I've yet to see one of these kits in person. Anyone put one of them together? A quick review would be appreciated.
Hi I built the military barracks for my Dad . I enjoyed building the kit ,and I really like the overall appearance of the finnished model. However I was disapointed with the materials Microtrains chose to use for this kit . The kit is made of card stock .It would have been nicer if they used micro plywood , and the shingles are just outlined on brown construction paper. Alex
Picked up the Base Chapel yesterday. I hadn't looked to close at it while in the store. I saw this and opened it up today. The wife immediately said "You got ripped off." Yup, cardstock and paper for $30. We'll see later when I get it done.
Didn't even know they had structures. The look okay from the pictures. Some of the details look a little bulky though. Micro-Trains | The Ultimate in N and Z scale model trains Eric
Thank you for the comments. I did not know they were cardstock and paper. I think I'll find a better use of my money and wait until the price comes down a bit.
There is nothing wrong with cardstock. Bar Mills, Blair Line and others all use card stock for various pieces that thin wood would be too brittle. If they were intended to be a rustic wood structure, it would be an issue but these were painted and well maintained structures. You would never see the wood grain in real life, let alone on an N scale model. They started doing the structures in Z first. They are just now getting around to them N. I'm sure in Z, carstock was the only thing thin enough for the size of the buildlings. They are just reusing the design in N and keeping the same thickness parts that they are used to.
I don't disagree that the completed model looks good or that cardstock isn't a viable medium, but $30!!?!??
The material is not the main cost, it involves the equipment to make it. A $30K+ laser cutter with a laser that has a limited life span and needs to be replaced at x amount of hours to the tune of $5-10K. The cost is a ballance of the inches of cut made + time to cut + material + design time vs. what they think it can sell and make a profit at. I'm not sure how fast the current cutter will spit out one of these kits but I bet it is probably still in the 10 minute per building range with setup time and such. Not like cranking them out of an injection molding machine, 20-30 a minute.
Well... I'm glad I saw this post. I thought they were wood structures. Not that I necessarily like wood as a model medium either... but I'd rather pay $30 (or more) for wood than cardboard. I think Micro-trains is 'out of their element' with these structures. I got to admit though... the pictures of the built items look pretty good... but I just can't get over the 'cheap' feeling of cardboard... specially when its not being sold 'cheap'. This takes me back to early 1960's when I had a battery operated O-27 trainset with cardboard buildings. To me it says... 'toy'... not hobby quality model railroad.
Yeah, $30 for cardstock is a bit much. What if they just printed the buildings on cardstock and let the modeller cut them out. Who needs a laser cutter when an #11 Exacto will do?
What's the footprint of these buildings? Thanks for the thread, which I found after posting a similar question on a couple of other lists! Henry
I don't think cardstock is what is once was. Here is a cardstock church in Z. I think all the details are there, obviuosly I still have to weather it a bit, but I think it compares nicely with the wood kits that I have. But to each there own.
I must agree; $30 for cardstock is a bit much. Thanks for posting this fact. I sure won't be buying at that rate. The idea of producing the military base structures is a good thought and an area not produced however; too many companies putting these cardstock models for far less.:thumbs_down:
The chapel is 2x5.25in Never said that they wouldn't be nice kits and look really good, just think they could be cheaper.
Look real good... hard to believe it cardstock. Nice job on the church Joe. I'm sure there are really nice examples of models made of cardstock. The Micro-Trains models probably would look just as nice in the hands of good modelers. Its hard to get over the fact cardstock is a good modeling medium... but... I believe many models from the pre and post WWII era were some combination of wood and cardstock. No one really criticized those models because it WAS the 'state of the art' method back then... and most often scratch built. I think one of the problems we have is that we're accustomed to relatively inexpensive injection molded plastic or urethane kits of the past 30 years. When we see 'cardboard' we expect 'less' quality... when in fact... it could be better and more detailed than the injection molded/urethane kits. Wood kits have usually commanded a higher price than the plastics and have been catagorized as 'craftsman' quality. It is possible that we just need to acclimate ourselves to this medium and perhaps re-think the 'value' of the product. For me... its a difficult thing to overcome. I like the 'heft' of plastic and urethane... it gives me the feel of permanance... impervious to elements (like water).
Well, grandpa Joe, I agree. I think you nailed it on the head. After modeling N and using all the cornerstone kits, changing to Z and having all the laser cut kits at first seemed to be intimidating, as well as expensive. However, I think the laser kits look better than plastic. I would like all prices to be cheaper, but with the limited market in Z, I live what I get, but I think what I get looks pretty darned good. Here is a Robert Ray kit. I weathered this one unlike the church.
Well let me step in here. Yes, the 30 dollars for a card stock kit does seen high but you have to look at all the mark up it goes through before the final price is set. Out of that first off since MT sells through a wholesaler like Walters take 55 % right off the top. So we are down to 13.5 is what MT gets, now they want to make a profit also say at least 15% so that leaves 11.47 for the guy that cuts it and out of that packaging, directions and material might run another 2-3 dollars. leaving around 8.50 to cut , package it and all. If they take 10 minutes each to cut plus another minute to load and unload the laser does not leave much profit for the cutter. If you can do 6 an hour you make 51 a hour to pay for the laser ,overhead, taxes and all the other expenses to run a business. If your lucking you might clear 15 a hour when all is said and done. That is if you have the work to run the laser full time and most of us don't. Plus the fact all this does not take any design time and test builds, direction write time etc into acount. So looking at it that way 30 dollars is reasonable pricing. rich www.rslaserkits.com
I agree that the price sounds high. But over here in Europe there is a clear trend that Manufacturers will go more and more to cardstock. This is probably cost-driven as the most prevalent material in Europe is still injection-molded plastic. So traditionally we see long runs of buildings to re-coup the equipment cost. But we did not see a lot of variety for the very same reason. Wood has never really cought on as most European buildings are brick or concrete, which is difficult to do in wood. Enter cardstock as perfect material: Brick structures are no problem and the initial cost are much lower compared to plastic injection. As to the quality of the end-product, see for yourself (HO Model shown): This is a cut-away (again HO) to show that a lot of thought goes into the design, and that the multi-layer construction allows "depth" and detail. Some Manufacturers try extreme buildings, like this cooling tower: So cardstock will give us more variety at a cost that is comparable to plastic. That sounds good to me! Cheers Dirk
Rich, you are exactly right on! I want to show you all some photos of an N scale structure that I drew up, laser cut, and painted up. The cedar shake version is from card stock and paper shingles only. The first photo is the wood version. It was a lot of hard work way before it hit my vector table and the end product is not so bad. Granted, I do cut it in wood but the price is higher, and once its painted does anyone know? I did use an artist marker for the outside staining. We are moving forward and away from card stock almost entirely and going head first into laserboard. The stuff is resin impregnated card stock; cuts, glues and paints similar to resin and shows more details than any material before it. The 3rd photo is an example of this. The brown is the original color of the laserboard, the awnings are painted thinner laserboard. Notice the brick lasered detail... and this is a Z scale building. Thank you for at least allowing me to show you this comparison. K. Snyder Stonebridge Models
