I was initially intimidated by the number of pieces in the Vollmer's Baden-Baden railway station. So much so, that it had taken me six months to screw up the courage to start it. Once I got going though, I found it extremely enjoyable despite its complexity. Or maybe that was just the glue talking. Before I could start I had to resolve the colour of the windows. I disliked the harsh contrast between the original dark brown windows against the gray inner walls. My previous plan was to paint all the structures white, but I've had a change of heart since those early days and decided muted colours would be acceptable. I liked the colour combination of my Kibri Siegtaldom with the exception of the roof. So I thought the colours of the station should complement the cathedral. That meant I had to change the brown windows to something lighter to reduce the contrast. This was not an easy task as I spent hours at the hobby store comparing colours. In the end, I went with Tamiya's TS68, wooden deck tan. There are other brands that are less expensive, but I've used Tamiya paints before and have had good success with them. My only complaint with the Tamiya spray paint is that 100ml does not last very long.
After spraying the windows and letting them dry overnight, I proceeded to glue the windows to the inner wall sections. As with anything new, it took a bit of time to get to speed. Before I could glue anything, I had to remove each piece and trim off the excess plastic. I discovered that if I bent the window away from me when removing it from the frame that the remaining extrusion pointed in the opposite direction of the front facade. This made it much easier to clean up before attaching to the inner wall. I spent a better part of the week trimming and gluing windows. I actually looked forward to working on the station each night after an exhausting day at the office.
With the windows glued, I was ready to attach the ornamental stone wall sections to the inner walls. However, I wasn't entirely happy with the dark tan against the light grey of the inner walls. Picking an alternate colour to the dark tan was difficult so I decided to attach the inner walls together first, which was out of sequence. The instructions called for gluing the ornamental stone wall to each inner wall unit first, which seemed counter to what I thought was the correct assembly sequence. The work to glue the inner walls together went quickly and I was able to finish the inner walls together in one night. Seeing the five building sections together motivated me further.
Placing the unfinished structure next to my platforms helped me visualize its size on the layout. When I had bought the station, my first thought was that it was much too small. But now that I've seen it next to the platforms I think it will work out. One thing to note is that the dimensions of the structure is quoted as 510 x 115 mm. These measurements are taken from the edge of the front stairs to the back edge of the platform. The building foot print is actually 470 x 78 mm.
The instructions stated that the ornamental stone wall section be glued to the inner wall first. Then the combined wall unit is glued to others to form the building. I'm glad I didn't follow the instructions to the letter. By doing the assembly in the wrong sequence, I was able to ensure that the ornamental stone trim connected perfectly with no gaps at the corners. I also elected not to glue the ornamental section to the inner wall. Nor did I glue the roof section to the walls. I can put them together and easily take them apart. Why you ask? I still have aspirations to install interior lighting. I'm not sure how to do this yet, but at least I know I can get inside easily.
I made another trip to the hobby store last week-end for more spray paint. In the end, I decided to colour the ornamental stone wall to match the windows. You can see the two colours on the previous photo. The original colour seen on the back side contains more orange. The colour combination is more subdued than the original darker tan against the off-white. While comparing colours on Tamiya's website, I found out that the Baden-Baden station is now a performing arts theatre. Vollmer changed the colour of the ornamental wall section of their model. The real building is much lighter in tone.
One observation about using spray paints. It's best to hold the spray can vertically when applying the paint. Spraying the windows went fairly well as I was able to keep the can vertical. The windows had not been removed from the plastic extruded frame that they were attached to. This made it easy to mount them vertically for painting. But I had to detach each of the ornamental wall sections. The excess plastic was trimmed off so they would be properly coated with paint as they were on the exterior side exposed for all to see. I had each piece lying flat on cardboard for painting. This did not go as smoothly as I had expected. To avoid this problem with the roof sections, I had to devise a way to arrange the roof sections appropriately so that the spray can could be held vertically. I used a bunch of the excess plastic extrusion, glued them together and mounted the roof sections to it with scotch tape. It's not pretty, but it did the trick.
I didn't mind the slate grey of the roof and it did match the colour of the cathedral's roof. However, I elected to go with pearl green (TS60) to create a copper patina look. There was another colour called coral blue, but I thought it was a bit too bright for my liking. By altering the original colours of the Vollmer model, I am hoping to make it look unique enough that on first impression, people won't immediately identify it as a Vollmer Baden station. To kill two birds with one stone, I decided to paint the cathedral roof at the same time. I ran out of spray paint while coating the steeples. However, I was able to finish the Baden roof sections.
I still need to custom build a passenger meeting area for the back of the station connected to the track platforms. The base level of the doors at the back of the station are lower than my platforms so I'll have to elevate the station to an appropriate height. I have an idea on what I want to do here. Hopefully it won't take six months to start that. And there's a few touch ups like installing the awnings and clock to the building. Overall, I'm pleased with the results of the structure. I understand why many people prefer Vollmer over Kibri or Faller. Their attention to detail makes their models very realistic looking.
