Can anyone help me please - I'm looking for some of the above in HO scale, I need a country-style depot. and a rooming house/saloon, but others eg general store/shopfronts/assay office/Sherrifs office/jail/ old petrol (gas) pumps may well be useful. There are some on Ebay, but the seller wants around twice the purchase price of each to ship them to UK and that REALLY is a rip off!
If you can help please let me kow - I'll even consider broken items if they could be repairable
JUst to explain what I'm doing - I'm having a go at Richard Francaviglias"Iota" from RMC May 1972 ( see also Carls Scrapbook page 70), but I have room for a couple more buildings. setting will probably be Texas in late 40's early 50's
Thanks people
Jack
It looks like you're referring to the Kibri line of wild west buildings from the 1960s. (I think these were originally inspired, like the Pocher/AHM old-time locomotive and cars and the Preiser wild west figures, by the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns of the period). Big City Hobbies of Johnstown, PA has been advertising the return of these in RMC, but I haven't been able to find them on their website. Other than that they're plastic and thus maybe easier to assemble than some other kits, there was nothing special about these, and nothing particularly authentic about them.
Although they're harder to assemble, Woodland Scenics has a line of metal structure kits that are similar and actually somewhat more authentic -- here's a link to a search that brings a lot of them up <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Structure&scale=H&manu=woodland+scenics&item=&keywords=kit&words=restrict&instock=Q&split=30&Submit=Search">http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?cat ... mit=Search</a><!-- m --> Another option is Alpine Division's Old Town series <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Structure&scale=H&manu=alpine+&item=&keywords=old+town&words=restrict&instock=Q&split=30&Submit=Search">http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?cat ... mit=Search</a><!-- m --> these are die cut cardboard designs from the 1950s, but they're also more authentic than the Kibri.
OK, I saw the update to your post -- the text of Francaviglia's RMC piece says the storefronts are Kibri with scratchbuilt fronts (and the feed store also has a scratchbuilt warehouse addition), while the station is a Suydam (Suydam is now Alpine Division, but I'm not sure if that particular model is still in their line). The Atlas Maywood station <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/150-720">http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/150-720</a><!-- m --> would be very similar. Since the storefronts are basically bashes, there's no need to start from Kibris. The Woodland Scenics metal buildings are small enough that they could fill in tight places.
Whoops, while I've never found the Kibri structures on Big City Hobbies's own site, now I see they're available and in stock at Walthers <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Structure&scale=H&manu=big+city&item=&keywords=&words=restrict&instock=Q&split=30&Submit=Search">http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?cat ... mit=Search</a><!-- m --> so you could certainly duplicate Francaviglia's own efforts -- though I think the Woodland Scenics and Alpine Division versions are both architecturally more accurate and less expensive.
A German LHS has about at the middle on this page
http://www.rd-hobby.de/shopping/catalog.php?id=69 four kits each at €37.90
Big City Hobbies Bausatz "Sheriff's Office, Dentist & General Store"
Big City Hobbies Bausatz "Marshall's Office, Gun Shop & Post Office"
Big City Hobbies Bausatz "Western Union Office, Pioneer Saloon & Livery Stable"
Big City Hobbies Bausatz "Rocky Mtn. Star Printing, Citizen Bank, Watchmaker"
They are on stock, may be an alternative and shipping within the European Union is much less.
Jack,
have you checked MB Klein for those kits? Here is their link
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/ their pricing is fair and usually discounted ,and sometimes it seems like they have everything you could ever want.
Thanks for the links, guys - gives me some ideas where to look - help appreciated
Jack