Slightly improving on the Hornby "Country Station" (R8000)

[HST Mainline]

I really like the Clip-Together buildings from ages ago, the boy in me loves these kits, and I always enjoy seeing the old Hornby ads with the huge stations and service yards.

I recently bought the "Country Station" (R8000) and improved slightly on the durability. Sadly, the newer kits use stickers instead of the printed-on decorations (as I am sure you all know). This is obviously a cost saving move, disguised as a choice between brick and stone. It is not very durable though. The stickers come off after some time.

I have improved on the building by adding a coat of mat varnish to the shell to give some tooth for the stickers to bind to. This helps keeping them in place. I also painted the shell of the building in a brick colour to match the bricks on the stickers. This helps camouflage the fact that they are stickers.

Lastly, I gave the building another coat of mat varnish to seal the stickers a bit. Hopefully, this will prevent them for coming off easily. The mat varnish also kills the shine of the stickers, which improves the look a lot.

The doors and station accessories were painted in a nice dark red.

I think this helps a lot on the general appearance of the building. With my layout I try to mimic the looks from the old ads, meaning that I want to keep the "toy look", but I also want my buildings to be durable and keep looking good. This is one way to do it.

The station is not completely finished yet, I am missing some decorations, posters, ads etc.

Edited June 8 by HST Mainline
Additional info.

[Peter Stiles]

Nice work. Good idea about the varnish.

 

I've used embossed plasticard on these buildings - basically treating them as a shell that can be decorated as you wish.

 

For the platforms, I use filler on the gaps between sections, sandpaper smooth. Then completely paint - undercoat of Matt black, then over spraying from above with a dark grey (mechanicus standard grey from GW)

Then a large bunch of dry-brushing with a large brush with a lighter grey, then edge in an even lighter grey (something duck egg blue works for me) which can then have a overbrush/highlight of white. Paint the access hatches with a dark tinny colour then drydrush with gunmetal.

Whoosh-ting! Nice platforms.