Metcalfe station 1

 Let me point out straight away that I don't like Metcalfe kits. More than anything except maybe a Airfix engine shed, they scream 'kit!' at the viewer and for me spoil many an otherwise excellent layout. I'm not sure whether its the uniform slightly pinky brickwork or my main beef - the corners. I'm told that the cutting is part of the print process and so the corner scores have to be on the outside. All well and good, but I've yet to see brick buildings with a 2.5" gap down every corner. So after trying one when they first came out, I've avoided them, and if I were to buy card kits it would be the older, but superior Superquick.
HOWEVER.
Several months ago PECO gave away a freebie platform shelter with RM and young Craig wrote a piece inside on how to improve (hmmm). I kept the kit and following a conversation yesterday I decided to build it.

 The top photo is what you get: a card fret, an instruction sheet and some glazing. I hit this first. The 'frames' are an orangy brown so in the time honered way I coloured the bare edges with a coloured pencil and glued the gazing on.

 The problem. I'm sorry, but this is crap.These must be CAD kits, and with all the technology available there must be a better way of doing this without resorting to the sticking plaster method that follows.

The back inside wall folds down, the floor (very nice) is stuck to the back and sides, and inside 'brick' walls are stick to the sides. This works very well. Note I put the glazed units in before this assembly in opposition to the instructions - far easier to do it when the walls are flat.