Carbarn Construction 4
The structure of the carbarn is fabricated by kitbashing several O scale IHC Engine House kits. The building is roughly 52 inches long and 24 inches wide. So, I am using 4 IHC kits to get all the components I need. The main components I use are the wall components which are a two-window wall section and pilasters. I use eight wall sections per side wall. There are 7 pilasters between these 8 wall sections. There are two types of pilasters in the IHC kit. The standard pilaster is stepped back on both sides which is where the wall sections are attached. The other pilaster is used at the ends and is mitered on one side. I also heavily modify the ends to form a more "carbarn looking" end wall. There are two openings for the two carbarn bays, one is two track and the other three track. There are also window frames and glazing in the kits that I use. One issues with using several different kits as sources of components is that IHC did not always use the same color plastic in their kits, and I have several shades of brick red. To remedy this, after fabricating the side and end walls, I spray them with Rust-Oleum Painters Touch Paint & Primer in Satin finish Colonial Red. When this is dry and cured I use "Roberts Brick Mortar Formula" (recommended by Bob Dietrich) to add mortar lines to the walls and also weather the whole surface. When it comes to the windows, I wanted a different color than the grey plastic of the kit window frames. So, I painted them a matte olive green an added the glazing behind the frames. I used Evergreen Canopy Glue, which dries clear, to attach the glazing.
With large opening to the trolley bays, I decided I needed to finish the interior walls as well. So, I used the same wall panels and pilasters for the interior walls. The poles holding up the overhead structure are hidden in a sandwich between the outside and inside wall pilasters. After reviewing several photos of carbarns, I saw a pattern where the interior walls were painted a dark color up to about the belt rail height of the cars and then white or light grey above that. I chose a "warm white" matte craft paint and the same "olive green" I used for the window frames.
With large opening to the trolley bays, I decided I needed to finish the interior walls as well. So, I used the same wall panels and pilasters for the interior walls. The poles holding up the overhead structure are hidden in a sandwich between the outside and inside wall pilasters. After reviewing several photos of carbarns, I saw a pattern where the interior walls were painted a dark color up to about the belt rail height of the cars and then white or light grey above that. I chose a "warm white" matte craft paint and the same "olive green" I used for the window frames.
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Wall Section (before)
Wall Section (after)
The first wall has been mounted. It is glued to the poles that the support the trolley boards. Wall panels will also be applied to the inside of the wall, hiding the poles in a "sandwich" of pillasters.
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The interior lights have been mounted to the crosspieces that support the trolley boards. They are warm white LEDs with a brass lampshade painted green. There are three lights per crosspiece: one between the two tracks and one between each track and the side and center walls. The warm white LEDs are not very bright and the green paint on the inside of the lampshade doesn't help. So I painted the inside white.
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The same wall panel used for the outside wall is used for the interior wall. The window openings line up. As mentioned before I painted the lower part of the wall an olive green and the upper part a faded white. The exposed brick is the section of the wall that extends above the roof.
