I need a little house. What can you tell me about this one?
Art,
Do you have a picture of it somewhere?
Never mind. I found one:
http://www.branchline-trains.com/laserart/residential/woodward.htm
Tom
Art,
Not sure what info you need - I haven’t built this structure but it and several other Laser-art kits are on my wish list. I have built their gas station and found it to be a very nice quality wood laser kit.
All the pieces fit nicely and instructions were clear - it took only a few nights to complete it.
Branchline has several houses of the Woodward vintage that will fit right into my plan.
Hope this helps.
I was talking with a vendor / modeller at a show last weekend about these kits. His one warning was to carefully follow the directions. In particular, be aware that paints and stains may warp the thin, flat wood pieces if applied to only one side.
MisterBeasley is absolutely correct. All my wood kits get 1/8 x 1/8 bracing glued to the inside walls and get primed on both sides before any assembly. This has worked to prevent warping on all my structures so far.
Bar Mills kits include bracing in their kits. I bought some 1/8 stock for the rest.
I haven’t built that one, but I did build their Tower House and DuBoise House, and a couple of the garages.
The kits weren’t perfect – a couple of missing pieces and a few that didn’t fit well – but the results were worth it. The ones I built were rather complex, so I wouldn’t recommend them to the novice or patience-challenged, but the one you refer to shouldn’t be quite as bad.
I sprayed most of the trim before taking it off the pre-cut sheets and the base color after assembly of the main wall sections, then brush-painted (and touched-up) the rest. I didn’t have any trouble with warping, partly because I clamped the basic structure square immediately after assembly and let it dry overnight.
I think each kit of theirs that I assemble gets better but more complex. I don’t mean that get more complicated, but that your experience leads you to want to do things a little differently the next kit you do. I usually spray both sides of the kits main components and find that even here in Florida that I don’t get too much warping. The trim usually needs touch ups after painting because the edges of the trim pieces aren’t covered with paint while attached to the laser cut “sprue”. Removing the trim pieces before painting and thus out of the assembly sequence can be a real nightmare too. I don’t recommend that option.
The kits build up to be very nice and despite a few missing pieces as mentiond above and some poor fit in some instances, I highly recommend them.