Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Dubois Store by Branchline

I originally posted my experiences building Dubois Store kit by Branchline on kitforums.com. However, since threads tend drift into nonexistence with time over there I thought copying it here would give the information longer life and possibly reach broader audience.

Despite the fact that it is tab and slot kit it took me much more effort to build it than some FOS or Bar Mills kit. The interior details nearly drove me insane. It would have not been that bad hadn't they had sticky glue on the other side. I wasn't sure how it would take paint so I decided to remove the glue. Since parts are very fragile in the process I broke quite few of them and I had to glue them back together.
Few other things didn't go well too.
1. The base of the long roof was too long. I had to shorten it and cut off the wall tabs.
2. The roofing material of the long roof had opening for the dormer cut out at wrong angle and too big. Initially I glued "metal" sheeting under the roofing. However, the roofing is too thick and the angle made gaps at the top wider than at the bottom. It didn't look right so I filled it with automotive putty and scribed shingle lines.
3. I am not sure why the structure base has slots cut out for the entrance doors since they only have top tabs. That proved to be another problem. The slots turned out to be closer to the front than the doors leaving gaps in front of them. To fix it I made two "concrete" pads and covered the gaps.
4. The top of storefront windows aligns exactly with store ceiling leaving no room for error and for window "glass" thickness. I wasn't sure if my alignment was OK and I wouldn't end up with edge of the ceiling showing through the window so as precaution I put the curtains on.

It seems I have overcome all these hurdles and I am quite happy with end result.






2 comments:

  1. Picked this kit up several years ago and just now getting ready tackle it. I appreciate your write-up. It confirm some of my queasiness when I opened the box.

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    1. Yes, it wasn't an easy build. Good luck with it.

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