I noticed these on Ebay and then went to their site.
http://www.fandckits.com/ho_frtlistbykit.html
I enjoy building HO freight car kits so would ask:
how do you like this brand? are there resin kit manufacturers you prefer?
what differences are usual in resin vs the typical styrene kits rolling stock kits?
Thanks for comments!
I will put it to you this way, my first resin kits were F&C. 3 PS-0 boxcars. The project was fun. So yes, I liked the kits. So much so, i got into resin casting. I like making my own cars, parts, etc etc now. And soon will branch into making locos.
As for prefference, I suppose that will be personal opinion. Ive made a few ‘other’ resin kits (not F&C) and they were just as good in some aspects, worse in others. I let these be my guidelines for making my own kits now and try to improve them as I go.
The differences between resin and styrene rtr kits are alot. In resin casting there is sooo much to be aware of that is taken for granted in your injection molded styrene kits. Youd be suprised at how much attention to detail you must put into a resin kit.
Keeping it level during curing, air bubbles, part removal from the mold, the molds themselves. But it is worth the while, atleast i find it so.
I dont really recommend making resin kits for the beginner as it can be complicated for certain attempts at 3d objects. Even a 2d object can be tricky to make.
For instance, keeping the thickness of the part even and consistant was one of the first lessons i had to learn about it. You just cant go right out an make a mold, pour it, produce from it, and expect a perfect part. Just isnt gonna happen.
I do find the tasks - challenging! Full body casts and truck casting (one piece) are pretty hard. Yet at the same time, casting a set of sprung trucks is 10 times simpler. I had to learn that the hard way also.
Hope this helps some.
Douglas
I have a couple F&C kits and I’m afraid to tackle them. In my opinion the instructions are rather vague and leave a lot to the imagination.
Another angle on my questions…why do manufacturers make resin (vs. styrene) kits. From the consumer point of view, are they in any way “better”. Or are they a way for small scale makers to make kits that, for some reason, only larger makers can handle. In other words, if generalizing, what are the pro’s and con’s of resin vs styrene for the purchaser?
Styrene kits generally require plastic molds and equipment that is very expensive to procure. But the detail can be a lot better. The manufacturer may need to sell several thousand of whatever car he decides to produce to make any money (or sell half as many and charge twice as much).
On the other hand resin kits are less expensive to produce, so are more suited for limited runs of prototypes that may only be desired by a smaller audience. Of course that doesn’t always work out for the resin kit manufacturer, an example being the F&C H30 (http://www.fandckits.com/HOFreight/30010.html) versus the Bowser H30 (http://www.bowser-trains.com/history/h30.html). Without getting into the kit vs. RTR discussion, and not including the “I made it from a kit” pride issue, which path results in the better looking model?
So far, most resin kits have been produced because there is a small market for the product, such that it would cost too much to make the expensive molds required for styrene castings. For example, Westerfield produced a kit for PRR’s H21a hopper car many years ago. At the time, most modelers didn’t even know that PRR’s H21a hoppers had a distinctive design, so there was very little demand. The kits were popular with the small number of people who cared about those distinctive features. A few years later, the importance of the H21a was more widely understood, and Bowser decided the time was right to spend the money on molds to make the cars in styrene. Now you can buy those cars at almost any hobby shop. Several versions of B&O wagon top boxcars were available as limited production resin kits over the years before they were finally produced in styrene a few years ago. The styrene manufacturers needed to see that a market existed before they would commit their capital to the more expensive styrene manufacturing methods.
Because the molds can be so much cheaper, resin is an excellent material for producing certain cars with a real appeal, but not enough appeal to lend themselves to mass production. For example, F&C makes a very nice Lehigh Valley “wrong way door” boxcar. Westerfield makes resin kits for the PRR X23 and X25 boxcars, that aren’t available in any other form. If you really want those distinctive cars, your options are a resin kit or scratchbuilding.
Resin kits do require special care and special techniques, and this forum probably isn’t the place for a tutorial on that. I would recommend reading some of the early installments of Ted Culotta’s series in RMC several years ago. In fact, I hope the publisher republishes those articles in a complete book.
Tom
I have a few F&C PRR F22 flat car kits that I started and never got back to… someday.
What I found so very frustrating was the fact that you had to use ACC (superglue) and when I got to the stage where I had to cement the stake pockets to the sides of the car is where I lost interest. I had stake pockets glued to my finger nails, pant cuffs, the walls of the room but NOT on the car.
I was using magnifiers, tweezers, toothpicks, tape, ACC accelerant and 4 different brands of glue but when I fnallly got one side done the pockets were so misaligned that I was discouraged to the point of puting everything back in the box and moving on to another project.
