I’ve accumulated a small collection of scrap styrene over the last year or so, mostly from bulk bags of assorted styrene pieces from Evergreen. A couple of the larger scraps I had consisted of various corrugated patterns, so I decided to try my hand at building an entirely scratch-built structure. I decided to keep the design simple for my first attempt. I planned out a small garage/workshop measuring about 2.5” x 5”. The design includes three overhead bay doors, four office windows, and two single entrance doors. There are also two small windows on the front and back. I kept the size of the building to a minimum as my layout is quite limited for real estate at this point.
I started by first planning the design of my building on paper, noting the real-life dimensions of each wall, door, window, and the roof. I then converted these measurements down to HO scale. Using a new blade, I carefully marked the measurements on the backside of the styrene sheet and scored the outline of the wall using a straight edge. I used a square and ruler to double check the measurements after every score line I made, ensuring that the walls were kept square and equal. I then gently flexed the styrene to break each piece apart. I fixed any rough edge with sand paper and a hobby knife.
The overhead doors were cut from scrap v-groove pattern styrene and the entry doors from standard smooth styrene. For the main entry door, I cut a half-length opening for a window and added strip styrene for the insert trim. I masked the very outside edge of all the doors so I could easily add glue to these unpainted areas when attaching the doors to the backside of the walls. The doors were then all sprayed with light aircraft gray paint.
I hand painted the corrugated steel walls with a mix of blue and steel gray enamel paint, mixed 1:1 with thinner. After letting the three coats of paint dry for 24 hours, I glued the overhead and entry doors to the backside of each wall. I then added trim to the doors using 1.5mm x 1.0mm strip styrene. I used the same strip styrene for the window frames and on the base of the building to represent a foundation.
I then glued the four wall pieces together. I added extra styrene support pieces to the interior for extra rigidity. The roof was a single piece of v-groove styrene, scored and carefully angled down the center to fit the slope of the building. After airbrushing the roof a light gray, I carefully glued it to the main structure. After making a couple touch-ups to the paint and trim, I weathered the walls, doors, and roof with a variety of powdered pastels. Lastly, I sealed all the weathering details with two light coats of dull-coat.
Once the structure was dry, I added clear styrene pieces to the backside of the walls for window glazing. The final step was to add a black paper divider and floor to the interior of the so no white plastic could be visible through the windows. I am quite happy with how this little project turned out and can’t wait to mix it in with my other model buildings.
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