The Little World

Particularly if they are made by obscure companies.

I needed a building for a desert museum layout. I have many small structures but they all look vaguely North American or British. It was with dubious enthusiasm I rolled into my local hobby shop.

As I suspected – the Superquick and Meltcalf offerings were mostly railway orientated – as were the Walthers and Vollmer. The prices were steep. Then I went down to the bargain aisle and found Pikestuff.

These were baggies with modern modular buildings. Nothing too railroady, all boxy and plain. And at half the price of Walthers. I risked a coin…

The instructions were folksy, but adequate. The mouldings on the panels were very precise. Very little flash. Everything started to fit together and welded with thin cement.

One evening and it was ready for roof painting. The configuration of the doors and windows is marked inside the panel for easy cutting-out. I elected for a light grey roof – desert conditions – but left the light blue walls alone.

After it all went together I could give it a flatting spray and then pile some dirt around the edges. I have plenty of examples of this around my own house…

Kudos to the Rix Products company for this building – made in the USA and recalling back to the precision I saw in plastic kits of my youth.