Making Superb Model Railroad Structures with Wooden Kits

There's a certain realism and charm in wooden kits that can make your railroad more unique and visually interesting. The build runs for wooden kits tend to be smaller than plastic kits, so the manufacturers have the flexibility to model specific depots, specific structures. And the detail on modern laser cutting is every bit as good as the plastic kits. Plus, they're fun to build, and as long as you allow for some of the inherent differences between plastic and wood, they go together easily. Let's put one together and see how it turns out.

The first thing to do on a wood kit is to spray clear sealer on both sides of the wood. This is important, because the wood is porous, and if you paint it without sealing both sides, the wood will warp. The laser cut parts are burned through the wood, except for small connecting pieces. Once you've allowed the sealer to dry, you can cut through the small connecting pieces. This kit has tabs.

It makes it easy to make sure the walls go together properly. I'll start by assembling the walls with yellow glue. Here, I'm using a toothpick to apply it. And so we'll glue these in place, get 'em sealed up. I'll put a rubber band around the walls to hold them together.

Then I'll put on the roof. Again, the tabs are located to make sure the correct piece goes on the correct side. I'll use a rubber band to hold those in place also. These detail pieces have an adhesive peel and stick back, which makes it really nice for assembly. On this church, the next step is to hide the tabs with the trim boards.

These detail trim pieces are adhesive back. I'm using my hobby knife to peel the adhesive, and then to apply the boards to the church. These trim pieces serve two purposes. They hide the assembly tabs and act as decoration. After it's all assembled, I paint the entire church white, inside and out.

The next step is to add the windows. I'm cutting this applied acetate with a straight edge and hobby knife, then gluing them to the inside of the church using the modeler's plastic cement. Now I'm pushing them in place. Now comes the fun part. These finely detailed stained glass windows are actually laser cut wood.

These also have a peel and stick adhesive back. I'm carefully using the point of my hobby knife to peel it back. These stick right to the acetate. The next step is to attach the roof. I'm using spray adhesive to attach the roof.

This kit came with a styrene roof, which I've previously spray painted brown. There's the first side. On to the next. The steeple comes next. I have already assembled the steeple and applied the roof to it.

It went together the same as the rest of the church. I'll put glue around the inside of the steeple and push it into place. The final touch is the cross. I pre-drill the little hole on top, add the glue, and push it into place. That completes our wooden kit.

Wooden kits take a lot of attention to detail and some different assembly techniques, but when they're done, they make a charming addition to your layout.