Seriously I'm about to lose it...

[RDG_Rich]

Obviously WS seems to think it will sell, (and it probably will) or it wouldn't be released. There are some Model Railroaders that have more money than time, and you have to admit, building a layout takes lots of time. I'm not even half way done on a Hollow Core door that was started in October. (my problem is little money, decent amount of time)

If I had all the money in the world would I buy it? No. I like modeling, and besides If I had all the money in the world, I would have tons of time, because I certainly wouldn't be workin! 

To each his own.  I'll still just buy ground foam and figs from them.

[Dave V]

The biggest thing you lose on a pre-built is the opportunity to personalize the structure.  Each of these WS structures comes painted the same way with the same carnival-like collection of bright signs and brightly painted details.

You can take the time to paint and weather a pre-built and make it less identical to everyone else's.  That's what I did with the Walther's tower and section house immediately behind it:

[Denver Road Doug]

I think Tony's post illustrates perfectly why this kind of product can command the crazy price.

That's the great thing about this hobby...you can focus on many different aspects.  But, probably not ALL of them.  Look at the outstanding freight car detailing and weathering going on here.  Those guys probably wouldn't have time to build a hundred structures for a large layout, or if they do then probably wouldn't be able to do the track or wiring or whatever else at the same high level.  Point being, few folks have time to be great at everything so at some point you either concede or you farm it out.

But, that Bachmann house sure does seem like a good value though.  Nice find!

[sirenwerks]

The more I think about it, the more I think WS is making a move for the Michaels demo/psycho-graphic. By pre-assembling and pricing at a 'craft' level, me thinks WS is trying to position these products to steal the Lionel-stinky-steam-induced holiday-time memory position on store shelves, just as Micro-Trains has been moving towards. Think about it, N scale takes up less shelf space and has that oh-so-cute effect on women, who hold an awful lot of impulse purchasing power.

The only problem is, rather than selling it to 'those people' WS keeps giving it to us. I don't have a problem with that idea per se, I'll just ignore such ludicrous pricing and scratchbuild my own, but what if it means WS and MT are hijacking the hobby and all manufacturers start migrating that way? Sound the alarms! I smell a conspiracy...

[MichaelWinicki]

but what if it means WS and MT are hijacking the hobby and all manufacturers start migrating that way? Sound the alarms! I smell a conspiracy...

I don't think you have to worry about that.

Every industry has the high-priced, medium-priced and low-priced providers.  It's how this stuff works.

MT has their high-priced cars... Atlas comes out with the Trainman line.   Woodland Scenics comes out with high-end built-ups, you'll still have your Bachmann's, IMEX and Model Power offering lower priced products.

There will not be any sort of conspiracy.

[MichaelWinicki]

I think Tony's post illustrates perfectly why this kind of product can command the crazy price.

That's the great thing about this hobby...you can focus on many different aspects.  But, probably not ALL of them.  Look at the outstanding freight car detailing and weathering going on here.  Those guys probably wouldn't have time to build a hundred structures for a large layout, or if they do then probably wouldn't be able to do the track or wiring or whatever else at the same high level.  Point being, few folks have time to be great at everything so at some point you either concede or you farm it out.

But, that Bachmann house sure does seem like a good value though.  Nice find!

Good points DRD.

It takes time to build a decent sized layout with many buildings.  And built-ups offer a short-cut to getting a layout to the semi-finished stage.   

House kits in plastic are in short-supply when it comes to N-scale.  It's not long before you've exhausted what's available and the built-ups offered by Bachmann and IMEX can give a layout a decent variety of houses.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I just got my MB Klein box with 20 various Walthers modular kits. I have another 15 on order at my LHS. Oh man, now I have to figure out what to build.

As for houses, these are nice, but I'm still looking for POST WAR capes, bungalows, ranches and yes, even a Mc-Mansion or too. I still don't understand how we can have a dozen manufacturers make the same exact company house while no one has made a post war house.

[train1]

The biggest thing you lose on a pre-built is the opportunity to personalize the structure.  Each of these WS structures comes painted the same way with the same carnival-like collection of bright signs and brightly painted details.You can take the time to paint and weather a pre-built and make it less identical to everyone else's.  

I agree Dave - it is what gives each modeller his own identity. Anybody can spend a king's ransom for a prebuilt - but it's the individualization of the building that stands out from a layout. How many layout tours have you been on where you see the same building in the same scene in the same colours. This is where you take the kit shake it up and throw it on the table and then bash it into something a little different.

[Nato]

    The Bachmann Farm House is an exact copy of the old Revell HO Farm House same color scheme,the window screens found on the Revell are done on the Bachmann,but are slightly over size. This is the Farm House in the Farm scene that I keep posting in layout photos. Bachmann also copied the Revell HO barn execpt for leaving a delecate celestory off the roof. It even features an interrior with stalls, it weathers nicely, it is the barn in my farm scene. Unfortunately Bachmann did not do the out buildings,chicken coop, shed that Revell did in HO. Revell's were kits, Bachmann ready to run. Revell also did a suburban house version with a stand alone garage,not done in N. I also have one of the Bachmann Farm Houses that was factory assembled with a different poarch roof overhang configuration. Do not know if this was on purpose or a factory error. Best house out there is the Bachmann Kit for a real house you could buy from Sears Robuck in the 1920's 30's like a big prefab kit,they offered several house designes.                                 Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[sizemore]

The Bachmann house is on the left.  Atlas is on the right and was about 3x the cost of the Bachmann.

