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MTL Laser Kits For The Pizza Layout

John Cubbin | May 11, 2015 0 Comments More

Micro-Trains N Scale Laser Kits After getting our Kato Compact Unitrack grungy in the last article, it’s time to look to the structures for our pizza layout. Since I’m working on the idea of a yard-flavored scene with this layout, I looked at the Micro-Trains Line Yard Structures Kit that includes 3 kits with relatively small footprints. This kit set is a good choice as the buildings are small enough to allow for flexibility in placement on our layout.

I wanted to add another building to the mix, something a little larger that would balance the yard buildings size so I went with MTL’s Military Veterinary Clinic kit. I actually got two of these vet clinic kits from MTL and decided to cut one of them down in size just a bit in keeping with the layout proportions. This building reduced nicely with just a couple of passes from my X-Acto blade.

All of these MTL kits come with injection molded Grandt Line windows and doors but before I add these, I wanted to get a feel for these 5 buildings and how I’ll position them on the layout. I gave all these kits a white primer coat, gray for the roofs, as MTL recommends adding a sealer coat to the wood to prevent warping. All of these MTL kits do come with separate roof material as well as the pictured sub-roofs shown in these photos. It’s funny what a simple coat of white paint will do because as soon as I assembled and painted these kits, I knew I wanted to add some custom decals and lighting to these pieces.

Last year I purchased an HP LaserJet Pro 400 color laser printer and I’m now waiting on an order of decal paper to arrive. This will be the first time I’m using this laser for decals and I’m anxious to see how it does. I also have several varieties of warm white LEDs on order, both for interior and exterior building use. As this layout won’t have any power wires attaching to the wall, I’ll use a 9VDC battery for LED power as well as for the handheld throttle to make this a completely self-contained layout.

Until these supplies arrive, I’ll work on the color schemes for these buildings, both the wall color as well as any variations I want to make to the roofs of the buildings. The other decision I need to make is do I want this to be a single scene or do I want to add some sort of scenic divider, effectively creating a front and back to the layout. So many decisions, such a small layout!