J.J.Holender's Boxing Gym by FOS Scale Models

The latest limited-run kits from FOS Scale Models have become quite large and elaborate. They are certainly fun to build, although I have to admit I haven't built that many of the newer ones.

The biggest obstacle for me is probably the amount of patience these projects require. I can't say that I don't have patience. I just don't seem to have enough of it for projects that large.

The subject of this post comes from an earlier period, when the FOS limited-run kits weren't quite as ambitious as they are today. That doesn't mean they were any less fun to build. In fact, I think the fun factor of some of these older kits easily rivals that of the much larger modern releases.

I've built quite a few FOS kits over the years, so by now I generally know what to expect before I even open the box.

Some parts will be missing.

Just kidding. Mostly.

What I particularly like about the older kits is that they come from a time when Doug was still on something of a discovery path. The style that became so recognizable in later FOS kits was still developing, and that gives the older releases an element of surprise. You weren't always quite sure what you were going to find when you opened the box or where the build would take you.

J.J. Hollender's Boxing Gym was one of those kits.

I only wish I could remember more about building it. Unfortunately, that's what happens when you're writing about a model four years after you built it. The finer details have disappeared somewhere along the way.

So, this one is going to be a short post.

Hopefully the pictures can tell the rest of the story.

 

 

The Wethersfield Depot by American Model Builders

Sometimes there are kits you walk past for years before finally deciding to give one a try. Laser Kit, from American Model Builders, was one of those lines for me.

When I first started in the hobby, I really didn't pay much attention to them. Many of the structures have fairly simple shapes, and I suppose they didn't stand out to me at the time.

Eventually I tried one.

And then I understood the appeal.

The buildings may be relatively simple, but the kits are well thought out and well engineered. After building the first one, I started looking at the rest of the line quite differently.

I have developed one standard modification, though. Whenever I build one of these kits, I remove the corner tabs and use 1/16-inch square stripwood instead. It is just the construction method I prefer, and I've been happy with the results.

Sadly, the original owner of Laser Kit passed away several years ago. I hoped someone would eventually acquire the line, and fortunately that did happen. Unfortunately, the revival hasn't been quite what I had hoped for.

Only a limited number of the kits seem to be readily available. The current owner says that if you're looking for a particular kit, you can contact him and he will see whether it can be produced. Apparently, there may also be some missing production files.

I understand that bringing an older kit line back isn't necessarily easy, especially if some of the original material is gone. Still, I can't help being disappointed that more of the catalog hasn't returned. There were some very nice kits in the line, and I would love to see them become easily available again.

The model in this post is The Wethersfield Depot.

I built it quite a while ago, so I can't give you a step-by-step review from memory. I do remember that the roof supports gave me the most trouble and were probably the most complicated part of the build.

I also took some liberties with the paint scheme.

My depot isn't painted in the prototype colors, so perhaps it isn't really the Wethersfield Depot anymore. That's fine with me. I'm not trying to reproduce Wethersfield with complete historical accuracy. I simply wanted the building to fit the setting I had in mind.

And if the name bothers me someday, changing the sign is easy enough.

Maybe it will become a completely different depot.

That’s it for now.