Right $25 for the Atlas house, and it swamps the Bachmann in detail and craftsmanship. That totally beats out $50 for the overdone Woodland Scenics house (or the rest of their line for that matter).

Walthers has been doing it right for the past few years. Larger buildings come in kit form, smaller buildings come assembled with a $15 - $25 pricetag and they're not overdone.

I have to agree with Sirenworks, all of the Woodland Scenics preassembled buildings are "cutesy" like the porcelain villages that Walmart, Target and the craftstores sell to go around the ancient staple of Christmas setups the  roving iceskaters on the unrealistic elevated frozen pond.

Maybe Woodland Scenics folks have been listening a little too much to Garrison Keillor and his Prarie Home Companion (aka Lake Wobegon).

The S.

[sizemore]

And to totally go in the opposite direction:

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Atlas_N_C628_Lehigh_Valley_p/atl-54116.htm

Anyone notice a problem?

The S.

[SkipGear]

The more I use the Woodland Scenic Ready Builts, the less I think of them as "cutesy". In the box, the added details look, well, like added details. Once they are planted on the layout, it makes you realize how sterile everything else is and you start detailing other buildings to match. We live in a world of "stuff". Stuff leaning against the wall, stuff piled in the corner, stuff here and there. Here are some of the HO Ready Builts with scenery around them that don't look half bad. (Yes they look exactly like every other one produced but most of the people that see this layout don't have that reference.)



Granny's house that started all this....(in HO)



This is a combination of the Woodland Station, Walthers Platforms, Walthers crossing tower, and the rest scratch built. I need to take a new shot of this now that th area around it is mostly finished.



P.S. Most of the trees are stand ins in these shots.

[wm3798]

But let's look at this through the lens of what I'll call "The Railwire Way"... (Think Riders in the Sky, and doing things the "Cowboy Way".)

As general rule, we prefer finding good ingredients, then working on a recipe to get the finished product we want.  I think that, perhaps more than any other forum, we think of ourselves as builders, or dare I say... Creators.  We are open minded and flexible, and even polite when it comes to our "open the box" brethren, because afterall, we all share an interest in model trains...

But I think the philosophy here is that Pre-built/pre-assembled/pre-painted/pre-detailed/pre-weathered anything sort of defeats the purpose of building and/or creating.

Of course, taken in context, a grouping of pre-built houses that are inserted into a well-crafted scene is not the same thing as a prebuilt house stuck on a grass mat... and as such can be viewed as a perfectly reasonable short cut (as Tony demonstrates immediately above).  I don't think we would, though, install those houses without hitting them with some weathering, or perhaps changing the trim paint or doing SOMETHING to personalize each building.

I view the membership here as being much more visionary than the average bear.  We tend to look at models, whether from a kit or prebuilt, as a starting point.  If the prebuilt fits into our vision of the overall scene, then we don't mind parting with a few bucks to make that happen.  For me, I look at the prebuilt as an idea that might be pursued... If I like the way it looks, I wonder can I build it from Evergreen stock and window castings?  How could I improve it?

The bottom line?  There are those who have a bottom line and a philosophy that allows them to buy these things, and put them on their layouts unmodified without a second thought.  I'm okay, you're okay.  

But the modelers assembled here, I think, have higher expectations of themselves than to settle for that.
Lee

[SkipGear]

To reply to Lee's take on things....

You notice these are not on my layout but a layout I am helping a gentleman with. If I was the one footing the bill, and time was unlimited, kit's would be the order of the day. In this situation though, I welcome the ready builts and the owner is very happy with the level of detail that they have. Most of the ReadyBuilts on the layout have had or will have some modification before this is all finished. The one's I showed are primarily stock out of the box. The rest of the Woodland buildings on the layout are in the city area and that right now is just a bunch of quickly assembled buildings awaiting final detailing. The Woodland buildings in that area will be reworked to match the feel of the rest of the city. I figure the next 6-9 months will be spent finishing up the city area with lighting, people and grunge.

[sizemore]

The more I use the Woodland Scenic Ready Builts, the less I think of them as "cutesy". In the box, the added details look, well, like added details. Once they are planted on the layout, it makes you realize how sterile everything else is and you start detailing other buildings to match. We live in a world of "stuff". Stuff leaning against the wall, stuff piled in the corner, stuff here and there. Here are some of the HO Ready Builts with scenery around them that don't look half bad. (Yes they look exactly like every other one produced but most of the people that see this layout don't have that reference.)



Granny's house that started all this....(in HO)



This is a combination of the Woodland Station, Walthers Platforms, Walthers crossing tower, and the rest scratch built. I need to take a new shot of this now that th area around it is mostly finished.



P.S. Most of the trees are stand ins in these shots.

Skip,
I totally agree with you about the prebuilt buildings and their affects on modelling but everything you've presented is HO. The HO buildings from Woodland Scenics are GREAT. They are on par in detail and craftmanship. In comparison to their N scale counterparts they are lackluster at best. I mean it looks like a two year old with fingerpaints did the work on the details. They are apples and oranges in detail quality and craftsmanship. I'd rather spend 25 clams on an Atlas or Walthers building and spend the rest on details to make the scene and have it look the part versus and item I spent twice the funds on, prebuilt with details that I can barely distinguish.



Versus



Is that a kiddie pool? If thats a blanket grandma worked overtime.

My .02 and it's Canadien,
The S.