Structure help

[chuck geiger]

I have begun to wrap up my citrus packing plant and part of it is the DPM Truck Transfer
kit. There is a problem with that kit. The loading dock is almost HO scale height. The doors
are kind of high up. I could bring down the dock, but the doors are part of the pre-fab part
of the kit with facade below them. Any ideas?

www.dpmkits.com

[Chris333]

Could you cut the walls hole down lower and make new doors?

Actually I think that kit has door molded in so you would need to cut them out and make that hole lower.

Possible new doors:
http://www.tichytraingroup.com/index.php?page=view_product.php&id=394&category=Doors

[chuck geiger]

Thanks Chris, great idea, I have some Grandt Line and Nu-Line doors I could pop in there. What do you use to fill the upper part of the door hole? Bigger doors or use styrene fillers.

[DKS]

I'd consider building the structure into a slope that rakes up to the loading ramp side, and just bury the bulk. Failing that, I'd cut the bottoms off of the walls on the larger part of the structure--it doesn't appear from the photo that you'd lose anything significant. For any ground-level doors on these walls, you can perhaps enlarge the openings upwards.

[chuck geiger]

It's structure in the center, see how high the doors are?

[DKS]

Heck, you're only using the walls with the freight doors? And leaving the back off? Just hack the bottom of the walls off.

[chuck geiger]

David, thanks did that and this is what it looks like: (the loading dock is still kind of high)

[wm3798]

The loading dock should be level with the floor of the boxcar, at least within a few scale inches.  A moveable plate bridge would be used to allow a fork lift to go back and forth.  Obviously, in our little model world, that's not a real problem, but visually it will make more sense to show that relationship.

Also, just to make the problem worse, the siding should sit at a lower level than the main line, so to really make it look right, you'll have to whittle another 1/8 to 1/4" from the bottom of the building.
Lee

[chuck geiger]

Takin her down sir, XO has the con