Stevens Creek Monson HOn30 Box Car Kit

These are all sold out for now. If you are interested email Ken at scm@hon3.com. The next run of these depends on interest received via e-mail. The run that just sold out was the second run.

Stevens Creek Monson HOn30 Box Car Kits

Word on the street is that the excellent Stevens Creek Monson Hon30 box car kits are almost sold out. I have one and would highly recommend this kit. I have not built it, but I have scanned through the instructions and it looks like a well-designed kit that will yield a great finished product. It consists of laser cut plywood. It allows you to build 3 different versions that all match the prototypes.

Use this link to get good views of the kit parts and the assembly process from the manufacturer: http://www.hon3.com/MonBox/index.htm

I don't know if a second run will be done. If I find out I will let you know.

I do have several Stevens Creek kits and am very happy with them. I did meet the owner at the 26th NNGC last year and he's a great guy.

P.S. I have no financial interest in the manufacturer or this product. Just a satisfied customer.

Updated Links at New England Scene

I see that Jim has updated the links page on his New England Scene website. Check it out along with his building kits. The most interesting link is for a Hon30 Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 19 2-6-2 kit in brass from Victors Scale Models. It's out of my league, but fun to look at.

Worsley Works also has a new rail bus kit in 009, the T&D 4mm Saloon kit. It's a brass etching that will require the builder to add other cast details but it looks like fine start to a kit. Here's the link to the manufacturer's web page for this kit: http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/Image-Pages/Image_NG_Irish_TD-Inspection_Saloon.htm

I know 009 is a little larger than 1/87 but I'm willing to overlook it.

Brian's New End Module

Here are pictures of my friend Brian's new Hon30 module. It will serve as one of two end modules so that our group can run a loop.

This is a work in progress so that's why the stones for the retaining wall on the left side are still white. They will be painted.
The white spot in the gravel pit is wet gloss medium that will be water when dry. The trestles still need to be built. This module conforms to the HOn30 module standards listed on the HOn30 mail car site.

As always, click on the pictures for a larger version of each photo.

I've been quiet for a while because I haven't been doing much modeling lately. So here's some old pictures of partially complete projects waiting for me on my work bench. The first one is a Kennebunk Models resin kit of WW&F No 9 on a Bachmann chassis. It is waiting for smoke box and boiler details and pilot details. The boiler is filled with Templo to give it as much weight as possible. If you don't have Chris McChesney's handbook on Hon30 locomotives I recommend it. That's where the Templo idea came from.
The second picture shows a Chivers forney body that will go on an scale Kato C-11 drive. This was a 2-6-4T
before I removed the last driver. There have been a few articles over the years on this conversion. Pieter Roos did that last one in the Maine 2-Foot Quarterly in the 1990's. The drive is very nice. The drivers are a little large but the trailing truck has pickup so this should run well when it's all together.

The other news of note is Stevens Creek Model's release of the Monson wood shed in HO. Click here to see it: http://www.hon3.com/Woodshed/index.htm
This kit has some very nice detail and will become part of my Monson module in the next few years.

I hope to have more to report as I get back into modeling.