This is a section of a photograph from my layout that shows the roof line of the converted building. As this is where most of the work has to be done, the image will do for now, although I admit it's not the best photograph.

I will make a few assumptions:

You have already bought the kit, and have the instruction sheet in front of you.
You don't need hand-holding through every stage of the work.
You have the following tools available:

Modelling knives
Razor saw
Liquid polystyrene cement - not the thick, tube variety

You will also need a small quantity of embossed brick walling with a pattern that is a close match to the brick walls in the kit.
And some new roofing material. When I did my conversion, I used the Faller accessory pack no. 597 because I had one. This includes roofing material, guttering and down-pipes, but you can use anything suitable.

OK, let's make a start...
What we are essentially going to do is replace the roof with what I think is called a double hipped design - it won't have any gable ends.

Locate the 2 end walls (part no. W558), and using a razor saw, cut off the 2 gable ends to the same height as the side walls (part no. W557)
Take the 2 end wall 'stone-trim' pieces (part no. W562). The rectangular 'box' is intended to display the station's name. Remove the box leaving the rest of the 'trim' intact.
This will leave a hole in the end walls that needs to be filled with pieces of the embossed brick material. The pattern doesn't have to be an exact match as this portion of the wall will be quite high up under the new roof, and not too visible.
Assemble the rest of the walls, stone-trim, doors and windows as per the instructions.
Now the difficult part... the roof. I believe it's easier to build a completely new roof rather than try and modify the existing one. I would strongly recommend that you make a 'test-fit' roof from card or something similar to make sure it all fits correctly before cutting plastic.

Cut 2 pieces of roofing material to form the front and back portions of the roof (which are quadrilaterals) to these dimensions:
Length along base = 165mm
Length along top = 67mm
Total height = 55mm
Cut 2 pieces of roofing material to form the ends of the roof (which are isosceles triangles) to these dimensions:
Length along base = 95mm
Length along other 2 sides = 72mm
You may find that the pieces have to be trimmed slightly to fit correctly, the biggest problem is to get the new roof to sit flat on the walls.
After all fits OK, and the roof pieces are glued together, fit ridge tiles to the roof. This is where the Faller parts came in useful, the gutters turned upside-down work perfectly as ridge tiles.
Make and fit new gutters, down-pipes and chimneys.

If you are modelling a station pre-WWII, it might be better to leave off the following parts from the kit completely:

The small shed made from parts no. T558, T559, T560 and W595.
The bicycle rack.
Television aerials, poster boards, plastic light-fittings and the clocks.

To finish the building off, it might be as well to remember that many Bavarian station buildings were rendered and/or white-washed. My station has white painted walls, with the stone trim a light grey, natural stone colour.

Note:: I had some trouble locating an appropriate font to use to print station names in the old gothic style used in Germany early this century. The Windows True-Type font Schwaben Alt is pretty close, so if you're using Windows, and you have access to a laser printer, you might want to download it so that you can make up signs for yourself.
As it's not the easiest font to read, I'd recommend writing the names in a 'normal' font like Times Roman, then change the font before printing.

[ author: - last updated 31st Dec 2003 ]