Craftsman Structures: August 2014

Farmhouse Build

An American Model Builders HO scale kit

Every year, a group of model railroaders in Ottawa gather to build a model railroad to be raffled as a fund-raiser for their local children's hospital.

I chose to build a "truncated version" of the farmhouse which resulted in some challenging and creative modelling which you will learn about momentarily!

Many friends from around the world donated items for the build thanks to our friends at the Railroad Line Forum.

We assembled on a regular basis to construct the layout and different modelers took different craftsman style kits to build.

I selected this American Model Builders farmhouse to build. The location for it demanded that I truncate the building on an angle, very cool!

Here is a shot of one side of the layout upon completion.

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A photograph of the other side.

Before cutting up the wooden wall sections from the kit, I first mocked up the structure out of cardboard. Much better to make a mistake out of cardboard than wood, I say!

I think this will look really cool when done!

And yes, it does!

The farmhouse placed on the styrofoam terrain.

With a few trees I made out of the spirea shrub.

With all of the scenery in place.

Among other buildings.

An aerial shot.

This sure was a fun little project.

The joy was looking at the faces of visitors to the train show.

It was great that a little boy won the raffle layout. He was so excited when we dropped it off at his home!

Thanks for checking in on this very special project which showcases what teamwork can achieve.

Have a great day of model railroading!

Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

A few years back, the St. Lawrence Division of the NMRA came up with an interesting idea. The members chose to select a model that everyone would purchase and build. The model chosen was the Silver Plume Bakery from Banta Modelworks.

There was one caveat...each modeler had to turn the bakery into something different! Oh, did I fail to mention that four scales would be represented, N, HO, S and O. Lots of fun! Follow along to see some of the creative models the group built.

We met once every two months at a local church basement. The SLD meets five times a year, so we chose the alternate months to gather as a group for the build.

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This post is not meant to teach techniques. Rather, it is to show you some of the creative models which were built.

I chose to turn my model into a barber shop. I have a good model railroad friend named Bill Meek. I thought it would be fun to name the barber shop "Barber Bill - No Meek Cuts"!

SS Limited provided the interior detail parts...tons of white metal castings. Most of us chose to light our interiors with LED's. The effect is very dramatic especially when you observe the model in low light.

Well, I guess one lad didn't pay attention to the rules of the theme...hee hee! I smell bread baking! Big smile!

Yup, he chose to make his bakery into a...well...a bakery!

He did a great job on the detailing and weathering.

I think that I would love to go get a coffee and a bite to ear here.

This lad created a corner cafe out of his bakery kit.

Looks great planted on this mini-diorama.

My friend, Stan, modeled the Tweed News. It is obviously the head offices of the local newspaper.

Here's someone's structure at some juncture in the process. It's fun to see the differing paint schemes for the walls and trim. I believe that it will become David's Wells River Cafe.

The Wells River Cafe takes shape.

Here is the final form of David's structure as planted on his layout.

Aha! Me thinks this'll be another structure masquerading as a bakery!

My good friend, Chris Lyon, turned his structure into a pool hall.

Chris planted his on a mini-diorama as well and photographed it against his backdrop on his model railroad.

Another barber shop to give me some competition down the street, I see! Deb and John, great friends, even added a sound chip with old style music playing!

Good friend, Ron, created an O-scale saloon.

With a lot of interior detailing going on.

Cafe Evelyn looks well attended.

Nice exterior detailing by good friend, Alex, in S scale.

Pete chose to create a pharmacy in O.

Pretty shiny new looking roof.

Spending that kind of money, the place must be doing a brisk business.

Good friend, Gilbert, chose to change the kit up entirely and place the doorway to the left rather than the right. He also added a lot of interior detailing.