What was I thinking...?
I have spent too many years in the model train hobby wanting to be a manufacturer to turn down the chance to do it. In 2010 at the St. Louis National Narrow Gauge Convention, I was sitting with a number of guys, one of whom was Bill Banta. Bill owns a business that offers a vast number of kit models for the railroad enthusiast. He button-holed me and told me I should buy his S scale line (Bill is not subtle). It was widely known that he was looking for a buyer for the S line as sales were slow and that niche is pretty small on a good day. He had my attention but I already had a sense of what interested me and it wasn't the whole line: it was part of the line.
For many years I had read and heard of Roger Malinowski. He has been published in The Gazette many times and in the 90s started a solo manufacturing business called Stoney Creek Designs (www.stoneycreekdesigns.com). Roger had previously been a founder in The Building & Structure Company group. I had admired his kits for years- marveling at the "sold out" feature that is attached to all of his kits. Nice work selling everything you make.
What interested me was a a line of S scale versions of Roger's O scale kits that he made at the same time as he did the O scale- but the S kits were marketed by Banta. With all the other product on the Banta site they were competing with a lot of activity and they came and went quickly. 2 kits- "Grocery" and "Dynamite" never quite made it to the release stage. Regardless, I was interested but kept it to myself.
In the last few years I have been lucky to get to know Roger. We met some years ago at what I call the 'world's largest narrow gauge show' in Greenfield, Ohio . I kid of course, it is really Gary Kohler's show and when I have attended there was lots of time for exhibitors to bond, unburdened as we were by annoying attendees. Roger turns out to be a very affable fellow with a keen eye (he is also an accomplished photographer and layout artist). Professionally he designed industrial scale (1:1) ventilation systems for hospitals, schools, offices and factories and did so on computers while most were still drafting. Personally, he has an architect's eye for detail and a modeler's sense of model fidelity (proportion). He does not buy into the 'belief' that the model is bound to the scale dimensions of the prototype. What I might have guessed is that he is an S scale enthusiast at heart and I had forgotten the many articles in the NG&SL Gazette featuring his S scale layout.
Roger parlayed the discussions with Bill. Bill asked for an amount we agreed upon and I delivered the money in December 2010. It was all very fast and without any real sense (beyond instinct) of what I was doing. To be truthful, I heard through the grapevine that buying the line was thought pretty silly since I had no 'cred' as a modeler (I guess I missed the initiation ritual) and some plainly didn't understand what I wanted to do with an S scale kit line. To Bill's credit, he understood I was ready to pay for it so he didn't give me guff- instead he gave me molds in pizza boxes, models and later the files. That is what you get buying a kit line- you get stuff- what it all means comes later.
Now, many months later I am stumbling along with the production of what will become my first kit- "The Shed". The shed is new, not a reissue, but it was a pedigree that goes back to the Building & Structure Company. It was originally called Siedel's Welding. It has a smallish footprint, with great stone and brickwork, and now it sports completely updated laser cut additions in front and back. It is the kind of model that can be placed on any layout and given a purpose to suit the context.
A version of the pilot model was on display at the Kimberton, Pennsylvania meet this may and it attracted attention. In fact it would have sold to some had there been product ready. That is very encouraging to me as I have been in a bit of a daze trying to know what to do next. There will be an S and O version. I am working to keep the cost down because I would love the modeler to buy on impulse. Too many structure kits have crested the $100 level. That turns me off too.
Of course, this is the place to insert a pic but there isn't one yet. Roger is so particular that he literally tore the corrugated roofing off the pilot after we got home from Kimberton and he since redid it with his latest treatment for rusted galvanized roofing (using acrylic paints). I can't wait to see the latest. I hope that is how the buyers will feel about taking it home to build. It will be on the Stoney Creek Designs table at the 31st NNGC in Hickory (http://www.tarheelpress.com/ngc/) and DC Scale is having its 'coming out' so to speak at the new and very exciting Finescale Expo in October (http://www.modelrailroadexpo.com/WELCOME.html.)
Coming soon- "The Shed". Kit #1 from DC Scale Models.
Guess that us what I was thinking. Hmm!
