JULIAN LILLEY goes through what you can use to make a construction site on your OO/HO layout.
Following on from my previous article about modern house kits in OO/HO Scale, I thought it would be good to show how extra interest can be added to a layout by putting a house construction site in place.
For scattering around your construction site, you can rummage through your offcuts and left-over scenic materials like ballast, bashed up trees, offcuts of Plastruct for imitating RSJs and drainpipes etc., which could be used at no cost.
For extra realism, you could add a small smoke generator for a bonfire, some of the animated vehicles from Viessmann or even have the Gaugemaster GM330 White Van Man Car System Set running through the site. The possibilities are endless.
This relatively new kit from our Fordhampton range is a good place to start. The foundation and footings are in place with the outer brick walls going up too. There is also a selection of building site accessories included to complete the scene.
GM437 Fordhampton House Under Construction Kit
This is a pre-coloured OO scale plastic kit of building site accessories, including scaffolding, cement mixers, compressors, jackhammers, portaloos and various other items typically found on site. This kit is moulded in 10 different colours, but additional painting and weathering will really bring this set to life.
GM417 Fordhampton Building Site Accessories Kit
This kit depicts a portable site office, comprising two stackable cabins with a walkway. This kit is pre-coloured (but can be painted), and appropriate decals are included.
The units can be positioned either side by side or on top of each other depending on the effect you want.
GM422 Fordhampton Site Office Kit
Faller also produce a range of kits that could be used on your construction site. Although they are HO Scale, with the correct positioning they would help give perspective on your layout. Not only that, but modern houses are becoming smaller and smaller these days!
The first suitable kit is a house of grey bricks with a roof that is currently under construction. Being a new build, you would probably get away without having to paint it as the parts are in appropriate coloured plastic.
FA130303 Detached House Under Construction Kit
You could build several of this kit for your construction site as it contains parts to allow the kit to be built up as a house erected in various states of construction.
This is great value as it is three houses in the one kit. It builds as a new housing development consisting of two modern-designed detached houses, a house under construction with an open roof truss and associated building site accessories such as stones, sacks, and pallets.
Housing Under Construction Kit
And finally from Faller, an old town house being demolished to make way for the new houses. It consists of the remains of facades and a gable with half-torn wallpaper, remains of the ceilings and internal walls, a rubble heap, temporary fence, excavator (a model from Wiking) and a single-axle trailer. In addition to this, the kit contains old radiators, wash basins, and even an old bathtub.
FA130466 Town House Under Demolition Kit
In my previous article, I mentioned the modern block of flats from Piko - and you may remember I showed examples of what could be done with them by artist Jimmy Cauty.
This kit is the same block of flats, but modelled as under construction.
PK61147 Prefab Apartment Block Extension Set Kit
If you wish to add animation, lighting and sound to your construction site, below just a few of various items from Viessmann’s eMotion range.
This model features a rotating mixer which can be activated by a switch. An ideal vehicle for any construction site of late 1950s onwards.
Magirus Cement Mixer With Rotating Drum
To illuminate a modern site you can use this luminous 'giraffe' unit on a trailer, which has six LED white floodlight spots with an telescopic support. This also featured on Jimmy Cauty’s modern artwork to great effect.
eMotion Portable Lighting Trailer 68-88mm LED White
No building site would be complete without a portaloo. This model has a moving door and a construction worker reading the local news. Not for the faint hearted, there is also a Sound Module that can be used to provide the appropriate sounds!
eMotion Builders Toilet
This Bricklayer who swings his trowel to simulate building a wall will always amazes the onlooker as to how it is done on something so small. It comes complete with brick wall parts, boards, bucket and drive unit.
VN5005 eMotion Bricklayer Bent with Trowel
And finally, a few building accessories from Preiser and Noch. If you search our website under these brands you find other examples you could use.
This set includes useful fencing, signage and accessories for around the yard or work site.
PR17177 Building Site Accessories Kit
This set contains four bricklayers and a scaffold. There are also small accessories such as barrows in the set.