Hi all and thank you for reading this, recently while going through ebay i saw a listing for an N-scale Chuck’s Warehouse kit from GloorCraft which of course caught my eye, then i saw the dreaded words “Craftsmen kit” and thought “oh no not that, oh anything but that! I am not up to the challenge and am not worthy!” etc. lol, well then i looked at the pics of the box opened and it looked do able to me, the walls look like you need to cut openings for the windows, and i am sure there is trimming involved and the like but really how hard are these things? and that got me looking at some HO scale Ambriod kits and again just judging by the photos (and i admit that may be a huge mistake!) it looks like all the pieces are cut to shape, is that not the case? am i in for a huge wake up call here? so just what am i in for here and how bad is the cussing going to be, my wife needs to know if she needs to get out her earplugs! thanks again for your responces.
I didn’t think I could do it at first either, but I took my time and followed the instructions. The instructions in most craftsman kits are very good and make it easy to tell what piece goes where and how long to cut it. Personally, I very much enjoy putting together a kit like that, and being able to look at it afterwards and say to myself, “Wow! I built that from a pile of uncut wood/plastic/etc.” [:)]
It can be time consuming, to be sure. Don’t expect to slap it together in an evening and have it look good (although I’ve known people who could do just that).
“Craftsman kit” is one of those terms that gets bandied about and may not necessarily mean the same thing depending on the manufacturer. In some cases is might mean that you get a box of sticks and some detailed plans and instructions and have to cut virtually everything yourself. In another case it might be a laser cut kit where everything fits perfectly complete with peel-and-stick windows and roofing materials. They range from the simple couple of evenings project, to intense projects complete with detail castings that can take weeks to complete. They range in price from under $20 into the hundreds. It is a rather broad encompassing term.
I heartily recommend this type of structure because I derive a lot of pleasure from this type of kit. For a beginner I would recommend starting with a laser cut kit in the lower price range.
Simon is right. A craftsman kit can range from a box of raw materials to a complete kit that has all the pieces cut out and all detail parts included. Some need windows & doors cut out while others may have them already cut out for you.
They are sometimes a real challange to build but I think they are worth the time involved. Most are well designed and use quality materials. There are some that really need better instructions though so you need to look the kit over before you decided if it’s in your skill level.
Some of the best kits I’ve built were Fine Scale Miniatures (FSM). They come complete (less glue, paint & tools) and have great instruction, tips, scale drawings, templates and photos. Most of the very “high-end” craftsman kits are the same way. Campbell kits are very nice kits and go together well but I think they’ve raised their prices to the point where they aren’t worth it.
My advice is to try one, read all the instructions, inventory the parts against the parts list and take your time. Don’t try to do too much at once and just go patiently through all the steps and enjoy yourself. Always test fit any parts before attaching. Make certain you understand the step you are working on at the time. Most manufacturers are pretty good about answering questions about their kits and any issues you may have.
As Simon and Roger have pointed out and confirmed, craftsman kits can run the gambit on complexity and skill need. However, I would add that probably the biggest skill for tackling a craftsman kit is patience itself.
When I first started out MRRing about 5 years ago, my first two kits were Accurail box cars. Being a real newbie as far as my railroad knowledge-base, it took me a little while to figure the first one out. (The 2nd Accurail kit went much faster.) Then I got bold and decided to build a Proto 2000 8K gal. tanker. Again, I was a little over my head because of my lack of experience but I stuck with it and after 8 hours, I completed the tanker. (Much like my subsequent Accurail boxcar, my 2nd Proto tanker was completed in a little over 3 hours.)
After a few Walthers kits, I got bold again and bought a Suncoast FM Coaling tower. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. All the parts and stock were included with the kit but the parts had to be cut to length and the drawings of the coaling tower had to be converted to HO scale. [:O]
Chuck, there were times when I was working on that coaling tower that I would scratch my head and think to myself, “Am I EVER going to get this thing done?”. I really wondered sometimes if that was true but I was persistent and stuck with it. 100 hours later I completed the Suncoast coaling tower…and also went the extra mile and wired it up with “working” lights rather than the static lights that came with the kits. Besides my Alexander Scale Model NYC Freight house (another craftsman kit and 100+ project, which I still want to add a few things to), it’s the center piece of my layout.
I’m sure that Simon will attest to this. I think my willingness to try craftsman kits is one of the main reasons why I wasn’t as inhibited about jumping into and trying my hand at scratch-building.
Chuck, if you find a kit that you like, I’d encourage you to g
I’ve put together one Craftsman kit. It was Branchline Trains “Weimer’s Mill.” It took me three years after I bought it to work up the nerve to start it.
That was my biggest mistake. These kits are just not that frightening. You don’t need a woodworking degree from the North Pole. The laser kits have no more parts than a large plastic Cornerstone structure kit. They are very well made, and somewhat delicate, due to the fine detail, but, as others have said, the skill you need the most of is simply patience.
I’ve noticed that friends looking at my layout all zero in on the Mill. It is a step above many of the other structures on my layout. But, I built them all myself. It’s just a really nice kit, and you can achieve the same results if you’re willing to give it a try.
