How about this little beauty for NE-style homes?

[OldEastRR]

I thought everybody knew about WS kits? I wrote a review of the gas station in July/Aug 2012 N Scale. (So I it's true; nobody reads reviews). The building itself is molded as four walls (which can be sawn apart), but the roofs both on my kit and my built-up were separate. The roof was screwed to the built-up and not hard to remove. The kits come with tons of detail parts that can be used on other structures, tho you'll have to patch the small holes in the walls where they go on the original kit. Don't worry; you'll still have many details to add to the kit building. The kits also come with a full sheet of dry transfer signs in proper scale -- again way more than the building needs.
One thing I found with at least the built-up I had was they use AC, not solvent glue, to attach all the parts. A lot of the time just a little prying with a flat-bladed tool will pop the parts off.
I'm thinking about what kitbashing some of their small industrial buildings together would look like but afraid the result would be the same types and styles as the old DPM kits.

[Chris333]

I don't get either of the N scale mags. Maybe that is why I've never heard of them before.

[conrail98]

I did not know that...  Now I feel like crap for paying $50 for the gas station that I could of had for $20.

I just ordered a few kits. Wow why don't they advertise these?

Chris,

I didn't know they made kits either, thought it was only built-ups,

Phil

[Pennsy]

Imex makes some great suburban houses. Including ones based on the original suburb Levitown

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Imex-N-Levittown-Model-D-Levittowner-House-p/imx-6315.htm

Jim

[peteski]

Imex makes some great suburban houses. Including ones based on the original suburb Levitown

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Imex-N-Levittown-Model-D-Levittowner-House-p/imx-6315.htm

Jim

IMO, these solid blocks of resin are only good for background scenes.

[OldEastRR]

Well, Chris, glad I was able to bring these kits to your attention. Hope we'll see what you can do with them on one of your layouts.

[Rich_S]

I thought everybody knew about WS kits? I wrote a review of the gas station in July/Aug 2012 N Scale. (So I it's true; nobody reads reviews). The building itself is molded as four walls (which can be sawn apart), but the roofs both on my kit and my built-up were separate. The roof was screwed to the built-up and not hard to remove. The kits come with tons of detail parts that can be used on other structures, tho you'll have to patch the small holes in the walls where they go on the original kit. Don't worry; you'll still have many details to add to the kit building. The kits also come with a full sheet of dry transfer signs in proper scale -- again way more than the building needs.
One thing I found with at least the built-up I had was they use AC, not solvent glue, to attach all the parts. A lot of the time just a little prying with a flat-bladed tool will pop the parts off.
I'm thinking about what kitbashing some of their small industrial buildings together would look like but afraid the result would be the same types and styles as the old DPM kits.

I'm glad you mentioned these as well. As Chris mentioned I too do not have a subscription to the N scale magazines, only picking up copies at the local hobby shop when something catches my eye. When thinking of Woodland scenics, I typically just think of ground covering, bush and tree materials. The funnier part is I order from Brooklyn Locomotive Works and regularly check out Pete's website for new products and have never noticed these buildings on his website. A thank you goes out to Peteski for the link to the BLW website. I can see a few of these structures in my future     

[DKS]

I have a bunch of these "kits" and I have to say, I have major issues with them. First, as has been mentioned, they're not kits in the classic sense--and WS acknowledges this by calling them "prefabs." Kitbashing them is a serious challenge for multiple reasons, the big ones being that they're cast as nearly-whole one-piece buildings, and most walls look like Swiss cheese from all of the dozens of holes for "detail" parts. The other major problem I have with them is that their architectural detailing is all over the map; whoever designed them has precious little understanding of architectural design. Example: on the "factory" (more like an oversize brick outhouse), the loading dock is held up by what looks like an ornate cornice--just one example of their laughably bad, often bizarre design choices. Consistency--or serious lack thereof--also creates issues, with brick size varying by as much as three times. All of these issues combined make them pretty much useless for bashing purposes, unless you just want some cornices or other bits and pieces, for which you'll pay too much and spend too much time extracting.

The saddest part for me is, IMO, what constitutes a huge waste of resources. Given the same budget they had for tooling and production, I would have ditched 90% of the "details"--for which you pay a serious premium on the built-ups, since every one of them must be hand-painted and applied--and focused more on architectural authenticity. Their building designs aren't even all original--some are merely bastardized recycled versions of the old DPM kits--and demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of how real buildings look. They're more like whimsical fantasy-land efforts, with the evident philosophy that, if some detailing is good, then an over-the-top glut of detailing must be great, and with no rhyme or reason to it. Consider: 50s-era soda pop machines next to 2000-era dumpsters. They pile details along all four sides of their city structures such that you can't place them side-by-side--butted together as they would be in real life--without having to perform some messy surgery, since some details are cast-on.

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but I personally do not find much value in the WS building series. If anything, I get more frustrated with each new release, since I just see squandered opportunities for what could have been a really useful product line.

[robwill84]

David, did you have any problems with the "dry" transfers in your kits? The ones I got were a sticky mess on the back, and required a ridiculous amount of burnishing to get them to work.

[sirenwerks]

... I personally do not find much value in the WS building series. If anything, I get more frustrated with each new release, since I just see squandered opportunities for what could have been a really useful product line.

+1

[DKS]

David, did you have any problems with the "dry" transfers in your kits? The ones I got were a sticky mess on the back, and required a ridiculous amount of burnishing to get them to work.

