Walthers Cornerstone building kits

[LDBennett]

Anyone here use the Walthers Cornerstone building kits?

How detailed are they?

Do they require any painting?

What are they made of?

Are there better choices for building kits that represent this age?

This question is for HO kits.

I plan a small trolley point to point layout with the collection of these buildings along the route. The trolley will be the Bachmann PCC Los Angeles Railway (this trolley is the trolley I took with my mother back in the late 40's and early 50's to go to downtown LA for shopping.....J car route..Huntington Park to Downtown). The memories are vivid!

Thanks,

LDBennett

[Jerrys HO]

LD

Most of your kits or molded plastic that come in a variety of colors. They are nicely detailed, as you can add further detailing to your liking with window stickers, mortering the brick, weathering the walls, etc. I like to repaint mine and add weathering and decals.

There are a number of choices out there. Rix,Banta,Plasticville,Model Power. I like the Banta kits.

http://www.bantamodelworks.com/

Another link for Rix which may have a lot of what you are looking for.

http://rixproducts.com/model_railroad_kits.htm

It may be harder to find stuff in that era but, you can always modify or kitbash to get the look you are trying for.

Jerry

[Doneldon]

LDB-

There really isn't an answer to your question because there are so many different things people want to do with their models.

To me, the Walthers plastic building kits (and most other manufacturers' kits as well) seem to be well made, richly detailed and easy to assemble. You can certainly do a lot to customize them if you need/want to. The same goes for painting. They come in several colors so, at least for a background building, a little India ink wash may be all you need to do. At the front of your layout you'll probably want to do some painting and additional detailing. A bit of grey paint mortar, for example, does wonders for the appearance of brick buildings. Interiors are always a possibility and probably worth the effort for foreground scenes. The only gripe I have is that the plastic doesn't effectively block lighting so you have to either paint exterior walls black on their interiors or glue on some black construction paper.

Wooden structures are often a different story. They, too, are well designed and realized but their construction can be quite challenging at times, especially some of the higher end models like Bar Mills. You'll end up with an outstanding model but it probably will involve a little frustration along the way. Of course, that gives one a sense of accomplishment which is worth something in itself. The only structures I haven't been real fond of are plaster castings. They seem clunky to me, although you can certainly end up with great results.

The next person who responds to your post will probably have an opinion completely different from mine. And it will be every bit as valid as mine. But that's part of what makes this hobby so interesting. There is room for lots of tastes, preferences and skill levels.
                                                                                                                                                       -- D

[Tedshere]

Clunky ?? Well, maybe somewhat! But I recently finished my first plaster casting. Downtown Deco's "Trackside Tavern". The instructions are very complete and if you follow them and make sure everything lines up right before you start slapping on the glue, You'll be real happy with the results. The details on these models are very impressive and unlike anything I've seen anywhere else.
    Enjoy,
    Ted

[CNE Runner]

Hmmm, I need to try one of those Downtown Deco kits as I have no experience with hydrocal kits. Personally, I have become a craftsman (laser) kit 'junkie' and get a lot of satisfaction out of their assembly ('got a whole shelf of completed structures because there is no place on my layout to place them).

If you haven't yet tried craftsman kit, you really need to start. While there are many fine brands out there; you may want to start with a tab-and-slot kit (Northeastern makes some nice ones). Tab-and-slot will help you keep everything square and give you the experience/confidence to try something harder.

Good luck,
Ray

[WoundedBear]

Check this link of one of my latest builds.........then go buy a laser kit. You'll never want to go back to plastic.

http://members.shaw.ca/wbearart/Banta_Everest_Country_Store.html

I have built a few Walthers Cornerstone kits. They seem to fit well, and the detail is fairly good. My biggest complaint with Walthers' plastic kits is poor placement of ejector pins, and window glazing that is so thick and poorly molded that it is almost impossible to see through.

Sid

[Desertdweller]

I model in N scale, but find that most N scale building kits are designed after HO kits, but built in the smaller N scale.  I always check new HO scale kits, because often the same model will later come out in N scale.

Walther Cornerstone kits are injection molded plastic.  They are high quality for injected molded kits.  They go together well and look good.  Painting is the most important step, even if the kit is molded in color, styrene plastic needs to be painted to look right, in my opinion.  If you don't want to paint them, at least apply a coating of something like Testor's Dullcote to kill the plastic shine.  Do this before putting in the window glazing, or the spray will dull the glass, too (maybe you would like that effect for very dirty windows, like upstairs windows over a store that never get washed).

I would suggest you buy a variety of buildings from different manufacturers, using different materials.  This will give you the variety you need to avoid an unrealistic uniformity to your buildings.

Another thing you may want to try are cast resin building kits.  The parts in these are cast in open molds, requiring the builder to square up the edges before assembly.  The great thing about these is the realistic brick work obtained by this process.  The brick surfaces exhibit the roughness of real brick, rather than the machined smoothness of injection molded parts.

