Kitbashing an N Scale DPM (Woodland Scenics) Kit: Part 2

Recently, I posted about my attempt to kitbash two DPM Wilhelmi Mercantile kits into one, taller structure.

These photos show progress that is fairly rough and needs a lot of work and sanding and filling, but will give you an idea of where I’m going with this. For example, the gap on the left is actually caused because the right side needs to be sanded down.

I have cut the first kit directly over the 4th story windows.  This is the same area as seen on the very top floor of this structure, since that’s the second kit stacked on the first.  As you can see in the photos, there are large raised squares of detail on the columns.  The cut on the first kit is made directly below the large squares so that the slightly raised detail below the squares remains on the walls of the first kit.

For the other kit. I just removed the first floor, again cutting directly below the large squares.  With a little planning, since the details repeat up the wall of the kit, cutting consistently below the large sqaures should allow the details to match up once you stack the kits.

Keep in mind that the back two walls of the kit are different heights — neither of which matches the height of the front two walls.  So a little care is necessary to make sure everything is lined up and cut in the proper place.  In hind site, I could have done this a lot better with some more planning to start with.

The cuts are uneven in these photos.  I’m still relatively early in the process, but they’ll be sanded smooth and should line up nicely.  The photos, especially with an unpainted, unweathered kit, make the seams really stand out.  But I assure you it’s not as noticable in person, even without sanding it or filling it.

While I may leave the structure this way, and I can make this work, I’m also considering adding a mid-height cornice (not sure if that’s still considered a cornice).

If I decide to go that route, I will use the original cornice that was removed from the first kit, but with some modification.  Without modification, there was no reason to cut it off in the first place — I could have just sanded the tops flat instead.

But instead, I think I will add strips of styrene above and below the cornice piece to create ledges.  They’re just held in place in the photo below and here they’re pretty even.  I’d intend to make them actual ledges and probably make the top ledge two layers to give it a little more weight and reason for being.  Doing that also really covers any seams entirely so it’s an attractive solution.

For the back of the structure, there would be missing brick equal to the height of the new cornice piece.  For that, I plan to use Walthers HO scale brick, which is not much different in scale to the DPM brick.  I would use a very shallow ledge around the back of the building.  That would create a visual separation between the smaller and larger brick detail.  Again, it fixes any worries about seams.

In all honesty, I don’t think the back of the structure will be superb using this method.  I think the fix with be acceptable for my personal use since I only intend to have the front sides visible.  If you’re building this so that all sides look prototypical, I’d probably leave out the mid-building cornice. If I do the mid-building cornice, I’d also sand down the top of the structure and create a similar cornice at the top so that the architectural detail matches.

I suppose whether or not I use the modified cornices will come down entirely to whether or not I like the sanding and filling job and how well I can hide the seams  As I type this and look at the photos, I’m thinking that I’d prefer to have this without the cornice only because I think it looks less like two stacked kits when the two are blended.

I guess we’ll see how this one goes.

Filed under: Kitbashing, Structures , DPM kit, kitbash, Kitbashing, model, model kit, model railroad, model railroading, N Scale, scale model, scale modeling, structure