For my current customer project based on a Colonel Stephens style branchline terminus in OO (1/76 scale), I'm using the Peco Lineside LK 200 Wooden Station building kit, which for the price between £10 and £15 depending on where you buy it from is a steal.
Peco produce 3 different versions of the kit, this is the 'wooden' version, which uses a laser cut MDF building shell and a plastic injection moulded roof plus other details. Peco also produce 'brick' and a 'stone' versions - those are available as all plastic kits.
The build took 4 hours which included the painting time - a nice
afternoon project sitting in the garden. The instructions recommend
impact adhesive for gluing the MDF bits, but I find that super
glue/cyanoacrylate adhesive better, if only because you don't get all
the associated stringy threads of glue.
The kit is supplied with a base, which to be honest is pointless, all that will do is make it impossible to get inside the building, if like me you want to add the window glazing after painting. Some clever types might want to add lighting too. Irritatingly, the discarded base clips in to the slots that can be seen around the base. I'll have to fill those in due course or hide them behind station furniture.
Despite the minor gripe regarding the pointless building base and ugly slots to locate it, this kit makes up in to a rather nice backwater railway building, and one that could suit many a scenario irrespective of railway company or region being depicted. To finish I chose a faded green and cream colour scheme, something that could pass for Southern Railway/SR or even LNER. Paints from times long gone soon faded, especially green which was seldom bright and lurid as depicted on many model railways, despite them supposedly being the 'correct colour'.
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The little building sits on a platform, for this I built up 3 layers 6mm foamboard and topped it off with a mounting board top - all bonded together with PVA. Brick effect plastic card was added to the sides. The card top had edging stones scribed on with a scalpel. The platform initially looks too deep, but once the track is laid next to it, the height will be about right. In the UK platforms are a lot higher than most other parts of the world, just use less layers of foam board!
Looking down on to the platform, picking out the edging stones in a lighter shade and adding a few repairs adds interest. I used interior matt emulsion paint - increasingly I find myself using such for card structures, they also have the advantage in that they have a little texture - especially if stippled as they dry.
