Does anyone know about a source for information on Fine Scale Miniatures?
The kits they made, when the were released, original retail prices, copies of the magazine advertisements, and any other information would be appreciated.
Thanks.
-Kevin
What do you want to know? Old MR’s had ads, company has been sold and the castings are now available as a separt item.
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-Kevin
as I recall they were real craftsman kits needing a lot of time and determination to build. They were highly detailed and very expensive. Cost put them out of reach for most of us and quite daunting to consider building. What todays engines are to Atheran blue box they were the equivalent to buildings
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-Kevin
No fan sites that I know of, kits can be cheap these days. Owned up to a dozen or more kits, built a few and only one on current layout, a modified icing building, wish I had room for some others.
Hi Kevin. I guess you already know about HOSeeker. Not comprehensive and not exclusive to FSM, but there is some info including historic prices. If you go here: https://hoseeker.net/structures.html and find the FSM link on that page, you can find catalog pages for specfic structures. Sadly, the links to the 1969 and 1971 “compendiums” don’t go anywhere but loop back to the same page. I know it’s not the comprehensive documentary on FSM that you were looking for. Still, prices and sales blurbs for the old kits are there, plus full instructions.
-Matt
Kevin,
Just curious - how clean are those castings? I already have too many castings to clean up and paint but it is interesting to see the castings for sale as separate items.
Guy
While I saw those FSM ads for decades in MR (often on the back cover) and the more reasonable ones did look nice, can’t say I ever had a desire to have such a kit.
Now, the FSM Brambell coal dealer kit, eh? Not sure if you have viewed YouTube channels like asd asx (there are others). asd asx in particular has a video on his build of the kit, which was interesting IMO. He has video on other FSM kit builds as well, and is a little more restrained in overweathering the buildings as opposed to the “Jason Jensen Trains” guy who way overweathers IMO (also, I think he’s mixing his SciFi Gundam interest with George Sellios’s semi-cartoony Great Depression atmosphere).
The asa videoes (there are a number) may be interest to you, but alas no catalog I’m afraid (maybe hunt around blogspot.com for such a FSM kit blog).
Very clean, they are FSM castings. A guy named Jimmy bought the company and is a well known person among manufactures.
Love the FSM kits. I’ve built Franklin Watchworks, Dexter’s Dead End, Hazen Boyd, Elijah Roth, and Houligan’s Alley. Still have Skinner’s Row, Barthalow Coal, Jamestown Water Stop, Westside Auto, Oatman’s Mercantile, Emporium Seafood, and Roadside Delights “in the box”, and hope to find a home for all of these on the layout. These are well made kits and the instructions are very detailed and rigorous and will build into a beautiful model with a little time and effort. Like anything practice makes perfect and once you build a few of these the steps are very similar and it also helps develop skills and techniques that carry over to other kit building.
There is a web site you can find if you do a somewhat intuitive Google search (not sure if I can say the name here) that gives a list of the FSM kits, when they were released and the number produced, and the original price, in chronological order. Early kits ('68!) went for $10. The later kits (the final kit “I M Dunn” was released in 2016) went for $280. Some sellers on EBay think they can get $400-500 and up for some of these, and perhaps they can. If you keep an eye out you can get a decent deal on some of these - I think I got Roadside Delights for $180 and Emporium Seafood for a little north of $200, money well spent IMHO.
What the heck might as well post pics of a few of these:
Fish store from Houligan’s Alley:
Also from Houligans:
Dexter’s Dead End:
Front building from Houligan’s, Watchworks in background:
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-Kevin
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-Kevin
Kevin,
Thanks for taking the time to take and post the photo. Interesting how many of these castings I have in my detail box but didn’t know they were FSM. Hard to tell from a photo, but they look to be better than acceptable in terms of flash and registration/detail - I agree that I have seen much worse castings from various sources and some that are better…Looks like lots of hours of painting ahead of you…
Guy
I built one FSM kit that had multiple structures and I didn’t find them difficult to build as opposed to a few other craftsman kits I built. The instructions were very well written and easy to follow. I have the FSM version of John Allen’s 2 stall engine house that I hope to get around to building when the cold weather comes and the golf clubs go to the garage.
The thing that made FSM stand out was the step by step detailed instructions including painting or staining.
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-Kevin
I can’t remember what I paid on ebay for the John Allen enginehouse but I know it was no where near $400. I’m thinking it was under $200. At the time there were a number of offerings. Maybe there are fewer now and that has driven up the price.
The recently released Menard’s enginehouse looks like an inexpensive copy of that enginehouse.
UPDATE: There are two FSM enginehouse kits being offered on ebay for the Buy It Now price of $132 plus $45 shipping from Japan.
Some of the other FSM kits I see are outrageously priced but most are Buy It Now rather than auctions. I doubt they would get anywhere near the asking price at auction.
I just checked out the FSM offerings on ebay and found page after page of items with two things in common. All are outrageously priced and all have 0 bids. There are a few that are listed as Buy It Now but they don’t seem to be getting much action either. I get that when a company goes out of business, the price on their merchandise will get a boost. It’s supply and demand and with the company no longer making the product supply is very limited. However, that doesn’t boost the demand for these items. Maybe if these sellers continue to list these items indefinitely they will eventually get their asking price, but I wouldn’t count on it.