02-10-2013, 10:37 AM
It's actually posible to re-use many German prototype buildings for North America. The biggest exceptions might be "Fachwerk" style stations and the like, though even there you can find exceptions. I'd look at changing the roofline first. In the background here is an old Pola N scale German engine house that I rearranged into a US style factory:
I added a Walthers smokestack and covered the windows with "plywood" the way many abandoned factories are handled. This helped take away a sense of scale and covered the clunky and too-European style windows in the kit.
Dr Wayne has done an equivalent job with a German-style freight house by changing a few architectural details and the roof. Faraway/Reinhard has done an outstanding job with a Kibri (I think) factory that translates very well into a US style terra cotta building.
If you have some buildings on hand that you think could be candidates for conversion, or that you'd like to use (a German plastic building kit over here is in the $100 range, not the sort of thing to ignore if you've got it), why not post photos here, and we might be able to give you some ideas?
I added a Walthers smokestack and covered the windows with "plywood" the way many abandoned factories are handled. This helped take away a sense of scale and covered the clunky and too-European style windows in the kit.
Dr Wayne has done an equivalent job with a German-style freight house by changing a few architectural details and the roof. Faraway/Reinhard has done an outstanding job with a Kibri (I think) factory that translates very well into a US style terra cotta building.
If you have some buildings on hand that you think could be candidates for conversion, or that you'd like to use (a German plastic building kit over here is in the $100 range, not the sort of thing to ignore if you've got it), why not post photos here, and we might be able to give you some ideas?