Ameritown and Korber buildings question

No, the current Korber kits are leagues ahead of the very old ones. Ameritowne buildings are also good but I'd always recommend bracing the walls. There are also literally dozens of great building kit manufacturers out there, many of which are quite easy to build and much more satisfying than buying ready made. Try some of the small BarMills kits, or Banta Modelworks & BTS, for some great wood kits (wood is very easy to work with and very forgiving), American Models for some starter easy to build wood kits and Downtown Deco for some unique buildings using hydrocal walls (very easy builds, just be careful how you handle the wall castings as hydrocal can break, although you can easily re-glue). Following the instructions step by step, reading ahead a bit and going slowly will make it fun and easy. 

Jerrman, I had fun painted the power plant and doing the mortar.  When it came to assembly, I did not have the problem solving skills to make it work.  I have a Berkshire Valley Sinclair gas station that I am probably going to get rid of for the same reasons mentioned above.  Do you use styrene or wood to brace the walls?

 Try a laser cut wood kit as mentioned above. Start with one of the less complicated ones. Most of the work involves identifying the correct parts and painting. With the tab and slot construction most of them feature. They only fit together one way and everything fits perfect. I add bracing at times but often the way the assemble. It's not needed. E very thing locks together. Even the roof. The windows in some can be a little tricky as they are built up in multiple layers. Usually the simulated glass is laser cut and many times the windows are assembled with removing a backing to expose the adhesive already on them. No messy glue oozing out. These kits can be assembled with carpenters wood glue applied with a small brush. Very forgiving with plenty of time to make adjustments. A small square and some clamps come in handy. 

 I purchased a River Leaf kit from Andre. Looks like an easy straightforward build and of top quality. These look great for someone starting out in kit building. They will give you the look of a craftsman kit without the hassle of making things fit.

I bought the Woolworth's 5 & 10 store.  Have you had experience with Twin Whistle kits?

I have never done a Korber or other craftsman kit, but I have done a few of the smaller Ameritowne kits. I read the directions, but didn't follow them exactly, but close. They have some small shack type buildings that would probably be a good starter type kit, IMO. I did one of those, a 1 story building and a 2 story building. All were not too difficult, the smallest being the easiest.

This might be something to start with the you could complete fairly quickly and build some confidence in your modeling skills. You can add the brick mortar (if it's a brick kit), assemble them fairly easily, paint using different colors and even add some more details if you choose to. The small shack kits are very reasonably priced as are their one and two story buildings. I found the Ameritowne kits very enjoyable to work on. They were able to be completed fairly quickly so you will have something to show for your efforts as well. Might be encouragement to try another one! 

Putting together a River Leaf Model, Woolworth's store.  Wayyyyy easier. Just ordered Twinwhistle Sinclair gas station.  Will be getting some Ameritowne kits when I am finished. Getting rid of my Berkshire Valley Sinclair Station.  

Love Ameritowne kits! Go together easily, cheap enough to buy a few to experiment on, painting, different mortar choices etc. Actually just finished the Acme Machine Bldg which I bashed a little and love it! First kit I ever built was the big Barrett bldg. The result encouraged me to keep on building! I love the Korber kits but as has been said the older ones can be a bear! But well worth playing with! Built 6 of them and a stack waiting! Part of the fun is taking some chances and learning how to fix your mistakes and believe me, no matter how much experience you have, you will make mistakes! Good luck!

Jim, I use wood for bracing. Very easy to work with and depending on what it is being glued to I use either 5-minute epoxy (for glueing to resin or other non-porous material) or Aileen's Tacky glue (or use wood glue) for glueing to wood or hydrocal). You can use CA glue, of course, but I don't like the relatively quick set time or because the brace might be a long piece, getting it on my fingers glueing them together as well. 

You made a good choice selling your Berkshire Valley kit. They make some unique structures with loads of details, but they require some experience, patience and skill. They can be frustrating although the final product is really nice. 

In my mentioning some manufacturers to try, I did neglect to mention River Leaf models. Clearly Andre makes some well designed and easy to construct kits. Twin Whistle also makes some nice kits but if I remember correctly they are resin or some similar material. Although I've build a number of resin kits, it's one of my least favorite materials. There's no "give" in the material so if there's any issue with warping or overall fit, you'll have to improvise to get things right. That said, it shouldn't really be a deal breaker, just something you should be prepared for, just in case. 

I am working on a River Leaf Woolworth's and just ordered a Twinwhilstle Sinclair gas station.  I like both of the companies and each owner is friendly and willing to discuss things and answer your questions.  If all goes as expected I will stick with these two and maybe some Ameritowne buildings as well.    I like the fact that River Leaf has a 1/4 " wide gluing surface and it appears and I am told that Twinwhistle has the old fashioned gluing tabs. Where can you pick up some 5 minute epoxy or Aileen's?

Jim:

To answer your original question comparing OGR Ameritown to Korber kits is almost apples and oranges.

Korber uses a different type of plastic necessitating the use of super glue to join walls (Gorilla glue with light blue cap is recommended). Corner bracing is needed for all kits regardless of age. Interior bracing is necessary (much more so on the older kits then the newer ones). The windows are separate and must be aligned appropriately. To add elasticity to the corner joints Alan Graziano recommends using hot glue. Super glue makes a strong but brittle joint.

OGR kits are made from a thick high impact plastic that uses regular plastic glue (I use Plastruct Plastic Weld). I use corner bracing only because I need to ship the finished product. All windows are molded in so building the kit basically consists of only gluing the walls together.

I have built one Twin Whistle kit - a large fire house. It was fairly easy to build with the exception of the roof only because it was very big so awkward to work with. As you mentioned the owner is very nice and easy to work with. I can not remember what glue I used and I think I had an issue when shipping it to the customer (wall separation). This was a function of me and not the quality of the kit.

Another kit manufacturer worth mentioning is Woodland Scenics DPM kits. They are in the same category as OGR - ease of assembly, molded in windows etc. They are more expensive but tend to be larger than OGR.

I have not tried River Leaf as yet.

There are a large number of 'craftsman' kits out there but they tend to be more involved in assembly. Suncoast Models and Better Than Scale (BTS) come to mind. The Suncoast Coaling Tower and the Ice Platform are beautiful structures once built.

Last observation - ease of kit bashing. Due to the way the walls are made OGR and DPM lead the pack here. Standard OGR walls can be separated into three sections with ease so changing the profile or adding on stories is easy. OGR  walls can be butt jointed to increase width but the seam must be dealt with. Because of their size and manufacture DPM walls can not be separated into sections but adding additional stories is as easy as OGR and butt joining is easy also since pilasters are available to hide the joints. Another contender here is Korber's MRS modular series. Rich was kind enough to put together custom kits and I believe Steve will continue to do so.

Joe