# AmeriTowne Building Kits - Are They Detailed?



## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

I am finishing up the purchasing of my buildings. Mostly kits but I did purchase the Woodland Scenics Davenport corner store. 

WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK ABOUT AMERITOWNE KITS AND PRODUCTS? 

I am seeing several kits at low prices but I must be able to detail it out. 

I have purchased some Woodland Scenics kits, Atlas kits, all which I like for details. I have to do the heavy lifting now and assemble them, paint them authentically but that will be more fun then not, for me. 

Please advise if you have experience with these kits. 

Thanks


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## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

I have a few Ameritown buildings and a few AtlasO. If you like details, you might be disappointed with Ameritown. They are basically four walls and a roof with no separately applied details. You need a steady hand to paint the molded in windows and doors. I like the Ameritown kits for the price, but I like the Atlas kits since you can spray paint the windows, doors and other details and then apply them.


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## Bill Webb (Sep 14, 2015)

They are simple but can be fixed up lots of ways. We have 3 that We bought several years ago at York and they are still in the box. Given the number of kits that we have to build, I am willing to sell them at half price. They are:

Factory front. #42. Cost $12. Sell for $6
Bill’s Place #872. Cost $34. Sell for $17
Midtown Hotel #942 cost $89. Sell for $44
Total. $67

You pay postage from Virginia.

Inexpensive way to give them a try.

Bill Webb


If you want more detail with good instructions, Dennis Brennan makes a few kits with excellent instructions. And Andre Garcia, River Leaf Models, is on here when he is home. Makes some very nice kits and will customize. Andre is wonderful to work with.

There are lots more. If you want a list, send me an e-mail.


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## Fabforrest (Aug 31, 2015)

Every one I bought was warped. Badly.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

Never heard of them.


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## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

MichaelE said:


> Never heard of them.


 They are owned and sold by OGR Magazine.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Fabforrest said:


> Every one I bought was warped. Badly.


Me too. A few I straightened out warped again over the years, and I eventually had to get rid of all of them.


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

Bill Webb said:


> They are simple but can be fixed up lots of ways. We have 3 that We bought several years ago at York and they are still in the box. Given the number of kits that we have to build, I am willing to sell them at half price. They are:
> 
> Factory front. #42. Cost $12. Sell for $6
> Bill’s Place #872. Cost $34. Sell for $17
> ...


Thanks Bill, but I will pass, based on the consensus of all the responses.


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

I decided to stay away from them. I have everything except my Depot. There is a huge lack of true Depots on the web, for sale. Sure, there is Rico Station from Lionel, but the more I looked at that the less I liked it. 

Part of this is because I am in Iowa, and there are basically 2 kinds of Depots. The Rock Island, and Union Pacific - built large brick structures, and typically avoided Victorian themes. Or they built smaller more straight forward depots and stations for their smaller towns. 

Most modelers want a 'gee whiz' Depot. Blow your socks off cool. let's face it, Depots ARE Railroads. You seldom see Bus Terminals glorified. I can find a pretty straightforward station or Depot, maybe run two of them back to back in the area I have designated for them, or scratch build the most important piece on the layout. Yikes. 

I found one decent Grain Elevator, which was Lionel's. I don't really know if it is any good, but there was only one other choice from one of the expensive guys, at $400 plus shipping, so I will probably modify or kitbash the Lionel kit to be more authentic. 

I purchased enough brick and mortar to make a small tow. This will be capped by the Woodland Scenics Davenport end building which I got on sale but still paid $150 for. 

I bought 2-3 Atlas kits, have the Menards Generator station, another nice Menards brick and mortar piece, the one with the Red Owl and something else, and so once completed, I should be OK. 

But what to do about the Depot? I'm not like Brian where I am super big into passenger trains from many eras, but I will have the Rock Island Rocket, U.P. streamliners and eventually the Burlington Zephyr and likely down the road, the Milwaukee Road Hiawatha Diesels.


