3.5 My Cabin √

For my house—which is appropriately out in the woods—I was going to make use of a kit I'd purchased for the aborted Black River & Western: American Model Builders #628 Two Story Section House. However, small as it is, it seemed too large and too "fancy" for the location and for me, so I switched to a more appropriate dwelling: a cabin, specifically the one I'd planned to use for Bearcamp Spring, which is Republic Locomotive Works' "The Office." But for some reason the stone cabin looked just plain odd—the proportions were off, mostly to do with the windows and door. So I switched to RSLaserKits log cabin, which was much more appropriate in all respects. Indeed, I'd lived for years in a 12 by 12 foot cabin (for real); this one is 15 by 15—palatial by comparison, and perfect for my alternate N Scale universe needs.

Still, as I'm wont to do, I modified it. I purchased two kits and combined them so I could increase the roof peak—recommended in snowy places like New Hampshire. I also upgraded the windows and door to Tichy ones—a necessity where it gets really cold. Plus, I added a front porch. Above is the stock kit; below is my version.

Another change I made was the chimney. The kit has a brick chimney. Seriously? A brick chimney for a log cabin? So I made one with two corners sliced from a Chooch random stone tunnel portal. Admittedly the stones are rather large, but the cabin will be at the back of the layout, with the chimney facing away from the viewer, so all I needed was something that said "stone" to the viewer, as opposed to "brick."

As a bonus, I've fitted the cabin with a pair of flickering LEDs to create a fireplace glow through the windows.

I also scratchbuilt a little outhouse, and painted it green as a joke: I had a green porta-potty on my property for five years while I built my house...

Reference Image

Bearcamp is not a log cabin, but it's still a real cabin in New Hampshire where I spent a significant amount of time growing up; indeed, I might be living there now had circumstances been more favorable.

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