Alter a plastic kit
Grahame Hedges shows you how to get the best out of these building kits with some simple modifications and additions.
Improve your plastic kits with these tips from Grahame Hedges.
Kestrel produces a reasonably extensive range of plastic ‘N’ gauge building kits. It’s now owned, promoted and distributed by Gaugemaster. These kits are relatively cheap and fairly basic, but they offer great potential for modification, bespoke alterations and improvements to change their looks. In fact, Gaugemaster’s website features a couple of articles on how to modify them. I chose this Three-storey Town Shop Kit as it’s ideal for the urban environment I usually model. The kit includes all the parts you need to build a basic shell. Walls, roofs and window frames are pre-coloured, although the nicely moulded front window section, which includes recessed entrance doors shop, is in clear plastic.
There aren’t, however, any instructions, but the kit is so simple that it doesn’t need them.
I opted for a two-stage improvement process: 1. Enlarge and decorate the front wall; 2. Make some structural changes, including some new sections.
Kestrel kits are a little on the small side, like most model railway buildings, and possibly even under-scale. I planned to increase the depth with new flank walls and to increase the rather shallow pitch of the roof. This would raise the ridge level but would also mean that I had to produce new roof panels. Hopefully, this would give more
presence and bulk to the structure, but would also necessitate rebuilding the chimney stacks – not a difficult task, fortunately.
This is a simple, straightforward decorative improvement that can be made without affecting the kit structure, so the building can be reconstructed as designed, if required. It’ll also add a little individuality to your
‘N’ gauge high street.