IN DEPTH: How I made my scratch - built warehouse!
The first building I ever scratch-built for my layout is a large industrial warehouse.
Although I had never actually built a model building from scratch before, I decided to create a large warehouse for my OO gauge model railway layout.
Inspired by large shops at a local retail park, I decided that I wanted a brick and corrugated metal look to this building. However, rather than aiming for a realistic recreation of a real building, I planned on producing a stylised building instead.
I will
eventually incorporate this into a large multi fuel industrial area!
The building started off with a couple of blocks of polystyrene which were cut to size. The top one was covered in corrugated card, and the bottom one in brick textured paper.
I also wanted to incorporate some form of lighting in the building as well, and wanted to be able to move it if needed. This meant that the lighting needed to be fitted internally, and not physically connected to the layout.
The answer to this issue was to use some LED fairy lights, purchased cheaply from the local pound shop!
In order to be able to access the lights,
I created the building in a modular fashion, so I could remove each section if I required.
The windows were created using the clear plastic from a DVD case, however this was too clear and allowed you to see the inside of the building. I glued some crepe paper to the inside of the windows and this created the nice diffused lighting I was looking for.
I used some thin plastic rods for the window frames. These were simply glued into place.
For the outside of the building, I incorporated some roller shutter doors, created from matchsticks and corrugated card.
This was then
painted using my airbrush to get a nice even texture.
I created some loading bays from lollipop sticks and more brick card. I added some bollards made from a plastic rod I found in my "bits and bobs" box (of which I have several! haha!) and painted them using some bright yellow gloss paint I had laying around.
For the drain pipes, I ended up using washing line, as this looked about the correct size for the building. I also painted these with the same yellow gloss to make them stand out, purely a personal preference - in no way "prototypical" colours!
The final touch was the air conditioning unit, made from a piece of plastic off a bed, which I added to the side of the building. It was painted with a metallic finish, and some scratches were added for effect.
The size and shape of this piece seemed about right for my building!
With regards to the size,
most of the building was guess work. I was working in OO gauge (1:76), so
I loosely based the size on other "Metcalfe" card buildings I had previously built.
What do you think? Have you got any suggestions on how it could be improved?
I would love to read your comments and suggestions! Drop me a message below, or send me an email!
Also, keep following my YouTube channel to follow the progress of my ongoing "From Shed to Layout" series, and also for more information on terrain building, hints and tips, how to guides and more!
From inspiration to completed building, the video documents every aspect of this project! See the video online:
