Have about 15 Walthers building kits to put together. Anybody have any pictures of modified buildings to show? Either paint or structural differences. Thanks
Maybe a few… (the pictures will enlarge if clicked upon)
Walthers grain elevator, with a scratchbuilt farm supply store and a reworked scale house…
…this one is parts of two kits for Walthers’ Front St. Warehouse…
…and the same structure removed…
…with the leftovers used to create the street-side portion of a factory that makes caskets (the rest, not modelled, is in staging on the other side of the backdrop)…
This one is is an industrial supply company (tools, hardware, wire, steel sheet and shapes, etc.) made from parts of two Walthers’ George Roberts Printing Plants…
The leftovers from it, plus two kits for what I rec
Your hope has been fulfilled.
The drywall mud for mortar is a new one to me. Any important fine details of the process which I might not intuitively see, what with having not much used drywall mud in my life?
Milton Farm 2 by wp8thsub, on Flickr
The Walthers barn was modified by cutting in some Grandt Line windows, adding a scrtatchbuilt foundation, and scratchbuilding a lean-to from styrene siding and roofing.
DSC01080 by wp8thsub, on Flickr
Ideal Cement Unfinished 3 by wp8thsub, on Flickr
I kitbashed parts of several Walthers kits into this cement plant, including an ADM elevator, along with parts from a New River Mine and a coal flood loader.
Milton Fuel 4 by wp8thsub, on Flickr
The foreground of this scene has tank car unloading platforms modified from Walthers kits. Behind them is a feed mill using a Walthers kit with a few extra parts, and an annex from a Walthers Interstate Fuel warehouse with a Waltehrs grain conveyor and piping.
I use the pre-mixed stuff, which is available in a fairly small container, but you should be able to do lots of structures from that one container.
If you wish to paint the bricks a colour different from the plastic in which the walls have been cast, assemble the basic structure first. Use the paint of your choice, and apply it with either a brush or an airbrush - spray cans might work, but in many cases, the paint may be too thick or come out of the nozzle too heavily, filling-in the mortar joints. Let the paint fully dry before adding the mortar, as you don’t want to rub away the paint during the rest of the process
To apply the mortar, I use a clean rag over my finger tips, simply smearing it on (make sure to work it in around details, such as window sills, which protrude above the rest of the brick surface). It will dry pretty quickly.
To finish the brickwork, it’s best to work outdoors, as the resultant dust will make a mess indoors.
Use a clean rag over your fingertips to rub the excess drywall mud off the surface of the bricks, which will reveal the mortar that’s left in the joints. Shake-out the rag frequently…preferably downwind. Make sure to carefully clean around those protruding details, sometimes with a rag-covered fingernail, although in some cases, you might need to use the tip of an X-Acto blade to get into tight places.
Once all of the brick has been cleaned, you’ll notice that the colour of the brick will be somewhat muted, which is pretty-much the first step in weathering.
You can later add more weathering if you wish, and this also includes using washes - as long as you simply apply it and let it run down the walls, it won’t affect the mortar (other than making it look
Hmm … I just can’t imagine why that would be a thing … [;)]
I certainly can’t compete with the good Dr. Wayne! But this structure is built using a refabricated Walthers ADM grain mill kit, and Walthers wall panels.
All the tanks are made from PVC pipe, and the piping is all sprues, and the fire escape work is also kitbashed from Walthers kits.
I still have the silos from the original ADM mill in the original box. Another project maybe?
Mike.
Great-looking scenes, as usual, Rob. Your trackwork always lends a lot to your scenes, too.
I hadn’t realised, until you posted, that I forgot to include that Walthers feed mill. It’s in a location where I have plans for something else, and will likely be moved to somewhere on the partial upper level of my layout.
Don’t sell yourself short, Mike. That’s a good-lookng scene with lots of activity, and I can easily envision it as another GERN Industries facility. I like the depth of the scene, too, thanks to the backdrop…very nicely done.
I also like the weathering on the freight cars, especially that long hopper in front of the tall silos…very convincing.
Wayne
Thank you Dr. ! [bow]
I do have a couple of Flexi-Flow hoppers I’m slowly redoing, thinking maybe I could letter them for GERN, so I can bring in some extra additives to the milling and bakery plant.
“Grandma Ginger’s Foods” is always developing new products. [swg]
The cold storage addition on the far right is actually all cardboard, with some plastic parts involved.
Mike.
I bashed this St. Louis Delmar Street Station from two “Baily Savings and Loan” kits. Proved to be a bad idea because the hollow moldings didn’t cut and fit together well like they would had they been solid.
I don’t want to build these kits and have cookie cutter versions of what everyone else has. It would be nice if Walthers had an add on set of castings that allow easy extension of the walls between the same kits allowing easy building of more realistic structures.
I don’t think that is going to happen. Which Walthers building kits do you have? Why not just buy two of the same building and kitbash them into larger, perhaps more irregularly shaped, structures?
Rich
Walthers does still sell DPM building kits, along with DPM indiviual wall sections, for building your own, or adding on to structures.
Go to page 2 to see the wall sections.
Mike.
When Walthers discontinued their own modular kits and they became harder and more expensive to find, I experimented with the DPM individual wall sections. My objection to them is that they appear too large for HO scale, especially if they are situated close to other Walthers buildings on the layout.
Rich
The DPM modular walls are among my favourites, but I wish they were a little more affordable.
I’m also a fan of DPM’s smaller structure kits, and have several on my layout…
…along with a box-full of unbuilt kits that will be used on the upper level of my layout.
Wayne
You can buy them through Walthers, like many other products, but DPM is now owned by Woodland Scenics.
Wow, nice work on the kit bashes! thanks for posting!
Conversely, I find the opposite in buildings I’ve used as reference.
This building https://goo.gl/maps/hMe9HHfcnfmouHKeA is roughly the same size between the pilasters as DPM modulars.
This one down a couple doors down https://goo.gl/maps/5PdtYoDrD8MDx3su5 is a dead ringer for the City Classics Smallman Street Warehouse modulars (probably not a coincidence. It is on Smallman Street…).
This one a few blocks away https://goo.gl/maps/dJXFzRLo8gCrctkM6 is sized more like Walthers modulars, but without pilasters.
Nittany, thanks for posting pictures of real warehouses to compare against DPM and City Classics! Any idea when these buildings would been in operation?
I don’t know when they were built, but they definitely existed in the 1920s. The tracks were pulled up in the late 60s, I believe. They’ve been occupied until very recently, like the last two years. I suspect that they are being renovated right now, presuambly for apartments.