We have a good selection of structures in O scale, but it cannot hold a candle to that available in HO scale. Every month I get the Walther's catalog and drool at the commercial, industrial and residential structure kits available. Then, a year ago I got an idea when I received my "happy birthday, you can take 10% off any purchase this month" email from Walthers. I wondered if I could convert a larger HO scale structure into an O scale building.
I saw an HO engine house kit that looked like a candidate and bought it. By scaling up the doorways and openings and by adding a 1" "foundation", it worked as a car repair shop! Here it is on the layout.
So, when this year's birthday "present" came last December, I decided to try again and found this kit for a furniture warehouse. It is a four story HO scale building that I thought I could convert to a two story O scale building.
Here is what I did. Here are two wall sections as they came with the kit.
I cut out the area between the first and second floor and the third and fourth floor windows and glued the cutout to the top of the new, enlarged windows. Doorway openings were similarly enlarged. Suddenly, a two story structure.
The rest of the assembly was pretty straight forward and according to the normal kit construction procedures. I did add an 1/8 by 1/4 styrene strip to the base for a more stable foundation than the one provided in the kit and as you see, I enlarged the loading dock opening by doubling its width as well and increasing the height. Here is the completed building being checked to make sure it would clear an O scale truck in the loading dock.
And finally, here it is at home on the layout.