Les

[LDBennett]

I bought the three, three building Cornerstone buildings kits and built one. I was a bit disappointed as they really need paint and I'm terrible with fine painting like that. They are just one hunk of red blob in the one I built. I am considering doing a wash of thin dirty white to give them some contrast and a bit of age. If I had know what they were like then I might have not bought them. The other two three building Cornerstone building kits are in the boxes unopened. i expected some detailed painting pre-done and as I live over 50 miles from the hobby shop I thought I'd buy them all while I was there.

If I can be happy with the wash of thin dirty white followed by dull clear, I'll build the others and do the same. Otherwise I'm not sure if I'll builds the other two at all. Maybe I'll search out some pre-made and painted ones if I can find the 1920's urban buildings I want.

Hey, we live and learn.

LDBennett

[Pacific Northern]

It sounds as though you should check out the Woodland Scenic PreBuilt structures.

http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/HOBuilt-N-ReadyStructures

These are great looking structures, all finished, great detail. Would be a minimum amount of work for you

[jward]

in addition to the woodland scenics, you might want to look at city classics. they are similar in era, and design.

[Doneldon]

FWIW, I have a few problems with ready-built structures, specifically that they cost an awful lot more for a bare bones build. For that I mean that no details are ever added, there's no paint and the craftsmanship is no better than fair. Add the additional costs of packing and shipping and, to me, they are a bad deal. Of course, I grew up in the day when much more merchandise, especially rolling stock, was sold as kits and I bought the kits because I could get the fun of building four cars for the price of three RTR. But that's just me.
                                                                                       -- D

[Desertdweller]

I agree with that!
Very few buildings on my N-scale railroad were purchased as built-ups, for the reasons you gave.

I do have a few, though.  Generally buildings I wanted anyway, that were on sale.  I think all of them were reworked and/or repainted before they went on the layout.

To me, building things is an important part of the hobby.  This idea works against using ready-to-run things.
Even factory-painted passenger cars get detail painted interiors, weathering, and minor modifications to get them to track better.

Locomotives get at least some weathering.

Otherwise, you are buying a model someone else built and painted.  At least half the entertainment value of it is lost before you buy it.

Les

[electrical whiz kid]

Hi, guys (and gals);
Just a couple of thoughts here. 
I have been in this hobby for  a long time, and have done a ton of scratchbuilding, kit bashing, and scratch-bashing, and have a good idea of how and why.
Plastic kits, especially Walthers, Bachmann, et al, are a great way to get into this game-they are relatively inexpensive, good quality, and well-instructed. 
I have started to really get away from plastic, especially with the advent of top-quality scratchbuilding items and a lot more time (I am semi-retired) to do this stuff.
I have always gotten a great deal of satisfaction wit hthe plastic kits; especially the abovementioned.
A bit of advice to those who are 'movig up" so to speak:  Bar Mills arre really good kits.  Having gotten to know Art Fahie a little, I have gotten a great deal out of his speak, as well as their seminars at the train shows.   Their kits are a delight to build, well-instructed, and yo uwill wind up with a really high-end model. 
Sheepscot's George Barrett put out somegreat kits; they are a little harder to build because lf their complexity; a great deal is thrust upon the modeller, but again, the finished product-wnen directions are followed) .
I believe that if you follow  your abilities and don't push into something you aren't ready for, you will enjoy the progression, as well as his hobby, even more.
Rich



 

[LDBennett]

I am building my little layout once and not as a hobby (at least that is the plan). I want realistic buildings and the Woodland Scenics buildings , at least from the pictures, seem to look great. I ordered one to see how they look in real life (often different than the pictures!!). So thank you so far to those that suggested I look at them.

I took the Cornerstone urban three building kit that I built and using a wash of dirty white painted the building and removed the excess. That helped immensely. I am not capable of detail painting the slab of super feature detailed structure so I am not really satisfied. It looks OK but not nearly perfect. I am hanging back on building the other two Cornerstone kits I bought until I see the one Woodlands Sceneics ready built urban structure I just ordered.

Anyway, thanks everyone for the tips.

LDBennett

[LDBennett]

Well, I built up the three Cornerstone building kits, added the wash to weather them a bit, sprayed them with the dull clear coat, and they look very good. I learned a lot with each kit build. But........

I ordered and received one of the Woodland Scenics ready built buildings and OMG! The detailing is extremely good. I just ordered four more. Thank you for those of you that suggested them.

I may build a couple of more building kits by someone other than Walthers. Kits with glue-in windows makes the painting so much easier that I'll try one of those. Woodland Scenics makes some kits like that too.

Now I have to plan out the point to point and start laying out track, finishing the table top, and placing the buildings. While the trolley should be the focal point, the street scene is very important too.

Thank you for all those that guided me in this HO building effort.

LDBennett