Hey Everyone,
I’m looking at maybe getting these structures if I start a new HO railroad. Wondering on feedback about Atlas and their structures. Have never bought from them and just wondering if they are a good and easy product to put together for a new railroader.
Here is the link
http://www.atlasrr.com/Trackmisc/honewstructures.htm
I’m looking at the contemporary diner, bank, and car wash.
Thanks,
Taylor
I have not built any of the Atlas models you are interested in but I can say that I did build the 3 houses (Kate, Barb & ??) that Atlas makes. I thought they were very good plastic models. They were well designed with tabs so that they fit well together and they could be glued without much worry about the glue oozing out. They had good detail and with a little weathering they look very nice.
Hey,
Thanks very much for your answer. I’m glad to hear that those were good and that these new kits will be of similar quality.
Thankyou,
Taylor
When I started, my first 3 structure kits were the Atlas train station, signal tower, and lumberyard. As kits these list for $12-15 but the are easily found discounted. I found them easy to put together. If I were still in HO I would still be using them and probably kitbashing them. If they were available in S, I would buy them.
Enjoy
Paul
I have a number of Atlas structure kits on both my layout and my boys. They are sturdy, come with good instructions, and are easy to assemble. Shop around for the lowest prices you can find, but they’re worth their MSRP.
I’m considering the produce building. With those garage doors, it has good potential and can be easily converted into other types of businesses as well. (motorcycle repair shop, boat shop, parts supply business, etc)
Well no ones going to say their just as good as a Fine Scale Miniatures kit but if thats the level of kit your comfortable with why not build em. just take your time and put as much detail in to the kits as you feel you can and don’t be afraid to try. Stuff like widow details interior lighting, mortar lines on the brick building etc. do a long way to making our structure not look like the one on the box. I kit bashed one of their factory building a while back and it looks pretty good none ever believes me when i tell them it started out as an Atlas kit.
I have the train station and two signal towers. Maybe some others. Look pretty good and can be made to look very good with paint, decals and some detail parts.
You could do a lot worse and spend as much or more money.
A lot of my structures are Atlas. I like the quality and attention to detail for the price. Obviously there are better detailed ones out there, but Atlas offers a good product. I have found them to be easy to put together with good instructions included. These are god models to learn and hone your skills before attempting the higher quality and more expensive manufacturers. I little bit of weathering and a good paint job, makes them look awesome!
I haven’t seen these new buildings before, but generally Atlas kits are good quality. They may be a little dated (some are older than many posters on the forum) but the real issue I think that might make some people not like them is that so many of the kits were built by “newbies” without benefit of any painting or weathering etc. If you take the time to paint the parts, add weathering and some details (like adding an interior to the signal tower) you can end up with a very nice looking model.
Hi Taylor…
Atlas has been for over 40 years, the mainstay for thousands of HO(and N)scale modelers, for track structures and motive power.
The ‘True’ Atlas models have been around for decades and they are still probably the very best value for the money - bar none.
These kits have been so popular because the represent the best of classic american railroad architectural designs and thus, fit most every modeler’s taste or requirement. They also make great starters for kit bashing.
These Originals include:
Passenger Station and Platform kit(s)
Watchman’s shanty w/ telegraph pole,
Water tower w/ spout
Howard Johnson’s resturant(more recently generic but you get the idea once you see the kit)
Signal Tower
box of 12 Telephone poles
Elevated Gate Tower
Refreshment Stand
Lumberyard and Office
AND… more recent home grown additions :
18th Century Church
Maywood Station and Platform
3 Stall Roundhouse
and the last recent addition: the Middlesex Manufacturing Co.
The American Style Homes Series are also very nice and most kits are available at resonable cost.
The ‘newer’ models that Atlas has just recently announced,(the ones you are considering) are tooling that was not originally Atlas by design - most are resurrected Pola kits that have been available before, under such names as Con-Cor, Pola Germany and more recently, Model Power.
I’m certain transformer (based on a European style) and the Electric Substation are both Pola(nee- Ex Con-Cor, Ex-Model Power kits)tooling.
