Walthers makes a nice interlocking tower out of plastic (or styrene). American Model Builders makes a few Interlocking towers, too. Check out their web site: http://www.laserkit.com/laserkit.htm - in particular,. Kit No. 702 Interlocking Tower.
IMHO, for a non-scratchbuilt, the detailing of the AMB Interlocking tower is way better than a plastic one. I you want you can view a finished one on the link at the bottom of this post. What I like is that you can alter the windows to be open, closed, or something in between.
I’m not sure which type of structure kits I like the best. I can see the pros and cons of wood and plastic (and all stuff between).
Most of the kits on my to-do shelf are craftsman kits that I’ve collected through the years. Unfortunately, those craftsman kits can really be outrageously priced. The nice thing about some of the higher priced craftsman kits is that they usually have a good set of instructions to go along with them.
I recently used two AMB kits for my entry in the MR kitbashing contest. I never built an AMB kit prior to this. After looking at the instructions supplied with the kit I felt sorry for anyone tackling one of these for a first time in the craftsman kit arena. The material contents of the kit are fine - on par with some of the components found in the multi-hundred-dollar laser-cut kits. However, the extensive instructions found in the high price kits aren’t there.
Put it this way, if you could build just one FSM, SWSM, or SRMW kit early in your hobby career the experience learned could make any other kit you build look just as good.
SpaceMouse - see if you can get a deal on a “Builders in Scale” [BIS] kit on Ebay. They don’t fetch as high a price as those yellow and black (I’m not alking Suydam here) boxes but I found that the BIS kits were excellent “courses” in model making.
Fergie - Where have you found good prices for scrachbuild materials?
On the topic of kit instructions, I wrote a post many months ago asking who had the best and worst instructions. I would have to say that most manufacturer’s kit instructions could use an overhaul. Some are downright confusing and vague, at best.
Although not perfect, Proto 2000 kits probably have one of the best instructions I’ve seen so far. Roundhouse, for me at least, has been the worst.