Pedal To The Metal - Whitemetal Gas Station Kit

This month the NMRA British Region is running a building challenge for members with a completion date of 1st March.  I'm coming to this a little late as I didn't know about the challenge until I read the latest issue of Roundhouse, just a month remaining so I will need to get my skates on but decided to try and enter anyway. :)

I moved into a new house with a garage over the summer and finally have a space to model without hogging the kitchen table.  I was looking for an excuse to unpack some of my modelling stuff, and this challenge seems like a good excuse.  I've got lots of building kits sitting in boxes but one of them struck me as being ideal for this purpose.  Its an old Woodland Scenics gas station I bought second hand on e-bay for a couple of quid.

This kit is unusual because it is cast in white metal rather than resin or plastic, and it should build into a very dinky little model of a pre-war gas station, complete with old style pumps.

The kit is unboxed and has no instructions or decals, so although it looks simple to construct I will need to get busy with photoshop and the inkjet to rustle up some suitable signage.

The white metal castings area bit warped, but that shouldn't be a problem with such a rustic style of building, and there is a lot of flash to clean up which will be the first task.

I'm planning to incorporate the finished building into a 12" square base so it can be entered into the square footer competition at the convention (assuming that category features).  

The diorama will have an old 60's billboard advert and a section of highway.  I doubt I will get all of that done by the end of the month, but hopefully the building will be finished at least.