Polar Lights Bates Mansion 1/87 scale

Finally got this kit finished. It started out as a small commission for a family friend. They had purchased it but upon opening the kit didn't feel they as a first time builder of such kits that they could do it justice so asked me if I would have a go. Its simple enough kit with a small internal light kit.



I'd not done anything like this before and at first assembling the house was quite easy soaked and scrubbed. Pieces filed and cleaned up. The main body of the house was all in separate sections that link together onto the base.

 The roof sections with the railings attached

 All the remaining odd pieces left off in order to make painting easier.

Here is where I started to struggle. The kit only comes with a base for the top part but includes nothing for the stair case that would travel down to the motel. I asked our friend if they wanted this set of stairs included ad they said yes. The main issue I had with the kit was the lighting I had to think ahead as to where they batteries would need to go as well access to turn on the switch and change the batteries if needed,

I built the base up out of polystyrene in layers and got a rough idea of the layout for it.

So the plan as to build it up but leave a hole for the batteries(inc switch) to live in. The house would then be removable to get to the part. So work began

 I secured the layers down using cocktails sticks and pva between the layers. Then beginning to use polyfilla to add a surface and blend the layers together

 Between drying times I then began to basecoat all the other components.

 The interior was at first painted silver as it was recommended in the instructions as this reflects the light from inside.

 Finally filled out and sealed it now became known as daddies chocolate cake.....


Disaster strikes! Test fitting the lighting and access to lower area resulted in the top cracking. This is when it got a bit of hard work patching and securing down the house and top back to the base. This was probably the most frustrating bit as I'd repair it and it kept breaking again. I ended up having to hot glue gun it all down.

 More painting and adding texture to the cake part of it. 

In the end I decided to weld the house down to the base and leave the roof pieces loose. I then cut a hole in the bottom to get access to the switch/battery housing.

 Finally finished the last few bits Sunday evening I then discovered that when lit and despite a fair few layers of paint that the interior is quite translucent so ended up painting the interior and inside the roof sections with a few coats of black paint just to prevent the light bleeding out.

Some pics with the lighting on. I am quite pleased with the final results

 Mrs Bates!