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buildings.html
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buildings.html
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---
layout: build-collection
icon_small: "https://combo.staticflickr.com/pw/images/collection_default_s.gif"
id: "198063996-72157721664796542"
label: buildings
title: "Buildings"
---
Although I have admired buildings and their architecture since being a teenager, it was in 1983 that I first became interested in making model buildings. That was when I first noticed Kibri HO scale (1/87) model building kits for sale in Adelaide. The first one I bought was a German water tower and I went on to build up a collection of 18 kits, mainly Kibri and Vollmer, plus 2 by Doyusha and one each by IHC, Pola and Heljan. The interest waned during 1985, without me having started any of the kits. I did build the Pola Signal box kit a few years later, in 1988 [M59] but I no longer have that model. Then, between 1996 and 1999, I sold all but 4 of the unbuilt kits. From the survivors, I built the Doyusha Neuschwanstein Castle in 1998 [M88].
In 2008, I had a renewed burst of enthusiasm for model buildings, as part of a broader focus on model trains. I bought a lot of older kits in OO (1/76) and HO scales and built some [M131 and M133] as components of a static OO scale railway diorama [M193].
Then in 2015, I had another kit buying spree and collected 11 Kibri HO scale kits of buildings, 5 of which were exact replacements for those I had sold in the late 1990s. It wasn't until 2021 though, that I actually started a programme of building (and further kit buying, naturally), starting with the IHC Victorian House [M207]. I went on to finish 20 HO scale buildings, including 2 copies of the last one, The Queen Anne House, one for my brother in law [M226] and one for me [M227]. The kits I have built are almost all from old tooling, the oldest being the Revell Farmhouse [M221] from 1958. I enjoyed making them all, though the Urach Rathaus model [M223] caused me a lot of grief. Of the 20 new builds from 2021-22, I built 8 of them from replacement copies of the kits I had bought in the mid 80s and sold in the late 90s, including the very first I bought in 1983, the Kibri water tower [M215]. My favourites are the American Barn [M225], the Church in Bavaria [M222], the Two-Tier Balcony House [M211] and Arlee Station [M208]. It is no co-incidence, these 4 all have human figures which provide a sense of life to the models.
I think I am a fairly slow and deliberate builder. My approach involves careful parts cleanup and test-fitting. I use various styrene-specific glues as well as cyano-acrylate. I also like to personalise my models by adding extra details, making modifications to the kits and sometimes adding figures. Although most of the kits are moulded in coloured plastic, I always paint them, starting with a primer and finishing in enamels. Sometimes I also seal the paint with an acrylic clear coat. I paint them because coloured plastic has a slight translucency that looks like, well ... plastic. I also fit them to handmade, painted MDF bases. The bases are rigid and keep the models square. Some models are glued to their bases, others are screwed on from beneath. The bases also provide the opportunity to add groundwork and extra figures and they protect the models during handling.