Anyone Turn Their Favorite HO Kit Into O Scale?

PRR fan,

I work with plastic all the time. I would use styrene for the building. You can buy some nice patterned sheets from Evergreen. Plastruct sells these sheets also but they are very thin and require them to be glued to another plastic sheet. 

You can reinforce a sheet by cutting strips about 1/4 to 1/2-inch wide and gluing them to the inside of the walls. You can also use structural beams or channels or square tubing for this. If you are going to finish the inside of the building, you may use the structural members instead.

I always use a strip of styrene around the top and bottom of the structure for rigidity.

Try to use .030 to .060" thick styrene for construction to help prevent warpage.

 

Alan Graziano

I was able to turn "HO" kit "carnival game stands" into "O" for my amusement area. The stands themselves would have been easy to build from scratch, but the printed materials that came with the kits were priceless (game backdrops, signs, etc.)

I have been able to use some Woodland Scenics ready-built "HO" structures as-is on my "S" layout (2-story Victorian house, 1930s gas station, fire house, gazebo).

What glue do you use for the acrylic?

Thanks,

 

Bob

 

 

I have used styrene, for scratchbuilding, and kitbashing plastic structures, but favor

wood, and certainly have used HO kits as plans for scratchbuilding an O scale version,

as there are a MUCH larger selection of HO kits, to my envy.  Go for it!  I have had

much less success trying to use an HO mechanism (to get small drivers) in a  running

O scale model.

I have scaled up ho kits as well, also I use black foam core for the support structure and cover with material like the plastruct sheets you mention

I have scaled up ho kits as well, also I use black foam core for the support structure and cover with material like the plastruct sheets you mention

I have scaled up locomotives and box cars.  So far I have duplicated the Roundhouse switcher, the Mantua Shifter, the Bowser K-11, a Carnation ice car, and four box cars.  No scenery, though.

To join the clear panels of the basic box I simply use a liquid solvent cement such as Plastruct's Plastic Weld or Ambroid's Pro Weld, or Tenax's 7r.

For styrene-to-styrene, any of the above or Testor's model cement in tube or liquid.

 

HOWEVER, to bond sheet styrene to the clear acrylic box, I use Weld-on #16 from the IPS Corporation.  Lots of availability on-line...e.g. Amazon. 

http://www.amazon.com/IPS-Weld...Cement/dp/B00106E3F6

 

Locally, though, I had to go to a business who specializes in plastic fabrications.  For them it was their 'bread-and-butter' adhesive for acrylics.  Not expensive. 

 

A word of caution, however, when applying the styrene sheet stock to the outside of the clear box...   Do not get heavy-handed in the amount of adhesive applied.  Spread it thinly and evenly.  The reason is that, as a viscous adhesive, it will take longer for the volatiles to dissipate.  If the adhesive is gobbed on too thickly it will soften the thinner styrene sheath material as it cures, and deform the outer surface. 

 

The reason I use #16 with its more viscous quality is that I can't get the typical liquids applied evenly and quickly enough to the sheathing before it starts to dry, thereby rendering a poor bond.  The #16 has more work time.  In building O scale and G scale structures with larger panels of styrene sheathing, this has been a necessary quality (IMHO, anyway).

 

FWIW.

 

KD

I always enjoyed the HO scale Campbell kits.  They offer the complete kit document set which is very helpful when building to another scale.  I'm attempting to build kit 417 in S scale. 

 

 

 

Several years ago, Kalmbach publishing put out a book by Art Curren about kitbashing HO structures. I always like the wedge-shaped factory in it. I found out that the MTH buildings are a scaled up version of the Life Like buildings Curren used so I bought 3 Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe buildings and used them to build the factory. The building is about half finished and it looks okay. The MTH buildings are thicker than I expected and the paint on them is also very thick. My mistake was in cutting the wall sections. I should have used a miniature table saw and not a razor saw. I would've gotten better cuts. I think there will be an ivy-covered factory somewhere on the Beer Line.

At the risk of repeating myself from an old post, twice I have emailed HO kitbuilders and offered to buy copies of plans for buildings I wanted to upscale.  (Two of those kits in different variations are still offered, unsold, on eBay, and have been on there for months, but no response to my inquiry).  The second refused to sell me the plans as he feared I was going to compete with him...yeah, right...I have nothing else to do......some of that series showed up later offered by another kit builder, two, I think, but the rest of the several neat structures have disappeared off the net.  So, I just put them in "Save" and eyeball my own plans.

Why not post an appeal on this forum for a copy of the instructions/plans for an HO building kit that you'd like to scratch up to O scale???   That's a reasonable, respectable request.  And I, for one, have a PILE of HO kits (but not the $$$$ limited edition, buy-with-a-bank-loan ones) that I could resource.  For the cost of copying/postage I'd be most pleased to help someone out with a request of that sort.  In fact, in making a copy I could try to have the plan scaled up to 1:48...if that were your preference...save a step. 

Worth a try, anyway.  Post here and/or on the WTB forum.  Nothing to lose.

 

KD

 

PRR Fan:

Ditto what Alan Graziano said.

WRT straight cuts nothing beats a table saw but not everyone has one nor access to one. If you don't have access to a table saw then for sheet goods a straight edge and a sharp Exacto blade will work. You simply scribe a line and then break apart the plastic. You will need to sand or file the edge smooth though since it will be beveled. For 3D stuff like tubing, columns, squares etc. you can build a real simple miter box out of plywood and use a fine tooth razor saw. You can also buy a metal one from MicroMark and other suppliers.

Joe

It might be easier to start with a Walther, now Atlas, Service station and kit bash it.