Who are your favorite building manufacturers for outdoor use?
underworld
[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
Do you mean building as in structures (houses, etc.)?
Piko is the one I’ve used the most
Pola is nice but too $$$$ for me.
Garden Texture has some really nice stuff
Railroad Avenue has or had some really nice stuff, not sure if they are still in the LS market.
Downtown Deco had some really nice LS kits but got out of LS due to poor sales.
Seams like a lot of people either have the same identical Piko/Pola towns or they are scratchbuilding there own buildings.
Alot of people use larger birdhouses for outdoor structures also, quite a few of these are very passable in LS.
THAT’S THE PROBLEM, AIN’T NOBODY ELSE MAKING STUFF! DERN LITTLE IN 1/29, AND EVERYBODY MAKING STUFF SEEMS TO BE STUCK IN THE 1800’S OR THE WILD WEST! I’d buy stuff from 40’s to 70’s era!
Bird houses, our local Asda (Walmart) has bird houses built as a post office, cafe, school, store, all painted up with odds and sods around them, seats etc. They are only about 6" square at the base and you wouldn’t have them as a main town, but set at the farthest end of the garden they’ll look ok. The other good thing is the price, £1-98 each!!
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]
You can build your own strutures for well under $10 if you use corrugated plastic boards (available at craft stores) or Perfect Panels plus windows and doors from Precision Products (www.aiii.biz).
Begin with a basic shed and improve your skills as you go along. Soon you will see that your favorite manufacturer is yourself.
Regards,
Bill C.
South Jersey
Bill, that is a great looking structure! The “hefty” guy standing in front is a nice touch. grin
At GATS, I saw a lot of custom made buildings all for G scale. A lot of wild west type, but also more modern structures. What was really cool is they used real roofing material for the roofs. Being I just did a shed roof and a patio roof, I have quite a bit of the black paper left over, the wife loves to cut and work with wood, we are going to build out town. Have a friend that is a general contractor, so the scrap wood is free. Expense will be time, and paint. Love that deal.
Tim
Thanks, Rene, I often like to work in some visual puns.
Tim, I’ve found that the buildings with false fronts that are often thought of as being western in style are also commonly found on the East Coast of the USA. After all, that’s where the builders often had been born and raised and they brought their traditions with them. It’s something called persistence of style.
Regards,
Bill
Rene,
Bill is really modelling there, that’s one fine place to get anything pork except the oink! At least it was when I still lived in Jersey. The old lady that ran the place would sell nothing but the highest quality! Used to be cheaper than the chain stores too!
Almost knocked my socks off when I saw that pic, looks like the real place!
Capt. Bob, I’m really pleased that you recognized the place. It’s on Route 49 between
Bridgeton and Salem. I made a few minor changes to give it a backdated look and compress it, but wanted the model to reflect the spirit of the original.
Regards,
Bill
South Jersey
Hey there,
That would be “Me”. Save my money for track, locos and rolling stock. All the rest I build myself. MUCH less expensive that way. As ugly as some of the first buildings were I learned a lot and had a blast. Now I can use them for “fire” scenes! [;)] Still havin’ fun here. Later eh…Brian.
Bill,
If I recall correctly it was just on the S side of Quinton, across and a bit down from Clarence McCormick’s old family farm stand??? As though Clarence needed a farm stand? (for those who are unknowing, he owned controlling interst in a medium sized bank!)
I’ve grown a little tired of looking at my plastic Pola/Pikoville town. So one by one, I’m replacing them with scratchbuilt structures. They have much better character than plasticville, and you have pride in owning an individual building rather than a clone that is found on someone else’s layout.
jb
I make my own, I have bought a Jigstones kit and make everything out of concrete (cement) most of my work has been to do with my area 3 so far but i have made 17 pylons, a small bridge, 2 abuttments, 2 tunnel portals, a 4 metre long viaduct with 16 columns and as many arches 190 mm clearance.
We had to stop manufacture for about 4 months as it got too hot and the concrete mix was going off in a few minutes but we will start up again soon as last night we got under 20 deg C for the first time in nearly 5 months.
We have to fini***he viaduct make about 6 more pylons and them we are goin to do a gate keepers cottage and another small bridge and finally a meidaevil castle
Rgds Ian
I’ve made it a point to modify every one of my Piko facades simply so that they DONT look like every other building model out there. [8D]
Rene Yes…I mean structures. [:)] Wow there are some really interesting scratch built and customized buildings shown here. Maybe we could put up some kind of building gallery???
underworld
[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]