# Transforming a Piko Building



## docwatsonva (Jan 2, 2008)

While at this year’s East Coast Large Scale Train Show, I purchased one of Piko’s new three story buildings. I’ve had my eye on one since they were first announced. After getting it home and looking thru the parts I said to my self, self, this is one ugly colored structure. Piko is famous for picking colors of structures that have little resemblance to the real world. Too bad I didn’t realize this until now. I’ve already assembled a couple of these and regret not changing the color before assembling.

This is a photo of the original building from the box cover.










In addition to an ugly color, in my opinion, I thought that this building had an ugly balcony also. I threw out the old one not only for its ugliness but also for the fact that the return railings ended up in the center of the windows. How dumb is that? So, I decided to make a new, wider one so that it extended almost the whole width of the building. I built the base out of styrene pieces. The railings are from Plaststruct. (They had to be shortened a bit.) Since the railings were flimsy, I decided to cap them with some brass channel. I spray painted the whole deck with Krylon Ruddy Brown primer.

I’d like to thank Bruce Chandler for his tips on how to build metal balconies.










My first choice for a new color was brick red not mustard. Before repainting, I cleaned all the surfaces with denatured alcohol and lightly sanded all the surfaces to be painted. To achieve the red brick color, I first sprayed all the brick sections with ACE Red Oxide paint.

Here is a picture comparing the old, original brick panel next to one that has been repainted.











A Method for Creating a Brick and Mortar Effect.[/b]

These methods are not new, nor solely my ideas; I’m just presenting them here in case others might want to use them. All paints used in the following steps are water-based acrylics such as Folk Art, Americana, Apple Barrel, and Delta Ceramcoat. I used Base Grey for the mortar color and combinations of Light Red Oxide, Heritage Brick, Burnt Sienna, and Terra Cotta for the individual brick details.

Step 1: Paint the kit’s plastic panels with a base red color. I used ACE Red Oxide.

Step 2: In about 3-4 sq.in. areas at a time using a wide (1” brush), brush on mortar color making sure to get into the mortar grooves. Quickly and carefully wipe off the paint using diagonal swipes to minimize removing paint from the mortar groves. I use a dry paper towel folded to make a nice smooth surface. Re-fold the towel to present a clean surface and wipe again to remove most, if not all, of the painr from the surface of the bricks. Continue until all of the panel is done.

The nice thing is that, as long as you work quickly, you can redo an area by using a damp towel to remove any excess mortar paint and brush again. This whole process creates an uneven, somewhat realistic coloring on the surface of the brick.

Step 3: After leaving everything dry for a day, you can go back and use the various brick colored paints to give some interest to the brick so it doesn’t look too even and artificial. Also, if you found that too much mortar color remained on the bricks in some areas, this process would help return the bricks to their normal colors. As it turned out, I had to use a very narrow brush to paint the individual bricks to keep the paint from running into the mortar joints. But, as luck would have it, some brick paints did get into the joints and I had to use even a finer brush to repaint some of the joints. Very time consuming process but the effort was worth it.

The window frames along with the first floor entrance area and top lentil are blank. I lightly sanded all these black “wood” parts a bit to give them the appearance of age. I also added four cast truss rod plates from Ozark Miniatures to the front to represent structural bolts through the building. 
Here are a few photos of the completed building. I’ve not decided yet on what signage to use. That’ll come later.

Enjoy.































Doc


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## rsmproductions (Jan 5, 2008)

I love the work that you've done and really appreciate the detailed "how to" creating an "ok" building into a really amazing one!! And timely too...I purchased several Piko kits from our LHS in the final days before he closed the doors and entered into retirement. I, like you have disliked the color schemes that Piko uses. I even realized I purchased two of the same building so might play around with kitbashing the two to make a different structure. But your method of repainting and changing a little trim here and there is great! Thanks.

Richard


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## Michael W (Oct 10, 2012)

Wow amazing work, what paints did you use?


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## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

Great looking building! I don't use plastic buildings but do use plastic siding and your hints on painting bricks will be helpful. Thanks


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## Dr Rivet (Jan 5, 2008)

Michael W

Directly from the original post: 

All paints used in the following steps are water-based acrylics such as Folk Art, Americana, Apple Barrel, and Delta Ceramcoat. I used Base Grey for the mortar color and combinations of Light Red Oxide, Heritage Brick, Burnt Sienna, and Terra Cotta for the individual brick details. 
Step 1: Paint the kit’s plastic panels with a base red color. I used ACE Red Oxide.


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## Dr Rivet (Jan 5, 2008)

Doc... 

Excellent work and suggestions. We need to do that for some of the buildings used at Colvin Run Mill at Christmas.


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## docwatsonva (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Richard, Michael and Winn. One thing I forgot to mention is that there is a need to overspray the entire building with a clear, UV protective paint if you intend to leave your buildings outside. I generally don't because of the effort I put into most of my structures. I'm pretty sure that even after applying the protective coat, the colors will probably fade anyway over time. 

Jim, Thanks for the compliment. That would make your Colvin Run display much more realistic but, accomplishing this effect after a building is assembled would be a bit difficult. I should have done this before I built a couple of these kits years ago. Maybe I'll try to apply this to one of my old buildings and report back.

Doc


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## Bob Pero (Jan 13, 2008)

Nice job. My wife always repaints our buildings to more realistic colors. The UV overspray is a must here in Florida.


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

I've had the enjoyable perspective from my few visits this year to Doc's secret la-bora-tory hidden in the wilds of Hendersonville NC [his workshop is cleaner than my kitchen...and I keep a pretty clean kitchen]. It's been fun to watch, along with a dozen other projects he's got brewing, how he's turned this kinda' ho-hum' plastic Piko model into something that looks like it is actually built of brick and mortar. Besides the brick and mortar work which looks like...well...real bricks and mortar, and the big improvement of the balcony, my other favorite touch of realism which doesn't come through in the photos quite so well as in real life is that he scraped a little wear and tear to the windows and painted wood work. Such an easy, simple touch but in 'real life' it adds a excellent subtle realistic dimension to the structure. 

Not sure what to suggest to you Doc about signage. Maybe in honor of the late, great, Arthel Lane 'Doc' Watson who passed away last year, king of the flat picking guitar you could make the downstairs into something like Arthel Watson's Music Store, or Doc Watson's Guitar Shop....just a thought.


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## docwatsonva (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Bob. You're lucky to have someone to help with painting buildings. I like to scratchbuild structures the most and paint them the least.

Scott, Thanks for the compliments. You're too kind. You and my wife have entirely different opinions of the cleanliness of my workshop. I like your ideas for signage. I'll certainly take them under consideration.

Doc


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