ARR Creations Nate Elsner's Kitbashed 1930's Fairbanks Alaska Railroad Depot

Nate Elsner's Kitbashed 1930's Fairbanks Alaska Railroad Depot

I stumbled across a Laser Cut Wood Kit made by American Model Builders that modeled the Alaska Railroad Depot in Nenana.
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Many of the original depots in Alaska were basically replicas of each other, and the reference photos showed that the two buildings were very similar in design.
The first floor was exactly the same, except the second floor had some key differences.
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On the depot in Fairbanks, the second floor is in the middle of the structure, and it is also shorter, with fewer windows and a different roof line.

To modify the second floor, I cut the provided wall sections down until they were about the correct length, and filled in the windows with spare pieces of the wooden parts sheet of the same material. I used some wood putty to fill in the big gaps, and a toothpick to remove excess from the grooved siding after it had dried for a few minutes. New holes were cut in the walls with a utility knife, working slowly and carefully. Trim pieces were used to hide any rough edges around the window frames. After painting the walls, I had to cut and glue single windows together to make 3 of the 4 double wide windows on the prototype. Two spare triangle roof pieces were used to make the gabled ends for the second floor, and a cardboard cracker box was cut to size, painted, and glued on for the new roof.

In the kit, the second floor of the Nenana depot covers one side of the building, so only roofing for one side is provided. For the other first floor roof, I used the provided roof pieces as a template to cut new cardboard shapes that were the same size. Then, it was just a matter of working slowly, looking at the reference pictures, and gluing everything together squarely. The shingles provided in the kit were extremely useful, and covered up any gaps to bring the entire roof together.

The final step was to glue on all the trim pieces, and mount it on a base which my Dad helped me cut. The kit actually comes with interior walls, which allows for any future expansions in the way of room interiors and/or lights. Overall, a really well made kit, with lots of room for modification.

It is important to note that I used all of the materials provided in the box to kitbash the Fairbanks Depot, except for a cardboard box that I used for two of the three roof sections. This means, anyone can do it!