I’m new here and to this hobby. I went to a train show (Atlanta) last Saturday with a buddy and now find myself perched at the top of the slippery slope of G Scale doom.
Anyhoo, I’m in the (extremely) early stages of planning and was wondering what y’all thought of Piko G scale structures? (Or any other brands!) Are they a good value in terms of appearance and durability, etc.? FWIW, I did a search here and came up empty.
Got a few of these, mostly the smaller ones. Put together with the glue that comes with the kits, they are very durable and hold up to the elements quite well. Alot depends on which structures your talking about. I have the smaller models that are designed to be disassembled for storage, but if I were to keep them outdoors I would permanently assemble them and seal them up with some silicon glue. They are a great way to add some buildings to a layout. The only negative is that they seam to crop up on every one elses garden RR so some degree of personalization is always recommended.
I have about four Piko or Pola structures (can’t remember which are which) that are very similar in construction. Above is my freight house. They do tend to be expensive, and I have moved on to scratch built using corrugated plastic board in the manner of Phil Creer.
This is a fairly large building which tends to catch the wind. Once it blew apart but that’s not likely to happen again. The inside corners and roofline are now sealed with an entire tube of silicone caulking – and I’m talking about the one you use with the caulking gun!
Hi Bill[#welcome]
I have very few buildings but all are known brands Piko being one of them.
I feel that Piko are good Quality buildings as are the Pola ones Aristocraft I am not sure about only having a crossing shanty
But all are relativivly expencive.and all should be painted to taste even if you paint them the same colour they are moulded in they look better painted you can get rid of the plastic sheen.
There is a good article on building plastic kits in I think its the latest Garden railways the trick with the building kits is paint them and add a few personal touches to get rid of the same old same old look
Even if the nearest railway has the same buildings.you do they can be a bit different with those personal touches.
regards John
Thank you for your thoughts, Gents! I found Phil Creer’s thread on the other Forum here and think it quite informative. He has some great thoughts, expecially on doing interiors. I’m familiar with corblast and think I’ll pass on using it for main stuctures. My rr will be in a heavily wooded area and subject to the occasional bombardment of branches, limbs, pine cones and the like. Corblast IMHO, probably wouldn’t fare too well in such an environment.
Does anyone know what scale Piko structures really are? 1:24 or 1:29?
Hi Bill
In all probabilaty being of Geman manufacture and simillar in size too the Pola ones.
I would say the Piko structures are nominaly at least 1to22.5 scale
regards John
Yes it is true that Piko(and pola) buildings are about 1/22, but they do provide good structures for those of us who DON’T model the old wild west. What lit up my board is that they made a nice 2 story building that is perfect for building a small town USA style circa 1930/1940s. They are up to 9 of those building now making about 2 more per year. So after colllecting them along with other Piko buildings and a few Polas, I have been able to build a nice sized town [^]
The kitbashed water tower is half Piko. It was built out of a Piko fire watch tower and a Aristo water tower. So what you see in the picture was done for less than $1000, perhaps closer to $800 at mail order pricing and that’s not bad concidering the size of the town [;)][:)][^] The only thing missing here is my kit bashed station and speeder house which were modified wood kits [;)]
Nice picture and thanks for sharin’. Which has those 9 buildings you mentioned above? Are Piko’s 'Jenny’s Clothing, Goldstien’s Pharmacy, and the ‘Evening Post’ among these? You comments about the Piko western buildings being unsuitable… is that because they are too large for 1:29?
Hi Bob,
I quoted about the western building not being suitable because of their style. It just wouldn’t fit in on a midwestern town in the 1950s [8)] Let’s see now, other than the 3 buildings you mentioned( which the 3 you noted ARE of the set I was talking about), there is a steakhouse, Movie theater, a bank, a bakery, a dry goods store and a barbers shop [:)] II hope to see some day a grocery store, a police station as well as a 3 story hotel and maybe a hardware store. This list could go on [;)] They may be closer to 1/22 scale, but I like them anyway [^]
I have an Aristo waiting platform and water tower and they are pretty good but I will repeat the advice I have already given many time before.
That is, don’t buy anything untill you have something running around and make that a priority. You will certainly change your mind; thats why. And if you don’t get something running around you will lose interest and give it away.
