Free O Scale Bench, Love Seat and Chair Kits!!!

Six kits on their way this afternoon. Thanks for the interest! Still batting well below the Mendoza line- any more takers?

Thanks for all of the interest! Seventeen more kits packaged last night and this morning. We have seven more labels left.

I have always admired the Todd Architectural Model kits.  When Doug made his generous offer, I quickly responded...The package arrived 2 days ago and this morning I was finally able to open it.  I quickly assembled one of each, Love Seat and Chair.   

I am very impressed with the appearance and fit of both items.  Gives me great confidence that all his products are extremely high quality.    5 star rating!

Doug, Thank you for your generosity!!

What I received:

Assembled (Love seat tabs have been trimmed):

Trimmed and Primed:

WOW, these little guys are awesome, they will look great anywhere on the layout, Thank you Doug very much appreciated.

Email sent.  Mendoza Line!  I remember Mario Mendoza well when he was with the Pirates.  Actually we could use his bat these days!  Besides, he had a good glove.

Just received mine, thanks Doug.

Thanks you to all that played along with this offer. The 50th kit has been packaged and we'll end it here. We did not get close to the Mendoza line of batting .200 (50 kits/460 = .108), but we stayed out of the Squares Club, that unceremonious group at Lehigh when, if you squared your cumulative average, it got smaller.

Again, these kits were made from scrap 1/16" Taskboard. I'm looking for the next little project to help reduce the contribution to a landfill. Let me know if you have any suggestions! For starters, it should fit onto our business card.

@Todds Architectural Models posted:

Again, these kits were made from scrap 1/16" Taskboard. I'm looking for the next little project to help reduce the contribution to a landfill. Let me know if you have any suggestions! For starters, it should fit onto our business card.

Doug;

How about some common signs you see at stations or along the right-of-way like “Track 1”, “Track 2”, “To Trains”, the railroad crossing X, “Yard Limit”, etc.??? Maybe some small mile markers or “W” whistle signs on small posts that could be stuck into the layout???

Got my set Monday. Thank you Doug.

Some comments and a question:

Usually when someone is making a 'free' offer we have to pick up shipping and handling.  Not so with Doug!!!  The postage was $1 not including the padded mailer he sent it in.  That's a nice gesture to just eat the cost.

I liked that the enclosed note with directions was 'personalized'.  He didn't have to do that but took the time to do it.

When I examined the pieces I noticed that see thru parts were already removed.  For example, the back of the seat already had the gaps between supports removed.  Nice touch!

QUESTION: he suggests using something called "Tacky glue".  that fact that he capitalized it to me means it's a name-brand of sorts.   For instance, one would not say "Use White glue", right?  So, what is 'Tacky glue'?????

thanks  = walt

Aleene's Tacky Glue

Walt- Elmer's white glue will work, too. We use Aleene's Tacky Glue for gluing up all of the Taskboard shadowboxes. It has initial "tackiness" which helps hold parts together- basically anytime you need three or four hands and have only two. Check out your local art supply box or fabric store. We use a basic Testor's nylon hobby brush to apply the glue. Just keep a cup of water handy to drop the brush in to prevent the glue from setting up. Rinse the vinyl brush off in warm water when you are done for next time.

And nothing is quite free. I am looking to expand our emailing list during this no train shows time and ahead of a new product release announcement. 

 I actually already have that.  I love it.  thanks Doug for the tip about using a brush.  I will.

Received mine late in yesterday's mail.  Thanks, Doug.

Chuck

I may have missed the cutoff.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Aleene's Tacky Glue

Marvelous stuff but it tastes awful.  Trust me, it does.

Well Tom, I never tried eating it, so I'll have to take your word for it.  It works well for me, but only for it's intended purpose.

Thanks you to all that continued to play along with this offer. We're up to 70 kits going out and the drop-out well is dry for now! Can't wait to see more pictures!!!

More kits available if someone orders something like this Union Pacific Trackside Warehouse Shadowbox 8-foot set. We can do it in 2- to 6-story heights.

I got a few of those cards at from you at York a few years ago.  But I thought they were the coolest business cards I ever saw so I never made the benches.  Still have the cards.

BTW, I never heard of the squares club at Lehigh.  I think if you were a member, you weren't around long.

I seem to recall the roster of engineers was reduced by about 10% after freshman year in 1977. I have welcomed some of the incoming freshmen the past two years. They have a lot more smarts than I did at that age!

@Todds Architectural Models posted:

I seem to recall the roster of engineers was reduced by about 10% after freshman year in 1977.

Some guys called Engineering "Pre-Business".

