Leven Miniatures

[Hertsblue]

Oh, I understand the complications involved with plastic, Phil. I was just wondering aloud if any of the model railway firms did anything of the sort. Saw a huge layout yesterday (in OO admittedly) on which there were all sorts of wonderful kit buildings. 

[levenminiatures]

Pico Armor produce plastic buildings, so they are obviously set up for injection moulding. Maybe they do them or would consider it.

[Fenton]

I know John Sweenie of Pico Armour quite well since I set up the 3mm yahoo group, If its the Monopoly buildings your talking about then I think he buys those in from else where...The other terrain pieces are resin and metal

[levenminiatures]

Good point - I like that - 'monopoly buildings' - you're right they look exactly like 'em. Am still trying to get my head around the 3mm stuff myself - tools bigger than the windows like!.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hi All

Talking of plastic N gauge buildings there are is the Kestrel range (Edit:My old teacher would have had fits  )



http://www.gaugemaster.com/search_results.asp?searchstring=%20%20brand~~667~~brand%20%20scale~~%ACn%AC~~scale%20category~~1229~~category#24

Very useful for VBCW.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[levenminiatures]

Hey Grumpy - stop giving me ideas!!

[WeeWars]

the main problem here is they are rather brittle - (just drop one on a hard surface and see).

...or knock one carelessly against another one. 

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hi LM

Hey Grumpy - stop giving me ideas!!

Always good at coming up with ideas that mean work for somebody else 

But the Kestrel buildings (with the window bits closed off) make good examples of how to structure flat pack buildings:-



Leaving the gutters, downpipes and and chimney pots aside (white metal?), the main issue would be designing the edges so that they are easily cast without air pockets yet can fit together for gluing.

Still, as I said, I'm the ideas man - my job is done!

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[barbarian]

A vacuum pump would help.

[levenminiatures]

having played in the workshop on the challenge for an evening or two, I have come to the conclusion that flat packs are definitely for injection moulded plastic. Resin versions would not be cost effective, and not of equal quality. Sorry guys I've failed.

[FierceKitty]

Your other stuff is still pretty dam' good. Apology not required.

[OldenBUA]

I don't know if it would make a difference, but the buildings I have from Artitec come with the flat pieces in a single sheet of resin, and maybe some extra bits seperate. It means that when building the model you have to cut out the pieces first, but that's not a big problem, I would think. But maybe it would make the manufacturing easier/more efficient?

[WeeWars]

having played in the workshop on the challenge for an evening or two, I have come to the conclusion that flat packs are definitely for injection moulded plastic. Resin versions would not be cost effective, and not of equal quality. Sorry guys I've failed.

No failure just the restrictions of the material.

[Hertsblue]

No failure just the restrictions of the material.

No, indeed. Just bash on with the 10mm stuff.