What, you may ask, is a Kit-A-Long?
The idea comes from my wife and her knitting group. It is a project that gets everyone involved in making something that is the same, but individually different, during the same time period.
We all start with the same kit and then each week or so we can compare our progress on line or at meetings. We all have different levels of skills in model building and sharing with each other is part of the fun that a club can bring to each modeler. We will take each section as a small project and compare results and then move on to the next section. It is hoped that we will be ready to show the finished kits off around the first of the year and take them to the NMRA Winnebagoland division meeting in the spring.
For our first Kit-A-Long project we have picked one of the fine old stand-by kits from the folks at Atlas. The Atlas Signal Tower Kit has been around the HO community for about as far back as I can remember. This fine kit has a great deal of detail in its castings and has been featured in articles and a book by John Olson. The Building has a number of different building materials all cast in plastic that allow for customizing or detailing.
Here are some images of the parts of the Kit-A-Long project Atlas Signal Tower Kit parts in the box. There masonry construction to work with color and mortar lines to highlight.
The second floor is lapped boards that may be built with many different styles of weathering and different maintenance levels of the supporting wood structure.
The windows need paint and glass and shades or maybe some could be boarded up.
The roof is a fine detailed casting that may be worked on in many ways to bring out the detail.
Additional parts are available for the kit from the Series 2 Railroadania Realistic HO Scale Craftsman Kits and may be found at www.vectorcut.com
This is a sample of changes made with the Vectorcut parts from their web site.
As we start this activity, we have club members all around the world. We have members in Three Lakes enjoying the fall weather and pulling their boats and docks or in Tomahawk building (and operating) modules with the Rhinelander club. Some others have sought warmer locations for the winter while still others are in far reaching places like Singapore, Crete, Germany, and Australia. Our members and friends get around a lot and connect via the Internet. It is this connection that can make the sharing of the experience of building a common kit instructional and informational for all of us in the club and anyone else who wishes to join in building and sharing their work with us.
So if you think you want to Kit-A-Long pickup an Atlas kit and look it over.
Contact me at PaulWussow@WindyPines.net for additional information or to send photos and other ideas that may be included in this project.
This kit is Item #704 of the:
Atlas Model Railroad Co., Inc.
378 Florence Ave.
Hillside NJ 07205
Neither The Three Lakes Model Railroad Club nor any of its members are affiliated with Atlas Model Railroad Co., Inc. Selection of this kit is because of its quality and wide distribution among model railroaders.
Photos of Vectorcut models are by permission of Dave Krakow owner of www.Vectorcut.com
Original 10/11/14
Updated 12/31/17
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