Walthers N

[unclescott58]

As most people here know. I have other hobbies besides building model cars. I also have a very small N Scale Train layout in my basement. Recently, in the last couple of weeks, I picked up some more N scale building kits to add to my layout. The three I got are all part of the Walthers Cornerstone series of N scale of building kits. I love their kits. In general, they look like real buildings you'd find here in the United States. They go together quite nicely. The details are perfect for N scale. And in several of their kits, the give you options to build the kits in slightly different ways. 

The first kit I'm showing is their "Classic Car Restoration" shop. Kit #933-3824. A very nice kit I built without any paint. I love the decals in front windows. The first one reads, "Have Your Favorite Car." Second, "Brought Back to Like-New Condition!" Third, "We Restore them All!" Fourth, "From Model Ts to... Vipers." There are a few options in this kit to build the kit a few different ways. Mainly a different rear wall without the extra garage door. The only problem I had with this one. On the very last billboard light, as I was cutting the neck part for it from the sprue. I dropped it. Losing it somewhere on the floor. I'm going to contact Walthers and see if they'll help me replace that one tiny part. 

The second model is their "Vintage Dairy Queen." Kit #933-3845. Again, another nice kit. This one I did have to paint a few details. The roof sign is very nice. No decals required. The Dairy Queen sign comes as you see it. Preprinted. I had no problems at all building this one. The only option given in this kit is blank generic shaped sign you can use on the roof. 

The third kit is their "American Bungalow." Kit #933-3889. Again, it's as nice to build as the other two. To me it's a very cute little 1 1/2 story house. That comes with a nice detached 1 car garage. The basic house and garage walls were molded in a very pale yellow. Not the blue shown on the box art. And since I love blue, I had to do some painting. This kit came with several options. As seen on its box art, it comes with a second, enclosed front porch option. Which I though was ugly. When I bought it, I knew it came with the option of another porch. And the in the Walther catalog they show the their basically same HO scale kit with a nice (to me) opened porch. I took the chance that that was the option in the N scale kit. With few differences, it is. Another option in this kit is to build it without the two side dormers. A third option is leave garage door open. In fact the garage was pretty nice detail on the inside walls of the garage. You can see the inside wall frames. Problems? Nothing major. I discovered after I finished it, if you look closely, I put two the side widows in upside down. Though in N scale this is very hard to see. Most, if any will ever notice it. Also there was the very minor of a pain of having to cut out the glazing representing the window glass in this kit. It's very similar to the glazing used in several of the older Revell kits. I thought it would ridiculous to try cutting window glass for small basement windows in the foundation of the house. So I chose to do those with Testors' Model Master Clear Parts Cement & Window Maker. And that worked just fine. They look fine, when they dried. 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2020 by unclescott58

[peteski]

Looks good!  And you are correct - those are all nice little kits. Similar quality kits are also available from Atlas  (another N scale manufacturer). N Scale mode RR is my other hobby. I spend lots of time on https://www.therailwire.net/

 

[Dave Van]

N and HO model train guys have it good in the structure department.  I wish O had 1/10 of kits you guys have. O has some great kits but many are 'craftsman' kits with some crossing the $200-300 price line. 

This Downtown Deco kit was bought 2nd hand because it had a broken wall but was still $40. 

 

[unclescott58]

2 hours ago, Dave Van said:

N and HO model train guys have it good in the structure department.  I wish O had 1/10 of kits you guys have. O has some great kits but many are 'craftsman' kits with some crossing the $200-300 price line. 

This Downtown Deco kit was bought 2nd hand because it had a broken wall but was still $40. 

 

Dave, it's the HO guys who've got it made when it comes to the variety and amount of structures, rolling stock, etc. From my understanding N is the second most popular scale in miniature railroading, after HO. So I'm sure we've got it pretty good compared to other scales. But, we are still a poor second in popularity to HO. HO overwhelms all. I drool when I go through the HO sections in Walthers catalogs of recent years. Wishing I could have those things the HO guys can buy, in N. By the way, Walthers doesn't even publish a seperate N scale catalog anymore. We use to get a catalog with N and Z together. Now N and Z are small parts shared with HO in the same catalog. It makes it hard to not be even more jealous of those HO guys. 

Because of what's available in HO, I sometimes regret going with N scale in the first place. Yet I like the size of N. One can fit a lot of stuff into a very small place. And trust me, I live in a very small place. Without a lot room for any layout. N or HO. I mainly love passenger trains. Yet passenger trains are really too big for the layout I have. I can't imagine putting an HO, especially HO passenger train in the same space. 

By the way, I like the building above. What scale is it? It would look cool in my imaginary small town I'm building for my layout. Yet I've not seen that one available in N. 

[unclescott58]

4 hours ago, peteski said:

Looks good!  And you are correct - those are all nice little kits. Similar quality kits are also available from Atlas  (another N scale manufacturer). N Scale mode RR is my other hobby. I spend lots of time on https://www.therailwire.net/

 

Peter, your wright, Atlas does put out a couple of very nice structures. As you can see by my switching tower below. 

A lot of Bachmann structures really turn me off. But, the Buchmann Plus "Freight & Passenger Station" I found a few years ago. I've not seen a station for my layout I like better. 

 

[Dave Van]

I agree HO has it made.....I was in HO before going O in 1993. Structures are what I miss from my HO days.

Have you checked out some of the 3D printd structures for N scale??? Some WILD stuff soming out in that format.....about perfect for 3D printing.....and pretty cheap too.....some less than Walthers kits. 

The good thing in O is paper works well.....and is big enough for my failing hands to still build.....and cheap!

 

[peteski]

While H0 is the most popular scale (it has been all along), N scale is 2nd most popular, with all the other scales behind it.

So of course, the widest range of models available will be in H0.  But the N-scalers today have a huge variety of models available too.  These are the best of times for N scale.   Besides the plastic kits, there are oodles of laser-cut and 3D printed structures and if you were to peruse the Railwire forum, some modelers even design and 3D-print their own locomotive shells and some parts of the mechanisms (and kitbash their own locomotives not offered for sale by the model manufacturers).

A good historical look at the N scale is at http://www.davidksmith.com/modeling/index.htm (in the Modeling Resources section), but the rest of the website is also very informative. And for hundreds of N scale locomotive and rolling stock reviews see http://spookshow.net/.

Here are some manufacturers of good quality laser-cut structures: http://www.laserkit.com/laserkit.htm  and https://blairline.com/  , and I highly recommend checking out https://www.showcaseminiatures.net/n_scale/  for some really cool model kits.  There are also dozens of other N scale maunufacturers out there. The Walthers catalog lists most of them.

[unclescott58]

Walthers kindly sent the part(s) I need to really finish my Car Restoration Shop above. Nice guys, and great service. I'm impressed. 

 

[unclescott58]

Another addition to my Walther N scale collection of building. This one is Jim's Repair Shop. But, it comes with signs to put in to other uses. In this case I built it as Angie's Diner. I love the menu listing in the right front window. Naturally great prices by today's standards. I also like the thermometer I placed by the rear door. It's way too big for the scale. It would be at least 5 feet high in real life. But, living in a state like Minnesota (or is that Minnesnowta?), where it can get a little nippy. I couldn't resist using it.