I needed a supplementary building for an industrial siding. I decided to use Little Railways'1:20.3 scale flagstop station as the basis. Its size and general appearance were close to what I had in mind but it looked too plain. Over the years the structure I had in mind would have developed a "patchwork" of additions. As usual, I was long on ideas but short on time. So I cajoled honorary OR staff member Bob Uniack into helping me.

UNIACK TO THE RESCUE

Bob Uniack is one of the finest modelers in the western United States. When he suggested we use styrene for the project, I bowed to his experience. It turned out to be a terrific idea. Not only was the texture of the additions more compatible with that of Little Railways' original cast urethane structure, it turned out to be extremely fast and easy to work with.

Little Railways had included a couple of extra window castings with the building in case we decided to repaint it. As it turned out, we added a shed onto the rear of the station and we used the castings in the shed's window openings. When Bob repainted the station he just masked off its existing windows.

I have reproduced plans for the shed wall and roof sections to show how simple the project is.

We used .060-inch thick sheet styrene for the sub-structure and 3/8-inch wide by .040-inch thick strip styrene for the plank overlay. The door and window trim is 3/16-by .040-inch styrene.

Bob cut the .060-inch thick rectangles for the sub-walls while I worked out the door and window locations and dimensions. Then I cut out the door and window openings and he looked for the 3/8-inch wide strips.

The fastest way to cut out the windows was with a drill and a brass nibbler. The nibbler is similar to a hole punch for paper but it makes a rectangular hole instead of a round one. I marked the window locations on the sub-wall with a pencil and drilled a hole in the corner of each window opening. Then I nibbled away at the plastic between and around the holes until the openings matched my pencil outlines. Finally I filed the openings to their finished size. I had often thought cutting windows in plastic would be tedious; it was no more difficult or time consuming than cutting wood. Within half an hour we were ready to apply the outer planks.

WHAM, BAM, BOOM

We distressed the styrene strip to make it resemble weathered wood. Bob dragged a razor saw a few times along each piece; I gouged the edges here and there. The illustrations show how.

Then I laid the first plank onto the sub-wall, ran a bead solvent-type liquid cement along the joint, and capillary action drew the liquid under the plank. Testor's Liquid Cement for Plastics works well and you may apply it with a small brush. The bond begins to set almost immediately so I was able to work very quickly.

I planked up to, above, and below the window openings. I kept the edges even around the windows but I allowed the planks to extend beyond the top and bottom of the wall. After I finished a wall, I let the cement set while I worked on the next section. Then I went back and used an X-Acto knife to trim the planks to exact length, cleaned up the edges with a flat bastard file, and we turned our attention to the door.

Bob thought it should be a crude affair since we had designed the shed as a rustic add-on. We agreed the door would be a Z-frame job with random planks. I thought we should recess it but Bob said no, it should swing out and a recess was unnecessary. Since recessing the door meant more work, Bob won. I planked around and above the door opening, then Bob cut some random-width planks for the door itself. I cemented them to the sub-wall as though they were wall planks. The trim and Z-bracing set off the door itself.

We used 3/16-inch wide strip for the trim but Bob cut the two window sills as custom pieces. As on a real structure, trim hides any imperfections along the board edges. We indented nail holes in the trim with a pin. Bob talked about carving knotholes into a couple of wall planks but I guess he forgot.

At that point we had four walls, complete with door and windows. Bob cut some 1/4-inch square styrene strip to reinforce the walls and provide additional gluing surface. I welded them onto the back of the appropriate wall sections, then we carefully assembled the walls into a box. Bob probably has some esoteric tool for squaring up walls. I used a machinist's square with a lot of assistance from my eyes and, in about ten minutes, the structure was free-standing. We set in place against the main building, measured it for a roof, and Bob cut a rectangle from .040-inch thick styrene. I notched the roof to fit snugly against the back of the main building but to overhang the front wall of the add-on where it is adjacent to the Little Railways structure. The roof seemed a little flimsy so Bob cut a 1/4-inch square brace to fit underneath and we cemented both pieces in place.

We agreed the shed should separate from the main building to avoid damaging the resulting L-shaped structure when we moved it.

ROOF OVERHANGS

The Little Railways depot's Spartan appearance results primarily from its minimal roof overhang. So we changed that.

Bob cut a couple of 2 1/2 inch long by 1 inch wide rectangles from .040-inch thick styrene for window overhangs and one piece 3 1/8- by 1 1/2-inches for the door overhang. At the same time, I cut 1/2-inch wide strips of .020-inch thick styrene into random-width shingles. I cemented the individual shingles in place along the sub-roofs. Some projected a little farther forward than others. Some sat slightly off-axis. Some failed to butt closely against the neighboring piece. Again, the use of plastic made assembly go much faster than it would have gone with wood. The resulting assemblies looked horrible.

When each had dried for several minutes, I distressed the shingles with a razor saw just as we had done the planks only more enthusiastically. I wanted a pronounced grain. I began at the top row of shingles and ran the saw teeth repeatedly "downhill". Then I used an X-Acto knife and a file to straighten up the sides and back edge. The previously horrible assemblies now looked like shingle roofs. Even Bob liked them.

At that point, Cathy Uniack insisted we break for dinner and, since she is as good a cook as Bob is a model builder, we followed her into the dining room. Dinner ended so late, we never went back into the workshop to finish the model.

Bob and I discussed the overhang bracing before I left and we agreed we should add .010-inch thick styrene flashing where the shingles meet the structure walls. The photographs show what a simple but effective touch they are. Bob also added 5/32-inch trim under the add-on's roof edges.

THE FINALE

Ten days later, en route to the scene of our most recent exciting adventure, the Railroad Man and I stopped by Bob's to pick up the model. The photos show what Bob had done with it. In official Railroad Man parlance, we were "stunned".

In the February/March 1992 OR, Bob described how he achieves a realistic weathered wood finish on styrene:

"Take every 'wooden' part of the model to your painting area and spray each with light gray primer. Some primers take a while to dry thoroughly so put aside the pieces for at least a week.

"When the odor is gone and the parts are obviously dry, airbrush on a thin coat of Floquil Roof Brown. I suggest a dilution of about 40-percent paint and about 60-percent Diosol thinner. The idea is to mist the color on lightly. Some gray should show through. This time you only have to let the paint dry for about twenty minutes.

"Then, using a fiberglass brush from The Eraser Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4961, Oliva Drive, Syracuse, NY 13221 (available at a few art stores but they can be hard to find), lightly remove some of the Roof Brown. Be sure to remove none of the gray primer. And do this everywhere.

"When you have finished you may head right back into the paint room and mist on a 40-percent dilution of Floquil Depot Buff. Again, after twenty minutes or so, use the brush lightly to scratch off some of the Buff. At this point the model will look absolutely terrible.

"Also, you'll be using up a lot of the brush, maybe even an entire refill. (The bristles come out in much the same way as the lead in an automatic pencil.)

"When you have scratched off the Depot Buff, repeat the entire procedure a third time using a dilute mixture of Floquil Grimy Black. By this time, though, the parts of the structure should look like unpainted, well-weathered wood. If you want all or part of the structure to appear to have been painted, airbrush on whatever color your railroad uses [in our case, Floquil Boxcar Red] in the same 50- or 60-percent dilution as you applied the other coats. Then, again using the fiberglass brush, buff off as little or as much paint as you think appropriate for the degree of weathering you want."

See? We just saved you the cost of a back issue.

Bob represented the tarpaper roof with overlapping strips of 600 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper and he weathered it with pastel chalks.

Finally, he popped in the window glass, secured it with CA, and the structure was done.

It's great to have talented friends.