I recently started putting together the Suydam Box Factory kit, kit #81.
Bought it for $3 at a train show a few years ago - great deal!
I’ve never put together a Suydam wood kit before, but I know some of youse guys (practicing my New Jersey accent, there) have.
Any pointers?
The instructions are pretty vague on several things, but the diagrams generally help with those points. One thing though - the kit comes with a lot of small stripwood, but the instructions don’t say what it’s for! I’m thinking it’s used for roof ridge boards and the frieze boards at the edges of the roof. Not sure, though. Any suggestions?
Mark, on the wood kits I have built most of the strip wood is used on the inside walls to brace the edges where they join to each other and outside for trim such as roof lines.
Most of the stripwood is .04 X .105, roughly 4" X 10" scale.
I figured it might be for the fascia boards on the roof. This kit doesn’t need much in the way of reinforcement - the corners of the walls are very strongly supported with the 1/4" rabbeted corner posts.
In 1959 Suydam aquired Ayers Scale Models and added their wood/matboard structures to the product line. At that point, there were more wood/matboard structures in their line than the metal ones.
Looking at the 1983 Walthers catalog, there were 19 metal kits and 39 wood kits, many quite popular over the years.
Pruitt, even though the matboard has weight to it, like any wood kit, you should use 3/16 or 1/4 inch square stripwood to re-inforce the corners and walls, especially if your layout is in an area subject to humidity. The kits have been around for over 50 years and build into nice structures. Starting as Ayers, then Suydam, then California Models and last as Alpine Models. I believe the owners retired several years ago.
