I'm just wondering if anyone else here gets as frustrated with building kits as I do. I attempted to put together the ADM Grain Elevator kit(by Walthers,I believe). First,the little lever/pulley thing on the door near the top broke on me(into three pieces,at that). Next,the grain elevators will not glue together at all.Then the supports for the tanks on the roof would also not fit together right for me to glue. I finally gave up on that kit out of frustration. Next,I started on the Red Wing Milling kit. Got the walls,windows,doors and even a loading dock and the stairway on,no trouble. It's on the base and everything. With a little trouble,I even got the railing for the stairs on one side of the building glued on. But now I'm doing the roof for the backside of the building where the truck loading dock is. I notice they give me these tiny little pieces:thumbs_down:that have two ends,one's supposed to go into a hole on the wall,and the other end goes into the roof. I've currently got the roof glued on(actually waiting on it to dry as I type this) before I try to make an effort to put those pieces on. I also tried messing around with the fire escapes,but it seems like they're gonna be a pain too. Maybe it's because I have big fingers,but I'm almost to the point that I'm going to buy buildings put together by other people instead of trying to piece these things together. I've got a Superior Paper kit sitting in a box,and I'm not even sure if I want to touch that. If O scale was cheaper,I would've stuck with that,or heck,I might even consider a move to HO.
Welcome to N scale. Be glad you aren't doing Z scale.. lol.. I too get frustrated. When I do, I simply walk away for awhile and come back to it later. I deal with it just knowing that is how it is going to be with a small scale. Get a good magnivisor if you dont have one already is all I can advise. Nimble fingers help which I have, and have always been good with, but it's my aging eyes I have more problems in our scale with than anything else. As frustrating as it is, I still enjoy the kit, and or kit bashing part of the hobby too much to give it up. If it isn't enjoyable to you to do the kits, then I would suggest you do have them built, or buy them pre-built and enjoy the rest of the hobby.
Sounds like you're going through what I realized... There's what you want to model, then there's what you CAN model. I realized recently that between my older eyes and older fingers, I apparently am not very good at it anymore. I can make good models, but at what cost in frustration. Personally, when it starts feeling like work, it's obviously not fun anymore. I've been working on life size things the last 8 years, and I think that ruined my modeling abilities. Now when I go to work on tiny stuff, I just can't do it anymore. I always wondered why the older guys did large scale stuff, but now I know. Maybe you could just do a layout that focuses more on scenery and less on buildings.
Are these all Walther's Kits? I've had no fun with those in the past. The pieces are all warped, nothing seems to go together correctly, and terrible instructions. You might try some kits from another manufacturer...don't give up! Just do one step at time. I usually do one thing, such, as glue a wall or paint something, and then call it a night.
Great. I've been busy acquiring tons of different Walthers kits. I've only put one together (Art Deco Underpass) and it was a little bit of a pain. I truly hope they are not all like that.
The grain elevator was a pain because I think the base for the silos is a bit warped. The base and walls for the Red Wing Milling kit seems to be fine so far. I'm having trouble with the smaller pieces. I might have to get used to using a pair of tweezers.
I've yet to build any of the Walthers kits without some kind of trouble. I had the ADM elevator and it was a mess to build. I've found it easier to build all my structures from scratch, and cheaper. I do have the Industrial gas tank kit from Walthers that I need for my Tacoma layout, but I'm dreading putting the thing together. cheers: Bill
That's the history with Walthers kits. They can't be built very easily as the parts aren't machined properly and none of the parts are "true". I much prefer laser cut building kits for that reason. I built the ADM kit many years ago and it's sitting in my parts box as I need parts for other things.
I have had trouble with the little detail parts in N, especially in the Walthers kits. I did one yesterdy (Bralick Bldg, but built as a 3 sided building to fit around the end of my peninsula skyboard) and they were all warped, etc. I held them flat with weights, glued, prayed, hoped, and let them dry for a while and they eventually fell into place. I hate to think what kits would cost if they thickened up the plastic enough to make them stiff. I also built the old Heljan Brewery bi-scale kit and the plastic on those old molds was a lot thicker, the pieces a lot flatter. Overall, I don't like building kits too much, but they are a necessary evil to get where I want to go. BTW, while Walthers was known to have some issues on their early kits, the later ones, like the Rolling Mill had tabs and were quite easy to put together and kitbash.
