I have an open spot on the layout for a big farmhouse. I picked this baby up at train show for a few bucks.
All Plastic, assembled, but kinda lacking in coolth.
Here we have paint, all rattle can. Classic New England Colonial white with black shutters. Plus scratch built porch railing. Windows are glazed with clear plastic from an Entemann’s danish pastry box. I was going to add a TV antenna on the chimney, but I was unable t o find the etched brass TV antenna kit that I brought back from another train show some time ago. When it turns up I’ll put it on.
And interior lighting. The 2-56 machine screws serve double duty as terminals and strain relief.
Nice job! How did you manage to get a clean line between colors on an already built structure, especially spray painting? I just love projects like that. Take something (already built or a cheap kit, and make it a respectable model. I did a similar thing with an old Heljan brewery structure that was already built that I found at a train show. It now stands on my layout as part of the Mud Hen Brewery, the largest industry on this industrial corridor.
The shutters came with it. Nice molded plastic with louvers and everything. I took them off before I thought to take the “before” picture. Actually for HO and smaller scales, you could just use a flat sheet of something and cut them to size. Painted black as these are, the louvers don’t really show.
And, real houses, like mine, often fake shutters with just plain slabs of 3/4 plywood. They look OK in full scale real life, so it ought to look OK in HO scale.
Masking tape. I masked the walls first cause I was afraid that white would not cover the dark gray roof color. Then I did the chimneys in red auto primer. Then I masked the chimneys as well and did the roofs. I gave the roofs a day or so to get good and dry, so the masking tape wouldn’t pull up the new paint, and masked the roof[s] off and did the walls in white. The black shutters with painted off the model and cemented on later. There were a few places where spray paint sneaked under masking tape but those could be touched up with a brush.
And I agree with you, there is a good deal of satisfaction to be had making something decent, starting out with nothing much. There are a lot of aspects to model railroading. I enjoy the model making angle.
A fresh and neatly applied coat of paint helps a model house as much as it does a real one … A nice rescue of a model some would be tempted to overlook.
By the way, GCLaser makes a very neat little laser cut wood TV antenna - a little tricky to assemble but it looks great if you take your time. I think there are 4 per kit. I botched one but was able to “rescue” it and actually ended up with a shorter TV antenna more like the one I remember on my folks’ house’s roof.
And for those who don’t know, Tichy makes a line of really nice window shutter castings in various lengths. They are quite thin so they do not stand out from the wall as much as some shutters that come with plastic kits or plastic assembled structures. I like them.
Here we have paint, all rattle can. Classic New England Colonial white with black shutters. Plus scratch built porch railing. Windows are glazed with clear plastic from an Entemann’s danish pastry box. I was going to add a TV antenna on the chimney, but I was unable t o find the etched brass TV antenna kit that I brought back from another train show some time ago. When it turns up I’ll put it on.