What would you guys consider the best craftsman kit? What is the ease or complexity of assembly?? Would you consider it a great beginner's kit or one even the most seasoned modeler would be frustrated with? Affordability or lack thereof?
I'm asking because I'm wanting to build a few kits just for fun. I'm looking for industrial, logging, mining, rural type buildings.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
Well, the first and foremost question(s):
I know I've had this discussion with you before. If you haven't built many kits besides Accurail or Athearn BB then I would strongly encourage you to look at some of the more complex rolling stock kits (Branchline, Red Caboose, Intermountain, Proto 2000, etc.), as well as "simpler" plastic or laser structure kits on the market. You need to hone your modeling skills - both assembling and painting - before tackling a craftsman kit. If you don't then you are going to be VERY frustrated and it will be anything but "fun".
Start with simpler projects and work your way up to more complex ones. Making mistakes (and finding ways to repair them) will be your best teacher.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Before we get too off track, I think the OP is more interested in buildings than rolling stock.
It seems to me we had a discussion that made it into MR as an editorial about the complexity of a craftsman kit. I can't find that one, but I did find a review of Carolina Craftsman Models. I met the owner of the company at Timonium last year.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/260454/2928019.aspx#2928019
Edit, well this isn't it either but still relevant to part of your question.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/p/258640/2901816.aspx#2901816
Bingo, found it.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/255749.aspx?page=1
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I have had my eye on the Blair Line Cash Mine in HO since it appeared in the Walthers Flyer would you say that kit would be good or bad for a beginner?
Read my edited post and links.
Edit: We all seem to be predisposed to misreading your question. Asking for "The Best" really has no answer. I've heard good things about Blair line and have 2 of their kits on my shelf waiting to be assembled.
So a blair line kit might be a good start? Or should I just get a walthers?
BigDaddyefore we get too off track, I think the OP is more interested in buildings than rolling stock.
Henry,
Albeit rolling stock or structures - I think my query and suggestion is still a valid one. If you don't have much experience building anything but Accurail (which I love and own a number of) and Athearn and you haven't assembled & painted a Walthers kit then starting on a "craftsman" kit will - more than likely - lead to frustration.
If the OP doesn't give us a idea of where he's at in his modeling skills then it's a waste of time making any suggestion of a "best" kit. "Best" to me would mean 1) best for his skill level, and 2) best for his particular layout need.
I'm looking for a kit that's a little challenging and kindof a rural western industry from the 1900s to 1950s. I have assembled quite a few accurail kits that's it but I am very good at reading instructions and figuring out how to do stuff so I don't think a entry level craftsman kit would be too difficult for me.
Blair Line makes laser kits. That means that all the parts are already pre-cut for you. This is contrary to your typical shake-in-the-box craftman-style kit, where you're given all the stock but you have to cut the parts to length individually. I've put together two of the latter and easily spent 100 hrs on each one. They were both very rewarding when completed and are/will be the centerpieces of my layout.
The Blair Line Cash Mine that Henry suggested has over 230 parts so it won't be a walk-in-the-park to assemble and paint it; nor is it an inexpensive kit to purchase. I would start out with a small structure first - e.g. a small company store and/or a gas station - e.g. American Model Builders Dill's Market. It will be a far less expensive outlay of your monies and give you a quicker sense of accomplishment because of it's smaller scale. Once you have something like that under your belt you'll then have more confidence and a broader skill set to tackle something a little more challenging. And you build on that.
tstageAlbeit rolling stock or structures - I think my query and suggestion is still a valid one
Tom, I do not disagree but it looked like we were going down the path of rolling stock.
The Blair Line Mine was not my idea tho'; it was the OP's. I'm more of a company house guy, myself. Company House
The Mine looks like a BIG 1st build
So think small at first thanks!
Everything has a learning curve and mistakes are how we learn.
I'm sure somebody, somewhere built a Fine Scale Minatures model as their first kit and it was wonderful. Some people win the lottery too.
BigDaddyThe Blair Line Mine was not my idea tho'; it was the OP's. I'm more of a company house guy, myself. Company House The Mine looks like a BIG 1st build
Yea, I'm more of a company house guy, too, Henry. I have that Blair Line house - although I'd call it more of a shack than a house. It would be a good first project though. Yea, that mine kit is a monster...
The most enjoyable craftsman kit I ever built was Campbell's Talc Factory.
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The most fustrating was Campbell's Granma's House.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I think that a Blair Line kit would be a great step up from what the OP has done in the past. I built the 'General Store' a few years ago. It was the first laser cut kit that I attempted and I was really pleased with the results.
Bar Mills is another excellent laser kit builder. It is worth visiting Bar Mills' website because they have some excellent tutorial videos on how to build laser kits.
https://www.barmillsmodels.com/
Bar Mills also offers some very simple starter kits that are a great introduction to building laser kits.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Start with a smaller kit. While laser kits are popular, a wood kit that is not laser cut will give you an introduction to what scratch building is like.
Good luck
Paul
For buildings, Fine Scale Miniatures, earlier kits are cheap at times but if you go for the ones below #100, they tended to be cruder and take more skill. They all come with very detailed instructions on how to build paint and weather that will come in handy with other brands of kits. Campbell kits are even cheaper and most can be built into very nice peices but on occasion earlier produced kits can have a mistake but that goes for lots of kits, even ones done today.
