Education

At Springfield we are doing 3 clinics.  Of course we are hoping that the better people understand cardstock, the better our community will be and we will be a better more successful business.  I’m thinking about all the other things I might be able to share.  I’m a landscape guy.  I love building mountains and lakes and waterfalls etc.  I’d like to share that info as well so you might be seeing a tutorial on sculpting stone and rock.

I came up with this method because I don’t really like the accidental results that are usually good but sometimes not. Guess I’m a control freak but I like to sculpt my rocks. Now I’m not going to have time for this till we get back but my plan is to video tape it and publish it here. We are also going to attempt to video tape our clinics.  If we are successful I will post those as well.

Thom

getting ready for Amherst/Springfield

Springfield is our big show for the year. It’s great fun and packed with great layouts. It’s also very costly to exhibit at and is a crucial show for us. This year we will be introducing a new product and it’s the first time we will have the critter DVD’s there. The new disk that we will be announcing and taking orders for is called “First street“  It’s a commercial city block and a total knock out. At least 8 kits, most with interiors plus awnings and signs. Is it worth the $39? NO! it’s worth over $90 sold as individual kits. At the show it will be $35.

We will have an O scale diorama at the show, showing 6 of the kits. Those who purchase advance copies, will be able to down load the kits from our website and then will receive the DVD a couple of weeks later. We are just waiting on a couple of test builds so we can add the photography to the disk.

So whats on the DVD?

The coal vender, beautiful painted brick signs, concrete bins, scale and coal loader w/interior. reproduction of a real building.

Skippy’s hot dogs. wierdly cool w/interior. reproduction of a real building.

Rudy Co printing. 2 story brick, side walk up, water tank, interior.

Hoosier mama’s pies, A 3 story brown stone bakery. Ghost signs, interior, reproduction of a real building.

Harvy hobby’s, a wood commercial store front with wood frame insulbrick rear, interior, reproduction of a real building.

Habbaker’s garage, A design from John Kosma. Re engineered and re textured by us. A large commercial garage with a second floor office. A great roof line.

And to anchor the block, A classic White Castle’s hamburgers, in either white brick or enamel sheet metal.

This is the best collection yet.

Sorry for the blatent sales pitch.

A critter and a box car

Ben Streeter is sharing a work in progress off the Critter and rolling stock DVD.  A few details left to be added, but mostly there.  Please excuse our blatent advertising on the box car.  Ben showes his usual top notch skill.

The silver city mine building

More pix to share. These come from Gael Troughton who in the persuit of accurascy, went to Google Earth and after a challenging search, found Street View pictures of the prototype.  I think I inadvertantly made that job tougher by calling the kit “Silver City”.  It’s actually located just off the V&T end of the line in Virginia City.

Gael’s model is a very accurate rendition and beautifully built here in HO.

Thanks for sharing Gael.