I am helping to refurbish the downtown region of the local club's N scale layout. This little storefront perfectly fills a gap between two other buildings, but the kit itself is more than a little worse for wear. The pictures don't do it full (in)justice, but it has been broken, repaired, weathered, cleaned, modified, petrified under years of dust, and generally neglected before finding its way into the club's possession. If this is a kit that can still be bought new I'd honestly prefer to build a fresh replacement. But I'll be darned if I can figure out who makes it. Does anyone here happen to recognize it? Thanks in advance!
Aha, thanks! I should have known it was Heljan tooling resold by someone, since every third N scale building seems to be a Heljan model that's been resold by half a dozen different companies since the dawn of time. I think the companion building in that set is even on the layout somewhere. But for the price the 'new' kit goes for, I think I'll stick to rehabilitating this one!
One of the two structures from the Con-Cor / Heljan stock number 0002-000604 (or 604 for early release models) Woolworth and Ice Cream Shop kit.
Oh oy, lots of memories about this kit(s). I built the one story store, almost identical to a Kress store 2 blocks from my childhood home. The building still stands at 6708 Harrisburg Boulevard in Houston, visible on Google earth street view, but boarded up and changed beyond recognition. Must have been 40 years ago I built it, maybe more. I can't find any photos or record of where I used it. It came in a set with another building, as Heljan Concor Court House Square series #N-602. The set wa also sold as Walthers State Street Stores #933-3209. The other store was a 2-story with round arch windows on the second floor in front- - similar to architecture found on Galveston's Strand District, which I am modeling. I built the 2-story store as a drugstore for an N scale East Texas courthouse square town. I still have an unbuilt kit of this 2-story structure, That kit is dedicated to become an army surplus store, similar to one located in the 1950s on Wayside Drive in Houston, immediately across the street from a Dairy Queen that was a dead-ringer for the Walthers N kit.
The drugstore looks very similar to Woodland Scenics' "Sully's Tavern" built-up, but no roof over the front sidewalk, and no exterior stairway to 2nd floor on the side.
That's a nice looking drugstore! And now I know I wasn't going crazy for remembering this building being sold by Walthers! I've taken out the fogged scale-foot-thick windows, removed the inexplicable giant chimney, and started applying a fresh coat of paint. There's a pretty nice kit under all the years of crud.
Pardon my ignorance, but I've noticed some structure models are assembled on a layer of styrene/cardboard/etc. that seems to represent sidewalks, etc. around the structure, while others are not. Pro's / Con's of doing this? Are they intended to maintain spacing between the models on the layout, or spatial relationships between related structures (e.g. a gas station bldg and its fuel pump islands, etc.)? Or do they just provide more structural integrity for the model itself, by joining the bottoms of the walls to a common base, without or prior to fixing them to the layout? I haven't built any structures yet, so I'm concerned whether I should plan to do the same. For those of you that use these bases, do you glue the walls together on the base to start, or do you assemble the model, and then add the base?
The building shown has a sidewalk out front and down one side. I bought the 'Woodland Scenics Town and Factory Building Set' about 10 years ago. I like that they aren't built on bases with sidewalks. If they where and you wanted to butt buildings up against each other you would have to carefully cut the sidewalks off the base on the sides of the buildings. I prefer to 'build' my own sidewalks. Just a personal choice I guess. Also...if different buildings from different manufactures are built on bases with sidewalks and the sidewalks are different heights....ooooppppssssssssss ! .
One of my favorite kits for that is from Model Power.......they use the same 4 walls for at least 3 kits, but change the details. The kits are the Star Journal, Railroad Hotel, and Firehouse. The firehouse has a front walk, and adds a garage pad to the right side, The journal has a front and left side walk, and adds front steps to the base. and the hotel has a board walk on 3 sides and molded "dirt" at the rear. They include various front entrances, and different roof details so you can make the buildings look different. But as noted, the bases are all different with different spacing.........and if you DON'T use the base, you lose the front steps, and the mounts for the 2nd story porch, and the base for the rear loading dock, and the garage base .......so you HAVE to use the base, or do some fabrication for the missing parts. I try to NOT use the bases that have sidewalk, although I still have all the bases packed in their own little box on a shelf. I always assemble the walls separate from the base, because I find in some cases they are a tight fit on the base, and the base can keep the wall sections from fitting tight to each other. On kits that have a base, but no sidewalk, I usually use the base, because at least to a degree, it simulates a foundation for the building, and it DOES provide extra support for the walls. I have a few buildings without a base, and a few of them started to bow at the bottom of the wall, and I had to go back and add some bracing.......I'd recommend putting in the bracing when you build the kit....saves headaches down the road.
I understand nostalgia, but the brick work in those old kits is waaay out of scale. If it's footprint you are worried about, that building would be easy and cheap to scratch build. Do love the DQ's too. Did one for a friend.
I dig the Dairy Queen too! Hoghead2, where did you get those benches on yours? Did I miss them in the kit somehow?
Ah, those benches came with the DPM Nightlife/entertainment district kit-it has loads of neat whitemetal details.
Speaking of details, I love arranging figures to tell tales. Here, the Man is giving the boys the evil eye, so they decide to peel out before things get heavy.
The bricks are certainly oversized, but I'm treating it as an opportunity to experiment with mortar and brick colors to de-emphasize the hugeness of the brickwork. And it fits in with the other neighborhoods on the club layout, which are dotted with buildings built by past members and then rehabilitated and modified over the years. IMO it adds a neat form of continuity to the whole effort.
