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Does anyone have any recommendations for commercial building kits?
I've got a bit of space to fill in the town, after Merchants Row, Walther's seems to be a bit of a limited avenue in terms of commercial properties.
I'm currently constructing DPM's Dry Well Inks and I'm not overly impressed with the kit, so I was wondering if anyone had recommendations for other manufacturers?
I've had a look at the Faller range, they seem to do good looking building, if a little Germanic in appearance.
I dont know what era or scale your modeling, but the Walthers Cornerstone Series in both HO and N scales has buildings that are Commercial Based. just about all of there structures are for businesses and alot of them are larger buildings that you would see in an industrial type area.
Now if you are not modeling the modern era or anything past the early 90's really, i could see why the Walthers series would not work as well, unless you do like has been suggested, using the modular system to get an older style looking building. I think that Walthers should do some plain concrete wall type buildings tho, i would buy a bunch of them if they did....
DMP as you also suggested is another good source, ive never had any of there buildings, but they look pretty detailed and right up there with the quality of Walthers Cornerstone.
What kind of building are you looking for exactly? Do you have a specific business or Manufacturing company in mind?
HB, have you checked out the line of built-ups from Woodland Scenics? They are really nice models and not much more than than the paint and details would cost you to build one yourself. There are some at http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Sear...urer=Woodland+Scenics&RefineBy_Price=&Search=. If you want a more European look, Faller would be a better company to look towards.
Walthers, City Classics, Faller, Heljan, Kibri, korber, Pola & Vollmer & some that I can't remember anymore. I've got all of these buildings on my layout. Mostly Walthers(60%),
30% FALLER & all of the others. I've also got a bunch of scratchbuilt buildings.
I love the Pikestuff buildings, but, my "pet" project commercial buildings are Tyco! I love their kits. Oh, don't forget Downtown Deco and Summit Custom Cuts.
Josh, I've had very poor luck with Downtown Deco. The pictures look great but nothing is flat or plumb in the kit and nothing fits together right. Maybe it's just me but they are a high price to pay for some pretty crummy resin castings.
Well I'm half way through building DPM's Dry Well Inks and truth be told it looks like sh.. *ahem*. I can now see why everyone bemoans DPM's quality. Its shocking. I'm not a happy bunny. For the price I paid I would have expected a higher standard.
I'm thinking of ditching it (saving what parts I can) and going for the Walther's Modular 3-in-1.
Well I'm half way through building DPM's Dry Well Inks and truth be told it looks like sh.. *ahem*. I can now see why everyone bemoans DPM's quality. Its shocking. I'm not a happy bunny. For the price I paid I would have expected a higher standard.
I'm thinking of ditching it (saving what parts I can) and going for the Walther's Modular 3-in-1.
Got to agree with you there; to my mind and wallet, DPM is overpriced and under-detailed. The fit is poor, and the repetitive nature of the pieces - although truly 'modular' - tends to yield a very boring building.
Frankly, the Walthers Modular 3-in-1 suffers from the same malady. Some of their non-modular kits - at least they're not billed as modular - like the Prairie Star Milling are actually modular and yield a generic final look. I suppose that one could add details and kit-bash to yield a more distinctive building, but that begs the question: "Why go with these so-called modular kits in the first place?"
While the buildings may to big, you can always kitbash the kit and leave out walls to make the building smaller or an odd shape to fit your space available, many modelers tend to forget this and over look the fact that they really can use the building if they do a little work to it to make it work..... just a thought....
Well I'll admit, I'm too chicken (for starters) to start kit bashing. Although I'm now looking at the Walthers MR Freight House and Office -- I guess they could be amalgamated into a different structure somehow.
Most of Walther's Cornerstone series can be separated into numerous entities, I used the Oil Distributor's buildings in at least 3 different 'businesses'. The buildings themselves can be 'bashed but don't need to be.
