Model Power Kitbash: Triangular Building (WIP / Part 1)

I continue to pluck away at filling in the building gaps in my background behind the passenger terminal.  My approach has been to find unusual facades or kit-bash / scratch-build my own facades for this area of the layout.

Currently I am working on filling the gap in the triangular space you can see in the above photo.  This structure would fill a gap between the bridge and road to the 'country side' (on the left) and the end of the urban area (which is mostly to the right in the above photo).

I am having a bit of an internal debate on the why/how of the actual need for a building in this location as I could just as easily have the street above the passenger terminal merge into the other road.  Yes, that would be the easy thing to do!  Well, if this doesn't work out, that'll likely be what I end up with!  But I like the idea of a building sort of 'blocking' this street as I think it sort of creates a 'bookend' to the urban area while (seemingly) being a realistic issue where city streets and railway tracks don't always result in good plans.

My victim for this kit bash is a Model Power "St Mary's Hospital" that I've been sitting on for years.  This is a ubiquitous, cheap kit that is easy to find in the US, so its a good candidate to play with.

My first decision was to realize that a mere three-story building (as provided) was far too short, so I've decided to make the building a total of 5 or 6 stories by adding all the front and side sections together.  The below photo shows the combined result for the front and sides.  But what to do about the other walls?

As this building will be triangle shaped, and one side won't be visible from nearly any viewing point, I decided to create a semi-fake wall for the back of my triangular building.  You can actually see the final, cut version (on styrene sheet) in the above photo on the right.  Below is the markings and measurements for the windows to match the window spacing of the other floors in the middle of the tedious scoring process to cut the windows out of the styrene.

I did not want this building to be a hospital (really an 19th century hospital looking at the kit!), but not sure what it will be.   Something generic I suppose.  What I did want was a large sign with big letters at the end of the street advertising whatever name of the company inhabits this street.  You've seen these sort of mid-century sign/facade additions to real buildings I'm sure.  Basically an older structure with a clearly mid-century bit of signage covering up parts of the lower floors.

On another sheet of styrene (this sheet a type with small grooves in it that would resemble wood slats in a larger gauge) I marked off the spaces to be cut out where my 'letters' will go (which will also be back lit).

You can see the painted letters (in red on the blue tape) and the clear plastic rectangles they will get attached to on the left in the below photo.  I'll be using "Slater's" letters for the sign letters.  The word to get placed on the sign is "Stern".  Doesn't really mean anything, but seemed ambiguous enough to be just about anything in multiple languages!

After getting all of my black base coats done (for both the interior and exteriors), I'm still debating the right colors for the building, sign, trim, etc...  I want a sort of weathered, older building look.  My first attempt at the building base color was a bit too green and therefore too obnoxious, so I'm going to tone it down a bit with a more buff/tan color.  The trim sections are placed on top of the green to see how they will look together and won't be glued down until I can decide on the right colors!

So that's it for this project! Looking at the photos...wow that's a lot of ugly photos!  Yikes! Well, hopefully the finished project will not only be done soon, but will also be more photogenic when its completed versus these construction photos!