Pola G scale buildings

[Anonymous]

Dear people,

Is there anyone who can share some experience he may have had assembling a Pola building?

I am thinking of buying a building but would like to know what I should expect when I assemble one. (Do I need to paint parts myself?), or is everything ready to assemble with some glue..?

How do the structures survive when placed outside permanently?

I will probably visit a store quite soon with some Poca buildings on stock and then will take a look in the box and see what I can expect, but I would be happy if someone can share his experience.

With kind regards,
David Bouw

[vsmith]

Pola and Piko buildings can generally be built straight out of the box with no painting and look very close to the photo on the box top. They usually include glue to assemble it and I recommend using it instead of CA superglue as it doenst fog the windows like CA can. They usually assemble very easily, but they can be very hard to handle if its a big kit, give yourself a big work area with room to manuver the building around.

If you plan on custom painting it, do the painting before you assemble. its far easier to handle to parts. Do the weathering after assembly as it looks more realistic.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your answer, do you maybe also have some experience on putting these models outside in the garden permanently. (Maybe removing them only when a storm is approaching.)

B.T.W, what kind of material does Pola use for there kits.

With kind regards,
David Bouw

[vsmith]

Hello Dave, Pola uses a UV plastic thats supposed to be able to take direct sunshine without deteriorating. However that wont stop it from fading over time and if you live in a hot climate it might warp from differential heating (one side hotter than the other) I would suggest not leaving them out permanently but build a base for them using concrete, brick, pavers or wood and set them out when you are operating, then take them up and store them in a shed, garage, or in the house until the next time. Thats what most outdoors RR's do, although others might say different, thats my suggestion.

[Rene Schweitzer]

Give it a go, David. You might want to try a smaller structure to start with, and don't try to build it in one day. You might become frustrated. I've built some kits (couple large scale and some smaller scales), and I'm certainly a beginner. If I can do it, so can you!

We ran an article in the April 2000 issue called "10 tips for better kitbuilt structures," which was basically small things you can do to make a kitbuilt structure a little more unique. You might want to look at that if you'd like to go a bit beyond what's in the kit.

[Anonymous]

Thankyou both for your answers.

I am just starting out with the hobby, I moved to a new built house which was ready in June of this year and now that the most important jobs are done inside the house, I want to do something nice with the garden when the spring starts.
When I was a kid I had a LIMA train with a lot of rails, only problem was that the quality wasn't good so the train didn't run reliable. A pitty, because it was a scale version of a dutch train.. My nephew had a Fleischmann train, which was far better quality, his tracks where made from copper and mine from iron with nickel to prevent rust.

I do see though that thing have gotten a lot better..

I am going to buy a digital start set from LGB:
http://212.185.118.6/produkt.nsf/WebSucheIE/B8094A8DA31C7CBB85256A7F004C83EF?OpenDocument

and also the LCE-3 from LGB:
http://212.185.118.6/produkt.nsf/WebSucheIE/776B0054325A5ECB852569CC0062DC4D?OpenDocument

I will add a digital decoder to the LCE-3 so that it can run with the digital start set.
It awkward that the starter kits are not that expensive, if I buy the train rails seperately which you get in the start set it is almost just as expensive as buying a starter set like the LCE-3.??
Apart from finding the LCE-3 very beautiful, the extra tracks are a reason to buy a second starter set.

I want to make a simple railroad in the garden, my garden at the back of the house is 130 m2, which is, believe it or not, is very large for Holland where I live.
I will not use the complete garden, I have a corner which I want to use and will look how much size I will need to built a reasonable track. To make things look nice I want want to add some buildings.

I have made a small list of some buildings which are not that expensive from Pola and will give it a try, on photo they look very nice.. If it works out I will probably also buy the Dutch windmill they have... :-)

I am going to drive and get the digital starter set this midday, the shop has ordered the LCE set and expects to get it in 2-3 weeks..

I am lucky that my garden can't be accessed from the back by strangers or animals.

With kind regards,
David Bouw

[Anonymous]

Hi Dave,

Have built several Pola bridges using CA, you need a large supply of glue.
They are very strong, you can stand on them. Seem to hold up well
in tropical weather.

[Anonymous]

Hi Dave,

Have built several Pola bridges using CA, you need a large supply of glue.
They are very strong, you can stand on them. Seem to hold up well
in tropical weather.

[Anonymous]

I finished a Pola water tower a couple months ago, but have yet to put it outside as the area it was going to go in will probably be ripped up and relaid with larger turnouts and a much larger mailine diamiter for those large engines. I found it easy to build as soon as I placed all the parts out of a table. It looks good and seems very durable.

[Anonymous]

Hi Dave, I've built a few Pola and Piko structures already .They are easy to build and look good right out of the box . I did run out of the glue that was supplied with the kit and used regular model cement . It seems to have worked fine. My wife and I are going to start construction on our garden layout in the spring as soon as it warms up (we live in Chicago).I built bases for my buildings out of acrilic sheet @1\4 inch thick , and plan to leave these out in the garden all year round . However we will bring the buildings inside for the winter.As far as the bases they came out great . I laid out lines for a concrete slab look with a pencil and then used a dremmel tool with a cutoff disc and scribed the lines . After lite sanding I painted them a grey primer color and they look better than the bases you buy. I cut a hole under where the building will go so we can use low voltage lighting in the buildings. Sorry if I am getting away from the subject , but I just wanted everyone to know about these structure bases . We'll see how they hold up through the years .Anyway get a kit and build it ,they are fun and turn out great . Mike D.

[whiterab]

I've built several Pola buildings and the only problem I've had is with the glue. I use the plastic cement (some kits have the glue some don't) when ever I'm gluing like plastic to like plastic. However, on some of the models, more than one type of plastic is used. When I have to glue two different types of plastic together, I switch over to CA+ types of glue.

The slight fading you get in the colors when leaving them outside to me is a plus. The colors on the models are a little too bright to be realistic and the natural weathering helps them fit into the scenery better.

All in all, the models are well constructed and worth the money (especially when you have an outlet near you that sells at a hefty discount). The instructions sometimes are minimal and suffer from some translation problems but the pictures have been enough for me to figure out any confusions after a couple of dry fits.