Friends,
I also have been somewhat overwhelmed with the quality and quantity of
structure kits in our favorite scale. Back when I started my layout it
was pretty much FinesKinds, Mini-structures, and Leigh Valley. And like
everybody at the time, I inherited the basic Mini-structures single
story station and I built the Leigh branchline station. It didn't take
me too long before discovering that everybody else had those same
structures. But over the years we've added so many neat buildings. I
enjoy building structures so if you add up all the false fronts on my
layout I bet I'm in the 150-200 range. So I have a 1:1 ratio between
cars and structures (that was for Jim King). I probably have a dozen
car kits to build and only two structure kits waiting in line.
I'll agree with Jim here, and say simple buildings will work in most
situations. I too have one Bar Mills buildings...love it, but one goes
a long way. I often stop along roads less traveled, stop in small towns
and photograph all the neat and varied buildings on mainstreet. I did
that when coming back from Bob Jackson's layout in Illinosis, I did it
in Fort Worth near the stockyards, covered some neat buildings with Bill
Click a few years back in some East Texas villages. I photographed some
basic buildings near my hometown in South Dakota that garnered an award
with a local graphics society. I look at all the detail that you can
add to a kit from Plasticville on up, to make it look like it's been
there a long time.
However, one thing most kits/final buildings seem to lack is provisions
for a basement. Many areas have basements and I've only seen one, the
Monon Shop provided one on his Bob's Barbershop kit. I'm talking about
a raised building with small windows near ground level and around the
perminter. Often there was an outside stairway leading down to the
basement level. That stairway usually had a pipe safety railing and the
local guys would sit on that railings--a great place to add character!
One thing I wish for is a windmill. I've seen an etched brass version
in HO while I have two of the earlier Woodland's scenic's soft metal
versions. Even though windmills differ vastly in height these don't
even match the smallest I've seen, so they only work really far in the
distance for S. A windmill would work for any isolated water tank until
the late steam era, and many farms still have and use them today. I feel
one would have to do a tremendous amount of work to solder one together
and I need 2-3 on my layout...so that remains on my wish list!
Bob Werre
Guys:
At the risk of growing the thread, my random, non-critical thoughts
on others' thoughts:
The elephant in the room that seems to be so often overlooked, is that
we are very small numerically speaking, with widely varying
architectural needs and wants While a lot of guys on this list
complain about how little is available in structure kits, I marvel at
how much there actually is. If you were to add up all the S scale
offerings, past and present from various structure manufacturers, I'm
sure it would number into the hundreds.
Personally, I enjoy scratch building specific (to my needs)
structures, but I do buy the odd kit if I think I can make it fit the
scene I want to create. When considering a kit, I prefer simple,
typical structures.
I love the look of Bar Mills structures but but too many on my layout
would make it look like a theme park. I have purchased their "One
Kit" because it's a clever concept I can probably use in the future
without have to scare up a lot of scratch building materials
Back to the typical, I will be ordering Altoona's branch line water
tank. It's close enough to what I need. Typical sells, At least to me.
As for those who can't find a structure kit specific to their needs,
try scratch building. The fact that you're willing to tackle a kit at
least means you have no" tool allergies"
My two cents
Cheers'
Jim Martin.
