Vintage JV Models #107 Hornbeck Station Craftsman Kit N Scale

[TimF]

Hi,
has anybody ever built this kit?
I am relatively new in building craftsman kits but the kit looks very modern to me and I think, your experience would help me a lot

Vintage JV Models #107 Hornbeck Station Craftsman Kit N Scale

Tim

[randgust]

I'm assuming you mean this one:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1260/4747/products/3704399_1024x1024.jpg?v=1571727435

I remember it, never built it.   

If it really is Hornbeck, LA that's a wide spot in the road in central LA on KCS that no longer has any structures at all there according to Google Earth but a spot at the road crossing that looks like a depot was there.   If there was a second, newer, station there replacing the wood one that is documented there's virtually no photos of it out there.    Where I often start on a structure kit is going back to the original building (if it exists) looking for clues on what it really looked like as most instructions have virtually no information on the actual building if it was a real one.

LA digital library shows a wood station that was there until 1960, so that kind of dates any replacement building to that year.
https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/lsu-sc-p16313coll79:collection?page=1
So by train station standards, yes, that's a 'modern' station.   It shows up on the KCS 1963 passenger train schedule on the Shreveport - Port Arthur line
http://streamlinermemories.info/South/KCS63TT.pdf

There's some really good modelers here that can help you with details on construction.  JV's aren't necessarily the best for instructions and material.
The instructions show die-cut bristol board, castings, 'roofing material', etc.
https://trainsnscale.com/jv-models-107-kansas-city-southern-hornbeck-station-craftsman-structure-kit/
  I'm curious how the 'brick' walls are done; looks like brick paper to be glued on the walls.  And windows - cast metal or brass or plastic.... 
First easy recommendation is to always, always paint your windows and doors before installation.   I'm also guessing that you'll have to 'edge paint' all that bristol board at the joints and edges as the brick paper can't cover everything, anything close to brick works.
One thing you might want to consider is making the roof or the building removable (from the foundation) to add detail or lighting to the interior as the windows are pretty big and the interior walls are supplied.

Little modern stations like that resulted from an existing one either being beyond hope for repair or relocated for some reason.   ATSF had Trinidad, CO, Galesburg, Il, Fort Madison, IA, Williams Jct. Az (gone).  But they did tend to be on 'main lines' that still had passenger service during the final streamliner era.

[nickelplate759]

I think I still have this kit somewhere - I started it many years ago, but never finished it, mostly because it wasn't what I needed.  Later today I'll see if I can dig it up - maybe the instructions say where the prototype was? The following description is from memory:

The kit is made with cardboard sub-walls, die cut with  brick paper overlay and cast white metal windows. No window glasing.   Some stripwood as well, such as for the roof fascia.   The roofing material is sandpaper.   There's also a base from die-cut cardboard.

Decent instructions.  Definitely old-school craftsman kit.

[pmpexpress]

The instructions show die-cut bristol board, castings, 'roofing material', etc.
https://trainsnscale.com/jv-models-107-kansas-city-southern-hornbeck-station-craftsman-structure-kit/
  I'm curious how the 'brick' walls are done; looks like brick paper to be glued on the walls.  And windows - cast metal or brass or plastic.... 
First easy recommendation is to always, always paint your windows and doors before installation.   I'm also guessing that you'll have to 'edge paint' all that bristol board at the joints and edges as the brick paper can't cover everything, anything close to brick works.
One thing you might want to consider is making the roof or the building removable (from the foundation) to add detail or lighting to the interior as the windows are pretty big and the interior walls are supplied.

While I cannot tell you what is packaged in the currently produced kits, the previously run versions that I have on hand have the following parts attributes:

1. The kit's window and door castings are all cast metal.

2. Somewhat thicker than conventional printer paper and thinner than index card stock, the brickwork (which measures 2.5" x 4.125") is printed on several light gray card stock sheets that resemble the ones that Walthers sold many moons ago.

3. The simulated roofing is created from fairly thick, black colored sanding film sections.

4. A die-cut Bristol board sheet is used to construct the station's roof sections.

5. Not die-cut, two Bristol board sheets with printed markings are used for the structure's base and wall sections.

[nkalanaga]

Walthers used to sell brick paper sheets that looked just like that - odd color combination and all.

[Kentuckian]

2. Somewhat thicker than conventional printer paper and thinner than index card stock, the brickwork (which measures 2.5" x 4.125") is printed on several light gray card stock sheets that resemble the ones that Walthers sold many moons ago.

[randgust]

And, bluntly, when it's just brick paper, you're not obligated to use that supplied material.

There's some really nice photo-quality brick material out there now.   I've seen photo'd brick material that's way more realistic than any printed brick paper to the point where it's a real double-take as to how it was done.

On my own structures, I've used thin embossed plastic sheet over top of the board material and put it on with epoxy (which won't shrink or warp over time,or dissolve the plastic). 

I don't know if the cast windows mount on the outside or the inside, but one common thing about brick and masonry buildings is that the windows are USUALLY not mounted on the outside face, but inset in the wall with no casing over the wall edge itself like a sided wood wall would have.   That's where it helps to try to find some photos of the original building or close to it, because the shortcuts taken to make a quick and dirty kit are sometimes just....wrong, and easily fixed.   It may make a huge difference in realism to mount the windows on the inside of the wall rather than the outside, just think about that. 

Although these are scratchbuilt, the construction methods are the same.    These are all made from heavy cardstock/strathmore, reinforced on the back with stripwood (and a LOT of it), then covered on the front with something.   It may be photo printed, it may be conventional papers, it is typically embossed styrene sheet and painted.   But depending on what I'm trying to do, I'm not fixed in my approach, and I'm looking at the real buildings along Santa Fe Ave. in Flagstaff to do it.    Pay particular attention to the windows, in most cases, they are mounted on the back - which is why the windows have so much wood around the back to make a thicker wall to put the windows on from the inside.





This could just as easily be brick paper or any other material, there's nothing wrong with a core of Strathmore or Bristol Board or whatever you have.