Kibri and Walthers kitbash - formerly the long arm of the law

[rovex]

My modelling mojo has been distinctly lacking of late, but last summer I decided to build some of the plastic kits I've been hoarding for the last few years.

I like some of the kibri kits which are big enough to pass for OO, even though there are HO.

Of course I couldn't build the kits as intended. As a lawyer and lay magistrate myself I wanted to build the county police headquarters and court of petty sessions (now known as the Magistrates Court - my layout is set before the reforms of the seventies)

The  building is built from four kits. The two corner buildings have been put together more or less as intended (well until we get to the roof), but the entrance has been moved to under the corner bay.

The centre has an extre floor added. This was done by cutting three sides horizontally to give the extra floor. 

I've seen these kits increased in height by simply putting one on top of the other, for me this doesn't work.

The backs are a jumble of the rear pieces  put together to make it interesting. 

I designed and 3D printed towers and balustrading for the end buildings, some chunky Edwardian baroque chimneys and a balustrade for along the front of the building (which will hold a clock).

The dormers from the kit were added to the balustrades

Roofing then started using some of the roofing from the kit and the wills slate sheets.

And this is where I've got to. My workbench is in the conservatory and it's been too cold. But hopefully as Spring approaches with warmer weather I can get on with the roof and detailing.

 

After this I want to start on the Assize Court (now the Crown Court), this will be based on the Walthers Union Station with extra columns, lions, statue of Justice over the portico and an added basement for the Bridewell.

Edited February 24 by rovex
Spelling

[rovex]

Difficult to believe that it has been March since I posted these photos and little progress has been made until the last few days.

My modelling mojo comes and goes.

I've struggled what to do with the roof of the main section. A centre pyramid or two outer ones. Well the latter won out.

The roofing is partly from the original kit with slaters roof slate sheets making up the extras.

Lots of leadwork to be added along with railings and pavements.

The whole thing then needs dirtying up for the time it should be almost black with soot and air pollution

 

[TT-Pete]

12 hours ago, rovex said:

My modelling mojo comes and goes.

 

I know that one. It's looking really good, welcome back! 🙂

 

[rovex]

So bit of roof work today with the leadwork and top of the two pavilions.

The clock has also been added but awaits hands. I also need to fettle the roof over the clock.

Pavements to sort out and the back, which probably won't be seen on the layout 

 

Then I need a couple of police officers coming on or off duty and a few unfortunates and their solicitors at the court end.

 

Also pictured are some other kibri kitbashes I've started whilst my court/police station mojo was in abeyance.

As you can see I do like these kits but as several are made from interchangeable parts which are recognisable I can only really use them the once and so have to make an impact with them.

This one is either going to be a department stores (there used to be so many of them.

This one will have a new ground floor inserted to create shops with offices above. I don't know why but it makes me think of Scarborough

Edited December 27, 2023 by rovex
Add photo

[Enterprisingwestern]

12 hours ago, rovex said:

I don't know why but it makes me think of Scarborough

 

Ruined and decrepit?

 

Mike.

[Michael Hodgson]

15 hours ago, rovex said:

This one will have a new ground floor inserted to create shops with offices above. I don't know why but it makes me think of Scarborough

 

The Grand Hotel has a rather good model of the building in the lobby.  With trams running along the road seen in the foreground.

 

 

[rovex]

So with steady progress on the police station and the police court (now the magistrates), Ive made a start on the Assize court, which will form another side of the legal quarter of the town. 

It's based on the Walthers Union Station but with extra columns, pediment. There will be lions. 

The new basement will form the Bridewell and offices. There will be two courts either side of a central atrium all with suitable skylights.

The whole legal quarter

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

I can see now where the aforementioned model of Huddersfield got it's inspiration from.

 

Mike.

[RThompson]

7 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

I can see now where the aforementioned model of Huddersfield got it's inspiration from.

 

Mike.

 

Having been working out of Huddersfield station recently, it is a very impressive station building and helped by having no clutter in front of it, so getting a full view when you pull up in a rail replacement bus.

[rovex]

Further progress tonight.

Steps up to the front entrance started, this view also shows the double row of columns.

Platforms for the lions built, and the new basement showing the Bridewell windows. Plinth started. This area will also need lots of plastic strip adding to show the ornamental stonework.

Finally an overview

[rovex]

So I've weathered part of the police station/police court building using WWS weathering powder dissolved in alcohol.

Applied quite thickly and then washed down.

It's a lot darker than I usually weather down my buildings but in real life in the fifties the building would have been almost completely black.

Anyway I thought I would post for feedback before commito the rest of the building.

The windows need a wash I know.

 

[rovex]

Not much progress. Have ordered some plastic strip which I'd hoped to get Saturday morning to do the rusticated stonework on the new basement but it didn't turn up.

 

So in the meantime have kitbashed the doorways for the Bridewell, finished the steps and balustrade, using some scale link products I find amongst the spares. The balustrade needs drilling to accept these so at the moment they look a bit drunk.

 

Also sprayed some of it in stone colour to allow the second row columns to be glued in and the back wall of this area to be started. I wasn't keen on the large windows the kit with comes with for this area so have bashed up some spare side panels.

 

Progress so far posed with the compulsory Queen Victoria statue. Built from a Franklin mint pewter figurine from their British monarchs and a plasticard base.

 

the lions and lady justice have been ordered

 

[rovex]

Plastic strip arrived and stonework added to basement on one side. 

 

Should have ordered more as have run out of enough to do the otherside. So fresh order placed. 

 

[rovex]

Lions arrived today, so couldn't resist posting a few photos.

Bit amorphous but will do as limestone statues that have suffered the pollution of the local climate for a hundred years

 

[Michael Hodgson]

Very impressive achievement, making continental kits look like British architecture.

 

May I ask where did you got the lions?  Are they about the the right size in OO for the Brtannia bridge - they look a little small, and their pose isn't quite right, but they're the nearest I've seen.

[New Haven Neil]

Excellent stuff, I used to provide the young persons for Juvenile Magistrates....😉

 

The lions though...I get Ghostbusters.....maybe it's just me.

 

lovely kit bashing, really nice work, and yes - dirty!

[rovex]

Michael, I found someone on eBay. He was quite happy to make them a little bigger than advertised on his posting and without the base.

 

 

Edited January 12 by rovex

[rovex]

Hundred years of grimy midlands soot added.

 

Has helped to bring out the details on the lions

Edited January 13 by rovex

[rovex]

Of course no court building would be complete without the royal coat of arms.

 

This one is a former warrant officers cap badge I believe bought off a certain online auction site.

 

It's perhaps a little on the large side buts fits nicely above the main door.

My fine detail painting has never been brilliant, I tend to rely on a broad brush approach and a layer of dirt to cover up the worst of it.

But from a distance and in the gloom under the pediment I think I get away with it.

[rovex]

So little bit different, working on Mother Kibri kitbash. Almost at the stage where I have used all the kit parts I want to on this one.

This was the original kit

Five of them collected over several years give this

Haven't decided if this will be shops with a hotel above or offices.

But definitely shops at ground floor. Will design something up and get it 3d printed for the shop fronts.

A lot of attention needs to be given to the roof, so plenty of pyramids/pavilion rooves and chimneys to give that high Victorian look.

[rovex]

Lady Justice arrived today. She is 3D printed from Shapeways from a royalty free source found online. So I take no credit for the design.

The cost was extortionate. A tenner for the print (not bad), thirty quid for the packing and postage! Don't tell the other half.

The scales needed repair but given how delicate there are I'm not surprised.

 

So now the roof and skylights to do

Edited January 23 by rovex
Changing photos

[Portchullin Tatty]

Fabulous stuff!

[rovex]

Wellington chambers has had a coat of grey and the windows have been installed. Now got to work out the roof.

[Portchullin Tatty]

Looking grand!

 

Something that is catching my eye is the free-standing gables.  They almost certainly would have a roof enclosing on them both because the window head otherwise looks as if it might be at the gutter line but really because they would be very slender otherwise and prone to collapse.

 

I am a building surveyor and we had to do some emergency works to a building next to Harrods a while back where the roof was found not to be tied into a gable a bit like this.  It would have been exciting if we had not found it before it went!

 

 

[wombatofludham]

Fantastic kitbashing, really atmospheric.  I decided to put a modern courts complex into "Wednesford" and lightly kitbashed a 1960s "New Ulm" German railway station originally from (I think) Vollmer, into the sort of building that would have replaced older court buildings in anticipation of the Beeching reforms of the court system in the 1970s.  My inspiration was the old Granada TV "Fulchester" Crown Court building where Granada just sent the office teaboy down to Manchester city centre to take a few pictures of the entrance to their courts building.  Of course Wednesford would not be a Tier 1 Crown Court, but would have county and magistrates courts plus rooms for tribunals and the like.  I too sourced a Royal coat of arms off eBay, a badge from a uniform of some sort which was the perfect size (and I've used uniform buttons with the Royal Cypher for other Government buildings on the layout) so it's nice to see great minds thinking alike!

Just shows how, with a bit of thought, some 3d printing, and modelling, HO scale kits can be refashioned into other uses and "Anglicised".