N Scale Structure Studios McCroy's Store Front

[AlanJ3A]

What is the price point?
I'd look to find a place for it
Alan

[Bob Bufkin]

Meant without the lettering.  I can always decal it.

[towl1996]

Yeah, The idea of replacing a DPM storefront is intriguing, but I'm not sure I want to "steal" that idea.

It's not called "stealing", its called capitalism. And contrary to the opinions of our so called national "leaders", it still works. Those who can do it faster, cheaper, better win. So you have my "blessing" to procede. 

[TiVoPrince]

Many 
websites and brick-mortar stores out there with millions of parts designed to modify your Ford or Chevy.  Just about any bit you may want or need is out there.  There is a market for genuine original manufacturers parts but also a market for shinyer or cheaper parts.  No accounting for taste, if you want chrome flames on your Pepto Bismol Pink alternator somebody out there is prepared to 'scratch your itch' with a customized part.  Not all replacement parts are as good as the original, but sometimes a little chrome plating is more desireable than reliability.

Filling a desire is an excellent niche to fill in any business...

[DKS]

Not all replacement parts are as good as the original, but sometimes a little chrome plating is more desireable than reliability.

My concern is just the reverse: when the storefront looks far better than the balance of the building, the result is, well, kind of awkward. Would it not look odd when the face of the structure has nice crisp scale bricks, while the rest has melty-looking cinderblocks for bricks? That was my point about being reluctant to "steal" the idea. It's not out of concern for doing the same thing as someone else, so much as it is creating a kluge of a model.

[peteski]

I'd get one if the price point was right.  I agree that simply removing the lettering would be the thing to do.  It would be easy enough to print out the name you want with a 3-d effect and be done with it.

I think the problem isn't so much with alignment, as it might be an optical illusion due to the shape of the letters.  Back when I learned hand lettering, one of the tricks of the trade is to make round letters a touch taller, extending beyond the base line a bit as well as above the other letters to make them look more proportional to the square letters around them.  The space created by the curves makes the eye think the O is smaller, even though by dimension its exactly the same size. 

The uneven lettering caught my attention in the small photo originally provided.  But that is the least of the problems.  After looking at the bigger picture  , other stuff surfaced. The windows (which are supposed to be the same size) seem to all be different sizes (and not just by a little bit - there is quite a difference in sizes between all the windows).  There are also several features of the building that are supposed to be symmetrical but they are not (again, by quite a bit).

[One of One-Sixty]

Well I got word from the manufacture, that he is reworking the molds right now and is cleaning up the front big time.  Thew new version will not have the lettering on the lower facade.  The price point I believe is the same as the other two (Park Theatere and Fire House), which is $10.  The extra floor addition for the kit-bashers out there should be around $5.

[TiVoPrince]

$15USD
plus a little shipping seems a reasonable price for what you get.  Of course I would need to thouroughly defile it with California required seismic reinforcing plates/bolts/fittings before installation.  Anybody who has seen these in real life will testify that they are seldom straight or have any kind of purposeful layout that makes sense to the casual observer.  These arcitectural autraucities would certainly be obvious enough to make minor dimensional errors moot, earthquakes make a mess of buildings over time and I look forward to thouroughly molesting this model when it becomes available...

[Catt]

Sidewall detail for me is rather  a non issue as my buildings are assembled in blocks of four to six stores where only the very end building sidewalls matter because they are the only walls seen.I usually just use regular styrene sheet to make dividing walls between various stores.

I would like to see DKS do new store fronts for DPM Hays Hardware and the other stores,but I suspect we would have to convince him there is a market for such things.

[Roger Holmes]

I agree with Roger that real structures often have vastly inferior brick (product quality and workmanship) on side and rear walls often for the same reason stated here, that they aren't normally visible.

OTOH if DKS wants to do some nice complete kits, particularly art deco style, I'd be in for a few

[termite]

Many of the buildings in the downtown (oldest) part of my hometown have this style of facade on the front. Some of them are early 20th/ late 19th century buildings, with the sides & rear showing the rough and well worn brickwork. So, at least for my area, have a building with crisp, modern lines on the front and well worn "melted" looking brickwork on the sides would be normal.

Alan

[eric220]

DKS-

Do it.

[Roger Holmes]

+1

[jereising]

DKS:  While we know you love a challenge, please resist if it will delay the coupler!