Very nice kits, highly recommended by me. Sunny’s and Feed Store are Woodland Pre-Fab, Bank and Bakery are DPM Landmark. All come unfinished, are easy to paint and assemble and come with tons of detail including their usual high quality rub-off transfer signs. As a modeler for 35 years including professional architectural projects I am very impressed with the quality and value offered in these kits.
PS I won a free camera at the work X-mas party that does nicer close-ups.
HMM,
Specifically which DPM kits are these?
Yes, inquiring minds want to know. I’ve built quite a DPM kits and I’m always on the lookout for others.
http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/items.cfm/HOScaleKits?StartRow=21
First Bank, Stone Bakery and Planter’s Feed and Seed (same link under Pre-Fab)
I also built Sunny’s Super Service. I’ll try to post better pics Monday.
Have you guys seen the ads for the new Woodland Scenics buildings comming out?! Some pretty neat stuff. I will have to have the new firehouse. It looks like a victorian style building. So many firetrucks…too few firehouses.[:)]
HMM,
Good work on your kits and thanks for posting that link. Just curious, are you planning to install interiors and lighting?
Please forgive my trip down memory lane…
I absolutely like these kits as they stir up so many fond memories of my childhood years (60s-early 70s) in New York City and Florida. In those neighborhods back then, we didn’t have "Wally World (wal-mart) or “mega malls”. I remember in my NY neighborhood that the local: toy store, candy store, malt shop, pet shop, pharmacy, dentist, doctor, furniture store, cafe, and supermarket were owned by families or business partners. The department stores and “mini-malls” were located some distance away from the neighborhoods. Each local store had its own unique charm and flavor, with owners often trying to go out of their way to please customers.
OK, I’m back on earth again. Point is that the DPM and Cornerstone kits so closely resemble the buildings that thousands of local businesses across North America were housed in. Seemed that no two ever looked exactly alike (unlike wally world, k-mart, etc).
BTW: This link below is of an older thread in which I made a suggestion that may offer very good potential for a DPM kit:
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/19289/275814.aspx#275814
I’m a bit concerned that the old-style DPM kits will fade into history. These new models are nice, but they’re roughly twice the price of the older kits. And, while we were basically forced to individually paint, weather and detail the old buildings, these will eventually lead to a layout landscape where the same building on 3 different layouts will be identical in pretty much every way.
Please, Woodland Scenics, keep producing the old DPM kits as well as the new ones. There is a market for both.
I understand the concern. But,imho, it would be an unwise move for DPM’s owner to eliminate the kits as they are still quite popular. Remember guys, you can always email the company and urge them to continue offering the kits if you hear rumors that they’re going to go the “ready-made” route.
I updated the pictures from my post. If anyone can help me with the double pic phenomena, please do. It seems to be at the forum end because my photobucket links [img] are only one line, then in the post HTML editor there are 2. When I edit the info and press update nothing changes. Help
The new kits include a ton of detail pieces that the old kits never had. That’s why the cost more.
When did WS pick up DPM,? I must have missed this.
You should be able to remove the extra pictures using the “EDIT” option: simply erase the extra “IMG” tag lines, then re-post.
Wayne
If you like the older style Design Preservation structure kits (the very basic ones) don’t forget the Smalltown USA series that is also in the Walthers catalog, a part of the Rik’s series of model supplies. They also have that “I’ve been in this building haven’t I?” sense that the best DPM and Walthers structures have. By lucky chance it is just this sort of small and perhaps run down brick structure that is most likely to be seen in neighborhoods near a railroad track.
Dave Nelson
Every time I go into my LHS it seems they have more and more Woodland Scenics built up buildings and they keep getting better and better. The only thing that prevents me form having all of them scattered about my layout or sitting on a shelf for future use is the price tag. They definitely ain’t shy about charging thats for sure. The Walthers build ups seem to be a lot more affordable, less detailed but more affordable But the Small town kits from Rix’s, the DPM kits and the like are so easy to build even for a fat fingered half blind guy such as myself It’s hard for me to justify spending the kind of money they ask for some of these built ups. Maybe I can quantify it as a guilty please so when non model railroaders look at my layout they can say hey that building looks really good did you build that
I once visited a very very large home layout and when you looked at it you did see some unique kit bashed structures unique to his layout just by the sheer size they had to be kit bashed but as for the rest of the layout it was like turning pages of the Walthers catalog. There wasn’t one structure that they made that wasn’t on the layout with maybe the exception of one or two bridges but that was it. Non of which were weathered and most even seemed to be the out of the box color as well. I have to admit they all looked very good and together they made the scene come alive. I guess it’s it’s all in what you like.