I’m a big fan of old craftsman kits and one of my favorite product lines is Classic Miniatures. They have some very unique prototypical kits (Leadville House, Winters Mansion, Sparks Depot, to name a few) that really capture the spirit (at least in my opinion) of the golden age of steam. The kit instructions are thorough and detailed and the templates give you the ability to produce the kits as many times as you want.
They pop up fairly frequently on eBay, but there seems to be strangely little information available about the company itself. As far as I can tell they have no website and I’m not even sure if the kits are still being produced.The Walthers catalog has a fair amount of their kits listed, but they all appear to be out of stock with no future production in sight.
Does anyone have any information for me as to the history and current status of classic miniatures? Apparently it was founded in Orange County, CA, but several of the boxes I have list an address on Wells Ave. in Reno, NV and some list Freeport Blvd in Sparks, NV. It seems like they became a subsidiary of Taurus models for a while and it also seems that a company called Historic Scale Miniatures (HSM) was producing the same kits for a period of time.
I’ve attempted to put together a complete list of their product line, but I’ve had difficulty completing the list. Even the venerable hoseeker.net has surprisingly little information about Classic Miniatures kits.
“Trout Creek Engineering has recently acquire the Classic Miniature line of structures and the Taurus line of structures, cars and parts. The following items are available:”
The Historical Scale Miniatures release of the Bodie Church was their #BC-4.
I agree with the comments on the quality of these kits. I also built the Classic Miniatures 20-Ft Ore cars and the Silver Plume Store. Modern laser-cut wood kits are indeed easier to work with, but with care these kits utilizing wood, dense cardboard, and cardstock can create very nice models.
Thanks for the great info. And great job on that church; it looks great!
It’s good to know that the kits will still be produced in the future. I’d hate for such a great product line to go the way of the dodo. It looks like their modern list is quite possibly identical to the original list with the CM prefixes, so my list looks like it was pretty close to complete.
I finally got their Winter’s Mansion kit in the mail today. I remember passing that house on the old 395 every time we went to visit my grandparents in Reno. It took on a sort of nostalgic character because it meant the road trip was almost over. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first discovered that an HO scale kit was made of the place, and I’ve been hunting for it ever since.
I recognize that your primary interest in in the Classic Miniatures kit, but it occurred to me this morning to check my old Walthers catalog (1968 - catalog price $1.00) and see what I could find. No Classic Miniatures, but the listing of HSM - Historical Scale Miniatures structure kits was as follows:
HSM-1 (SA) Santa Anita Depot 5.95
HSM-3 (RS) Rivera Wood Depot 5.95
HSM-4 (BC) Bodie Church 5.95
HSM-5 (CD) Capistrano Depot 6.95
HSM-6 (LD) Laws, Wood depot 6.95
HSM-7 (MH) Western House 6.95
HSM-8 (GS) Genoa Saloon, brick 5.95
On my church shown in the earlier post, I did substitute Campbell shingles. I went on-line to find images of stained glass windows depicting the life of Christ and sized those images to fit the windows of the kit. I used a locomotive bell casting for in the bell tower. My “mistake” in assembling this kit was that my decision to illuminate it was made late (“Gee, it might be nice to show off those stained glass windows a little more…”), and it would have been better to block off the interior surfaces of the walls with black construction paper. I inserted a light bulb from below, and in LOW light conditions, some of that light can “bleed” through the walls.
Hi! I’m new here - I just got the HSM Santa Anita Station (called Lucky Baldwin Depot on box top) - and it has a large fold-out diagram (says it’s from the original plans) - but no ‘directions’ or any step by step notes on the diagram. I also have the Winters Mansion, which did have directions. Am I missing something? Does anyone else have this kit?? Any help greatly appreciated!
Just saw this post. The Santa Anita depot kit did have an instruction sheet - one legal sheet - both sides. If you’re still looking for it I could send you a pdf. Note that the kit depicts the as-built depot. I later years the configuration of the bay window was changed and bathrooms were added. Probably other details as well. If you’re in the Southern California area the structure has been relocated to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and is open for tours a couple of days each week.