To me, the mine kit is not a good choice for a first wood craft kit, laser cut or not. I just finshed a Blair Line depot kit for Boothbay Railway Village, and I class it as on the higher end of difficulty. I have done a number of wood craft kits and do a lot of kitbashing, so I have experience with things like this.
I agree with folks posting above that you should try a smaller laser kit to start off with. American Model Builders / Laserkit has a line of beginner laser cut kits, any of these would be a good starting point. Edit: this link goes to the AMB Home Page, from the left menu select HO Scale, then Structures, then "XPRESS Kits - Quick and Easy assembly - Perfect for Beginners!"http://www.laserkit.com/laserkit.htm
At Boothbay Railway Village we get donated models including craftsman kits. Many of the donated craft kits are from folks who started them, then abandoned the construction because they could not build the kit. I am presently working on an N scale Quality Craft kit like this. The builder cut out the walls including doors and windows. He stained all the scribed wood, but not the strip wood, so I am having to work around this. Also the instructions are missing, adding to the fun.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
I've put together a few. The first was "Weimer's Mill" by Branchline Trains. This is a "laser cut" kit. I was kind of intimidated by starting my first craftsman kit, but once I started I realized that it's not much different than a plastic kit.
I also built this "Munnsville Station" from Branchline. Sorry, the project is not quite finished here, but you get the idea.
Those were both wood kits. The last one is this truss bridge from Central Valley. I wanted an above-average model for this scene. The bridge is plastic, but requires a fair amount of skill since not all parts are cut to length, and the instructions could have been better. I am very happy with the results, though.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
RR_Mel The first Craftsman kits I built were Campbell in my early 30s. Having been building all kinds of hobby kits from my early teens I don’t remember having a problem with the Campbell kits. One of the nicer Campbell kits I’ve built that fits in the same category as what you are looking for is the Campbell Silver Spur Mine kit #388. It is a challenging kit so if that’s what you’re looking for do it to it, it fits you’re era. The link below is a post on my blog of my construction of the Silver Spur Mine. This was my last Campbell kit build, I give scratch building a shot after building a Laser cut kit and now I’m hooked on scratch building. I thought that I could layout my own blueprints using the Laser kit as a go by and it turned out to be very simple to draw up a structure on my CAD and build my own. My Silver Spur Mine: http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/p/page-10.html I really think that scenery and structures are the best part of model railroading, I have more fun building stuff for my layout than running trains and I love my trains. Mel Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951 My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
rrebell No big problem but on a couple of kits they put in wrong instructions like the coaling tower, the roof needed to be modified to fit properly because a couple wrong dimentions, no biggie but if this is one of your first kits and you don't know alot about construction of them, I can see how someone might get a bit anoyed. Last kit I built was a FSM kit and on one dore, the instructions don't match the included door casting on one door (the icing station), casting needed to be cut down alot as it is hard to modify the structure at the point of assembly that the door goes in.
No big problem but on a couple of kits they put in wrong instructions like the coaling tower, the roof needed to be modified to fit properly because a couple wrong dimentions, no biggie but if this is one of your first kits and you don't know alot about construction of them, I can see how someone might get a bit anoyed. Last kit I built was a FSM kit and on one dore, the instructions don't match the included door casting on one door (the icing station), casting needed to be cut down alot as it is hard to modify the structure at the point of assembly that the door goes in.
MisterBeasley The first was "Weimer's Mill" by Branchline Trains.
I love that tall building with the small footrint. Howverer, I have no use for a mill.
How hard would it be to repurpose that kit and build it without the water wheel?
SeeYou190How hard would it be to repurpose that kit and build it without the water wheel?
The water wheel is simply built up and added on, as I recall, along with the sluice channel upstream. On my layout, the mill is abandoned, but I wanted to model the mill pond even if there was no longer any grain being ground. I added an interior to make the place look like work had been done there a long time ago, but the final "employee" is a cat controlling the rodents.
My real feeling about kits is that every kit can be a "craftsman" kit. I approach every model that way. I don't care if it's an expensive wood laser kit or something made of plastic consisting of 4 walls and a roof. The kit isn't the craftsman, I am. If you approach every kit that way, you'll have a lot of fine, unique models for your layout.
This is the "Grant Street Building" from City Classics, literally 4 walls and a roof. It's molded in solid colors. I think I spent a week just painting the front face to bring out all the details of the nice casting.
The first thing I noticed was the the building was too deep for my space. I cut an inch off of each of the side walls. That still left me with a big, boring side wall, so I painted it, added some mortaring to the bricks, some weathering and finally a decal I downloaded, printed on decal paper and applied.
City Classics also makes windows with lettering on them, shades and Venetian blinds. These add a lot to the visual interest of a building. For this one, I used thin foamboard to build interior floors and walls. I used 3 different light bulbs inside so that some "offices" would still be lit and some would be dark.
Downstairs is a restaurant. With big windows, I put in a complete interior with some purchased chairs and seated figures, plus a floor printed on my computer and some scratch-built styrene tables.
For this one, I chose to add a shoe repair store below street level, acccessed by a stairway from the street.
That's a Miniatronics illuminated window sign, with a computer-printed store behind it.
You don't have to spend a bundle on a "craftsman" kit. Even the simplest kits become craftsman models if you put the time into making them your own.
MisterBeasleyThe water wheel is simply built up and added on, as I recall, along with the sluice channel upstream.
Thank you for the information. It looks like this kit is readily available and afforable. I will be getting one.
I recently put together a B.T.S Rural Church. Not too hard, just follow the instructions.
They make a lot of craftsman kits.