I have since bought Tichy stake pockets and I’ll see if I have better luck with those. I’ll still have to use ACC even though Tichy uses styrene.
Most resin kits require quite a bit of clean up work. I have a Sylvan Great Lakes ore boat that I will have to tackle soon to complete my ore dock.
I was making my own latex molds and resin castings for Hulett ore unloaders. I had MANY hours into them when Walthers announced their Huletts so I went with those. I must have used the same drawings (Michael L. Rabbit?) since many of my parts were nearly identical to those in the kit.
I just tossed out several Walthers resin kits, (cooling towers, timber crane and oil tanks) they were so warped that there was no salvaging them.
Bottom line is, I’ll use resin if there’s no other choice but it does require a set of skills that I have yet to conquer.
Buy ONE and try it. You might find that you like them… Ed
I have put together one resin kit and am currently working on three resin kits as I write this. I have not built a F&C kit yet but I have three in my stockpile to build.
I am currently working on a Sunshine Model PRR X37B Boxcar kit, and as mentioned before the instructions leave a lot to be desired, I am working from photographs of the final model to do a lot of work as suggested by the instructions. As as been mentioned the castings need a lot of cleanup and filing and the fit is not very good, the underframe was short and did not fit in the body properly.
Now on the other had my Rail Yard Models (Out of Business) were really a pleasure to assemble, but not easy by any means. I have built a PC X79 boxcar and everything fit very well and the castings were extremely clean with detailed instructions and painting information. I am currently working on a second X79 and am doing a much better job on the kit including all the brake rigging and piping which I did not do on the first kit.
The last kit is a Rail Yard Models P&LE Hot Coil car which I just started. The instructions come on a mini CDRom and when printed out cover 54 pages, very detailed and pictures to match the words. These are instructions to die for.
Resin kits are usually odd prototypes which will never be produced in plastic as they were only used by one railroad in limited production, not that some plastic cars were not made but the railroad who owned the car and its overall distribution across the country will determine if it is ever made in plastic.
Rick J
I have to agree with most of the comments so far. The instructions often seem to assume that you know how to build it and gloss over the particulars. Diagrams, if there are any, are often crude and many times difficult to make out (poorly printed).
I’ve not built many, mostly due to the cost, but they can make into nice models if some care is taken.
This Westerfield gondola came with no instructions and some smaller details missing, but as part of an estate lot, was only $4.00. I had photos of the prototype, so it wasn’t all that difficult to build:
This one’s from F&C, and with the one-piece body, was easy to build:
This one’s from Speedwitch Media, and one of my favourites, both as a model and a prototype:
I also have WrightTrak’s Seaboard V9 ventilated boxcar, as yet unbuilt, but it appears to be very nicely done. Assembly instructions are on an included disc, and appear to be quite comprehensive, easily legible, and illustrated with photos and diagrams.
EDIT: The WrightTrak car has been built since this was originally posted, another easy build due to well-done parts and well-written and well-illustrated instructions…
[quote user=“ACY”]
…Resin kits do require special care and special techniques, and this forum probably isn’t the place for a tutorial on that. I would recommend reading some of the early installments of Ted Culotta’s series
Thanks, all, for all the good info & photos!
Resin kits have become (relatively) easier with most resin kit producers introducing “shell kits” verus all flat parts. I will argue with the indivdual that said that injection molded, mass production plastic cars have better detail. Provided the model maker makes a good master and doesn’t wear out the molds, resin details can be very, very fine. That being said, even a shell resin kit can require more work, clean-up and possibly tedious detailing with a lot of etched metal parts than an injection molded kit. It could be very frustrating for a beginner. The first F&C kits were very brittle with a yellow, shiny, hard resin.
Victor A. Baird
As a car starved HOn3 modeler, I find F&C one of the few makers of HOn3 car kits. The great and fabulous Blackstone cars start at $50.00 for a cut price and a weathered caboose can easily be $75.00. F&C offers a chance to build and or kitbash for under $20.00 a limited variety of HOn3 offerings. No maker of kits in HOn3 offer trucks or couplers as a rule.
Beyond this there are only wood kits (Labelle), an almost non-stocked existence of 2 or 3 Rail Line kits or scratchbulding in HOn3 if you don’t buy Blackstone RTR.
Thus, F&C are a great option for me. I am currently kit bashing two of their S.R.R.L. combine cabooses produced in HOn3 to make a really long, custom, combine caboose. They also make it in its natural HOn2.
I’ve built a couple of their kits and never had a problem with them. Excellent kits and customer service is very good.
If I want some of their HOn3 kits and call ahead a couple of weeks in advance, they will make up the kits and have them for me at the Great Scale Model Train show At Timonium. They are always there 4 times each year. Now that is service.