HO Scale - Kitbasher Extrordinaire

I converted a DPM Front Street building into a Chinese restaurant named Renkong Guan. This name comes from the signature plates on the pagoda roof and the doors. These brass plates are brass manhole covers. So my Chinese friends came up with the name meaning Manhole Restaurant. Next door is a Chinese tailor shop named Tak Won On Tailor.

The restaurant has items in the windows, two small dragons by the doors, and from a costume jewelry shop, two brass lanterns hanging above the front door. On the roof there is a pigeon coup with a pair of cats lounging nearby. Since the photos were taken, I've added some pigeons and a pair of crows too. Hope you enjoy these images of what can be done with your buildings. As you may observe, my layout is very much in the formative stage. But having just retired in Dec, I'm going to have fun. And my wife is fully supportive of this hobby!

I got creative on that building in part because we have a number of Chinese heritage friends. We are both health care professionals, she as a nurse practitioner and me as an administrator, so the choice to Chinese was a good fit. Could you recognize that DPM building beneath the new façade?Be advised that the Chinese restaurant is NOT yet finished!!! I'm going to add clotheslines on the roof and possibly a small cottage for the parents. That's why there is a board fence on the front of the roof. The tower will be labeled soon as a popular and well-known brand of soy sauce. One thing not visible in the photos is that the second floor windows on the right side of the building below the roof-top entry way, are bricked up where the new stairs go up to the roof. Was either that or run the steps inside right across the windows...and I did consider that. However, this way that space makes good storage for the restaurant. Nothing special done on the back or the left side......yet!

I used a Rix Products building to make a sporting goods place next to the Chinese restaurant.

I made another DPM Front Street building into a pet shop and barbershop. The awnings are very simply printed in Excel and cemented into place with plastic reinforcing strips so they don't warp too bad. The Bok Nook is another renamed Rix Products building while Joe's Veggie stand on the left is an old Tyco kit I found at a flea market for only $5

I've only been working in HO gauge model railroading for just under 2 years. After spending many years in constructing model ships from scratch, revising buildings on my new layout comes a bit on the natural side.