Question:where do you find you wood stock supplies?
Local hobby stores don’t carry much in terms of scratch building supplies. If you are lucky you’ll find a few sizes of styrene sheets.
I’ve given up on finding structural elements like tubing and beams. I’ll order them direct now
But hopefully you guys can direct me to a place for a good supply of small Woodstock. Balsa wood and the like. I have some wood support columns I would like to add to interiors of a few buildings.
Don
I buy my scratch building basswood from Midwest Products.
They have a pretty good selection of scale lumber as well as scale siding, thin plywood and balsa.
I normally buy in bulk which gets free shipping. Their scale lumber is very nice.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
Not sure where you live, but I could swear I’ve seen some stripwood at Hobby Lobby, Michael’s and Pat Catan’s.
Jim
The previously mentioned suppliers are good sources. It really depends, however, on your building material of choice and what you’re modeling. Probably the easiest material to work with is styrene. These materials, be they sheet or shapes, can be purchased through several very good suppliers; Evergreen and Plastruct come to mind. Any hobby store, like Hobby Town USA, or a local shop usually carries them. Sometimes you can get wood materials from your local Hobby Lobby or Michaels, in addition to the scale lumber suppiers previously mentioned. These too may be found at the hobby stores. I even use card stock occasionally, but I usually use that for any mock-ups that I build.
Michaels and A.C. Moore craft stores carry balsa and basswood, to some extent. The local True Value hardware store has metal rods and tubing, plus some brass strips. We still have a hobby shop that carries styrene sheets and shapes.
I would occasionally go to the Northeast Scale Lumber shop, but they shut down the retail store and are now strictly mail order.
wood is no longer my choice .styreen is. there is evergreen, plastruct , BEST, grandt line, tichy the list goes on and on .i no longer buy from on or off line hobby shops for what i need i go the company…
All the hardware stores around here, Ace, True Value, Do it Best, etc., have a display case of K&S metal shapes, and rods.
I tend to use plastic for most builds. Always been able to find want I need at my closest LHS. About 25 miles.
Mike.
I generally get my scratchbuilding supplies from my local hobbyshop, but no longer use wood for modelling. I also buy some materials directly from the companies which offer it, such as Tichy, Bowser, Atlas, and others.
For larger projects, such as kitbashed structures where all kit walls are used on the visible sides, I get plain .060" styrene, in 4’x8’ sheets, from a nearby plastics supplier. Such sheets are used for the unseen sides of the structures, as well as for roofs and interior bracing.
Wayne
My LHS [120 mi roundtrip] has a pretty decent inventory and I get a lot from them.
I also shop the online sales,if I can justify the shipping. I try to keep a fair inventory on hand,and not wait till I need it. So when the urge to build comes I at least have enough to start.I use both wood and plastic, each have thire own +&-
That may be the case, but that display is now a mere shadow of it’s former self. K&S appears to have discontinued many of the structural shapes it used to sell.
I use a few different place’s. Such as…
http://www.hobbylinc.com/model-scratch-building-plastic-supplies
http://www.hobbylinc.com/model-scratch-building-plastic-supplies
http://modelexpo-online.com/Wood-for-Modeling
http://www.historicships.com/Wood/WoodMenu.htm
My favorite’s list is too long to post here, so I just put the one’s that I order from the most.
Hobbytown,Hobbylobby or on line.
I live in the same town Northeast Scale Lumber is in, and didn’t know the retail store had closed. When did that happen? Maine Trains is also gone, so are there any hobby stores left in our area? I hate ordering small things like Micro Sol and Micro Set.
I save junk that I can use on my layout including coffee stirring straws and wood stirring sticks, small parts from old plastic models, packing styrofoam from things I order, card board, etc…
I am fortunate to frequent many well stocked hobby shops in Florida and Georgia.
.
If I did not travel for work, I would be in trouble when it comes to model railroading supplies.
.
-Kevin
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I think NESL closed the retail shop a couple of years back. Maine Trains was my go-to LHS, and losing them took a lot of the energy out of my own layout.
Hobby Emporium in Tyngboro is very well stocked. Unfortunately, they are mostly an MSRP pricer. If you can wait, they have a twice-a-year sale that’s very good. I don’t think they have a real web site, but they’re on Facebook.
They have more structure kits than most shops, both in HO and N. There are scratchbuilding supplies in the front, scenery stuff in the back, as well as some detail parts. This is a “full service” hobby shop, so they’ve got model airplanes, ships and tanks, too, and even rockets.
Even if you aren’t buying anything, it’s a fun place to spend an hour or so. It’s across from the Pheasant Lane Mall.
The loss of Maine Trains is such a bummer. I now work about 2 miles from Gerry’s old shop location. There are so many nights after work that I wish I could stop in and wander around. I would always find something that I needed.
There used to be a mail order place back in the 1960s called Craftsman Specialty Supply that specialized in just this sort of stuff. They may even have had their own lines of shapes and materials. They’ve been gone for years.
As I have mentioned from time to time I live near Walthers and I think I can speculate why some hobby shops shy away from strip wood to scale sizes and wood structural shapes – the bargain shelves at Walthers are repleat with very inexpensive wood because it was damaged in shipping or handling, and I suspect hobby shops see the same damage in what they receive or what their customers do if customers have direct access to it. Partly the packaging is to blame – HO scale 1’x4" and 1" x 2" dimensional lumber from Northeastern is very delicate stuff yet it is in a plain plastic bag and is about a foot long, easily bent. The stuff breaks if you just breath on it. For my purposes the broken pieces are still quite usable so I and other Milwaukee area modelers are the beneficiaries of this bonanza (as with the other damaged or damaged packaging or discontinued stuff on the Walthers shelf) but this is a cost that of course is passed on.
I am sure the same happens at hobby shops and they just get tired of it.
Decades ago Ayers had scale lumber in HO and O where the clever packaging was sturdy cardboard that held the wood in place at both ends.
To Wayne’s point I too love to work with styrene but for structures and some other uses I also do like quality wood. Fortunately we now have the glues that can do it justice.
Dave Nelson
They’re my go-to LHS. The staff are helpful and encouraging and they have a pretty good range of stuff.
I’ll visit hobby Emporium soon. I did enjoy going to Maine Trains and Modeler’s Junction, and later NESL. We used to have a hobby store in most every town in our area. Sad to see them go.