Catalog abbreviations

[Tedshere]

  Is there a way to tell in the Walthers Catalog or Flyer whether structure model kits are plastic or wood?
    Thanks in advance,
    Ted

[ACY]

Usually you can tell by the picture or manufacturer of the kit, most manufacturers do not make both plastic and wood kits.

[Jim Banner]

If you can afford them, they are plastic.  If not, they are wood.

I too would like to know before purchasing.

Jim

Perhaps ACY would be willing to post a list of who makes kits in which material.

J.

[ACY]

Usually if you do a google search for the manufacturer in question you can get a better idea.

[richg]

Many times I look at the manufacturers list at Walther's and there is usually a description of the company product line. Searching with Google can most times give you the manufacturers site and you can save the link to Favorites.
I have been doing that for a while and in my Trains folder, I have a Train Shops folder with 57 links to different model railroad manufacturers.

Rich

[Tedshere]

    Just in case anyone's interested, I just got off the phone with Walthers. Structures in their catalogs and flyers labeled "laser" are wood. ALL OTHERS are plastic!
    TED

[richg]

    Just in case anyone's interested, I just got off the phone with Walthers. Structures in their catalogs and flyers labeled "laser" are wood. ALL OTHERS are plastic!
    TED

I find most of the time that going to the source first gets me the correct info. I have not seen any laser cut plastics kits for model railroading yet. Have not looked for any.

Rich

[OldTimer]

Well, lets sort this out a little. 
1.  Walthers MAKES  lots of plastic, and a few (a half dozen or so, I think) wood structure kits.
2.  All Walthers wood kits are laser cut and are identified as such in their publications.
3.  Walthers SELLS lots of WOOD structure kits by other manufacturers that are NOT laser cut.  The Campbell line is just one example.  These kits are NOT identified as being laser cut.  The materials in the kits are generally well described in the Walthers catalog.
4.  Plastic model kits (structure or otherwise) are made from thermo-plastic material.  That means that when it gets hot, it gets soft.  That's how the parts are cast.  Hence, the idea of a "laser cut" plastic kit seems to be beyond the relm of probability.  Seems like you'd just end up with a blob. 

The annual Walthers catalog (aka Reference Book) is an excellent resource for finding information on products made and/or sold by Walthers,   Hope this helps.
OldTimer

[Doneldon]

OT-

Actually, one could do laser cutting of plastic parts if one were of a mind to do so. Remember that lasers can cut wood or metal to whatever depth is needed, including a variety of depths on a single item. The reason that lasers are not used to cut plastic is that there is no real need to. Why cast an oversize part, say a girder for a bridge kit only to cut it back to size with a laser?

Laser cutters are used for some plastic things. One example is an immediately-ready dental crown cut from a block of what is basically a plastic. The dentist takes a series of dental photographs, pushes the do a miracle button and soon has the cap ready to be cemented in. No temporary crown, no fitting, no nothing, just the finished product.

What we'll see in the future (the technology already exists and is being used though not in model railroading as far as I know) is "additive production." In this case, one starts with thin air and an instrument builds a solid object based on computer engineered plans. At least one version of this uses lasers (most use UV light) to "cure" the raw material. This is considered additive as opposed to subtractive production (removing material).

I predict it won't be long before we'll be able to take out CAD model railroad plans and gave a machine "build" a perfect example. But what will be left for the scratchbuilders?
                                                                                                       -- D

[r0bert]

Summit USA kits are laser cut plastic structures of mostly modern box type builings like lowes and strip malls, as well as hotels and fast food shops.
http://summit-customcuts.com/

[OldTimer]

Interesting, r0bert.  Not my era, but I'll have to check a kit out just out of curiosity.  Thinks for the info.
OldTimer

[richg]

I do a Google search for the manufacturer if no details in Walther's and in this case would include laser cut.

I did a Google search for laser plastic kits before I put my answer a couple messages back. Just did not bother to post the results. I was interested in possible answers to laser cut plastic kits.

It is amazing what you can find in Google searches.
Many are not aware of what can be cut by lasers.

Rich