HO Scale Building Kits - Belvedere Downtown Hotel

My daughter (age 19), and I completed this project - snappnig / cutting apart, cutting off rough ends, organizing parts, and painting, over the course of a day but we took our time. Took another day to glue. Used regular acrylic paints - the slick plastic resisted the acrylic in areas but I could let dry and give a 2nd coat or leave for a different finish. Often I let dry and tried to dry brush another color/s over it, or put a watered down paint layer over it if very dry.Since there were two of us painting, the wall sections didn’t look the same, so when it was done, I took some water based enamel paint to go over and weather all brick parts to tie them together visually (acrylic would’ve been good instead but I didn’t have access to it at this stage) - red and black was all I had but perfect for browns or just watered down black to quickly paint over and then wipe off ASAP. I only had a Q-tip and paper towel for this final stage of weathering which I did after it was all glued together. Weathering it after it was all put together had the advantage of being able to see the sides together- better. However, I suggest weathering before the front steps are glued on and before the fire escape/ stairs are added so you can work with it without these parts sticking out.In fact, you could probably glue this all without paint, then paint after all assembled except for tiny roof parts and doors - but leave off the front steps and fire stairs until all painted. Then paint these and put on.We added window coverings (inside of a security envelope for blue design, scrap colored cardboard- from a tape dispenser package, blue painters tape, and plastic from grocery bag - used part with red stripe on it, and foil for some shiny contrast). This would’ve been SO much easier if added while the walls were apart! We didn’t do that since we assumed you would not be able to see much into the windows. Wrong. Doing window coverings at the end meant squeezing my hand into it and maneuvering the bits of scrap with tape attached until lined up. That took and evening. If done in advance, I would allow an hour.There are NO floors so you must make your own window coverings, or it’ll be weird to look through and see clear through from top to bottom. This was fun though to come up with creative solutions for windows. We wanted them to be varied. I used painters tape to attach all inside.The fire stairs were the trickiest part. The drawing in the directions was fair. Also, the short ends of our stairs were not the size they needed to be in order to match up with the long end, but we glued it to match enough. They look rickety but perhaps that is realism. A couple short ends broke - very fragile, but we glued and it added to the rickety effect.How the stairs fit into the ends is cool - allows them to actually swing, tho both stairs scrape along building a bit since they don’t hang perfectly- a defect.Be very sure not to cut off any ends that are needed to help put one piece into another. Try putting pieces into each other first. Especially true for stairs. We used a snap knife to cut. Hold off on cutting ends if not sure.Use the glue shown in pic! We worked on it outside and the smell wasn’t noticeable. It held within seconds per directions. I could still take apart after mistakes and re-glue.We also bought the comparable glue which is non-toxic and therefore can be used indoors, but it would take too long to dry. This glue is perfect. It can be wiped off if it gets on the building. I got some on my fingers often, but wiped off with damp paper towel ASAP. Use only on edges where contact pints are. We bought this tube of glue just for this building. You can see lots left for at least another building.We didn’t add any paper signs that were given in kit - May do a couple tiny ones later. Lots were given so they will be used on other projects. I saved all the scrap plastic for cutting and re-purposing in other projects.Would definitely recommend this kit, especially for such a great value. We bought 2 kits - will give the unfinished one as a gift to the same recipient who gets this one. They can do on their own or have us help, but getting to make their own choices on building #2 will be nice. How to make an identical building look different will allow for creativity.

These kits are cheap and easy to modify. They make good background flats.

I like this one the most. so many different ways to add color.

If it had plexiglass for windows like in other sets it would be five stars but otherwise still a good model and an easy way to add some heights to your town center!

Model is very easy to build, but the numerous awnings are plain white so the stripesneed to be painted by hand, which will take a lot time, skill and effort.Also, some parts (such as the fire escapes) are pre-painted while they arestill attached to the sprues, so once you detatch them and file downthe sprue attachment, the original paint will be removed. Plus, theoriginal paint color is a specific brown, so you will probablyend up re-painting the parts completely. The parts are white underneath theoriginal brownish paint, so a repaint is probably more likely thana simple touch-up. The model is nice, but it took many more hours tocomplete than the instructions mention.

This is an HO model building kit. It is a hotel with awnings for all windows. I only has about i/2 of them in the kit.

This company tries too hard to live up to its name with many small and difficult to handle pieces that add little to realism when viewed from normal distance. However, I am elderly and so are my hands. Seniors and youngsters might wish to choose another brand, or simply leave off the fiddly bits. However, the finished model is a welcome addition to my small-town layout.

Easy to put together and good price.