buildings. All you have
to do is some simple
cutting and glue them
together. This is really
appealing when you are
looking for some quick solutions and
their cost is very reasonable for the quality of the
artwork he has produced.
I thought I’d get hold of some of Graham’s kits
of famous Le Mans buildings and assemble one
of them for this column – Maison Blanche (aka
White House). With its rooftop Martini banner,
the famous farmhouse featured in the movie Le
Mans, and gave that accident-prone section of
track its name. These days Maison Blanche has
been bypassed in the interests of safety.
To save on assembly and postage costs, the
GP Miniatures kits also come as a at packs and
there are no instructions. I think as a matter of
pride, Graham expects his customers have at
least some basic modelling skills. Assembling
the Maison Blanche kit is not too difficult, but
the at foam core sides can be unconvincing,
and the cut edges leave exposed white foam.
These issues can be overcome using techniques
borrowed from model railroaders.
The basic principle is to take those
features of the building that should not
be ush with the wall sides and cut them
out of the card and give them depth or
change their texture. Usually this means
detailing the doors, windows and any
external xtures such as downpipes or
steps. This can all be done at low cost- the materials can come from any form
of cardboard or balsa you can get your
hands on to make window frames, and
n, clear plastic from packaging for the
You will need tools such as a steel ruler, a
sharp thin hobby knife and PVA adhesive.
Graham has anticipated the at look of the
printed panels and the kit comes with ready-
made ‘relief’ panels for the doors and windows.
I started the kit by cutting out the windows and
door openings, using multiple passes of the
knife to work through the thickness of the foam
core. Once they were separated, I dressed the
openings with a le to clean up the edges that
were uneven from the multiple knife passes. This
left the white foam edges where the windows had
been cut out, so I paintedthem
with a red-brown
paint to match the
printed windows. The
supplied window and
door panels were then
glued in behind the
openings.
I then offered up the
walls to each other,
reedge
bevel
ted panels
to meet evenly at the corner. While I was at
it, I made a horizontal oor section from foam
core to add strength and ensure the side of the
building would be square.
Next, the roof panels were glued onto the
main structure. Although the main roof joint is
hidden by a printed ridge cap included in the
pack, it still leaves white foam core around the
edges. I searched for images of completed kits
and found others had hidden these by painting
grey coloured barge boards. I got hold of some
strips of modellers balsa and made my own.
Just to nish it off, I added a door step and a
metal handle to the otherwise at door.
Card kits like these often need nishing off
to hide any remaining gaps and to make them
looked weathered by the environment. Marker
pens, water colours and ground up pastels can
all be applied or brushed on to provide natural
streaks from rain effects and staining from
the ground. Once again, Graham has already
incorporated much of the staining into his card
printing, although I did add some earth-coloured
pastel for some variation.
For those looking for something with an
Australian theme, you might remember Tony
Di Pastena’s Melbourne slot track. Tony has
been in touch and let me know about an old
style Bathurst control tower he has made from
old photos. Now I’m talking really old, as this
was the control tower in use prior to the 1987
track rebuild, and without the bay window
modi cations that sprouted from it in the 1970s.
Tony drewuphisown plans, cut out the parts
and built itallfrom scratch. De nitely a labour
of love.