Full Version: Rico Redux - Kitbashing a Klassik Station
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I decided that post #1000 oughta be pretty special, so it's the kickoff post in my new thread on kitbashing the classic 'Rico' station into two buildings - a freight shed and passenger depot for the small town of Pinto on the Ocali Creek Railway.

Here is the starting point:

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(to read more about the kit follow this link: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/tycokits/id34.html">http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/tycokits/id34.html</a><!-- m --> )

And here's where I ended up:

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I had written up the project and planned to submit it as an article, but I realized I hadn't taken enough pictures in the early stages of construction and just wasn't happy with the article overall. SO, since it had been a while since I posted anything of substance on the forum, I decided to post the project here. More to come in the days ahead...

Galen
Very nice. A very classic kit that I've seen that station kitbashed many times. I was once considering kitbashing one myself, but could not seem to figure out how to make it fit into the footprint I have.
Hey! Galen ...

How 'bout an update on the article that you had published that we are waiting with bated breath to read!

C'mon!
C'mon!
C'mon!

We wanna SEE it!
Nice looking depot, and freight shed ! Thumbsup
"kitbashing Rico Station".......reminds me that I have one of those, that I had intended on bashing into a lighthouse.....
I have to try to remember what "box" it is in now.
nachoman Wrote:Very nice. A very classic kit that I've seen that station kitbashed many times. I was once considering kitbashing one myself, but could not seem to figure out how to make it fit into the footprint I have.

Kevin - You'll see as the thread goes along that the passenger station is narrower than the original kit by about a half inch. And since I used two kits I was able to have a lot more flexibility with my wall arrangements, greatly simplifying the construction as well. Almost all the kitbashes I've seen of this structure never make good use of the walls, leaving wierd gaps and sections without siding detail, windows in odd places, etc. Perhaps the best kitbash I've seen (prior to my own humble efforts, of course) was Malcom Furlow's station for the San Juan Central project layout.

biL - The turnout control article will be in the February issue (next month!) of Model Railroad Hobbyist e-zine. Last night I submitted two 'tips' to MRH, that came from this kitbash project, actually. c'mon, man, keep up! Wink

sumpter - It's a great starting place for a kitbash. There are many nice elements in the kit like the roof and windows that it has going for it already.

Galen
Let's start the construction shots with the freight platform. As I mentioned in the reply above, I used two kits as a starting place. I decided early on to use the freight platform as a base for a stripwood overlay. The molded in wood detail on the platforms is crude, to put it lightly. However the detail does give you an indication of how the planks should be oriented.

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I cut the platforms to size and glued them together. I'm going a little out of sequence here since I actually cut the freighthouse walls first in order to determine how long the platform should be. I cut away the molded-in ground detail from the kit base and actually used this to brace the joint between the two sections.

The original kit has plastic 'stone' overlays that you laminate on the platform sides (don't get rid of these...I'll show you how I used them once I place the structure on the layout...). I had been studying photos of stations from the Virginia Tech digital image collection and came across several that showed board and batten siding used as platform 'skirting'. Since I have an ample supply of B&B, and since I've never seen it on another model that I can remember, I decided to use that.

The planks are scale lumber (2x10's). A NWSL chopper sure comes in handy here! I cut the planks to leave a little overhang beyond the skirting. Both the B&B and planks were attached to the platform base using Walther's Goo. When this tube is finished I'm finding some less-smelly contact cement! Apply it using the two-part technique as directed for good adhesion.

More in the next post.


Galen
I colored the platform using a wash of Delta's 'Mudstone', followed by a black wash and a drybrushing of Quaker Grey. The picture shows the mudstone wash and blackwash. For a look at the final appearance see the opening post 'finished' shot. I distressed the planks and siding before adding any color using a brass bristle brush to deepen the wood grain and my Xacto knife to add knotholes.

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A mistake I made was not putting at least one wash on the wood before applying it to the base, or not letting the Goo dry sufficiently, since I noticed the wood shrank a little, especially on the B&B siding. I'm happy with my non-toxic aging and weathering system. The Mudstone wash is my 'driftwood' stain, and I applied it roughly 3:1, paint to water. Black wash was about 50/50 paint and water. I'm not so scientific about it in practice, though. Usually I put a drop of paint in the dish then load up the brush with water a few times and water down the paint. If it's too strong on the wood I can put on more water and that usually thins it enough.

Use the brass brush to take down the fuzzies that show up after the initial color wash.

Galen
More pics...

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In the first shot you can see more clearly the platform base without any planking or siding. Also the four walls prior to assembly. I used two freight-end short walls, one from each kit, and two long walls from one kit. I cut the long walls at the point where the wainscot detail changes. On the original model this is where the platform ramp is located.

From the second picture you can see where I added a people door in one end, along with attic windows in each gable.

