How about this little beauty for NE-style homes?

[packers#1]

I do have to chime in and say that, having attempted to build several of these 'kits', I absolutely hate them, and I've got the skill set I'm betting WS would be targeting.

First, the kits themselves are as annoying to paint as regular DPM buildings with the individual windows and sashes molded in, although they are a bit easier to grip since they're already a shell.

However, the detail parts are absolutely pains in the rear to paint and then apply, and the holes are humongous.

While most of my complaints are due, in part, to my meager building kits skill set, another part is that I don't think these buildings were really designed to be kits, but they were made into psuedo-kits.

It could almost be argued that these things are exactly what we wanted; give us the detail parts and basic structure and we'll get everything else done! To my mind, these buildings would be better off offered as just built-ups. But hey, if it works, more power to WS; I still think highly of them as a company.

[peteski]

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.

I'm not sure if you missed it, but few posts ago I included a direct ling to that page. Painting these will be comparable to painting DPM kits (which is not one of my favorite things to do).

[Rich_S]

I'm not sure if you missed it, but few posts ago I included a direct ling to that page. Painting these will be comparable to painting DPM kits (which is not one of my favorite things to do).

I posted the instructions to the Pre-Fab as you stated in your previous post:

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.

From my experience dealing with Pete's site, if they are sold out the add buttons say "sold out" I was able to add these kits to my shopping cart.

[Rich_S]

Painting these will be comparable to painting DPM kits (which is not one of my favorite things to do).

Painting DPM kits is not that bad. Double and Triple ought brushes are the ticket 

[Chris333]

Well I did only order 2 kits, the 2 least offensive I could find.

[DKS]

Well I did only order 2 kits, the 2 least offensive I could find.

Good luck with that. I have samples of all of their non-DPM structures, and I cannot for the life of me find much of anything positive to say about them. IMO, despite their advanced age, DPMs are still the "gold standard" for this genre of building. WS has only managed to bastardize the line into a worthless series of crap for kids. Sorry, you can call me an elitist snob, I don't care--it makes me angry that WS has spent so much money on a bunch of fantasyland toys. For a smaller investment, I could have designed a worthwhile line of realistic, versatile kits.

[MichaelWinicki]

I like the pre-fabs to a point.

I agree with David... too many details (I don't use'em all) which pretty much have to be painted when you do the building.  And placing them tightly side by side is a no go.  Bottom line, they aren't kit-bash fodder.

However, while I don't like all the details, I do like some of them– especially the awnings (I wish we could get awnings separately... but I digress).  I use the details as some what of a guide on how to detail other structures nearby.  I admit I get kind of myopic when it comes to detailing structures.  And I've found that if you mix the more detailed pre-fabs in with some not as detailed structures... things tend to even out.

Also the brick-work on the prefabs seems more sharply defined than on the regular DPM line of structures.   

Nope, the aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but in N-scale what is?

[Nato]

       Switching gears back Bachmann offered a really nice kit of a Sears Catalog Home. Unfortunately this kit is no longer available. It was not a cheap item, but well worth the money. Nate Goodman (Nato).

[Cajonpassfan]

Agreed, I'm not too impressed with the commercial/industrial buildings, but IMHO the the gas station, cottage and the subject of this thread, the second empire-ish Victorian make very good fodder for respectable structures. There is a strikingly similar Victorian here in Etiwanda, Ca., built around 1884 and recently restored, near the Santa Fe mainline into Los Angeles. Take off the flower pots and some of the curlicues, fix the misaligned dormers, and you have a very well proportioned modest house appropriate for many locations all over the country. Calling it an embarrassment seems a bit strong...
Otto K.

[jimmo]

Take off the flower pots and some of the curlicues, fix the misaligned dormers, and you have a very well proportioned modest house appropriate for many locations all over the country. Calling it an embarrassment seems a bit strong...
Otto K.

I think you helped make one of the points of this discussion by listing all the stuff you have to do in order to make it acceptable.

I like a kit I can either build as it's designed and have a great model or modify it easily into other variations or a completely different structure for that matter. One of the problems with WS "kits" are that they are designed for high-speed mass-assembly as very specific, finished, cutesy model railroad accessories.

If my customers had to fix "all that's wrong" with my kits in order to have a decent model, then my company would be an embarrassment as well.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I wanted to get the fire house to kit bash, but it is not available as a kit. There are some major issues with it such as the front facing hose tower being directly over the office, but it looks like it could be bashed into something worth while. Why they released this without a fire truck in their vehicle line, I do not know.

As stated, this Victorian looks like some local houses and I will pick up a few kits if available.

[OldEastRR]

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.

Pete thought he made things easier to find by putting in the google search feature, But it doesn't appear on the opening page; you can click on any part of that opening page and when that item page comes up there's a box at the top saying "search our site with google" and a box. Be  specific as possible, like "Bachmann 55 ton hopper" and you should get the link to the item you want.
Also, sometimes there's a notice at the bottom of the item's page linking to other related items by that mfr.  For example, at the bottom of the WS Built-Ups page is a link taking you to the kits. There are other pages that have the same feature, directing you to other related items to that one, like IM locos.
So always check the bottom of the product page, and if that fails use the Google search. If BLW has it listed, you'll find it.
The WS kits are neither all terrible nor all acceptable. The commercial structures/stores are all jokes -- except for the "Ice House" which can be repurposed into a nice small brick freight depot. But the two frame houses and the gas station w/ the block building add-on are pretty decent, with some or little work. I don't have the station but it looks pretty much like a regular small town station if you leave off the over-detailing.
As for kitbashing these, you could also say taking the roof of one freight car, the ends from another, the doors from yet another, and putting BLMA trucks and MTL couplers on the Frankenstein car to get the plug door style box you want is also a terrible waste of time for the result, but hey, that's model railroading: everybody's got an opinion.
I think the best solution is we get together and as a group suggest to WS items that we think would be better produced than what they've got.

[bbussey]

Why are you harping so much on kitbashing freight cars?  At least all of the freight car components you referenced are prototypical.  It seems that, based on the posts here, that one of the main problems with most of these building models is that the components themselves are not prototypical.

You're not doing your cause any favors by constantly working your anti-kitbash fervor into every thread.  With the effort you've expended complaining about kitbashing over the past few weeks, you could have had multiple models built by now.  HO modelers, with far more riches in their scale, do it all the time and they don't bitch about it.  You might – might – see one prototypical FGE steel model in the future from Atlas at some point, only because they have it in other scales, but it's not as if they aren't constantly releasing newly-tooled models regularly.  And you won't see multiple FGE models tooled (most if not all of which are unique to FGE), so you'll be forced to kitbash anyway.  Two prototypical N scale FGE models already exist that operated in your timeframe, which we are lucky to have, so I wouldn't hold my breath at seeing additional ones.  Please, stop beating this dead horse.

It's also insulting to those of us who do find it worthwhile to combine sides, roofs, and ends from various donor models to create a new prototypical model.  Better than scratchbuilding.

[strummer]

[quote author=Rich_S link=topic=32898.msg375280#msg375280 date=1400271084

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.     
[/quote]

Well said.

Mark in Oregon

[peteski]

OldEastRR:  As I said, I love BLW, Pete and his one (or sometimes two) man operation, but let's not make any excuses for the website - it is a mess!  At least compared to something like MBK website where everything is arranged in a very ordered and uniform fashion. Let's not even mention real-time inventory.

On Pete's website, there are links to items but only on some of the relevant pages.  As he adds things, the style is slightly different (and he doesn't create enough links to the new items from where one would logically look for the items).  Sure the Google search helps, but overall, the website design is not really good.

But this is just way too OT for this thread. 

You also got me curious - I'll have to look up that N Scale Mag. article you wrote to see what your article looks like and what name you go by.