box car kits

I have several Intermountain kits that I have to assemble. While the kits were nice, the fine details didn't make them too robust and I end up having to spend an additional $100.00 in brass/metal parts to make the kit updated. The next issue is how do you store them since kit boxes no longer hold the completed finished product.

The other question is to the Original poster, when was the last time YOU purchased an O scale kit and built one?

the majority of people are only into opening a box and having instant gratification. model cars and planes come prepainted because no one want to paint or build anything. same goes with trains. people state no paint and decals available mostly because no one wants to build or paint anything. if you look on that banned website there are many o scale kits that don't sell or sell for low prices again because its easy to just take it out of the box, put it on the layout and go. its a shame that so much creativity is lost today because of that.

Some of my personal experience and background concerning rolling stock kits:

I like them. I ran out of real estate on my layout, enjoyed building structures such as those offered by Bar-Mills, Downtown Deco, Banta, Wild West Structure's, etc. I then decided to start building rolling stock kits. I've done a couple Intermountain, four Labelle, and two Ye Olde Huff-n-Puff, with two more waiting. I'm modelling the early 20th. century, so the wooden kits work very well for me.

Cost: I pay more to build a kit than if I were to purchase a car from any of the manufacturer's. I'll use my most recent Ye Olde huff-n-puff car as an example. The kit was around $35.00 shipped. Not bad. The trucks (Lionel archbar, it's a "transition" car from Lionel style couplers to Kadee's.) were roughly $10.00 from a forum member, replying to my wtb post. I wasn't completely happy with the brown paint I had used on a previous boxcar, so I went with Weaver's scalecoat boxcar red. Figure about $12.00 for that, which I really like, and would recommend them. Colorado Midland dry transfers from Clover House, about $10.00. Hobby shop wood that was needed to complete the car to the prototype, about $3.00. $2.00 for the Kadee couplers. $67.00 for a 36 foot boxcar. I did it on the cheap. If I went through Lionel for the trucks, the would have cost my roughly $35.00 for plastic archbar. The cost adds up fast. I have the car I want, had fun building it, and I'm happy, but you can start to see where if you model the Santa Fe, it's almost as cost effective to buy from one of the major's.

I'm scratch-building a caboose right now, and I'm well over $70.00 with a pile of wood, some trucks, and a few detail parts. Still need paint and some more wood...

Enjoyment:

It took me about 3 months to build the above boxcar in my free time. I like doing it, and don't get in a hurry, as you can tell. I was really excited a year ago to purchase a MTH woodside 64 foot passenger car set. It took me about 15 minutes to get the cars out of the box and on the layout. They're too long for my prototype, but work well enough. 20 minutes later, the excitement had passed. A couple weeks later, they started to look a little "plastic" to me. 2 Labelle passenger cars later, the MTH cars look really "plastic" to me. I prefer the look of the Labelle cars, and it takes be about 6 months to build one, so the excitement (and frustration) lasts a long time, for a better result, in my opinion.

Conclusion:

Kits are fun. They're expensive, and they're available, sometimes cheap, sometimes not. Search Intermountain, Labelle, Walther's, Ambroid, Athearn, Ye Olde huff-n-puff, Mainline models, Williams, Weaver, etc. They're out there, and sometimes the only way to get what you want. The current Importers make some very nice cars as well. It just depends on where your interest in the hobby takes you.

Hello,

While building RR cars from high  line kits can make some great looking cars.

As the pic's show what can be done.

Sometimes seems the only way to get the cars one wants.

I was after the regular RTR stuff.

My idea was to have the made ; NO assembled from USA and over seas parts and/or the scale cars as items to be made as kits.

Would hope that parent/child  could start small and work their way up.

Young ones could see what they worked on running on the layout ,and maybe want to do more

No scale O kits for me yet 

But after untold 1/25 and 1/24 car and  big rig truck kits and many a large scale airplane for forks .A ship or two also

Got burnt out and no longer build  them anymore .

Selling the collection down to fund trains

People still want me to build them for them and will pay money,but not now

I think I know what you're getting at.

Williams did this maybe 30 years ago? They had kits that you pretty much put the brake wheel on and then found some trucks and screwed them on. I still have one of these kits somewhere.

The thing is, the assembly of the kit cost's the importers almost nothing. 3 screws and they're done. The Lionel 6464 boxcar is a good example of this, door guides, doors, brakewheel, and trucks. 5 rivets, 2 screws, 8 parts to attach. The money is in the paint and lettering, as the molds have long ago paid for themselves.

Intermountain came closest to an AMT car kit. The problem with those is the details are so fragile, it takes some skill to get them on. Anything else and the cost starts to increase.

There just isn't room for middle-of-the-line in the current market.

There are kits out there.....fewer and fewer everyday. As stated above InterMountain made some very nice ones. But they must not have sold well enough as they are not made any longer. There are some wood kits out there.....and I build a few on my own. 

This 86 foot high cuce was finish about 3 years ago. 

But kits in O scale are pretty much gone and I don't see them coming back. 

When I was in the NASCAR die cast biz we asked the manufacture if they would sell us kits.....they said yes....at about 20% more than assembled units. The Chinese system is set up to do one thing.......finished assembled products.