The freight station walls have a casting flaw that's not too hard to correct for. The horizontal trim between the wainscoting and the clapboards does not line up from wall to wall if you just glue them together by lining up the walls along the base of the wall. To correct for this just line up the walls at the corners using the trim. This leaves a gap along the top of the long walls, which is easily fixed by a strip of styrene. The planks on the platform should account for the extra height in the end walls. If not, just sand down the lower edge of the long walls.

I beveled the cut edges on the walls with my Xacto on edge, dragging it along the wall and finishing it with a sanding stick, being careful not to mar the outer edge. I added .060 styrene angle as vertical edge trim after tacking the corners together, being sure to sand away the original kit vertical trim. This makes the corner look clean and tidy.

More later.


Galen
Very nifty, from a highly specific, recognizable prototype that you really can't just plop down anywhere, to a pair of nice looking generic structures you can use anywhere.

00Randy
rrinker Wrote:Very nifty, from a highly specific, recognizable prototype that you really can't just plop down anywhere, to a pair of nice looking generic structures you can use anywhere.

00Randy

Thanks, Randy!

I had few design goals in this case. The overall idea is just what you said, to take a very recognizable structure and break it down into something less obvious as to its origins. With every kitbash I try to minimize some of the distinctive elements that would bely the kit of origin and still maintain some of the beauty and character of the structure (or create a new character entirely).

In this case I really liked the cosmetic curves of the passenger station roof, the tall windows and doors, and the turn-of-the-century look to the building. However the tall tower and large dormers had to go as they were a dead giveaway. So many just try to split the structure in two or shorten it. I chose to break it down into two buildings that would look like they were built by the same builder and belonged together, but they will be displayed on the layout directly opposite each other across two tracks.

I also like to minimize the crude componants of the kit while highlighting or adding crafstman touches, like the planking and siding overlays for the freight house plaftorm. A really simple touch that goes a long way towards finescale realism, IMHO.

I'll say more about the design choices I made as I go through the pictures.

Galen
Forgot to mention about the doors & windows. The large freight house doors are intended set on the opening, not IN the opening, as I have shown in the picture. I enlarged the door openings to accomodate the doors so that I could pose some of them open, as if they slid on tracks inside the building.

Another goof I made was glazing the windows on the large doors AFTER I had installed them in the building. It wouldn't have been so bad had I used clear styrene. The problem was using the Micro Crystal Clear liquid. It grabbed onto the wall where the door slid behind and formed the window with three sides in the window and the fourth the back of the wall itself. Oops. It's not that noticable...except that I pointed it out. Oh well.

Up next...the roof.

Galen
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First I cut the roof segments to length, tacked them together with CA, then braced them with additional styrene from beneath. This was placed to keep the roof centered on the building and make it removable. I trimmed the peak shingles where they overlapped, about 2mm worth of material hanging over!

Next I sprayed the entire roof with a coat of gray primer and let this dry a day or so. The first color coat was Raw Sienna, straight from the bottle with a really wet brush. I let this dry overnight. Next came a 50/50 black wash, one side at a time, in order to let the paint settle evenly and not run down to the drip edge. After that dried overnight, a final drybrushing of Mudstone. That's it, folks. No additional distressing, or anything fancy. Three colors - a base, a shadow wash and a drybrush highlight. That's the big secret.

I suppose I could have highlighted individual shingles at the base coat stage, but I didn't want to go to all that trouble and I'm really happy with the result using my tried and true basic technique. I think the roof/shingle detail is one of the nicer features of this kit. It comes in especially handy on the passenger depot as you will see later... The underside of the roof on the gables is painted white and the very thin edge just beneath the shingles is painted the same green as the trim. The stovepipe is a metal casting from my chimney parts bin, set into a piece of styrene in order to fully cover the hole in the roof since the casting did not.

Galen
Has it really been a year? I fully intended to continue this thread back then but life has a way of throwing curve balls (and sliders, gutters, fast balls, etc.) Oh well. Better late than never!

Here are two images of cut walls. What you see is how I cut away the bits I didn't use.

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This next shot is how I trimmed the former dormers into the end wall peaks. Keep in mind the end walls of my station are a few scale feet narrower than the original kit walls, so these cuts were primarily to accommodate that change as well as the roof changes. Geometry comes in handy here, as well as a nice 90 deg. rule. Just find the mid point line, lay the angle on the line, then make sure the distances down each leg are the same. This will ensure the angles are all equivalent where they need to be. If the roof pitch had been something other than 45 degrees I'd have had a trickier time.

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And finally, an image of the passenger station walls and windows/doors dry-fit.

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Of course the front bay is missing and the peaks have yet to be glued on. I made sure the peaks and end walls met at a clapboard line in order to hide the joint.

Up next...bringing the walls together and mending the roof.

Galen