Hi Keith, nice to see some German stuff developing. The kit looks quite nice, those paper inserts behind the windows work surprisingly well.

I've noticed that some structure kits from the continental European manufacturers have (or perhaps used to have) a relaxed approach to scale, tending towards being slightly smaller than they should be. Is that a problem that you have found?

2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Hi Keith, nice to see some German stuff developing. The kit looks quite nice, those paper inserts behind the windows work surprisingly well.

 

I've noticed that some structure kits from the continental European manufacturers have (or perhaps used to have) a relaxed approach to scale, tending towards being slightly smaller than they should be. Is that a problem that you have found?

Hi Mikkel, good point.  It’s definitely something to look out for, particularly some plastic kits still being made from older tooling (often now marketed as cheaper, entry-level ‘Hobby’ ranges).  Best advice seems to be to seek out photos of the building next to a train where possible, especially as some station kits do fall into this category of underscale items.
 

If I look at the two Faller kits in the header photo for this blog post, I think the brick built Schoenberg Station looks fine as a single storey wayside halt.  The restaurant / gate house kit however puts a second storey into the same sized building, so I think the upstairs would be rather cramped (particularly as the design points towards there being a raised ground level floor).  As the door is still big enough for a 1:87 person, it’s not so obviously underscale, but it would be fair to say it’s a bit small.

Ironically perhaps, it seems to me that some of the larger kits are less prone to this approach to scale, such as this model of the Swiss BLS station at Ostermundigen I made last year (it has appeared elsewhere on RMweb previously):

Note the Swiss coaches in the foreground are themselves made to a flexi scale length of 1:93.5, not 1:87, while the coaches behind are full length 1:87 models - something else to look out for of course.  The short coaches are still fully detailed.

Some kits (eg: a range made by Auhagen) are intentionally made to a compromise scale of 1:100.  They can either be slightly undersized for H0 or slightly over scale for TT, though to be fair they are correctly marketed as a 1:100 range.  These three line side huts on my H0e mini-layout are an example - you’ll notice there are no people in this yard scene for that reason.

Thanks for pointing that out - it is something to look out for, which I should have mentioned with this kit, Keith.

I suppose all Faller kits - except those of stations and everything close to the railway lines as well as kits which are showing a real building - are smaller than 1:87.  Which isn't a problem, as long as they somewhere further back. And I have the feeling their newer models are more scale than their old ones. I remember a 4 storey house on my first layout - it was more or less the same height than a scale 1-storey house...

4 hours ago, Vecchio said:

I suppose all Faller kits - except those of stations and everything close to the railway lines as well as kits which are showing a real building - are smaller than 1:87.  Which isn't a problem, as long as they somewhere further back. And I have the feeling their newer models are more scale than their old ones. I remember a 4 storey house on my first layout - it was more or less the same height than a scale 1-storey house...

Taking up @Vecchio’s observation, I posed this alternative shot tonight:

I’m no photographer, but this maybe shows how both buildings might appear together?  Just a thought, Keith.

Thank you for that, it clarifies something I have wondered about. Although that last shot nicely shows that it isn't necessarily a big problem. 

Just to add a thank you for the encouraging responses to this first build / post here.  It gives me every incentive to press straight on.  There will be a bit of a gap here though, as my next build is for my parallel HOn30 Narrow Gauge Project - a kit I picked up second hand for a rail served store (it has a loading dock at the back), Keith: