Mrs WHD bought me Woodland Scenics Otis Coal Company for Christmas. The white metal castings in the kit are HORRIBLE! Flash that can be measured with a wooden ruler and some details destroyed by voids in the metal. The list goes on and on.
Is this normal for WS kits or did I get an oddball?
This is normal for WS products, you need to do a lot of filing an cutting to clean them up. I assume since many of their kits have been around for quite some time now that the molds are getting worn, making their parts even worse than in the past when I assembled most of them. But the stuff cleans off with coarse files, then finer files.
For the price, their stuff isn’t too bad even though they need more work. At least when you complete one of their kits you should have a feeling of accomplishment that you wouldn’t get from an RTR kit - open the box and plop in on your layout!
I agree with Bob, the castings can be awful but I have always been able to get them cleaned up with some elbow grease. I actually really like the results that can be achieved with some of the mini scenes that they have. I tend to carve off the worst of the flash with an old hobby knife and then go to work with my jewelers files to get them really cleaned up. Don’t forget to wash them in soapy water before painting as they are usually covered in release compound as well.
If you got any missing or too misshapened parts their costomer service is A+++++++++++. Had a bunch of old kits I built and some had issues and they fixed them all, never worked with a better company and know I don’t work or anything else with the company!
I ran into this with their metal stuff too. Almost had to use a hacksaw to get the flashing off.
Just got a hydrocal tunnel portal that was in about 9 peices when I opened the box. The directions basically said WHEN you break this, just glue it back together. Also got a drainage culvert in HO that’s big enough to drive a car through.WAY out of scale. The N scale one is a lot closer to the proper size.(they do have great detail though)
A friend of mine has the WS Otis Coal and the sawmill on his layout and they look terrifi. Yes, they take time to build because of the excess flashing on the castings. But if you invest the time and effort you will have two structures that will rival any of the big dollar kits you see advertised. Remember the old building contractor saying “I can build it cheap, fast, and high quality, pick two”.
Steve B.