Are there OO modellers out there who have never used a Superquick model?

[bennyboy]

I was just looking at the layout thread by a teenage modeller and I noticed that he had used Superquick models quite extensively. It got me wondering if there are any OO modellers who have never used one of their ubiquitous building models at some point of their modelling career? It's quite impressive that the models still seem pretty popular even though some of the designs have barely changed in their fifty years of production!

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

The type of buildings they represent are in many cases still to be seen, so no surprise that they still have currency. I may offer that I first helped build a couple of Superquicks only about five years ago, for the layout of a cousin's offspring.

 

I may be wrong on this, but Superquick always seemed to me to be exclusively red brickery, totally unsuited to the yellow brick zone of the Southern end of the ECML. As a result the first card building kits I constructed were from the Prototype Models series, starting with the excellent Little Bytham goods shed; and thus discovering how staggeringly huge a modest country station goods shed actually was...

[Ravenser]

They seem to me to be very definitely London based - the front projection of the ground storey being the tell-tale : this is very much a London feature as elsewhere it's normal to have the whole frontage at pavement line

 

Haven't built one for many years, but  built a few in my teens. I even have a second hand TT example tucked away somewhere , though I shan't be building that

[Talltim]

Never. Although people seem to get convincing results, the lack of 3D relief in the brickwork always put me off

[cromptonnut]

Not sure I ever have, either.  Never been a fan of card kits but that may be because I've never managed to get a good result from those I have tried.

[corneliuslundie]

I don't remember ever making one either. I do have a Metcalfe terrace row which will be done in low relief some day (or possibly scanned and used at a slightly smaller scale to give some perspective) but otherwise I can't remember using card buildings since my "red plastic railway" (no, not that one, Tim) which I think went when I was five.

 

Jonathan

[Anglian]

I built lots of them as a teenager. They matched my aspirations and needs at the time. 

[lefrog97]

Never used one and generally speaking I don't think I will do; my layout is based around a small halt on the ECML (fictional) so never had any need

[bridee]

last used them 40 years ago ! they make a reasonable model though these days I prefer Metcalf or resin

[Griffin Road]

I'm like Anglian - built a lot when in my teens ( 30 plus years ago ) . They were virtually the only choice back then other than scatchbuilding . They offered an excellent introduction to building '

' things ' . Good to cut your teeth on .

 

If you like them and they offer what you want - use them and enjoy doing a bit of proper modelling .

 

M b

[Southernman46]

my "red plastic railway" (no, not that one, Tim) which I think went when I was five.

Mettoy - great stuff............

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzY0WDEwMjQ=/z/c1MAAOSwnDxUgGDO/$_86.JPG

[Richard Lee]

I like the Superquick railway buildings that I have (Country Station, Station Master's House etc., Signal Box and Goods Shed) but I am not so keen on their terraced houses.  On the whole, I prefer Metcalfe, although Superquick do have a vague Southern look, whereas I understand that Metcalfe have plumped for the North Midlands (Cheshire Lines Committee).  I prefer the Metcalf platforms because you can do them any shape you want (curves, island platforms and so on).  The fact that they don't come with seats is not a problem; you can get plastic ones very cheaply, which look better than Superquick's card ones.

 

To be honest, for the revamp of my small layout I will be looking at some card kits that are more in line with the railway company I will be attempting to depict.  ABM Railcraft even do them in the correct colours for the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway.

[westcountryman]

Hi,

Our local club, Barnstaple MRC has recently been refreshing our long in the tooth 00 roundy layout, Yeo Valley.

Just take a look in the 'Scenery & structures' forum on rmweb, under the heading ' Cladding Metcalfe/Superquick buildings'

The existing layout utilised Metcalfe / Superquick structures, which OK at the time, have started to look a bit dated.

We hoped to introduce something different, by covering the structures with plasticard & adding detail.

Hopefully we've managed to pull off a minimal cost improvement (subject to local planning approval!) & enhanced the layout.

It's amazing how many times you can spot the same building on so many different layouts.

A stock box, some glue & a bit of imagination, plus loads of patience whilst making the fusewire TV aerials!

Hope you like & approve of our efforts

Happy modelling

Cheers

Rob

[luckymucklebackit]

I do have quite a lot of Superquick Kits, Mavisbank in particular could be renamed "Superquickville"  As the years have passed and I have become more confident in building my own card buildings, I do plan to replace some of the most "un-Scottish" looking ones.

