windows in particular are very heavy especially what is left inside the model. In its standard form I don’t think it lends itself to interior detailing, so I did not bother. There are some really good garage interior detailing kits out there. http://www.jlinnovative.com/Catalog.ASP?WCI=DisplayProduct&WCE=%2045670&WCU=vGFAXnL4rnAmA9PaPKrrPoIbfvznEGbj this one from JL Innovative is one of my favorites. I plan to use it on the layout, but not in Schultz’s. His business is becoming an REX shed!
Tom, I’m building the very same kit and have thought about detailing the inside as well. I’m thinking that I could stud the walls with 2x4’s and then maybe add some insulation and somehow figure out how to dry wall some of it to give it a half finished look inside. It would hide the thickness of the widows I think. The big door I might cut so it looks like its rolled maybe 3/4’s of the way up.
You will have to get the inside measurement of the windows, the hole left there if you took the window out. Both the heighth and width, then check out both tichy’s and grandt lines web site for an appropiate window, you may find one close. mike h.
I think you are right about the age. My other two kits, Laube’s Linen Mill and Freight Depot - neither of which I have on the layout - already have the window trim molded right into the window frame. The ones that come with the garage are just look a little too bulky and crude.
I did take Mike’s suggestion. I measured the window and door openings then looked at the Grandt Line and Tichy offerings. None of the Grandt Line doors or windows will really work in any of the openings. Tichy does have a couple of single entry doors that might work - albeit either after some slight filing or added trim work. In either case, it looks like I’ll have to scratch-build some window framing in order to detail the windows. Might be fun to try.
I built an “implement dealer” kit and carefully slit the frame off a door in order to model it as open for the service department. Yes, the interior of the DPM kit is a little plain-- bare plastic-- but I covered it with cardstock to simulate finished walls, not bare brick. Built an “overhead” tire rack and found something in my scrap box to make pigeonhole cabinet. An A-frame chain hoist from an old machine shop kit would be overly large for automotive use, but okay for tractors and larger farm equipment such as combines. I carved the whatever it is-- it’s certainly not a knuckle-- from a replaced Arnold Rapido to make the head of a drill press. Found something in my scrap box that resembled a mechanics crawler.
I should mention though that this is N scale, and of course it is easier to detail in N than in HO.
If it was my garage kit, I’d keep the kit windows. Real garages ususally have shelving units around the walls, workbenches, piles of parts, spare body panels, etc. all over the place. Use that to make the window edges less noticeable. You could also leave the door half-open, and just include enough detail to make it “lived-in.” Through the door, you could park a car, a workbench covered with parts, junk, etc. Next to that, have some sort of shelving. Throw in a figure bent over the engine, and you have a complete scene.
I did something similar with some DPM walls. I built a large factory against my backdrop, and had just enough scraps left over to build a little garage. Nothing fancy, just somewhere to park my MoW buses. The main floor is completely open–with a bus in place, you can’t see that the “office” wall isn’t there, or that the window mullions are a bit large.
