Upgrade a card kit George Dent builds Superquick’s pub, then makes it more realistic.
George Dent demonstrates how to transform a cheap card building kit into a convincing scale model.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Superquick range of card kits, having built many of them over the years. There’s something about the colours and style of the packaging – and the character of the buildings – that appeals to my aesthetic sensibilities.
The parts are die-cut, making them simple to cut, shape and assemble and the choice of attractive Victorian and Edwardian architectural subjects offers the modeller a chance to recreate a quintessentially English town or village scene.
The main drawback of card kits, however, is the lack of surface relief and texture. Roofs, in particular, can look flat and one-dimensional without tile or slate detail, not least as many models are seen from an elevated position.
It’s relatively easy to improve this type of card kit, by adding individual roof tiles and sheets of embossed plastic sheet to represent the areas of exposed brickwork. Plastic strip is also useful for adding raised door and window frames and ledges, while plastic rod is ideal for drain pipes and gutters. As for the cement rendering, mixing a little talcum powder with acrylic paint creates a convincing surface texture. Indeed, repainting the entire model also adds extra realism.
While I employed a pack of laser-cut, self-adhesive roof tiles (from York Modelmaking), I also made use of hand cut paper tiles, of a less uniform shape and size. This avoided an overly uniform appearance, reminiscent of period buildings in certain parts of the country.
This approach added many extra hours of work, but the results have proved worthwhile.
If the roof took several days to complete, the diorama base required just an hour or so of labour, helped by the excellent Martin Welberg range of ready-made, flexible scenic mats. These can simply be cut and pasted onto the baseboard with PVA glue, masking