My angle was BSCE to wind up working for a railroad. I had a summer internship lined up with MoPac and then something we now call Fallen Flags happened and I missed that chance. After graduating I got a job with Edwards & Kelcey in their mass transit and railroads division. I worked on the NEC Realignment, the Washington Metro, SIRTOA platform extensions, the MTA's Linden Yard, and the New York & Long Branch Electrification.

These were so crisply cut that putting them together was really easy. The city park has some and some are on the station platform. I’ll have to get pictures later—our Internet was so slow this weekend nothing big would upload.

Received my furniture in the mail today. Thank you Doug. These little details are what make a layout come alive. A suggestion for future items, you might consider some business signs like General Store or Saloon or Keep Out. 

I also remember the drop off in headcount in Engineering classes. Freshman classes were SRO. By the start of Junior year you saw the same faces class after class. One of our friends was a History major. We called him “dusty books". 

John

Just got a set of these, thank you Doug!  Looks like a good reason to have a laser cutter.

John- My venture into making the shadowboxes came from working out what I could do with the scrap .030" cel cast acrylic plastic that we use for architectural models. Our stash of leftover pieces was probably purchased for between $8 an $12 per square foot. The pieces were too small to use for architectural models but I really dislike not getting full use of material, even if someone already paid for it. The first round of small shadowboxes was a hit and we ran out of the .030" acrylic, plus our two layered windows would often be thicker than the Taskboard that were set in. I tried to sell the Taskboard drop-outs as G Scale tombstones at my first 6 Yorks.  I always came home with the same number of bags that I left with. The bulb brightened a little and we pulled a bench kit that we made for our 1/2" = 1'-0" scale floor plan layout models and scaled it down to 1/4" = 1'-0".   Fast forward- if I only knew how many chair and bench kits I could have given away if we had put them in the first 20 runs of the UP Trackside Warehouse drop-outs, I would be......

But seriously, I have enjoyed this process as I have met at least 60 people that I did not know before two weeks ago. I'm already working on another few pieces that can be added into other Taskboard drop-outs. And we all know nothing is really free. We will have some exciting news in the coming months and I will want to get the word out. Those on our email list will be the first to hear it.

They're neat little pieces, I have to make a little time to put them together.   I like the "business card" one that has all your info on it, nice touch.

Got mine in the mail today.  Thanks, Doug.  I'll make time to look them over this weekend.

The requests for the bench and chair kits keep trickling in. We will fulfill all of the requests, but have run out of a key ingredient- the padded envelopes. A new case has been ordered and has an expected arrival time of a week. Please be patient as I refuse to buy them in 10-count lots from the local big box store.

I'm chuckling about your padded envelopes.  I went looking for a few several years ago, but the individual prices were absurd in small quantities!  So I bought a large box, I think 500 of them.  I'm still working my way through them, but they were only a few cents each, around $30 for the whole box.

Thanks, Got mine last night. Very nice. Thank you.

Thanks again Doug ! I'm working on mine today.

Thanks, Doug ...

Received mine the other day....thanks Doug!

@Todds Architectural Models posted:

Thanks you to all that played along with this offer. The 50th kit has been packaged and we'll end it here. We did not get close to the Mendoza line of batting .200 (50 kits/460 = .108), but we stayed out of the Squares Club, that unceremonious group at Lehigh when, if you squared your cumulative average, it got smaller.

Again, these kits were made from scrap 1/16" Taskboard. I'm looking for the next little project to help reduce the contribution to a landfill. Let me know if you have any suggestions! For starters, it should fit onto our business card.

How about those ubiquitous wooden pallets used in warehouses - you know, where forklifts use them to stack and load merchandise, etc. Would be perfect for your scraps, and could easily fit business card size.

@OC Patrick posted:

How about those ubiquitous wooden pallets used in warehouses - you know, where forklifts use them to stack and load merchandise, etc. Would be perfect for your scraps, and could easily fit business card size.

Great idea! 

Edit: I did a little research and Rail Scale Models has a great pallet kit that was originally produced by Rusty Stumps. Please consider supporting their products and I will continue to looking other items that may be missing from the market.

Next round- just crammed a chair set in each S Scale window dropout for the current WH-03 run.

I want to publicly thank Doug for sending the excellent little kit.  It is front and center on the workbench awaiting the weather that will keep me inside and permit me time to build it.  I am looking forward to it!

Doug, I received mine yesterday!  Thank you!!  I took a look at the shadowbox kits on the Website and am doing some pondering and measuring.

I used some deck stain on my new furniture. I was able to assemble them in minutes. Very impressed with the dimensional accuracy. 

John