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## JoeSaggese (Aug 17, 2018)

I think some are okay just for building fronts. I have seen some very detailed chooch building fronts on Ebay. I wish they still made them.


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## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

Bryan Moran said:


> I have everything except my Depot. There is a huge lack of true Depots on the web, for sale. But what to do about the Depot?


Where are you looking? Seems to me there are plenty of railroad stations.

Atlas O has a station kit (model 6901) and a kit with two platforms. Woodland Scenics has a built up (model 5852). American Model Builders (look at ModelTrainStuff.com) has at least 4 kits. MTH issued their Country Passenger Station several times in various colors. Menards has a large station and a small station.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Bill Webb said:


> There are lots more. If you want a list, send me an e-mail.


Bill, if you're selling stuff, you should move this to the buy/sell forum.

Thanks,


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## Norton (Nov 5, 2015)

Did OGR always own Ameritown? I did these over ten years ago. Maybe OGR owned them then, maybe not? Anyway, I bought 5 fronts and one complete building and used the walls and roof to finish them. One or two of the "interiors" are from the complete building. Others I added detail. No warping problems with the fronts as they are pretty thick plastic, plus I learned from a master modeler to always add reinforcing strips to the walls to keep them from warping.









DPM building with added reinforcing.










Pete


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## Bill Webb (Sep 14, 2015)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> Bill, if you're selling stuff, you should move this to the buy/sell forum.
> 
> Thanks,


John I was trying to help if he wanted to try a kit. Not really trying to sell unless for that. If I want to sell stuff, I am going to be like Santa and make a list and check it twice. Mine will be really long too. Will put it on Buy/Sell.


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## empire builder (Apr 12, 2014)

I made this from 18 of the ameritown building fronts side walls and window walls not easy as not all o9f mine were same width. as to detailing you have to add your own as you wish as these are very generic other than the block work and trim details.

this will give you an idea window walls are 9 windows per wall side walls are cut to the depth you want and we didn't use all the same fronts these happened to be on hand at the time.

I asked a well known modeler on other place how to distract from seams not quite right and the reply was escape stairways and other detail items to distract the viewers eye.

I tried the plastruct glue on these ameritown fronts does not hold well so I used the tried and true model makers glue it not only glued together it was easy to make small seams disappear.

best advice buy a few fronts create your own building see if you like the outcome. am sure others somewhere on this forums areas sells buildings as well as separate building fronts maybe some will chime in here?


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

Lehigh74 said:


> Where are you looking? Seems to me there are plenty of railroad stations.
> 
> Atlas O has a station kit (model 6901) and a kit with two platforms. Woodland Scenics has a built up (model 5852). American Model Builders (look at ModelTrainStuff.com) has at least 4 kits. MTH issued their Country Passenger Station several times in various colors. Menards has a large station and a small station.


Bob
Every one you noted, are the ones I saw. Plus a couple of others. The Woodland Scenic does not look like a Depot to me. The MTH one has good architecture, a little plain, but is too plastic-y. 

American Model Builders does good stuff but these are framed rural depots and not the brick and mortar larger Craftsman style I was hoping for.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

The advantage of Ameritown building kits when I used them was that they were quick. They needed details added, etc., but that is sort of fun, but the basic building could be built in a few minutes. 

One very good thing, that Norton shows well, is that if you take the time to paint them in detail, you can get really interesting buildings. 

But I had a lot of warping problems over the years, even when using heavier bracing that Norton shows in his photos. Eventually I took all of them off the layout. 

But if you brace them heavily against warping, they could probably be made to last.


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## Bill Webb (Sep 14, 2015)

Bryan, Harry Hieke has several depots and will sell a kit if you twist his arm. You can check it out at everythingoscale.


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

Lee Willis said:


> The advantage of Ameritown building kits when I used them was that they were quick. They needed details added, etc., but that is sort of fun, but the basic building could be built in a few minutes.
> 
> One very good thing, that Norton shows well, is that if you take the time to paint them in detail, you can get really interesting buildings.
> 
> ...


