Walthers has sold many original buildings but they have also recycled kits from other manufacturers. Many of their kits are styrene versions of the old Magnuson (now Scale Structures Ltd) resin kits. Merchant Rows I & II, White Tower Restaurant, Brach's Candy Factory, the Water Street building just to name a few. Walthers is of course first and foremost a distributor. I'm not sure exactly when they started offering their own product line but it hasn't been that long. I doubt they are doing any of their own manufacturing. No doubt they have outsourced that to other companies that were already in the kit manufacturing business.
John-NYBW I'm not sure exactly when they started offering their own product line but it hasn't been that long. I doubt they are doing any of their own manufacturing.
Yup, and I've got a nicely finished example of the Walthers' HH660 dating from about the late 1940's too! These were a bear to assemble and I've seen very few that look all that good. Mine must have been built by a real craftsman as its the best example I've ever seen of this particular model (especially following my early NH paint job). Looks real nice but its ancient power truck leaves something to be desired.While Walthers did indeed offer the set of casting to build this engine until the early 1980's, these later casting were full of tiny air holes and need a lot of work. Probably very few HH660's were actually assembled by modelers once Walthers stopped producing the full kit (which built a complete, powered model)." Note this appears to be a model on a Phase 1, "Flat Nose" unit
John-NYBW Many of their kits are styrene versions of the old Magnuson.
Magnuson Models was a division of Wm K. Walthers.
-Kevin
Living the dream.