Hello everyone,
Help, I am an ex-HO scale model railroader trying to get my bearings in the uncharted world of O scale! OK, all dramatics asside I need some help determining who the leading manufactures of O scale structure kits are besides the toy-like products of Bachman's Plasticville line. None of the local hobby shops that I have visited have much in the way of O scale building Kits. I have noticed that MTH has several "built-up" buildings on the market; but I need kits that I can kit-bash, paint, and weather to my own specifications. So what exactly is available?
So far I have determined that Chooch, DPM, and AHM make (or have made) O scale structures, what other manufactures are out there? Are there any manufactures I should avoid? Who sells reasonably priced structures? Most importantly, where can I find and purchase these kits? Any advice would be greatly apreciated!
Thanks
Scott
OGR makes a series of kits called Ameritown. They offer both full kits and modular pieces to kitbash. Pretty nice and very affordable.
Another good source is Classic Toy Trains magazine. Pick up a copy and browse through it. Each issue has many ads for craftsman style kits that are extremely realistic. About as far away from Plasticville as one could imagine.
There is no shortage of realistic building kits for O gaugers. You just have to know where to look.
Jim
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
Many of us use Ameritowne fronts to make our own "city/downtown" buildings (about $12.). They are very detailed, and I enjoy spending hours kitbashing and painting them. They are especially nice for layouts with limited space, like mine, since you can make a building as deep as you want. Not many dealers carry a line of them...I got most of mine at train shows. You can order them from www.ogaugerr.com .
MTH makes some very nice buildings that can be greatly improved by painting. These are found at most train stores selling "O". Get a copy of CTT and OGR for a number of good sources for kits. While the "O" offerings are not as huge as "HO", there is plently of great stuff available...they just cost more due to smaller sales. Joe
MTH does make some beautiful buildings. The issue I have with them is price.
jaabat wrote: MTH does make some beautiful buildings. The issue I have with them is price. Jim
Look at it this way...last year I bought a kit (DPM I think) of a corner store building called Kirstin's Corner. The MTH corner store looks exactly the same, for $20. less...plus MTH gives a choice of right or left facing entrance. The only reason I bought the kit was that it made it easier for me to detail the whole interior.
Got all the LIONELVILLE buildings a few years ago, I think there were 16-18 of em all for $165.00. I also have some scratch built and MTH along with K-line buildings.
laz57
DPM has been mentioned. Walthers Cornerstone offers several buildings in O that are larger versions of HO favorites. They are available as Built-ups of kits if you want to do any bashing. LaserKits offers wood kits in O at a reasonable price. IHC has a few plastic O kits. Korber models produces a good selection too.
We did many things backwards when we built our layout, made it more difficult but those were lessons learned. After we had done all the benchwork, all the track laid and all the scenery built we knew we wanted to do something up against the wall. With lots of determination and creativity we came up with the following and Ameri Town fronts played a big part of one scene. We did weather them and that was fun, you can't do it wrong. Enjoy.
Jon
So many roads, so little time.
Another company not mentioned yet is Atlas. They offer a few railroad specific scale plastic structures either in kit form or already assembled. The details are excellent and can be greatly enhanced by painting and weathering.
Bruce Webster
Thank you all for your helpful input on this issue! I am esspecially impressed by the Ameri-towne kits that I was unaware of! I wish someone would publish an O scale reference guide of all O gauge products, if only Walthers would print a new O scale catalog....
Again thank you all for your information!!!!
SRen wrote: Thank you all for your helpful input on this issue! I am esspecially impressed by the Ameri-towne kits that I was unaware of!
Thank you all for your helpful input on this issue! I am esspecially impressed by the Ameri-towne kits that I was unaware of!
this is made from Ameritowne kits:
Downtown deco makes some great structures:
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