2 lifelike building kit reviews

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have 2 lifelike kits to review. (read it before you pass them off as junk)
the first is their Mount Vernon Manufacturing kit. i have only just aquired it, cheaply. Looking at it, i think that it represents exellent value, to someone on a budget. Some weathering would make it look very good, but it just assembled looks great. I have chosen to not weather it, for the time being.

It is alot smaller than i expeceted, but has a modular construction, and you could use as many kits to make it bigger.

Some kitbashing ideas i have came up is using it as a jail, warehouse etc.

In conculsion i would deem itto be an excellent kit for anyoun, it would take 3 hours at most with some weathering. i would rate it 8 out of 10.[:D][:D]

The next kit is the Ace Supermarket kit, which i have had for a few weeks. It also remains unweathered. It has been lighted, and the walls don’t glow much, a quick glance doesn’t notice it.

It has much interior detail, so painting could be a bit tricky, but through the plastic you can’t easily see all the detail.

I can’t think of any kitbashing ideas for this kit.

I would allow 3 hours to assemble and weather this kit

In conculsion i would think this kit to be an excellent kit for anyone who is confined to a budget, or wants something cheap to practice weathering on, etc. I would also rate it an 8 out of ten

To sum up both kits i would consider them to be great kits for someone on a budget, i think that they are pretty good

Now i have told you what i think ofthese kits, you can tell me what you think.
Thank you for reading this

Happy modelling
Alexander

2

Lifelike has some nice-looking building kits, I have two of them: The Sykesville Station (now o.o.p. [:(] ) and the KFC. Here’s a pic:

I always try to do as much painting as I can before assembly, since some areas will be more difficult to reach or mask later on.

3

There are some cheap (inexpensive) plastic kits that can be made to look quite nice. I prime and paint the interior walls of ALL of my structures. That way, I can have the light colored interior walls and lighting won’t “glow” through the walls. I know some people prefer to paint their interior walls black to keep the walls from glowing. If you prime AND paint them you achieve the same results. I use the dark interiors for buildings that I want to light, but not have the interior details that buildings in the forefront have. With light colored interior walls, your interior details will be easier to see.
A little weathering and some exterior details and you can make some nice structures from plastic kits.

4

I spray-paint the interior walls and the underside of the roof flat black with cheap spray paint from Lowe’s. If I’m detailing the interior, I use “wallpaper” over that - a pattern I’ve downloaded and printed on card stock (slightly heavier than straight paper.) For this roundhouse, I used a cinderblock pattern:

Thanks for the review, by the way. If you’ve got a digital camera, even a cheap one, or a film camera and a scanner, could you post some pictures?

5

The absolute master of kitbashed structures was the late Art Curren of Kalmach – and the Mt Vernon kit was one of his perennial basics for raw materials. He’d stack them up 3 and 4 stories high and made them look great
The Mt Vernon kit by the way has been offered by many outfits over the years, maybe even Tyco
Dave Nelson