By the way, though, you can also get very good results with very simple kits. The City Classics grocery store and some of my DPM kits are extremely basic, 4 walls and a roof in the case of DPMs. But, this very simplicity leaves you free to detail and paint them, inside and out, to create a model which is both personalized and eye-catching.
Like many things about this hobby, the box that comes home from the hobby shop is nothing but a starting point, almost a blank template. That’s one of the reasons that everyone’s layout is unique.
When I started in HO in the late 1950’s “craftsman kits” were the norm. About everyone I knew built them, including me. Athearn “BB shake it and hope the parts are all there” started showing up and for years I built both styles and anything in between. Now in 2009, in my early 70’s, with arthritis in both hands, I am thankful for the RTR stuff. Haven’t built a kit in 10 years, and never will again.
I started out in the 1950’s like Bob, when what you usually got in a box was a ‘craftsman’ kit, no matter what the brand. Wood, metal, you name it, you got a bunch of parts and some instructions and there you went, LOL! I remember the Athearn metal kits with six gazillion parts that all went exactly where they were supposed to, and the old Ambroid wood kits which were a box of sticks and a few metal castings. Even Silver Streak and Ulrich needed a lot of patience to ‘build’, but that’s what it was. Easiest kits back then? The Varney metal kits. But they all made good models (I’ve still got a lot of them on my MR).
So, without opening a whole can of beans, might I offer the fact that the ‘standard’ kits of that era are really sort of the ‘craftsman’ kits of today. Not knocking them at all. In fact, I still enjoy putting together some of the ‘craftsman’ kits of today. Finished a laser-cut caboose kit last year, and frankly, I was both surprised and pleased at how easily it went together with the accurately cut parts and the ‘peel and stick’ details and the thorough instructions.
But I’ll certainly chime in with everyone else on this thread–read the instructions THOROUGHLY and have patience and don’t expect it to fall together in an hour. I like a good RTR detailed car that I can slap on my MR immediately for service, but there’s a real pleasure in opening a box of parts and gradually watching something take shape that you’ve built yourself. I certainly plan on doing some more before my ten fingers grow into ten thumbs, LOL!
My perspective is that Craftsmen kits are a great deal. If you spend $90 on a kit, and about $10 on the paint, glue, and other stuff needed to complete it, and It takes you 100 hours of time to complete the project, you got 100 hours ouf intertainment for $1 per hour. Now where can you get a better bargen than that?
I know that on a cost per hour basis fishing and hunting are way more expensive. Don’t know about golf because I don’t do that.
When the project is done I did it. I didn’t buy it, I did it. My work may not be the best but it is my best work.
So get a kit you like, set yourself up a place to workon it, (it’s nice if you can have a spot where you can have it out and not have to pick up after every work sesion), take you time, and enjoy creating something. You may find that you like it.
My [2c] If you can build a sstick and tissue model airplane then you can build a “craftsman kit”. Like the man said take your time ,follow the instructions. The satisfaction you feel when finished is pretty, I hate to use the word intense, but it approaches that.[:)]
That is why they are called Craftsman kits. Here is how you could have found info concerning Craftsman kits. You can then ask the question for a particular kit and find more information. You could even ask, building wood craftsman kits. There is loads of info on the 'Net.
tatoo guy, just be sure that you understand some of the techniques involved working with wooden kits as opposed to styrene such as painting both sides of a wall to avoid warping, fuzzing up of the wood, etc. Some jigs and little tools from places like micrormark.com can make things much easier. Maybe someone here can recommend a good basic book explaining the techniques and little tricks involved. There have been many helpful threads (via a search). I haven’t ventured into this realm yet but will once my track is all laid. I could use a technique book recommendation too if there is one?
I would simply add to the above comments that there is a huge difference between simply being capable of building a craftsman kit…and building one well. The latter situation normally requires both personal skill and significant model building experience. If your next build is your first true craftsman kit, don’t honestly expect the resulting model to closely resemble the picture on the kit box…or you’ll probably be rather disappointed. [;)]
I would strongly recommend any one attempting their first true craftsman kit to tackle a couple of simpler examples first, like the smaller Bar Mills kits, to get a feel for the techniques called for in building such kits, as they differ considerably from those employed in building simpler plastic models.
I remember when what they now call a “craftsman kit” was called what it really was. Scratchbuilding supplies. When I buy a “Kit”, I expect to find at the very least, lumber cut to length, clapboard siding that is finished, ready to paint, and roofing material that doesn’t need to be cut as if I was an HO scale roofer. For what is usually a $50.00 price or better, I expect more.
I recently got a “kit” for a very detailed boat/trailer/accessories scene. Upon receiving it from Walthers, I see it is nothing more than some rough lead castings (very warped and distorted), that will probably take me several weeks to try to put together. It looked REAL good in the catalog though… Deceptive advertising! I had a similar issue with a RIX grain elevator in the Walthers flyer. The picture shown in the product description showed 2 grain silos and a grain elevator. When I got it, there was just the grain elevator leg, no silos. Why do they picture more than there really is? Walthers buyers beware…
