Distillery A Kit

Scottish Whisky distilleries are found across Scotland, the buildings becoming widespread after the excise act of 1823. Every building was different. However, the renowned Elgin based architect Charles Doig had a massive influence on the design of many of the iconic Whisky buildings. He is immortalised by the “Cupola” style Doig Ventilators on the kilns used (originally) to malt barley. The cupola kilns are seen throughout Speyside and the efficiency of the design led to their use across Scotland.

This Distillery Kits (A and B) attempt to capture the essence of Doig’s distillery designs – without being based on a specific distillery. Each of the buildings can be orientated and butted together to suit the modellers layout, adding additional Kits (A and B) to deliver the landscape that most closely mirrors their vision for the model. (Refer to the drawings and “options” on the next 2 pages of these instructions).

This bespoke Distillery Kit A for OO is  in 5 x A4 3mm plywood sheets (2 x 0.8m ply sheets) has been designed in 1/76 scale to represent these iconic Charles Doig buildings.

The base size of this model when assembled  is approx  Pegoda base is 120 x 120 mm, distillery building 295 x 120 (to help with layout designs).

The building requires glue. Choose a glue that allows at least a minute before setting to allow adjustments to be made during the build. Always test the build before using glue.

For finishing, we recommend first priming the surface, then painting with any acrylic or model paint of your choice. The material is etched, so any engraved detail such as brickwork or roof tiles will be visible after painting.

Important information about railway scaling: 

All kits are designed in OO Gauge on 3mm plywood, so there are a few considerations to be made when scaling the digital files to other Gauges. The instructions provided will be the OO version as the build order is the same at different scales.

O Gauge Orders: When scaling to O gauge, there are manual modifications that may need to be made when assembling the kit. This is due to the thickness of the plywood when scaling the kit from the OO gauge material of 3mm to the O gauge 5.25mm material that would be needed. As this thickness of ply does not exist, we undersize the material to the closest thickness we have of 4mm plywood and recommend dry fitting the build first so that any joints that need to be sanded for a flush finish can be noted.

N Gauge Orders: Scaling to N gauge works well and has no extra modifications needed due to material thickness. Some parts will be very fine, so take care when removing them from the frame. If some window pieces are particularly fine, they can be reinforced by soaking them in glue before assembly.

TT Gauge Orders: Scaling to TT requires slightly more modifications of the designs before cutting, so please contact us if you’re interested in a kit, and we can provide you a quote at info@popupdesigns.co.uk.

Any other questions, tips or enquiries please don’t hesitate to contact us via our email address or contact form. 

This kit is designed by Iain Ross and sold by PopUp Designs with his permission.

A distillery model by Tony Mather is in the Gallery, modelled in N gauge, with thanks to him for allowing us to show the photos.