Mrs WHD bought me Woodland Scenics Otis Coal Company for Christmas. The white metal castings in the kit are HORRIBLE! Flash that can be measured with a wooden ruler and some details destroyed by voids in the metal. The list goes on and on.
Is this normal for WS kits or did I get an oddball?
This is normal for WS products, you need to do a lot of filing an cutting to clean them up. I assume since many of their kits have been around for quite some time now that the molds are getting worn, making their parts even worse than in the past when I assembled most of them. But the stuff cleans off with coarse files, then finer files.
For the price, their stuff isn't too bad even though they need more work. At least when you complete one of their kits you should have a feeling of accomplishment that you wouldn't get from an RTR kit - open the box and plop in on your layout!
Bob Boudreau
CANADA
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I ran into this with their metal stuff too. Almost had to use a hacksaw to get the flashing off.
Just got a hydrocal tunnel portal that was in about 9 peices when I opened the box. The directions basically said WHEN you break this, just glue it back together. Also got a drainage culvert in HO that's big enough to drive a car through.WAY out of scale. The N scale one is a lot closer to the proper size.(they do have great detail though)
A friend of mine has the WS Otis Coal and the sawmill on his layout and they look terrifi. Yes, they take time to build because of the excess flashing on the castings. But if you invest the time and effort you will have two structures that will rival any of the big dollar kits you see advertised. Remember the old building contractor saying "I can build it cheap, fast, and high quality, pick two".
Steve B.