Beginner here. O scale. Who do you recommend for quality buildings and structures? Kits or ready made. Most I have seen are plastic and cheap looking. Not adverse to building some kits. Recommendations please. Thanks.
https://www.walthers.com/products/layout/structures
Those are some of the best out there.
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Penny: You beat me to it; Berkshire Valley laser kits are great. I have knowledge of their HO line, but I know he does O scale stuff, too.
No reason you can’t take plastic buildings–kit or built up or kitbashed–and use paint, weathering, details, and scenery to make knock-outs of them.
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I myself prefer plastic kits to the craftsman wood laser cut kits. I’m at a certain age where I have become a fumble fingers and the plastic kits are just easier to deal with. I’ll put a few of them up but mostly just got painted which improved them 1000%
Here’s a water tank the molds for which are widely traveled, it’s been issued by maybe a half dozen different vendors over the years. But it’s a nice model when painted and it’s a nice moderate size that doesn’t overpower a small layout..
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The molds for this one traveled along with the water tank, it’s been issued under several labels but was always called the rooming house. All I did with this one was paint it railroad colors to become the general offices for my short line.
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This one I actually did a fair amount of work on. It was called the Western Union building and its molds traveled right along with the water tank and the rooming house to live with several different vendors over the years.
I always thought it looked more like a hotel and bar in a small town and its general profile really fit when I was looking for. But there were a number of clunky details that had to be dealt with. The whole thing had a Wild West cowboy look about it that had to be toned down. I took off the diagonal braces at the top of the columns and removed the horse hitching rails to start. But the window mullions were too many and too clunky. I removed a bunch of them and thinned down the ones that remained to more of a scale size. The balusters in the second story handrail were way too thick also, and I carved them all down to be thinner, took forever to do it, but it was worth the effort. Before assembly, all the parts were painted, a nice brick red for the building, dark green for the wood millwork as was common practice around the turn of the 20th century, and gray for the porch decks.
It became Hattie‘s hotel and bar, named after a joint in the bad part of town back home when I was a kid. We eighth-grade boys would pedal our bicycles past Hattie’s and snicker about the women of ill repute we thought were inside. Of course there weren’t any, but Hattie’s has been immortalized on every layout I’ve ever had since those golden days back in the Jurassic.
Here’s the way the kit was sold:
With a little work, it became a landmark on my layout and has sat there now for close to 20 years.
I sincerely apologize , I just remembered that the OP was asking for O scale buildings. Mine are HO but the same treatment principles apply to plastic kits in any scale, basically refining the details by thinning down window mullions and handrails and painting in realistic colors.
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I have put together 3 Korber kits including an engine house and a candy factory, all so much better!. Recently wanted to replace my plasticville firehouse and bought an Ameritowne kit. I’m very pleased with results. Will try and send pics. Neal.
