New stuff from Walthers

[coosvalley]

The N scale stuff starts around 1:30:

[Brian M]

The urban overpass for N is a pleasant surprise.

-Brian.

[Maletrain]

Glad to see some wooden frame buildings.  I want to model some small towns in Appalachia that didn't have a lot of brick buildings in my era.

[Peter Amling]

The urban overpass and retaining walls are a perfect fit for Chicago and some areas I've been thinking about modeling. This is perfect timing for me.

[asarge]

Those are all nice and I can see spending some money on the overpass and bungalow.

[Mark5]

The (cool) houses were covered in the NTS report, but those overpasses can be found all over the place - very cool.

https://www.walthers.com/urban-steel-overpass-kit-d5a266

Also cool are the retaining walls:

https://www.walthers.com/urban-retaining-walls-kit

Mark

[OldEastRR]

Rather large footprints on the houses.

[C855B]

Glad to see some wooden frame buildings. ...

Ditto, moving in the right direction. However, they're still representative of Eastern architecture. I'm stymied by the lack of Plains and Western designs, either RTR or easy plastic kits. What I'm experiencing so far in craftsman kits tells me I'd better change my afterlife beliefs system to reincarnation if I am expected to populate my layout. 

[Chris333]

What I'm experiencing so far in craftsman kits tells me I'd better change my afterlife beliefs system to reincarnation if I am expected to populate my layout. 

Time to get your own laser    Seriously I've had stuff laser cut from my drawings and the costs are very low. I have no idea why laser "kits" are so expensive.  I had 4 N scale cabooses cut once and the cost was $8.50. While a laser cut N scale caboose "kit" is about $25.

[peteski]

Time to get your own laser    Seriously I've had stuff laser cut from my drawings and the costs are very low. I have no idea why laser "kits" are so expensive.  I had 4 N scale cabooses cut once and the cost was $8.50. While a laser cut N scale caboose "kit" is about $25.

I guess they charge you for the design time, creating instructions, packaging, etc.  Still, I do agree that the prices for what amount to just bunch of thin wood cut by a computer seems to be a bit on a high side.

[C855B]

I'm actually OK with the expense since there is definite value in the research and design work, it's the assembly time & effort that hangs me up. Cutting my own designs won't solve that. I have an AMB station in progress which happens to be exact for the location I'm modeling, and to say assembly of things like double-hung windows is beyond tedious is understatement. My thinking while it's being back-burnered for the Kelso project is to re-execute the built-up windows in 3D since the resin windows worked so well for Kelso.

That said, "hybrid" is creeping into my thinking more and more these days. As I tediously (...a theme here...) sand the scan lines on the Kelso building core, I have to acknowledge that this most-difficult bit to print on the FDM printer would have worked better as four slabs of styrene on the Cameo cutter, redesigning the windows to include the sills where they are in relief on the core 3D artwork. Slightly more difficult to paint, but in total much less effort.

[Chris333]

Design time. Most items come to be from the designer wanting them. Now the designer has them so why not sell them. I know things take time.

As for the rest yeah that all sucks, but I don't need a fancy box to hold my parts till I put them together.

Many laser kits don't even fit together well and nowadays they include plastic castings for windows and doors. The main point of a laser kit is that they are unique. Door and windows you can't get elsewhere. Anymore I think a laser kit should just be a piece of paper with plans on it so I can build it myself.

With your own laser you can take that first try that doesn't fit together and fix it. Or only make certain parts with the laser and 3D print others.


Now some laser kits come with a CD packed full of very detailed instructions and a bunch of jigs to build the model. These are like $500 kits and I bet the parts even fit together.

Remember those Atlas laser cut N scale garages that where like $50 

I see Atlas now has 3D detail parts.

[peteski]

Design time. Most items come to be from the designer wanting them. Now the designer has them so why not sell them. I know things take time.

As for the rest yeah that all sucks, but I don't need a fancy box to hold my parts till I put them together.

Many laser kits don't even fit together well and nowadays they include plastic castings for windows and doors. The main point of a laser kit is that they are unique. Door and windows you can't get elsewhere. Anymore I think a laser kit should just be a piece of paper with plans on it so I can build it myself.

With your own laser you can take that first try that doesn't fit together and fix it. Or only make certain parts with the laser and 3D print others.


Now some laser kits come with a CD packed full of very detailed instructions and a bunch of jigs to build the model. These are like $500 kits and I bet the parts even fit together.

Remember those Atlas laser cut N scale garages that where like $50 

I see Atlas now has 3D detail parts.

I agree with you on the pricing, but how can we convince manufacturers to take 50% off their prices? 

I also agree that some laser kits are not designed well and are poor fitting (or the details are so fine that they break when you sneeze on them).  I recently put a station building kit together (won't mention the manufacturer) and some of it fit very poorly, and the windows were way too delicate (and I'm no sausage-fingered guy - I can do some really miniature work).  Like you said, the designer/manufacturer should test their design and modify it until it is easy to assemble, and all the parts fit correctly. Seems like some of them don't do that.

Oh, those Atlas garage kits were ridiculously priced.  MSRP I would expect from Walthers or Bachmann. 

[Point353]

The (cool) houses were covered in the NTS report, but those overpasses can be found all over the place - very cool.
https://www.walthers.com/urban-steel-overpass-kit-d5a266

Also cool are the retaining walls:
https://www.walthers.com/urban-retaining-walls-kit

Above links seem broken - try these instead:
https://www.walthers.com/catalog/product/view/id/936644/s/urban-steel-overpass-kit-d5a266/
https://www.walthers.com/catalog/product/view/id/936645/s/urban-retaining-walls-kit/

[Mark5]

Above links seem broken - try these instead:

Links work fine in Firefox ...

But just tried it in Chrome and they didn't - weird.