Are the P2K kits any good? How about the P2K freight cars in general? Anyone’s thoughts are greatly appreciated.
I have only ever tried one, a tank car. It was tough because I was brand new to the subject…in fact several members thought I was crazy for attempting it as a first model. They were quite correct…about it being difficult., that is.
You have to know what your are doing; fragile and tiny grab irons, you need a pin vice to clean up or to actually make holes for railings and grab irons (in the odd instance). Looking back, it is a very nice kit and finished product, but only after a highly skilled scratchbuilder took it over and finished it off with real brass wire for me. I couldn’t even get the trucks to rotate properly…they wobbled something fierce, and so did the car the first time I used it. Now, it is a very nice addition to my rolling stock.
Bottom line, a good kit, can’t comment on price and value…even now…, but you had better be reasonably skilled if you want it to turn out well.
They are good for the advanced or expert model builder. Ten years ago I would have been able to tackle one, but not now. There are just too many detail parts for these numb hands of mine to break.
I appreciate the feedback . I am not too concerned about the kit itself. Some of my favorite kits to assemble are Tichy and Quality Craft (if I can find them). I just wanted to make sure that I am not wasting my time and money, although I figured anything from the P2K line should be decent. I am about to start a layout (finally), and will probably find it sitting under the work bench collecting dust for a littl ewhile anyhow.
I’ve completed 3 kits to date, two tank cars and one double-deck stock car. The grabs are a pain, the rails can be fragile (especially if a 4 year old handles the car), you’ll at times need the patience of Job to finish them.
but man, they make GREAT looking kits!
Dean
The kit that I am looking at is a decorated car, and I don’t too much care for assembling kits that have a decorated car body. Are all the detail parts painted to match as well (parts on the sprues)? I am also assuming that the grabs are plastic. I guess it won’t particularly matter what they are made of, becuase I will have to work with what I get.
Yeah, I gotta add a near-100% ditto on this, even to it being a tank car.
P2K freight cars are really nice. Run beautifully, great detail, sharp looking, the works. And after building one of them (Amoco Tanker) I will buy them RTR in the future if I want any.
My biggest substantive gripe is that even the finest details in the kit were still plastic. Even those teeny-weeny little grab irons and so forth. That made dealing with them MUCH harder. If I’m assembling, I think I’d sooner get a kit a little easier and then “superdetail” myself using real wire and so forth…
The P2K freight car line is great. Life Like took great pride in them, and made sure to introduce an excellent product. The kits themselves are state of the art, and are still among the best detailed and realistic kits on the market (plastic or resin). LL took great pains to only come out with correct paint schemes for each body style too, so modelers knew that they were getting a “correct” car (there might have been very minor detail issues like different running boards, but you wouln’t see one of the Mathers cars decorated for Conrail). In fact, they’ve only ever run one set of the NKP 50’ auto boxes, because they found out that the prototype had a different roof!
P2K cars go together pretty easily. Some may lament the “huge” number of teeny parts, but there aren’t really all that many, and they go together MUCH faster than a similar resin car. Just drill out the holes, use a sprue cutter to trim all the pieces off the sprues, and use reverse-action tweezers to hold them, while using MEK to glue them in place. I’ve only had difficulty in building the tank cars, and that’s only because the car is so detailed that there’s no good place to grab them!
One thing to mention is that some of the kits come as “Timesavers”. these kits have many of the subassemblies premade so that the most tedius parts are already completed. I’ve not gone this route, but it may take some of the fear out of dealing with the worst parts of the kit.
Dean
I have done several of their box cars and a couple of the tank cars. I don’t remember having to paint anything after they were assembled. The grabs are plastic and very delicate but with a little care everything goes together nicely. They have great underbody detail too.
All new P2K kits are Time-Saver kits, with most of the major assembly work already performed. About all that remains is to add the included grabs, ladders, couplers, and trucks. This presents a problem – you have to partially disassemble the kit by prying apart glued joints – if you want to change out the draft gear, stirrups, or brake details for something more prototypical.
I’ve built a few P2K kits and I really think they are great. They are very easy to build, with a little patience.
Chuck,
Absolutely! I’ve put together 4 tankers, one or two hoppers, a 50’ boxcar, and a 40’ stock car. They are both beautiful looking and operating kits. [tup]
I agree with Crandell. When I first got into MRRing a couple of years ago, I ignorantly tackled one of the Proto 2000 8K tank car kits after putting together a couple of simple Accurail kits. [:O] It took me nearly 8 hours to complete it! Those are probably the toughest of the Protos kits to assemble. Even so, those tankers are quite handsome looking being pulled behind my Trix 2-8-2 Mike.
Start with a hopper first and see how you like them. A pair of needle-nose tweezers and a magnifying visor are a must - even for good eyes. [:)]
Tom
I got a drop end mill gondola by them it still sits in the box I broke soooooo many grabs I gave up on it. Anyone knowif any of the pre bent wire grabs are right for the job?
The P2k kits are great!I’ve built over 30 of their kits and I’m kind of disappointed that they have gone RTR.Skill level of these kits are not for the entry level modeler,Your better off starting with a Athearn or Accurail kit.Having the right tools helps.Having a sprue clipper for the brake rigging and grab irons and small #80 drill and pin vice to clean out the holes.Tanax glue and a small brush.But other posters have said they came out wih the timesaver and by eliminating the brake rigging and upgrading from plastic to metal grabs.You will save on some of the hassle on building these kits.I would highly recommend these kits.well worth the money!
Most pre-bent wire grabs are 18". The P2K gons use 22" drop and straight on the sides, and 19-1/2" on the ends (drop, I think). Detail Associates has them.
If all else fails, I have had to bend my own grabs on a couple of my past projects, so it shouldn’t be a problem if I somehow break a couple of them.
You probably won’t have a problem if you use a good sprue nipper. Bending your own is a good skill to have, and it’s easy with some home-made jigs. Wire’s cheap.
My first P2K freight car kit was a nightmare. The second - difficult. The third - hard. The fourth? Average. Now? I love 'em! Thankfully LL seems to put a couple extra grabs in each kit so the later kits supplied the grabs for the earlier ones. To be honest, when I got one together without broken parts I really felt like I accomplished something!
The Timesavers are a great idea, but the learning I got from the earlier versions was well worth the effort. I can get the old P2K kits on ebay for a song!
“Wire’s cheap” is the key thing. I have built several passenger cars using brass cars sides, and sometimes the pre-cored holes in the sides don’t match up to anything that DA makes. I also have a couple of bending jigs, so it makes life a little easier, although I sometimes still have to do it free hand.