The detailing part was expected by me, and as you noted, would be a fun part of it, even the bracing, and adding floors and framing is not an issue. I guess, in a way, AmeriTowne is a good alternative for kit bashers. 

A person can designate one as the guinea pig building and try flat paints, paints for the sills, and interior detail, awnings, whatever, hone your skills. 

Then start with a model that might cost $20 and build it up right. A good thing about the hobby in this respect is you can add details like stair cases, electrical hook ups, fairly easy, to add detail. 

The alternative - especially for my Depot idea - is to go to Hobby Lobby or buy on line the sheets of plastic brick, maybe stone foundation, and frame a building yourself - and cut out the windows "just right" etc. That's the scary part for me. 

Sounds like AmeriTowne has it's place. I was looking thru one of my older OGR magazines from 2011 and they had 2 pages on AmeriTowne buildings.


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

Bill Webb said:


> Bryan, Harry Hieke has several depots and will sell a kit if you twist his arm. You can check it out at everythingoscale.


Thanks Bill. I was at the 2 rail O Gauge Meet in suburban Chicago in 2018 and I saw some company that does over the top Depots and such. I don't think it was Harry, but when you see that level of skill, you want that. 

I'll go check out his website.


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## Bill Webb (Sep 14, 2015)

I understand... almost too good. Picked up one from Harry at York that we “commissioned.”

He can build anything you want but it is not cheap.

Was texting Andre this morning about his website. He has a station and in stock. His might be too plain but take a look. Good luck in your search.


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## Pebo (Sep 27, 2015)

I have had good success with AmeriTowne Buildings over the years.....
here are pice from about 20 years ago....they are mixed in with other buildings as you can see....

























Peter


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## Pebo (Sep 27, 2015)

Here are some more recent pics of some of the same buildings.....

















Peter


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## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

*Dark Red Brick Passenger Station*

I was paging through the 2019 MTH RTR catalog and came across 30-90094. It might be more like what you are looking for. Roberts' Brick Mortar would make it look more realistic/less plastic-y.


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

Lehigh74 said:


> I was paging through the 2019 MTH RTR catalog and came across 30-90094. It might be more like what you are looking for. Roberts' Brick Mortar would make it look more realistic/less plastic-y.



That's the one I consider too plastic. It is a nice starting point. I would have to kit bash it - paint would be #1. The brick line that they put in 'between floors' would be painted a darker red by me. The shingles would need redone. The outside flooring - I would put real (thin) wood down and stain it. What they have looks fake to me. 

The cornices and details around the windows need a ton of detail, like you can do with AmeriTowne. ebay - most everyone wants $100 plus $27 shipping. 

I'm buying one Depot, it'll be one of the American Model Builders frame style kits. I have seen enough Rock Island depots to know they made a few of these in the smaller towns. 

The other one will need to be scratch built by me. Larger, brick style.


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## mike77406 (Feb 7, 2016)

Peter, is the gray and blue building a Walthers building kit in the first picture?


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## Brad Fisher (Sep 21, 2021)

Bill Webb said:


> They are simple but can be fixed up lots of ways. We have 3 that We bought several years ago at York and they are still in the box. Given the number of kits that we have to build, I am willing to sell them at half price. They are:
> 
> Factory front. #42. Cost $12. Sell for $6
> Bill’s Place #872. Cost $34. Sell for $17
> ...


Bill,
Do you still have the #942 Mid-Town hotel to sell?


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## Refugee (Oct 2, 2019)

Got some new, old-stock Ameri-Towne buildings at York. Approached the dealer on a Saturday afternoon and offered $100 for 5 boxes. He wanted more $$ so I asked if he wanted to take them back home or sell them. We settled on $120. Guess I should open them up to see if the walls are straight.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

I recently bought some too, at a big discount, and hope they are not warped. I plan to bash them into some new buildings on upper Main Street.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I've heard tell of warming them in an oven, the emphasis on "warming" and not "baking". That's supposed to be able to flatten warped pieces.


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