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Thursday, September 15, 2011

What's in the box: The Office by Railroadkits.com

Few years ago there used to be around ezine dedicated to scale paper modeling. It had first look column. Purpose of it was to give the reader an idea about the kit - its print quality, difficulty level and so forth. The column didn't include pictures because digital cameras weren't that widely used back then. There was also some pirating aspect as well. Someone could possibly take the pictures and print out the kit. Need for such column came about because only way to obtain paper models was and is through mail order or Internet.
While number of craftsman kits is available through local hobby stores or at the shows most of the time I find that the ones I want I can obtain only over Internet. It is  always like buying the cat in a sack. Sorry for the expression which could be hard to understand. Pretty much all countries in Europe have one like this except UK. I am guessing US doesn't as well. Google "the cat in a sack meaning" if you are not sure what I mean. Anyway, I intend to let that cat out of the sack and do "What's in the box" series every now and then whenever I get new kit or just decide to grab on I already have. Of course, reader contributions are accepted as well. Not that I have many but I hope that will change. I think I'll do it in more pictorial format than listing how many 2 by 4s are there. Some kits may require quite an investment of time which is quite scarce. Maybe one day I can get some expert on board who could do cost evaluation like they do in electronics industry where they take something like iPad apart and calculate the cost and the profit margin. I know it may sound like big blasphemy in many craftsman structure builders ears and as they say I should be grateful just for ability to buy the kits but I think some of them are way overpriced. Just like Apple products.

First up is The Office by Railroadkits.com. It is one of their Ed Fulasz line kits. I didn't take everything out of the box because some of the walls are glued to the bottom of it for safer shipping. The hydrocal parts are very crisp and fine. A bit too much for my taste but I can always chip brick there and there to get more weathered look.

1 comment:

  1. Craftsman kits are a cottage industry in the USA. Therefore, the manufacturer lays out a great cost up front for the revenue generated from sales. Thus, each item must be priced accordingly.

    A modeler isn't buying a bundle of sticks and cardboard when purchasing a craftsman kit. A modeler buys a concept/design and execution (instructions) in a craftsman kit. Furthermore, each sale of a craftsman kit purchases the continuity of the kit maker's business.

    As another saying goes, the bananas don't come for free.

    Jaime

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