Plasticville: customs, paint, bashes, etc.

Hi John!

While these are not really "customized", I find many Plasticville buildings fit very well in to a "scale" setting. These buildings have been very lightly weathered with an airbrush and then received a coat of Testors Dullcote.

Working on the layout... I’m still figuring where I want to place items.  All I did was thin down some Testors flat tan and rust colored paints and brush them on.  It takes the “plasticyness” away from the barn, shack and water tower.  

Some background fronts. The Firehouse was not only split in half and both sides used to double its size, but so was the fire truck!

Storefront Church (oops, I didn't notice until after I looked at this pic,but it looks like a worshiper passed out from the heat - gotta get her up and well) and a typical urban area "apartments over stores" Main Street type building.

RosevilleRR is right, a little paint goes a long way with these plastic buildings. Here is a factory totally transformed with some primer rattle can spray.

I found a forlorn looking Plasticville chapel at a train meet, wrapped up in a plastic baggie, with yellow glue stains near the windows and magic marker writing on the roof, calling up to me, "Hey, Pat, I'm beat up, but I could look great someday on your layout."  Yeah, $7.00 later, the chapel went home with me.

I ran an utility knife along the window and door edges to separate the windows and door from the chapel walls, then cleaned up the openings to remove old glue scraps.  I also cleaned up the windows and doors in a similar manner.  I washed the walls, door, windows, roof pieces and steeple pieces in some dish detergent, then rinsed and dried them.  A few days later, I sprayed the walls and steeple pieces with Rustoleum's Stone Texture Spray Paint in a pink quartz color.  I sprayed the roof pieces with Rustoleum's American Accents Stone Spray Paint in a slate color and the door with some brown paint I had on the workbench.  The end result was a chapel that looked like it had pink stucco walls and steeple with a slate roof.

Here's how it looked on my last layout.

I customized a Plasticville or Bachman 7-11 store using light up vending machines inside, a Miller Engineering Mr. Peanuts sign and a "cannon" type of light on the store's rooftop sign.  Like the customized Plasticville chapel, I placed the 7-11 on the back of the layout so the scale size would work with the other buildings.  Here's how the 7-11 looked on my last layout.

Mr. Peanuts sign on side of building and the "cannon" light on roof to illuminate 7-11 sign helped to bring the building and scene to life.

Rooftop view showing how the LifeLike cannon light illuminated the 7-11 sign, although it tended to create "light pollution" behind the sign!

Front view with light up vending machines.  Ooooh--I didn't notice that until just know that the wiring crept up in view over the years.  My "counter" originally hid that mess!  The small Cooper and the back of the layout location helped with the scale - perspective situation so the building didn't look tiny in relation to the other buildings and the trains on the layout.

I gotta get some of that stone textured spray for future junk box projects, Pat.

Looks great, a super save.

Sergeant Pat - I love the way you "redeemed" that old Chapel.

I'd have a hard time focusing on the sermon if I worshipped there!

I used to have one of those Chapels when I was young, glue stains and all. Thank goodness mine was white!!!

@Lionelski posted:

I gotta get some of that stone textured spray for future junk box projects, Pat.

Looks great, a super save.

I’ve used that Rustoleum textured stone spray on retaining walls and bridge piers with great success.
Alan

Pat! “ Coral “church has been resurrected!
nice work with stone rust oleum.

Pat, the chapel has been reincarnated.

Coaling station converted to coal mine:

Jim

Plasticville church, painted and lights added (Evans Design).  The statue of Mary was donated by my daughter.

Mountain cabin under construction.

Lionelski

Thanks for starting this topic.  You know I love to modify and kitbash Plasticville kits and I love seeing what others have done with them.

Kitbashing the Plasticville Bachmann 1975 Coal Station

The Plasticville Bachmann Coal Station, number 1975, is a good kitbashing kit.

My first kit-bash was was to make a raised roof, (which had a conveyor to spread coal), on the the Coal Station to replace the 1975 flat roof.  I always liked the looks of that style coal station.  I used 1/8 inch tempered Masonite with one smooth side.  The smooth sides were scored with a knife to look like siding.  Windows were cut out and made and installed in the top section.  The parts were glued with Elmer's glue.  A sheet metal roof, obtained at a train show, was installed.

Finished Coaling Station

View of the under side of the new roof.

Charlie

Wife and I did these years ago....

A barn...

A couple gas stations...

A couple churches...

A car dealership...

A freight station

A library...

A couple motels...

A theater...

A gateman's elevated shanty...

...and others, all of which made good use of an accumulation of P-ville parts...which has continued to grow faster than creative time and energy can consume.

It was all fun....like everything else about this hobby.

KD

John - sometimes it looks great right out of the box!