I recently built the Atlas interlocking tower. I was very impressed. The parts went together perfectly. The joints fit square and the stairs fit right. It is one of the nicest kits I have built in a while. I did not glue the roof on as I plan to detail the interior. It sits nicely on top and few people notice it is not glued down. All of my Walthers kits, I reinforce the walls with plastic I-beams to help keep them flat ans use angles in the corners to help hold them together. My only other suggestion, work slow and let the glue set before moving on. Patience is a virtue...right? Dave G Cache Valley & Northern RR
Guess I've been lucky.....I've had none of the problems mentioned....at least not to any great degree. Admittedly the instructions aren't the best, but sure beat the heck out of the heljan kits I've done which simply have an exploded parts picture. And I always fit my parts before glueing , clamp the walls, ect. so maybe I just didn't notice any fit problems. As far as warpage, Walthers kits are one of the few that I HAVEN'T had problems with (Heljan is the other)......I have had problems with DPM, Micro-engineering, and several wood/laser-cut kits I've done
An Optivisor and several types of tweezers are mandatory, along with a ton of patience. a very sharp blade and sprue cutter are all needed. It's a miracle with the tiny thin pieces on many of these kits, any of them ever get finished and actually look any good. I keep trying though ! Keith.
Alas, building model railroad locomotives, cars, and structures from kits not only requires skills no longer taught in schools (how many boys still get "shop" in fourth grade?), but they also require one human trait in very short supply in today's "instant gratification" world - patience. My wife used to ask, "How can you call that fun when you use every bad word you know when building one?" I tell her, "You've never felt the pride of overcoming the obstacle and building something you're pleased with." Keep at it, eventually you'll understand...
The ADM Silos gave me some trouble, I got them in place pretty well, but it took some time and ALOT of patience. A little squadron putty and they will look slendid.
i finished the walthers dairy complex not too long ago. i was shocked at how well it actually went together. it had the tabs on it so it went together fairly easily, just alot of time. i have done two of the wooden lazer cut kits and really did enjoy them. unless something major happens i dont think i will go back to the plastic kits.
Is it a matter of interpretation? Yeah... I can't read those Danish instruction either... I've been told by some that lighting-up a 'trainwreck' stogie will help make those instruction pop-out and talk to you... but... I wouldn't know first hand. :we-twitcy: If GN/Bill (Bill Bitner), who is a terrific scratch model builder, has trouble with Walthers kits... the rest of us are doomed. :skeleton: It really is a virtue to be patient when building these models. I have the ADM Grain Elevator and Add-on Silos. At first I was irked by the design of the silos... figuring it would have been easier to just make them from 1.5" diameter PVC. The reality is that the kit is made in a well thought-out modular format to allow for 'seamless' silo add-ons. I test fit a few pieces and set this kit aside... because I'll need to sprout a few more hands to build it. Actually... I think by creating some jigs to hold the base flat and each silo part vertical at 90 degrees will work. I can see where it will be difficult to line-up the the last couple of silo sides... and mine do NOT appear to be warped. I think it would be a good idea for some of our more adept model builders to take photos (or video) of techniques which can help others avoid the pitfalls of building some of these models.
Funny, that's one of my favorite buildings ever. I don't think I had a single problem with that and it looked great. Wish they were all like that. Dave The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Ry. Archive & Email List Elgin, Joliet Eastern Railway Archive
I've built a few of the Walthers N kits and probably 75% of their HO kits. The HO kits are for a layout I am helping with and I haven't really had problems with any of them yet. I just fiished the HO Trackside Structures set and it was one of the best fitting models I have ever built. Keep in mind this is also offered as a built up so it has to be good for the assemblers in China to get it right. The walls are a panel that has trim and windows in it, then the clapboard siding is an insert so you can paint each seprately and have perfect paint lines on all the trim. I would love to see more buildings done like this. Then again, I like the Life-Like kits also. They go together a lot better than I thought they would. My 4 year old and I worked together on this one: Sometimes a kit will surprise you. This is an HO Rix One Story house that looked pretty basic in the package and it worried me how it would look. It went together great and the mold crispness and detail was great at only $15 for the kit.
I'm surprised that the Walters kits have so many problems a plastic kit should fall together is it was designed right and time taken to make the mold. I have never built one so can't say one way or the other but I do try to design my laser kits to go together easy. Might not come out with new stuff fast but that's because I want it ti fit. As I think most the other laser cutters do also. I know I build more then one sample even when the first one goes together they still need some changes. So don't walk away from Kits just because some give you problems. rich www.rslaserkits.com
