newstructures and details what would you want?

Can you post pictures of past offerings?

As many others here on the forum, I would like some structures Walthers has in HO, namely as a Union Station and a large warehouse made of plastic with a price that would not break the bank.

 

Jack 

A nice water wheel mill would be great.

Also something other than shotgun and simple box houses.

There were so many interesting houses built from the 1900s through the 60s when we unfortunately started our cookie cutter building era.

Stone buildings, even stone houses would be a nice change of pace.

I suppose these types are a little too obscure for production runs, but they would still be something a little different. 

Thanks for asking.

I can make very short runs,which is the advantage and downfall of resin

the up side of resin structures is that it is very simple to replicate details and integrate them into new designs

the down side is the short life of silicone molds, maybe 100 to 200 the last 20 or so will have marks and reduced detail.. what I do is a limited run with each new mold cast off a freshly detailed and usually slightly modified master, so each run is unique and limited

 

I also think we really need another factory wall possibly something with variable inserts so various eras of these historic buildings can be built

 

I am going to work on the style of homes you suggest, art deco painted lady, craftsman  I probably will be doing them slightly less than oscale, as most houses are back ground to the trains in a setting and thus will provide both a savings in materials, cost and footprint

 

for single casting type elements I was thinking switch boxes, shanties etc..any suggestions?>

pictures of the past:  I have to dust off some"stuff"old photos are long gone and the electronic scans went the way of so many hard drives but we will endeavor.

I am just now getting my shop back up to steam after sandy and unearthing so much that has been in storage from before my move. in 2001

 

I am taking these ideas into pre production conceptualization

 

I'm with Dr Jack if someone would make about 10 of the buildings Walthers makes for HO that would be great.  I don't know why walthers doesn't expand some of their awesome HO kits into O scale.  I have just about every HO Walters kit made just becasue I love them but sure wish they were O scale.  I'd love them to re-release the Brooke Hill Dairy building you can do so many things with that kit,  Also some sort of Cold Storage faciltiy would be nice but I'd be happy if someone just picked 10 kits Walthers makes and reproduce them in O scale

Hollsc

could you be more specific? this is fact find for me and I will be sculpting the masters within a few weeks,

I want to make what people want, no sense making stuff that is undesirable.

 as far as doing copies of walthers or any other buildings,,, I would do the style and purpose of those buildings but scaled to usable size for O scale

I was even thinking of doing buildings that are more or less generic and selling different detail sets to change purpose and over all look.

 

and of course the next question is: kit or prebuilt and weathered?

followed by: desired price point.

 

thakns to all participating in this conversation in advance.

Mountain Man

 

This is just my oopinion but if we can get prebuild kits all weathered and detailed like the Woodland Scenics buildings currently being made that would be what would interest me.  I mean they cost 125-175 dollars but I don't have to build them or weather them and they include all the detail parts so to me they are well worth the price since I don't enjoy scratch building kits and then having to paint and weather them and then spend money on detail parts.  that's not my strength nor do I have time working full time to do them.  If you go to the Walthers site and hit advanced search HO scale structures and manufactuer Walthers they have about 150 kits they currently offer or more.   I can't speak for everyone but I would love to see a detailed O scale coal tower, grain elevator, a machine shop, a diesel house, some type of warehouse, a freight office, a railroad shop, the Brooke Hill Dairy, their Golden Valley canning building, RJ Frost Ice and Storage building.  There are many more to choose but those really appeal to me but again thats just my interest but i would think anyone with freight as the focus would be interested in these industries.  To appease passenger folks you could think about a station but MTH already has prebuild station that once weathered and detailed is great.  I like the idea of a generic building that could serve as any number of the ones I mentioned if they were decaled and detailed to fit that particular industry.

The O scale Walthers Cornerstone series was picked up by Atlas O.

They have done the lumber yard and Phoenix Fuel kit but have they done the Brooke Hill Dairy?

A series of pre-built and wethered early American colonial row houses which were in every village and town on the east coast. I can't think of any company which mass produced these beyond maybe IHC years ago in ther Homes of Yesterday  series. If you do the pre-built and weathered series please include a small detail kit of pre-painted details instead of gluing them to the bases. I'm crazy about the Woodland Scencis pre-buits, I just wish the detail parts were loose. See attached views of colonial row homes along the Pennsy in PA. 

Anything BUT another outhouse!

 

KD

I will second the move for O scale water mill wheels, in several sizes, although I have

built enough to have it down...I occasionally page through eBay HO structure lists

to weep at what is not available in O and sometimes plagiarize one into O, but that

takes a lot of time. Certainly, that and kits that have been done in HO are a fountain of ideas.   I can't say I would want Walther's duplicates, not to mention copyright problems...but with molds only good for 200 examples, there is tremendous room for variety.  Another part I want in multiple sizes and styles are cyclone ventilators for grain elevators and feed mills.  A two-bay stone engine house, big enough for an

O scale Mikado (some kits available are hilariously tiny), maybe convertible to diesel use, also, for those that run them, would be nice, too.  There are a huge amount of HO

kits, past and present, that can be drawn from.