It really depends more on your skill level and imagination than the quality of the kit. A master modeller can make a $5 cheap kit look great while a hack in a hurry can ruin a $300 laser cut structure pretty fast.
Atlas structures are a good thing to cut your teeth on.[2c] I have found my Atlas kits look out of place next to higher quality buildings that I did later in my skill level.
Nice summary of Atlas building kits. Just wanted to add one small thing.
The buildings you mentioned Atlas importing were originally made by Patal. While it sounds like it could be a foreign company, I believe that Patal was from New Jersey. It was two brothers, Pat & Al, hence the name.
Jim
I just bought the Transformers kit, which includes two transformers, and the instructions were a little vague with their drawings compared the parts but then it was not too hard to figure it out with a little trial and error. The transformer did not fit the base property but it was ok, after trying out on the base I decided I did not like the look of it. Also on one of the transformers I did a little kit bashing on it to give it more of an industrial look and it came out great. I would say it was not the best kit from them I have done but it was still easy to work with to come out with something very nice looking
This thread gets a bump because on the current (12 August) Cody’s Office he reviews the transformer and the Power Substation kits - his usual netural review, as he just took the sprues out of the box so no built ups - basically stated the kits include a base and red/grey molded parts etc. Well, I guess you can’t get that excited about these kits.
I purchased the Produce market a month or so ago (at Trainland, so it was a far more reasonable price than MSRP) - kit looks OK, as mentioned these (well at least this kit) are not super detailed, but also they are molded in a way that you really can’t modify them much (at least not without doing a lot of work, enough that you might as well scratchbuild) - I was going to use them for a woodworking/cabinet shop, but not sure now.
Hmm, googling Patal (with model keyword, and “-Patel” to remove thousand of links to Indian male fashion models) turned up only a few old eBay links - I was hoping for some listings of their old line, to find a two story colonial home with columns in the front which I purchased decades ago (and which I long ago gave away) and which I think it was their offering…
As others have mentioned, the kits you are refering to, the relatively new series of kits offered by Atlas, have been around for a long time and sold under various distributors. I purchased the diner, bank, and produce market a while back when they were sold under the life-like flag.
I have only built the produce market to date. It went together well and most of the pieces, like windows and such, are molded separately so they can be painted prior to assembly, which is something not to overlook in a structure kit. I think the tooling still produces sharp, crisp, detail, although it is rather simple.
I like all of the kits in the series because they represent structures that are a bit more modern than many other kits on the market.
I thought that the consensus was these kits originated with PatAl (hence why I was looking for a Patal listing - I know they produced some nice looking model homes, one of which I owned but gave away. Now you say they were marketed by LifeLike too?
We need heritage listings on kit boxes like Railpace articles used to do for locomotives:
e.g. CSX 30400, ex CR 29910, exx PC 29910 exxx NYC 2761 …
heh - LifeLike Farm House ex AHM exx Tyco exxx Revell…
Here’s a pic of an Atlas Signal Tower I built for my layout. I upgraded it by adding a shingle roof and paint. The Atlas tower has always been one of my favorite “shake the box” type kits.
I apologize for any confusion. The new Atlas kits were sold under the Life-Like name. Patal originally made other kits that Atlas later offered for a while, but not these new ones. I only commented on Patal because an earler poster mentioned the name and thought it was a foreign company. I just offered a brief comment about them being from NJ. That may have given the impression that the new Atlas kits were originally made by Patal, but they weren’t.
Jim
Hi!
Atlas building kits are just fine, for the money. They put out some “different” kits that with a bit of added detail, weathering, and realistic painting will certainly work for most of us. My Avatar is a scale model of my Grandmom’s house, located in Anna Illinois. I spent summers there and was fascinated by the IC racetrack right across the road.
I wanted a model of it, and soon found that an HO house with a hip roof was not near as common as the real world. Barb’s Bungalow came along (thankfully), and I kitbashed two of them to come up with the model. I confess that gave me a soft spot in regards to Atlas structures.
Anyway, my point is that Atlas structures, like the old Revell and other early plastic kits can be made to produce a really nice structure that will be at home on most layouts.
Mobilman44