No.39 Remediating Resin Structures – Notably Hornby Skaledale and Bachmann Scenecraft

The starting point for this Blog entry is the Bachmann Coaling Stage:

This was bought in full knowledge that the steps were in pieces and would need sticking back together.  I used ‘Super Glue’.  A couple of the joins are still visible but not in my opinion sufficiently obvious as to need immediate repainting.

What was more obvious was the twisted and warped loading chute.  This had to be fixed!

The chute is separated from the rest of the loading stage by pushing out the ‘hinge pin’.  At this point I am indebted to a contributor on RMweb for pointing out that Skaledale Resin walls can apparently be moulded to shape using hot water.  Perhaps I could use ‘hot water’ to remould the chute?   I put the chute into a small plastic bowl of very hot water.  After allowing it to soak up some heat it began to feel much like a lump of hard rubber, such as a pencil eraser.  At this point I was able to gently mould and straighten the casting.

Excellent – would I be able to improve my Skaledale footbridge with its crooked legs?

Certainly worth trying

The water was almost too hot for comfort.  After immersing the bridge for about five minutes it was possible to start very gently manipulating the warped legs.  I was very gentle and I kept returning the bridge to the hot water.  To maintain the temperature I even reheated the water several times.  Success:

I am much happier now:

Hopefully this will inspire others to correct their Skaledale structures.

Perhaps I should have kept my twin track engine shed with wonky central pillar – that went back to the shop!

As a postscript I am also attaching a picture of Hanson’s Bakery.

Silk purses and sows ears come to mind.  Hot water couldn’t have solved this problem.  The metal frets for both the shop door and shop window were just too big to fit the openings in the resin casting.  The windows were only glued at two corners and were soon pushed out from behind.  The metal window frets were then filed to a smaller size.  By reversing the frets in the window openings all the horizontal bars lined up.  I cut some new glazing from acetate sheet, the sort that was used in photocopiers to make ‘overheads’.  After repainting the frets the windows were reassembled.  First the acetate glazing was pushed into position.  Then drops of Super Glue were placed at the corners before covering with the glazing frets.  The view ‘close up’ is still pretty frightening – but I think that Skaledale (and Scenecraft) are still quick ways of adding instant atmosphere to the layout.