Being thoroughly disgusted with the Korber roundhouse kit I landed on eBay a while back, I wonder if I could make my own. I remember buying some DPM packets years ago,(lost in a fire) but cant seem to find anything on them now. Are they still around? I wonder if they have anything that would serve as a good start, for this or other projects. Dan
Hi Dan:
DPM wall components are certainly still available. They are now produced by Woodland Scenics. As to whether or not their components could be used to build a round house is a different question. Here is the current Walthers listing. You will have to scroll down a bit to see the wall sections. Personally, I don’t see much that would mimic the two storey windows that were common to most round houses:
http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/HOScaleModular/page/1
I have an Atlas 3 stall round house and I think it looks pretty good. I used Plastruct HO brick sheets to finish the interior walls and I scratch built arepair pit in one of the stalls. The only downside to the Atlas kit is that the stalls are set on 15 degree angles whereas most kits are set for 10 degrees. All that means is that the structure takes up a bit more space than the others with narrower stall spacing would. Here is an interior shot (it has a long way to go before it is finished):
If you are only doing the three stalls I don’t think the 15 degree spacing is much of an issue, but if you want to do something bigger then the Walthers kits with 10 degree spacing might be a better bet:
Older style:
https://www.walthers.com/exec/search?manu=243&split=30&category=Structure&start=0
Modern style:
https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-2900
If you want to scratch build, Grandt Line offers roundhouse windows:
Slightly OT- I think the Atlas and Walthers kits are designed to match up with their respective turntables. Keep that in mind.
They are out there in good supply, try M.B. Klien and they have been used on many a roundhouse, you just got to design your own. By the way, what is wrong with the model you got, post pics.
This is what Walthers stocks for DPM modulars. BTW, they have discontinued their line of modular buildings
I was really frustrated when Walthers discontinued their modulars. I had two projects in mind and bought a bunch of wall sections with the pilasters and cornices listed as being on back order. Months later I learned they were discontinued so a was stuck with a bunch of wall sections. I figured out a way to make the DPM pilasters work with the Waltbers wall sections and had just enough left over cornices to complete one of the two projects I had in mind. The other I will redesign for the DPM system.
Doughless and Dan:
I don’t recommend the Atlas turntable at all. The mechanism stops every 15 degrees throughout its entire rotation whether there is track there or not. The rotation is terribly unprototypical, very time consuming and extremely noisey (although I think there may be a newer, quieter drive system). It does not have a pit.
Dave
DPM also made a page of paper templates of their modular system (as Walthers did for their late and lamented system too). Very helpful for planning and designing.
I’d be interested in seeing and learning more about using the DPM pilasters or cornices with the Walthers modulars, because I suspect many of us have more boxes of Walthers walls and bases and roofs than we do pilasters and cornices. Another rarity - their fire escapes.
Dave Nelson
I agree, I feel Walthers had a better design that produced a stronger model. They shot themselves in the foot with their packaging. Unless you bought a complete building kit, you had to buy blister packs with a lot of extra stuff like loading docks and freight doors. If you wnated to build large or tall, you end up with lots of extra pieces that you did not need, and would be duplicated on a future building design.
With DPM packaging most of their stuff 4 items per package; the most excess you would have is 3 pieces of any wall style. These could be used to fit the design of a future building.
Not only did Walthers not get their packaging right, but by putting too many parts in each package they raised the price too high. If you paid full price the cost to assemble a large building was huge and you were stuck with a whole pile of leftovers. I built the upper portions of three multi storey office towers and I have a shopping bag full of spare parts left over. By the way, I didn’t pay full price. I bought them when Walthers was clearing them out at 60% off.
I wonder if Walthers actually sat down and built a few structures other than the ones they showed in their advertising. Had they done that they would have soon realized that they didn’t have the quantities right, like for example underestimating the number of pilasters needed to build a complex structure.
Maybe someday Walthers will re-think the package contents and re-issue the modular components in a format similar to DPM’s.
Dave
Thank you for the replies. I actually have already scratchbuilt my turntable, and it runs very smoothly. I’ll post pictures under the topic “building a turntable from a turntable” that I started some time ago.