Attempted a build of skippy's.
Went pretty much like this:
Should be simple
Patience, patience
Several four letter words
Burn it and start again.

Double step down to roof profile does not work.
Interior is too tall for a recessed roof.

Warning to anyone trying this build will need some modification to get it done.

Hi Joe,

Sorry to hear you had issues. If I remember rightly, I had to tweak it to get it built, but then I print the kits on regular printer paper and apply that to a core of foamboard, rather than building them straight from the cardstock, so I never built them as they are intended to be built anyway.

Alas, because of that, I can't really offer any pointers that might help. I can however, off you a couple of reference photos of my printer-paper-over-black-foamboard version of the kit. If I remember rightly, I used cereal box card for the floor and roof of it, and foamboard for the four walls.

Thanks,
Dan

Pictures:
https://flic.kr/p/SVD7SR
https://flic.kr/p/SVD8vK
https://flic.kr/p/SkNqzf

After taking a few days to think about changes that could be made was able to save the work I had and finish the hot dog shop. Still needed modifications to complete.
Didn't mean to go off the deep end.

I just downloaded the Skippy's (or is it "Skiopie's"?) this morning and I cannot see how the ducts/vents are going to come out. I am clueless on how the coping will go on or how the back of the exterior Skippie's sign goes on if there is one. Other than some photos to use as a guide there are no instructions. I am going to sound like a jerk to some of you and you are welcome to chew me a new one but when I see typos and grammatical errors. I usually arrive at the conclusion that the person doesn't know what they are doing or they just don't give a ____. "I'm not good at writing.." Awesome, get someone to read your stuff. Hemingway had an editor so can the rest of us.

If I sound bitter I am certainly not. If anything I am frustrated because I am a huge fan of small businesses and would love to see CM thrive. I love looking at the the photos of the models even though often are pretty small and it would be nice if they could be made bigger.

I will have photos of the build if things go well on the Petworth Traction Co's page on Facebook.

Be safe y'all.

Hello Mike.
I agree that Skippy's needs help. (I have no idea where you got Skiopie's from. I searched that HO kit and all the spellings of Skippy's looked correct. Please tell me specifically where you saw that, and I will correct it.) My only defense is that in 2010, when that kit was developed, sometimes to make a deadline, we ignored some pretty obvious errors. Ancient history. We don't do that anymore. And I probably will never go back and fix this particular kit. And, yes, I will admit to there being similar issues with other kits of that vintage. Like others have said, it is still build able. I do apologize for the frustration, but let me attempt to describe "MY" solution. You will notice that there is a step down in the side walls. Line up the back edge of the roof with the back edge of the walls and remove everything but the black roof, forward of that step. Also the rear wall needs to be cut down to the top row of bricks except where the ends of the wall need to reach up to meet the roof trim along the edges.. Also, you are correct, there is no back to the sign. I used scrap.

Dave, Thank you for the super quick reply. When I mentioned Skiopie's it seemed that my own editor had asked for the day off. I posted that about 6 am right before heading to bed.

My rant was more like a gym buddy who presses you to do that one more rep because they want to see you do well. There is a great opportunity to beef up the documentation that comes with the Skippy's Hot Dog kit.

I downloaded the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel kit and after printing it out I thought it looked a bit small. I was going to honor my late friend John Stabb who sang with the DC punk rock band Government Issue by placing a gig poster on the wall of the building. I scaled down a gig poster to a scale of 3' and noticed that it covered nearly the entire height of the structure. "Wait, this building is only 4' tall?..." I said to myself when I should have been in bed already. After printing out the PDFs and waiting for the glue to dry having glued them to reinforcing cardstock I decided to do some digging on your web site. I found the explanation on how the structures were made to house newspapers and nothing more and are not a full sized building. There is a golden opportunity to include that information in the kit itself. Imagine displaying the model in public and having 10 people a day say "Wow...that's a super nice model but it seems a bit small when compared to the other structures..."

Although I have yet to successfully build a CM model my plan is to build a 1' x 2' HO scale streetcar diorama furnished exclusively with CM kits. I downloaded Plant #2 a few years ago in N scale and after looking at all the tiny pieces to cut out gave up before I got started. Some of the work that your customers have done is truly astonishing. Being an (old) punk guy I love the weird and quirky and building amazingly detailed buildings out of cardstock certainly strikes that chord loudly.

I maintain a Facebook page for my trolley activities which has been pretty dormant for a long time. I have at least two more months of lock down here in the DC suburbs and have recently vowed to get back to work on my model trolleys, planes, and rockets. In the Petworth Traction Co's FB page I have plugged CM as well as Downtown Deco as I see both companies providing amazing and unique resources to modelers and I know neither party is getting rich doing so.

Dave and Thom, thanks for doing what you do.

Be safe and let's look out for each other y'all.
Mike