N Scale Barn & Coop

[unclescott58]

Below is Model Power's N scale Barn, Silo & Chicken Coop model kit I just got done building last night. What a joy it was to build. It was molded in 6 different colors. One does not even have to paint little things like the white bracing on the doors. Those are all separate molded white pieces that glue into grooves molded right on the doors and walls. I also like that it came with two doors that actually slide open. Very slick. Especially in N scale. 

This is a very old kit. From my understanding it was originally tooled by Faller of Germany, for Aurora's Postage Stamp trains from the late 1960's. It's been sold under the Faller, Aurora, and Model Power names. And maybe others. For being so old. I was pleasantly surprised by this kit. It went together nicely. The colored plastic looked a lot better than I expected. Enough so I decided to forgo painting it. In fact I'm so pleased, I'm looking forward to getting it's companion farm house model kit, which I already have on order. 

I also love the chicken coop. You'll notice in the photos of the coop, it has two doors for the chickens to enter and leave (and only one for the humans). Which fits in with my all time favorite joke. "Why do chicken coops have two doors? Because if they had four doors, they'd be chicken sedans." Like I say, that is my all time favorite joke. 

Edited April 7, 2020 by unclescott58

[unclescott58]

By the way, here is a photo to go along with my chicken coop joke above. 

 

[peteski]

Those are some of the vintage kits made in Europe and repackaged for Model Power. Some have the manufacturers name molded on the back of some part (usually in their bases).  These date back to probably early '70s.  That is almost 50 years!

[unclescott58]

3 hours ago, peteski said:

Those are some of the vintage kits made in Europe and repackaged for Model Power. Some have the manufacturers name molded on the back of some part (usually in their bases).  These date back to probably early '70s.  That is almost 50 years!

If you read my first post here, you'd see they go back farther than the early 70's. The first date I can for sure find for this kit is 1968, when it appeared in Aurora's Postage Stamp Trains catalog. And as noted, the Postage Stamp Train building kits were molded for Aurora by Faller of Germany. Did Faller offer this kit before 1968? It is based on an American style barn. So was it originally done by Faller on Aurora's request? Or did they do it to go after the American market themselves? 

[peteski]

I guess I had a senior moment.   Late '60s  were still infancy of N scale.

I seem to recall that some of the Model Power structure kits were also made by Pola (another German manufacturer).

As to whether Aurora contracted Faller to make American prototype structures, or they were looking into expanding into American marker - that is a good question.

Some good info can be found on  http://www.davidksmith.com/postage-stamp-trains/faller.htm  but no conclusive info of whether Aurora reached out to Faller, or the other way around.

[unclescott58]

7 hours ago, peteski said:

I guess I had a senior moment.   Late '60s  were still infancy of N scale.

I seem to recall that some of the Model Power structure kits were also made by Pola (another German manufacturer).

As to whether Aurora contracted Faller to make American prototype structures, or they were looking into expanding into American marker - that is a good question.

Some good info can be found on  http://www.davidksmith.com/postage-stamp-trains/faller.htm  but no conclusive info of whether Aurora reached out to Faller, or the other way around.

Yea, the site you provided a link to on the Aurora Postage Stamp Trains is great. I've had a lot of fun on that site. Plus I found it useful in construction of this kit. The instructions that came with the Model Power kit are exactly the same as those used with the Aurora kit. But, they were printed so dark, they where practically useless. So I used the old Aurora instructions on the web site to help with this build. I wonder if I'll have to do the same with the farm house, that should be coming in today's main? 

[unclescott58]

I did get the Model Power N scale Farm House in today's mail to go along with the barn and chicken coop. A couple of hours later, it was all put together. And like the other kit, it goes together extremely well. It is molded in 4 colors. So again, I felt it need no paint. No working feature like the barn. But, that's okay. It comes with a nice little outhouse. Naturally with a moon on the door. I also like that it's got a trellis with a bush in front of it. A nice little touch. I'm surprised, I don't remember seeing something like this a front real outhouses. A nice flowering bush would not only hind the building, but hopefully help with the odors. 

[peteski]

This is a simpler kit, probably produced in the later years. I believe that the walls and windows are molded as a single piece.  I'm not sure if this kit we still made by Faller. Faller kits are usually more complex.  IIRC, I think that this kit was also sold as an pre-assembled structure.  Not sure if by Model Power or another company (like Bachmann).

[unclescott58]

On 4/8/2020 at 9:09 PM, peteski said:

This is a simpler kit, probably produced in the later years. I believe that the walls and windows are molded as a single piece.  I'm not sure if this kit we still made by Faller. Faller kits are usually more complex.  IIRC, I think that this kit was also sold as an pre-assembled structure.  Not sure if by Model Power or another company (like Bachmann).

Again, going by the Aurora Postage Stamp Train website, it looks like this was again made by Faller for them. And again, the directions were so dark that came with the kit. I used the ones at the Aurora Postage Stamp Trains site to help me build this one. 

[peteski]

You're right.  Its been a while since I thoroughly browsed through David's website.

While not this specific kit, it is funny how they were marketing clearly European-looking building kits for American market.  But making molds for injection-molded kits is expensive and N scale was still quite young (and not very popular at that time).  So re-purposing kits like that seems like it was a good strategy.