Rant: I expected more from Campbells--fix pic

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
81

Sorry I didn’t pop back in after Dave’s post. I have actually been fairly busy. Although someone earlier meantioned the dry wood and I commented back then.

I would also say that I did make multiple passes with a brand new #11 blade only increasing in force when nothing seemed to be happening. It is not like I rushed into the job.

Now I admit that I should have taken more restraint with CNJ, except that anytime I post a comment about modeling of any sort, he takes the same shot at me and has for a couple years now. This time, it just ticked me off more than most. I should have taken the same tact as I did when Jk made his multiple comments this thead which was to ignore them.

82

Except for its corrugated siding/roofing and wood-simulated shingle-strips, I’ve never been a fan of Campbell kits. Several decades ago, I found that its wood products, particularly the walls, to be made of poor-quality wood (soft, “pithy”, can’t hold a sharp angle, etc.) My most successful Campbell kit was a V&T rectangular water tank, with cardboard sides and wooden support timbers.

I do obtain satisfaction assembling “wood stick” kits from other manufacturers, as for instance a speeder shed and a wood cutter’s shed, where one assembles 2x4 framing and individual boards to construct the walls, and an HOn3 wedge plow similarly manufactured which took me a summer of Thursday evenings to complete.

Mark

83

One should hope so! Say, did that horse grow 10 feet in one minute? I’m sorry, this might sound mean, but I do not sees why you choose to spit acid at Spacemouse.[}:)]

84

Hey Blue, I heard that some of the early (way before my time) kits didn’t come with the wood but had a seed for planting the tree that you would get the wood from. Talk about learning patience! Sounds like you were lucky in more than one way. I can’t imagine spending all that time and then the plane not flying well or destroyed in a crash on the first flight. Some of my friends tried building some plane kits that their Dads had squirreled away for 20years. They were gas powered free-flights but they couldn’t get them to fly worth anything. Looking back, they never did consider where the plane would’ve ended up or how they would get it back if they did fly OK. Good Times! A couple of years back I kick myself for not picking up what was probably the last wood Nscale car kit produced. It was, NO KIDDING, a 50’ high cube plug door Rail Box. Talk about a box of sticks.

85

See any word of advice on techniques in CNJ’s first post ? I don’t. Basically he says something like (paraphrased): “There is nothing wrong with the kit. Skilled modellers have not trouble whatsoever with these kits. The kit you have there is one of the simplest Campbell kits.”

I obviously cannot know what CNJ intended to communicate. But the way I read him, his post was not advice on how to do it better. It was just a way of implying that the original poster is inferior to Real Modellers, since Real Modellers would have no trouble with these kits.

In contrast, helpful advice gathered from the five pages of this thread can be summarized as:

  • Cover the back of the wood with tape before cutting to prevent splintering
  • Use a fresh #11 blade and score gently many times instead of using more force
  • Old wooden kits that have dried out in the box might be “rehumidified”
  • Muir models wooden kits might be easier to build than Campbell models

Answers from Chip indicate that

  • he was using a fresh blade and first tried gently scoring before increasing pressure

  • the wood being brittle may very well have been part of the original problem,

  • he hadn’t seen anything about using tape on the back in the instructions,

  • he would remember the tape on back trick for later

  • he is taking steps to fix the problem by gluing paper to the back of the broken walls.

Unless anyone else has any more helpful advice on techniques for Campbell kits, maybe it is now

86

In the past Walthers listed a manufacturer of wood freight car kits - OK, makes sense, except at least one of the kits was of a Tri-Level auto-rack. Now, wood representing wood (as in stock cars or reefers etc), makes perfect sense - but at that time using wood to represent steel just boogled my mind (and I later read that that kit, and similar ones, were indeed nightmares, as you had to sand and seal the wood pieces over and over again until they were smooth enough (no grain showing) to represent metal - no thanks, I’d rather stick with plastic or metal or even cardstock (the other choices back then).

87

Actually, yes.

I have a humidor for cigars. I got into the habit of smoking cigars during the war, although now if I smoke one inj a month it’s a lot. Nevertheless, I’ve found that dried out cigars can be brought back to life with a few vigorous re-chargings of the humidifier in the humidor.

Small humidors can be had for less than $50 online, and can be used to keep your modeling wood fresh. Oh, and if someone gives you cigars, you have a place to keep them too.

Now how’s that for helpful?[:D]

88

Roses are red, SpaceMouse is blue!

He bought him a kit and thought it would be true!

what he found was shallow cuts,brittle wood and

windows unstraight!

well you can imagine this left him in quite a state!

he went to his computer to share his insights!

and oh my goodness that started a fight

From aloft on the high horses the scorn it did rain!

til the comments they did hurt his brain!

"your skills are subpar, your cuts are to hard!

“what were you thinking, your skull is filled with lard”!

now some of the tips were delivered with tact!

“next time do this, and never do that”!

and my gosh don’t use a wiffle ball bat"!

what i think Chip was trying to say was,

" I expected better quality, good cuts et. al."!

“has this happened to others, is this the norm”!

what he got was some help some derision and some scorn!

and that after all is about average on the forum!

“if it bleeds it leads” it was said with insight!

how sad and how true we all love a good fight!

now i must end this post, yes i must flee!

to another thread to see what trouble i can be!!!

Caboose.

Chuck

89

Chip,

I haven’t read the whole thread, but if you are REALLY disappointed with the quality of the kit, I would contact the owner, Duncan. He responds to phone calls VERY well…email doesn’t seem to work as well… He is very responsive and fixed a problem I had without delay. Good luck.

Brian

90

TattooGuy,

That is without a doubt absolutely the best post I have ever read while here…excuse me while I go wipe the laughter tears from my eyes…

Don Z.

91

TattooGuy: THAT is hilarious! What a fitting end to this thread…