+Good Building Manufacturers+

[DigitalGriffin]

Walthers offers great variety of kits that cover a wide range of structures.

 HOWEVER I have found Walthers kits well...to be lacking in assembly quality.  Warped pieces, and clear "glass" acetane which has scratches and mold lines running down the middle are my main gripes.

My vote goes to Kibri, City Classic, DPM, and Art Deco.  Each of them assemble very nicely, and the detail work is outstanding.  Kibri kits also seperate nicely from the spru.  You have no idea how much you'll appreciate it until you put one together.

I've put together about ~32 kits and counting.  (Including core built pullmans)

[csmith9474]

I would suggest grabbing a Walthers catalog and looking through the structures section. I found a lot of great stuff that I didn't even know existed. Most all the items have pictures and dimensions as well.

[myred02]

I like Walthers Cornerstone. Great detail, good, selection, reasonable prices. But I don't really have a favorite.

[Anonymous]

Ok here goes:

Rio Grande Models,
Builders in Scale
American Model Builders
Yorke Ltd
Columbia Valley
Lytler and Lytler
Magnusson
Cibolo Crossing
Crystal River
Evergreen hill
Banta
FSM
South River Model Works
Bts
Sierra West
Pine Canyon
Gold Hill
Grandt Line
Bar Mills
Blair Line
Downtown Deco
Diamond Scale
Campbell
Musket Miniatures
SS Ltd



All high quality, beautifully detailed kits. I'm sure I am forgetting some..

[Anonymous]

Walthers Cornerstone gets my vote, but it all depends on what you're looking for

[steamage]

Showcase Miniatures is my favorite. They produce structures that would be seen in the western states. Most structure kits produced nowadays look eastern and do not fit my California style layout. That is why I scratch build most of my track side industries.

[simon1966]

I like AMB and JL Innovative. I much prefer these wooden kits to plastic.

[SpaceMouse]

Since I'm bulding the 1880's pretty much none of those work. I got a corral, station platfrom, water tower/ shack and an engine house from Lifelike, but I had to backdate them.

Most of my good stuff has come from eBay in out date kits and craftsman kits from Muir and Campbell.

[lceeg]

I like City Classics for their economical kits with great detail. Lots of options for building great city scenes, especially HO scale. They take to kit bashing well.
They also make an appealing diner as well as gas station found in many cities.

[Anonymous]

If you are doing modern steel buildings such as warehouses or small manufacturing plants PikeStuff is the best.

[Anonymous]

What about City Classics or Downtown Deco???
Both have great stuff!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

I personally love the European companies: Faller, Kibri, and Vollmer. They all have EXTREMELY detailed kits. The price is a little more expensive, but you get so much more for your money. They usually come with roofing details, piping for factories, and interior papers which gives you things for each window. Plus with those sheets, you can light the building without painting the interior at all. Everything's blacked out on the paper.

A lot of their buildings have European styling, but they're very easily converted to American. Especially if you model older American places sicne they originally had basically the same still, just without some of the decorative pieces.

Kevin

[wjstix]

I should probably name the mainstreet in my HO town as Walthers Drive, given how many of their products I have !! [:D]

I like the detailing and ease of assembly, plus being a Wisc. company a lot of their buildings are modelled after typical midwestern buildings so they fit into my layout set in Minnesota.

[emdgp92]

I have quite a few DPM and Walthers kits on my layout. They're inexpensive and well detailed. Kits I'd avoid are the 1950s-looking crap from Bachmann and Model Power. The details on those are pretty crude.

[Anonymous]

All plastic kits are decent,but they all need painting. Don't believe in "molded in realistic colors", it still needs paint. Many kits have too thick window mullions,so you'll have to file them to look right and to tall or to short doors. Inexpensive kits ( plasticville/lifelike, ihc)are fine, but need a little more work to get the results you'll need.Some like concors(old revell),ihc offer lots of extra detail parts also. Watch out for some kits though, the brick detailing is too large to be in scale,ho anyway,(gruesome casket for example). You left off city classics which makes a great diner, gas station, grocery and warehouse among others

[timthechef]

I started with Walthers and like their detail very much, but I've been finding lately that the versatility that DPM gives me is worth the extra work and makes a very nice end product.

[WilmJunc]

I have only built Walthers CS to date and am happy with the results. I do want to try a DPM.

[cwclark]

I didn't vote because i like all the kits ..the only one that's sort of "iffy" to me is the walther's cornerstone kits...i think their spruces are too thick and hard to cut thru...but the kits, once built, are nice kits..chuck

[tstage]

Brenden,

I started out with Walthers Cornerstone. Very nice details but sometimes a bit pricey. Most of the structures that I have on my layout are Walthers:

Freight depot

Water tower

Sanding tower/drying house

Diesel fueling facility

2-stall Engine house

Interlocking tower

In general, I have been pleased with the detailing. But recently, I've gotten into detailing the insides more, and the Walthers kits are extremely plain and unadorned.

DPM makes a very nice product but it takes some sanding and filing to get them to go together properly. The brick detailing is exceptional.

One of my favorites are the American Model Builders (AMB) wood laser kits. These are straightforward to put together and look just fabulous when their completed. The inside is more conducive to detailing, too. With the ABM kits, you can even adjust the windows so that some are open, some are closed, and some are somewhere in between. I have the Interlocking tower, Dill's Market, and Boxcar depot. (You can see them in my link below.)

Most recently I began putting together an Alexander Scale Models (ASM) Freight Station. This is a craftsman kits and do take a bit of time to put together properly. I also have a Suncoast Coaling tower in my fueling facility that was a craftsman kit. Yes, they take a lot more time to put together, but they are my most prized and realistic kits.

Brenden, for you, you need to figure out first what you want to accomplish with and on your layout, then see what kits are available to fit you need. Unless you have some experience with putting together a number of models, I'd stick with a well-established, glue-it-together kit maker before delving into a the more challenging kits.

Anyway, to answer your question. For overall cost, variety of buildings,and detailing, I'd have to say that American Model Builders is my favorite manufacturer.

Tom

[MisterBeasley]

I've put together the Atlas Roundhouse, and I'm working on the IHC 2-stall Engine House. For a low-cost kit, I think the Atlas is just fine. Neither of these has any interior detailing, so I'm having fun scratch-building that a bit.

I've got a number of un-built kits from DPM and Model Power. The castings look very good, so I'll see how they look once I get them built-up. Some of the Model Power stuff does have interior detailing included, like the barber shop and antique shop.

[jsoderq]

Since different companies make different buildings, it depends on what you want/need and how much you are willing to spend. There is no one best.

[waltersrails]

walthers and pikesuff

walthers good detail

pikestuff cheap and also good looking on the layout.

[Anonymous]

I'm just starting to think about buying a building or two and would like to know what you consider the best manufacturer for buildings is.
1.State if the companies items are inexpensive/expensive
2.Detailed/not detailed
3.Good selection/no selection
Or anything else that would be good to know.