Legacy Building Kitbash - Part I

The diamond in downtown El Paso, IL where the TP&W crossed the Illinois Central's Charter (aka, Gruber) line will be a feature scene on my layout. Luckily for me, this was a popular photo spot for railfans in my era so many good images are available, like Lloyd Rinehart's excellent cover shot from the July 1983 issue of Railfan & Railroad:

The distinctive corner building that I circled on the cover scan is called the Legacy Building. It still stands today, though it has been restored to a natural brick color and much of the decorative cornice has been removed.

The Legacy Building in 2019 (Google Street View image)

I want to include a model of the 1970s-era Legacy Building on my layout. My goal is to kitbash a reasonable facsimile from readily-available kits rather than scratchbuild an exact model. Perhaps the most challenging part of this project will be reining in my eye for detail and accepting compromises that will be "good enough."

After a thorough review of HO scale kits for "Main Street" buildings, I settled on the Walthers Magnolia Hotel (discontinued, but still available on the secondary market) for the western part of the structure and the Design Preservation Models Other Corner Cafe for the eastern part on the corner. 

I chose the Magnolia Hotel primarily for its peaked cornice. The Walthers kit is for a 3-story building, so I'll have to remove one of the upper floors.

There weren't many options for buildings with arched windows like the prototype. The Other Corner Cafe seemed like my best bet, though its windows have prominent lintels that will have to be carved off. I'll have to use two Other Corner Cafe kits to get the arched windows on both the first and second floors. Also, the stock kit assembles into a building for a mirror image to the prototype corner, but that won't matter because I'll be doing so much cutting and splicing anyway.

I couldn't find a kit with a corner turret that looked anything like the prototype, so I will have to scratchbuild that part.

It's been a long time since I've built a structure, so I'm excited to start this project.