Custom structure building

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Structures can make or break a layout.  Using an inappropriate structure can mar a scene on your layout just as surely as a well built and carefully painted structure of appropriate style and era can enhance it.

Only rarely will the perfect structure for a scene be available built-up, painted and ready to install on a layout.  Sometimes a structure kit built straight from the box can be used on a layout, especially if the builder is willing to configure the scene around the kit.  Often however, better results can be obtained by modifying a kit – by cutting the walls apart and reconfiguring them – a process known as “kit-bashing”.  When even that does not work, such as when trying to represent a specific or unusual building, it may be necessary to scratch build.  Even if standard kits will fit the bill, customizing them in some way will make them unique – ensuring that your structures don’t look exactly the same as those on every other layout.

Assuming that a ready-built structure is not available, some skill will be necessary and some time will need to be invested.  If a layout builder lacks either, that structure may never get built.  Enter the possibility of paying someone to create that custom built-up structure for you – someone like me, for example.

Custom structures are not cheap, and the more work required; i.e. the further towards the scratch-building end of the spectrum; the more expensive the structure will be.  Please do not try to compare mass-produced models assembled in China by someone working for a few cents per hour, with a one-of-a-kind masterpiece created by a local craftsman.

Take a look at the pictures on this website.  Other than a few brass bridges on one of the layouts illustrated, I have built all the significant structures shown.  They include the full spectrum from standard kits to entirely scratchbuilt.  Some kits are only slightly modified, while others are so extensively cut up that they bear only a passing resemblance to the original components.

I work in any scale and have built structures in N, TT, HO, O and 1:1 scale.  That’s right, I have spent many years building full-sized homes.  Additionally, decades ago, I chose architecture as my major at university.  This background puts me in the advantageous position of knowing first-hand how real building components fit together and what makes for a sound structure. Most model builders (including some professional ones) don’t have this depth of knowledge.  Unless a model building is structurally correct, it won’t look right.

Whether you are in the market for a single structure or a whole town; a simple kit assembly or a scratchbuilt edifice; styrene or wood, I think you’ll agree that one or more of my custom structures would look great on your layout.