I never used them. I always make my own signs on DIY decal sheets.

But to take the point further, I never used the kits. For anything.

[Baronjutter]

DPM kits back in the day were awesome fairly realistic and simple kits and amazing bash fodder.  The direction WS's taken their line of buildings is pretty terrible and I share all the same sentiments.  They're all like badly drawn caricatures of buildings.

[peteski]

A thank you goes out to Peteski for the link to the BLW website. I can see a few of these structures in my future 

While I am a happy BLW customer (from way back, before the intrernet and websites), BLW website is a mess!  It is even more messed up before he changed servers or ISP  (couple of years ago).  Some items are referenced on only some pages, some are totally hidden. It took ma a bit of a searching to find that web page.  Also, just because I found it that doesn't mean he has any of those kits left. The webpage could have been hidden because they are all sold out.

As far as the kits go, the fact that they are assembled unpainted (with just the details needing to be added) makes kitbashing difficult. Even just painting them to the same level of detail as it is done by the factory is difficult. At the factory they use all sorts of masks, stencils and Tampo printing to make them look good. At home we would have to spend some serious time manually masking some areas and very carefully hand-brushing other items.

[Rich_S]

While I am a happy BLW customer (from way back, before the intrernet and websites), BLW website is a mess!  It is even more messed up before he changed servers or ISP  (couple of years ago).  Some items are referenced on only some pages, some are totally hidden. It took ma a bit of a searching to find that web page.  Also, just because I found it that doesn't mean he has any of those kits left. The webpage could have been hidden because they are all sold out.

I think they are still available from the BLW site. If you click on the "On-Line Index" at the top of the page, then click on the "Structures - N Scale" button on the left of the next page. Next select the Woodland Scenics button at the bottom of the next page, you be taken to the Woodland Scenics structure page. Scroll to the bottom of the Woodland scenics structure page and click on one of the photos under the "Pre-Fab Structure Series" header and you are taken to the Woodlands Scenics Pre-Fab kits page. None of them are marked sold out and if I click on the Add button, it adds the item to my shopping cart.

As for painting, they can't be any worse than painting a multi color paint scheme on a N scale locomotive. To be honest, I'm not an architect, the buildings look reasonable to me and look a lot better than some ready built structures I've seen from other companies. 

In my opinion, model railroading is all about illusion and compromise. If it looks like a house and the doors and windows are not horribly over sized, then it's good. When it comes right down to it, you can critique anything in model railroading and find fault. An example; I have yet to find any prototype locomotive that has a giant electric motor in the center of the carbody, with that motor connected to gear towers via drive shafts. Knuckle couplers don't split in the middle on the prototype and when you push them to one side, they stay in that position, i.e. there is not a centering spring in prototype coupler boxes. We all approach the hobby differently, I enjoy the operation aspect of the hobby, others enjoy creating realistic scenes. While some folks might think that FSM makes the greatest structure kits in the world, I would never pay that kind of money for something that for me is just scenery. Again just my two cents worth and your mileage may vary.     

[jimmo]

I have a bunch of these "kits" and I have to say, I have major issues with them. First, as has been mentioned, they're not kits in the classic sense--and WS acknowledges this by calling them "prefabs." Kitbashing them is a serious challenge for multiple reasons, the big ones being that they're cast as nearly-whole one-piece buildings, and most walls look like Swiss cheese from all of the dozens of holes for "detail" parts. The other major problem I have with them is that their architectural detailing is all over the map; whoever designed them has precious little understanding of architectural design. Example: on the "factory" (more like an oversize brick outhouse), the loading dock is held up by what looks like an ornate cornice--just one example of their laughably bad, often bizarre design choices. Consistency--or serious lack thereof--also creates issues, with brick size varying by as much as three times. All of these issues combined make them pretty much useless for bashing purposes, unless you just want some cornices or other bits and pieces, for which you'll pay too much and spend too much time extracting.

The saddest part for me is, IMO, what constitutes a huge waste of resources. Given the same budget they had for tooling and production, I would have ditched 90% of the "details"--for which you pay a serious premium on the built-ups, since every one of them must be hand-painted and applied--and focused more on architectural authenticity. Their building designs aren't even all original--some are merely bastardized recycled versions of the old DPM kits--and demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of how real buildings look. They're more like whimsical fantasy-land efforts, with the evident philosophy that, if some detailing is good, then an over-the-top glut of detailing must be great, and with no rhyme or reason to it. Consider: 50s-era soda pop machines next to 2000-era dumpsters. They pile details along all four sides of their city structures such that you can't place them side-by-side--butted together as they would be in real life--without having to perform some messy surgery, since some details are cast-on.

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but I personally do not find much value in the WS building series. If anything, I get more frustrated with each new release, since I just see squandered opportunities for what could have been a really useful product line.

I have to say I'm with David on this one. The two main reasons I possess exactly none of the newer "kits" or built-ups. One, is that none of them appealed enough to me to, Two, spend that much money on them. The old kits were not only affordable but they were great for bashing almost any kind of structure you needed. Having my own kits constantly compared to them has been flattering. The new generation of kits produced by WS has been disappointing. After reading what you guys have to say about them makes me glad I didn't waste my time and money. I hope this changes in the future as it seems that they are trying to appeal more to the train set crowd instead of us diehard modelers.

As far as IMEX goes, I wished they made a line of Z-scale structures so I could use them as forced perspective background structures. Of course I would have to fix those lame baby blue and neutral grey windows.