Building a switching layout (Part 5) Building interiors

ACME Tool & Die Manufacturing

 One of my industries is build from an old Revell kit. I build it straight out of the box and added some vents and blowers to the outside. Bu because it's located near the edge, people can easily see the interior. The kit even had no floor so looking into a bare empty building was not an option for me. Building these ancient kits is always some kind of a challenge, so I've cut a floor and a separation wall from .040" Evergreen plain styrene.

I also gave it a new name. A bit of weathering and rust and the outside looked about right.

To avoid that one could look right through the building I installed a styren wall at an angle to hide the rear windows. I added a couple of signs and posters to simulate the back wall of the machine shop. I also installed lighting to make the machinery inside visible.

I had a bunch of workshop machinery from Preiser (??) lying around for years and now they finally got a purpose. I painted the machines and glued them to the styrene floor.

As workers I chose several auto mechanics from Woodland Scenics, because they came in appropriate poses of kneeling or holding a hood open etc. I placed them next to the machines as if they were working on them.

PROCTER & GAMBLE Distribution Center

I needed an industry with truck loading doors and loading doors to spot railcars inside the building on the left side of my layout. As no appropriate kit was available I decided to build what I needed from scratch.

I build almost all my buildings using plain and textures styrene sheets from Evergreen or Plastruct. A wall consists normally of a plain styrene base with textured sheets like siding or brick pattern laminated on top. All window and door openings are cut into the plain styrene either with a hobby knife or a Micro Mark nibbler tool. The final textured siding is cut and sanded exactly around the openings so that the door and window castings fit snuggly. Here I also build the loading doors and trim from scratch. 

I wanted the loading doors open to show a fake interior. I had tryied this already on another model and it added a nice touch to a backdrop model. To do this I had to install small shadow boxes behind the door openings. I built them with pieces of scrap styrene.

On the internet I googled for pictures of interior shots of storage facilities. There are plenty. I chose pictures which are taken straight on or showing the right or left side of a row of storage racks, depending from which side the door may be viewed.














I scaled the pictures to fit into the shadow boxes. I installed them curved like in the picture. This eliminates sharp corners. Then I closed the shadow boxes with a lid from plain styrene.

The fake interior gives the impression of a large storage area.

Oil Distributor

I used the small office building from the Oil Distributor kit from Pola/Model Power to fill a small spot on the right side of my layout.

I built the kit right out of the box and also included an office interior. Faller and Preiser both offer various interiors with furniture and everything need for an interesting scene.

I installed Micro SMD interior lights to show what's going on inside. The little dude seems to watch something interesting. If you want to know visit me at the US Convention in Rodgau Germany in October 2017.

As always, stay tuned for updates.