I’m new to the Hobby(as in “first layout that I have been doing for a while”, NOT “I have a train set on the floor and how do I put it on a board.”)and I’m 12(surprisingly though, I have not blown up the neighbor hood, or drilled a hole to China). My model railroad is in the scenery stage and I am looking for buildings, the only catch is, my railroad is set in the 1880’s and is western. I am looking for buildings from that period that are wood and are simple kits, no board by board. Any ideas?
http://www.railserve.com/jump/jump.cgi?ID=18799
http://www.jaksind.com/Page/ss_main.html
These two companies sell Western style models. (search around Jaks site. There’s a bunch of suitable kits)
http://www.discounttrainsonline.com/ho-scale-model-trains.html
Go to this stores structure section and you can surf all the different building kits they sell. You’ll have to do some searching cause some companies may only have 1 or 2 older Western style buildings.
The problem you’ll have is many Western buildings are going to be stick built wood craftsman kits. Don’t be afraid of them. They aren’t any harder to build than plastic.
[#welcome]
IVRW
Don’t overlook the plastic Grandt Line kits, either. They’re sold as ‘craftsman’ kits, but several of them make up into very fine old-timer buildings and they’re not THAT hard to put together. If you’re looking for a mine for your 1880’s railroad, they put out two fine mine kits, and they also have some fine town buildings and houses. They may take a little longer to put together than a simple wooden kit, but everything goes together as it’s supposed to.
And check IHC–they used to have a series of Old Time store kits in plastic that went together easily and looked pretty darned good.
Also–I don’t know what area of the Old West you’re modeling, but out here in California, by the 1880’s, most of the mining towns here were using brick construction to replace a lot of older wooden buildings because of fire hazards. So you wouldn’t be far off checking out some of the older brick building kits, either.
Tom [:)]
[#welcome] to the forum [tup] there is a company called Musket Miniatures that makes some fine old time western theamed kits ( also fine lead figures )
http://www.musketminiatures.com/
Check them out you may like what they have to offer.
Rob
“Lead figures”! and their not from China![:-^]
As far as the brick structures go, look for DPM at Walthers or another E-tailer for pics, & then go to your LHS to buy!! Model Power used to make a whole series of “wild west” buildings, but they were mostly the movie style of false front buildings that were really not that common in the “wild west”!! [:)]
I don’t know what they’d be going for, but Bachmann had some great simple kits that I had when I was a kid. Here’s a link to the model numbers with photos:
http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/bachmannhoscaleaccessoriesandkits/id37.html
Might find them on an auction site or a train meet.
Good luck and have fun. I was about your age when I started down this model railroading road and have never looked back.
Cheers,
Glenn
Dover Publications has some very nice period oriented buildings in Card. They come like, in a soft cover magazine, and you cut them out. They make about eight buildings for under $10. Also check out fiddlersgreen.com for a couple hundred buildings you can download for a nominal fee and they have many period pieces. I’m 64 and I love to build these paper kits. For your own use,you can copy and reprint the buildings on 65 lb. card and cut out parts to detail your models. I also scratch build wooden models and like the Cambell kits too. But you can’t beat card models for the economics. About half the people who see my models don’t notice they’re card.
Go to this website and print any of the buildings out. Than you can glue them to something more substantial and put them on your layout.
There is some old looking buildings here too http://www.dallasmodelworks.com/products/prodlist_accessories_manuf_structure.asp
Welcome to the forum. Campbell has some great kits on ebay from that era. They are difficlut, but I was able to deal with them at age 12, though I do better now. They are not for the timid, but are nice wqhen done. My grandkids did some of the Grantline kits, they were hard but possible. If you want shake the box and done, this will be difficult.
Even though you are looking for wood buildings made from wood kits, plastic can be made to look like wood, and if it is done right, it is very convincing. I do that to both metal and plastic kits. If you do a search here in the forums, you should be able to find quite a few techniques how to do it as it has been discussed before.