I would like to see REA warehouse for placing near a station. More REA trucks used during 50s.

so fifties era? for REA?

 

throwing another question out there, if you could get houses for roughly the price of those Christmas buildings common from Lemax for example but styled and scaled for o scale RR use, in resin and solid walls, no cut for  for a light bulb  say in the $50 dollar range would it be a hands down I want them, of it ain't cool enough for my layout?

NEPA, great pics do you have rear shots?  the great thing is with detail kits, you can set totally different eras for the buildings.

do we have a vote for main street usa? art deco movie theater, house of ill refute ah-er-a I mean hotel,  retail stores that aren't brick buildings with different store fronts.  and for the 'burbs roadside motel, farm house, shanty, vacation bungalows, hunters cabins?

I am thinking slightly smaller than full o-scale for background buildings and full O scale for those that interact with the trains..
#Colorado:  if you can construct a water wheel I can duplicate, but not something I have the patience for. this mill in New Jersey was an old water wheel, flapping belt factory, in the seventies it was a restaurant with great food and even greater prices..
http://www.vacantnewjersey.com...tos/slatersmill1.jpg

Sorry no rear shots but the rear elevations mirrored the fronts, with a more common back door, minus transome or arched window, and usually a small covered porch and an area way to the basement door. The styles are always repetitious; 3 windows up with 2 windows and a door down, or 3 window up with a window/door windw/door/window down. Coal shute at street level between 2 windows. NO windows on either side as the buildings were positioned closely together. Meter box and telephone interface up front on the side. Buildings are clapboard, brick, or stone with roof treatments of slate shingles, asphalt shingles, or metal panels. Usually some shutters on front windows. Some shades on the windows or curtain effects with just a baffle or 2 within to diffuse some glow lighting and your in business.

 

These pictures came from realtors in Marietta, PA....so more shots are likely available. Pick the town wher your favorite railroad ran then look at realtor listings to get a flavor for the types of architecture. Most towns and villages in the northeast and mid atlantic regions have these buildings as they are colonial American.

 

Let me know if you move in this direction as I have an interest in these buildings provided the castings are crisp and well detailed, I will admit I do favor the built up varieties as this affords less time on scener and more time on the operational plant of the railroad.

OK, Something common out west but not made by ANYONE.

Making these from scratch is a pain.

Log Houses. Big, Small, L shape, Story and a half, 2 story, added on, All of 'em & combo's.

Think Lincoln Logs and run with it.

And split rail or Barbed wire fences to go around them.

Picket fences can be found.

log cabins would fit into the hunting lodge / lake summer home / ski lodge theme...

since they would most likely be background, that is not right up against the rails so to speak could they be slightly smaller for a cluster effect or forced perspective?

Just a Friendly suggestion.  If you are planning to sell things to the O Gauge community, it is kind of nice to know who I am dealing with.  It would be very helpful if you posted a picture in your profile.

 

Assuming significant cost savings I would prefer kits rather than preassembled.  I have little desire to spend $4000 on buildings for the layout.

 

Al

 

 

Very cool avatar.

 

But...... " Would you buy a used car from that man"?

 

I'm just saying...........

I vote with Mr. Galli....I prefer kits as I almost always kitbash and add my personal

tastes and touches.  I don't buy the Menard's or other assembled buildings as the

thought of 500 of them just alike would force me to kitbash them severely, too.,

and assembly is an addtional cost.

I had intended to reply with some legitimate input with photos of other manufacturer's products in other scales...for example Walther's New River Mine would be a welcome product in O scale, especially if it were scaled down so that it was a two track tipple (at least for my money...)

 

And then I slept on it and tonight I see the new Avatar...uhhhh, never mind.  An exercise in futility.

 

You are correct, my reply was closed minded.  I read the first reply posted above asking if you could offer photo examples of your past efforts....and then I read Vulcan's "would you buy a used car..." comment.  Then I realized that it would be an exercise in futility to suggest items that I might be the only person who wanted such structures. 

 

So, if I offended, I apologize. 

no problem. I have heard worse!  listen would it shake you guys up if I used my real last name? I heard way worse because of that,  it is really Frankenfield.

 

as far as the avatar goes:  I don't have any pics of me that are normal, my profession is split between film and video work ( crew) and custom painting / restoration.  so pretty much the only time anyone ever takes images of me is when I am applying makeup and or in Makeup and costume.. I pulled down that image of me as my net book with all the images in it fell and my access to the data is awaiting restoration.

I really need ideas and images of unique real world structures. there are so many of the .

 so please feel free to send idea, if they are buildings already in production in other scales, just send the maufacturer and possibly a link to an image.. more details are always welcome .

 but, please remember that I will use those references to create the character and  style of those buildings not copy them, so if there is an element or style that make the building "sing for you don't forget to include those details.

 

thanks again and no hard feelings... bill, "Doc Frankenfield"  

I was glad to see Atlas pick up the Wallthers O scale buildings, but they have been slow releasing them, As for new buildings I would like to se some 1950s style remodeled store fronts. These commonly were older buildings with modernized 1st and 2md floors. If you make built-ups, please release them in kit form as well. I love to kit-bash and it harder than Hades to modify a pre-built structure.