One thing I have done is to change a few details, for example changing the doors from green to blue just to be different, I scanned the original doors and printed out the overlays after a bit of colour manipulation on Gimp

 

Jim

[Austrag]

I have never built one at all. However, the red-brick terraces are suitable for London or Manchester with the outside loo at the back. Nowadays usually converted to a store room. Pretty cool at night with the wind swirling around the ankles.

[bennyboy]

They seem to me to be very definitely London based - the front projection of the ground storey being the tell-tale : this is very much a London feature as elsewhere it's normal to have the whole frontage at pavement line

 

Haven't built one for many years, but  built a few in my teens. I even have a second hand TT example tucked away somewhere , though I shan't be building that

I believe that the TT versions are worth a lot of money if they are unbuilt!

[Alcanman]

I have fond memories of superquick kits. Here is the goods shed on one of my first layouts, a 6' x 4' tail-chaser built in 1977.

 

They were very cheap and easy to build.

 

 

 

 

Mal

[Jongudmund]

I haven't built a Superquick one but I have built two Metcalfe's kits and I really enjoyed the process.

 

My Dad built some Superquick kits and they were OK.

[MarkSG]

My first real layout was populated almost exclusively by them, at least until I was inspired to move on to scratchbuilding as a result of reading Allan Downes' and Dave Rowe's articles in RM.

 

As others have said, they were quick and simple to make, and in the days before "Ready to Plop" buildings became ubiquitous they were by far the shortest route to a reasonably realistic street scene.

 

I don't think I'd use them now, or any other card-based kits (or, for that matter, scratchbuilding using brick paper). The lack of relief in the brick and stonework seems to me to be just a bit too obviously fake. RTP, plastic kits and Plastikard (as well as hand-scribing stonework, Dave Rowe style) are all considerably more realistic, and cover all the bases from no effort at all to as much effort as you want to put in. The only advantage of card kits is cost, but I'm fortunate enough that that's no a major consideration for me.

[Colin]

I think the last one I had was the biggest Superquick kit you could get - the terminus, which you could also use as a through station. Bought 1972ish while I still lived with my parents & used on the last layout before a house move which ensured that I had no more room for a big layout. After that I "converted" to embossed Plasticard for my buildings and ultimately to WIlls products.

[nickwood]

I don't normally get involved in this type of discussion but it does tickle me a bit when I hear people say that brick card / printed papers don't have enough relief to be realistic. If you scaled the relief of the mortar courses on a real building down to 7mm (let alone 4mm or smaller) you would be hard pushed to see any relief near the scale distance we view layouts from.

 

I've never built a card kit from Superquick, Metcalf or anyone else but have used Scalescenes textures regularly in my scratchbuilds. I have used embossed plastic card on ocassions and IMHO depending on the colouring variations printed brick textures are more realistic than embossed Plastic card available (particularly the horrible Wills stuff). If I had to use plastic card it would be Slaters or SEF.

[steve22]

As a sales assistant in the 1980s I sold them by the score, very popular back then.  I only first made a kit up myself in the last ten years or so.  I made eight of the Island Platform Building Kit A4; four for our Club layout and four for myself 'cause I like it!  I also made most of the others as well, each one I could see placed on a model railway layout, which never got built, so they languish in boxes at the moment.  I always imagine the A10 Terminus at the end of something like Cowes, Isle of Wight, not a direct copy of course, but looking at the railway platform end of the kit rather than the frontage I imagine that kit with two A4 platform building kits (or maybe just the canopies) running along each of two platforms.  To me this is would be an ideal small model terminus using very cheap, basic but interesting looking buildings.   

[LNER4479]

NOT Guilty!

 

As others have said, great 'teeth-cutters'; haven't used one in over 10 years now but a great stalwart and the hobby would be poorer without them.

 

(edit to add 'not' - as that is the correct answer to the thread title(!)

[PatB]

Guilty!

 

Print08 (New Mills Goods).jpg

As others have said, great 'teeth-cutters'; haven't used one in over 10 years now but a great stalwart and the hobby would be poorer without them.

 

And is that the other great classic, the Airfix signal cabin, in the background too?

[Zomboid]

The only kits I've ever successfully built thus far. Except one plastic wagon, which I painted exceptionally badly. But then, I was 12...