Building the LX384 Platform Shelter

Morning everyone! Today I’ll be walking you through how I’ve built one of our latest kits, the LX384 Wooden Platform Shelter Kit. This particular kit is a scale model of the platform shelter found at Robin Hoods Bay on the Scarborough – Whitby Railway. This is a lovely prototype, and features lots of detail with plenty of thought going into how to make it look great, but also easy to build!

While being a NER design, this style of  platform shelter can be used for any region and still look great. Simply paint it in your era’s colours and you’re away! I’ve found a cracking website that gives you a great rundown of appropriate colours to paint your buildings to make them ‘right’ for your region and period. I’ve painted mine in the gorgeous British Rail North Eastern Blue and White, which is perfect for my 1950s/60s Esk Valley Railway (Middlesborough – Whitby).

Equipment Recommended;

• New and Sharp Craft Knife
• Metal Rule
• Flat Jewellery File
• Spray can Primer (Halfords, The Range etc)
• Glue of choice (I recommend Super Phatic or Laser Cut Kit Glue, both from Deluxe Materials)
• SX002 Jig
• Drink of choice (Recommend Coffee for the day, Whiskey for the evenings!)

With that out the way, let’s jump into it!

The kit comes in two different materials. 2mm MDF for the core construction, and 0.8mm Laserboard for the details. This means the kit is very strong, but isn’t overly ‘deep’, and looks very prototypical with the thin details and accents.

The first step is to take the 2mm sheet, release them from the sprue, file them down where necessary (the nodes holding them in can leave a little bump).

Next, I released and tidied up the door surround, window sills and I piece window surrounds, and glued them in-place with a fine amount of glue.

Then with the help of the SX002 Jig, glue a side to an end, repeat for the other half, glue the two halves together. The slot and tab construction makes this a doddle, just make sure you give your glue of choice plenty of time to go off.

Now glue the 0.8mm 6 inch planks around the edges of the building, as shown below. There are two surrounds for the front of the building, the two stumpy edges go at the bottom by the door. Hopefully you can see how they go together by my photos!

Next up is the brackets that will support the roof. These are really easy to put in, just a dab of glue on each end, and gently press them into place with the help of some tweezers.

With our building now looking something like a shelter, I think it’s time we plonk it in place to see how it’ll look!

Now I decided to build up the ‘detail’ parts, which includes the interior bench and the notice boards. This is fairly straightforward, the bench takes some time but is worth it in the end. Just take your time, and make sure all parts have been cleaned up to give a good fit. Please note that the notice board isn’t square, so you’ll have to double check that you have the surround the right way before gluing into place.

Now we have the main building built and all the detail parts ready to go, now would be a good time to venture into the outdoors and prime everything to aid painting! This could be done before you start, with everything still on the sprue, but I find that it may affect the glueing bond, and priming after also gives it an extra bit of added strength.

After the primer has set (a couple of coats may be required), I glued on the canopy valance.

Now for the fun bit, painting! I highly recommend you reference to this very handy painting guide on station buildings. My layout is based on the Esk Valley Railways, taking inspiration from the Scarborough – Whitby Railway during the late 50s, so North Eastern Blue and White is the colour scheme I opted for. But this handy guide will tell you what paints will be prototypical for almost any region or period!

Click here to view the colour guide website

My friend, Scott, who’s also built an ex-North Eastern Railway layout during the late 50s, used Citadel Baharroth Blue and Ulthuan Grey to great affect. So I thought I’d give them a go, and it looks pretty accurate! I haven’t weathered the model yet, but once I do (with oil paints, powder and washes) I expect the model to be toned down nicely. 

Painting the building is a relatively easy job that doesn’t need much explaining. Water the paint down a tad with a couple of drops of water, then apply multiple coats until satisfied! I painted the whole model in the Grey, then went over the bottom 5 beams in the blue. I painted the notice board in Lifecolor Warm Base Wood.

Here are some photographs of the real life prototype! It’s a shame the hut doesn’t exist anymore, but the adjacent station building does. I think it’s safe to say, the LX384 Platform shelter is a very handsome little kit! And at £9.99, it’s very good value for money.

If you’d like to purchase one for yourself, you can find them here on our website.

Next week, I’ll be writing an article up on our long awaited platform kits! I’ll be using our LX264 3x2ft paving and our LX293 Midland Platform fencing (while midland by design, this particular style was found all over the network, particularly the LNER region), so tune in next week to see the station start to come together!

Stay safe and happy modelling,

Dylan.