Kate’s Colonial Home Kit by Atlas

By Ty’s Model Railroad - 1/29/2012 01:37:00 PM

With a 4’ x 8’ layout, there is very limited room for structures, especially after you factor in track space and terrain. As I don't have the real estate for a full-sized town and residential areas, I instead have to represent these zones with only one or two structures. For the residential aspect of my layout, I have room for one house. For this I chose the Kate’s Colonial Home kit by Atlas.

I liked the buildings yellow and forest green colour theme so I used very similar colours when I painted the exterior. I did however change the roof shingle colour to a dark brown instead of the recommended light grey. The great thing about Atlas kits is their injection mold process results in high quality, detailed, and precise parts that fit together easily with little to no prep work.

Construction of a small styrene light diffuser box for a Kate’s Colonial Home kit by Atlas

First floor custom interior scene for a Kate’s Colonial Home kit by Atlas

The window coverings are printed on photo paper which I glued to the inside walls. Because I wanted to light the house, I had to add a layer of dark cardstock to the inside of the walls so light wouldn’t shine through the plastic wall. To light the structure, I used the same method as in my Walthers Merchant’s Row I kit by building a small light diffuser box out of styrene. I built the interior walls around the light box with thick cardstock, allowing light to glow through small doorways.

First floor custom interior scene with installed styrene light diffuser box for a Kate’s Colonial Home kit

Second floor custom interior scene with installed styrene light diffuser box for a Kate’s Colonial Home kit

Once the first floor was completed, I added a styrene floor for the second level. I used the same cardstock wall method that I used for the first floor, building around the light diffuser box. I then added a cardstock ceiling to the second floor rooms to prevent any light from glowing though up to the attic windows and into the roof section. This ceiling can be removed (along with the actual roof) to access the light diffuser box in the event of a burnt out bulb.

Second floor custom interior scene cardstock ceiling for a Kate’s Colonial Home kit by Atlas

The kit was weathered using a semi-soft paintbrush and dry pastels that I ground up into a fine powder. I made sure almost all of the pastel was off of the brush before applying it to the building as it isn’t very forgiving. A final spray of Testors dull coat sealed in the pastel weathering. The chimney and foundation mortar were coloured using thinned black and white washes.