Northumbrian Painting Services Portable Cabin Kit
Having released this kit to the public early in 2019 at the Kettering Gauge O Guild show, this kit entered into there scenery range alongside a multitude of other kits. These kit proved extremely popular and had sold out on the day of the exhibition. This meant we just had to try one for ourselves! Northumbrian Painting Services very kindly offered to send us one of the kits.
The kits are priced at a reasonable £15.00 with an additional charge of £3.50 for delievery at home. These kits are available from the Northumbrian Painting Services website at ; https://www.paintinghistory.co.uk/o-gauge-figures or alternately please see there facebook page for announcements on which exhibitions they will be attending.
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Upon receiving the kit, and opening the the bag, I laid all the parts out to work out what is included. Don't be alarmed when you open the kit that you can't find any paperwork to go with your kit, you don't get a set of instructions. Because it is a fairly self explanatory kit even as a beginner to kits its nothing to worry about. Armed with the picture off Northumbrian painting services website it all just falls together.
In the kit you get;
-A Base
-A Roof
-2 Ends
-2 Sides
-A pose able door
-4 square leg stands
-4 legs
-2 top cross supports
-A sheet of clear plastic card
-A 2 piece door step.
There aren't any window and door frames supplied purely for the reason that these are neatly cut into the main building sides and ends. This makes for an easy job of painting them in a different colour to the rest of the structure.
Starting to build the kit, I lined an end piece up with a side piece and placed the roof on the check which way the parts went together. The end pieces stick to the inside of the sides. I then gave all of the outer sides of the structure a coat of Grey primer to give some basic colour to the building. Once the paint had dried using a set square and a piece of glass to get the parts level and square I used some strong PVA for the main grip then re-enforced the join with super glue. I also used masking tape to secure the pieces together while they set solid.
I built the main building structure in two halves sticking the end to a side panel, once both halves had been allowed some drying time and had set solid, I stuck them together and very quickly got a good solid structure. After the main structure was set solid I gave it a coat of a top grey for this I used Halfords Ford Polar Grey I used a tinlet of white to pick out the door and window frame details on the main structure.
In the kit you get;
-A Base
-A Roof
-2 Ends
-2 Sides
-A pose able door
-4 square leg stands
-4 legs
-2 top cross supports
-A sheet of clear plastic card
-A 2 piece door step.
There aren't any window and door frames supplied purely for the reason that these are neatly cut into the main building sides and ends. This makes for an easy job of painting them in a different colour to the rest of the structure.
Starting to build the kit, I lined an end piece up with a side piece and placed the roof on the check which way the parts went together. The end pieces stick to the inside of the sides. I then gave all of the outer sides of the structure a coat of Grey primer to give some basic colour to the building. Once the paint had dried using a set square and a piece of glass to get the parts level and square I used some strong PVA for the main grip then re-enforced the join with super glue. I also used masking tape to secure the pieces together while they set solid.
I built the main building structure in two halves sticking the end to a side panel, once both halves had been allowed some drying time and had set solid, I stuck them together and very quickly got a good solid structure. After the main structure was set solid I gave it a coat of a top grey for this I used Halfords Ford Polar Grey I used a tinlet of white to pick out the door and window frame details on the main structure.
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After this I then stuck the structure down to its base and the building instantly became solid and sturdy. I mixed up a light grey shade and coated the floor inside to give it a lighter noticeable colour and creating a bit of a contrast from the walls. Whilst waiting on this to dry the rather self explanatory two piece step and four feet were stuck together and primed again in grey. Once all this was completed I primed the legs and painted them along with the feet a dull silver and glued them to the building.
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I glued the supports together leaving the roof section loose to aid adding details at a later stage. This can be slid in and out as required. Additionally to the kit I have added some mesh over the out side of the windows, this giving a bit more of a rugged feel. Since receiving the kit, Northumbrian painting services have contacted us informing us they will be producing an internal detailing pack in the near future. When we receive this we will be adding this to the review.
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Thoughts on the kit I'm over all very impressed with the kit. The build quality is sublime for the an MDF kit, it goes together with minimal effort and ease. For a novice in building kits it really is something that would be a great benchmark kit. It's self explanatory and for the price of £15 gives you a good, robust structure seen all over the country.
Our only concern for the kit which we have raised with Northumbrian Painting services and would make the kit easier to square up & more robust in the corners would be to add some corner pieces. This would also insure for someone who doesn't have access to a set square it would give you the basic shape. How-ever this doesn't affect the build quality or the level of finish. Rob from Northumbrian has said these can be added at a later point.
This is something that you shouldn't skip on, and i'll be investing in another one without a shadow of a doubt. Its a great addition to their growing range of scenic items. We hope in the future to be able to review some other bits from there growing catalogue.
Our only concern for the kit which we have raised with Northumbrian Painting services and would make the kit easier to square up & more robust in the corners would be to add some corner pieces. This would also insure for someone who doesn't have access to a set square it would give you the basic shape. How-ever this doesn't affect the build quality or the level of finish. Rob from Northumbrian has said these can be added at a later point.
This is something that you shouldn't skip on, and i'll be investing in another one without a shadow of a doubt. Its a great addition to their growing range of scenic items. We hope in the future to be able to review some other bits from there growing catalogue.