Bar Mills' The Shack Pack: Shack #3 (of 3) done!

This is a description of the Bar Mills (Scale Model Works) Laser Cut Kit of The Shack Pack. There are actually four items making up this kit: three shacks (of various sizes and styles) and a billboard. No foot print is provided for any of the items but they are quite small and would fit in a variety of spaces. Here is a link to Mike Fifer's site page for this kit: http://www.fiferhobby.com/products.php?sku=Bar-991

To be honest, I never expected to be writing another of these “First Impressions” so soon! As you may recall I thought the current scenery area for Alligator Lines (Scenery Project 9) would have a single structure (the Blair Line's Gerald Depot). As work progressed, however, it became increasingly clear that the areas that had originally been envisioned as simply being grass covered with some shrubs and trees were simply too large for just that, and were demanding something more!

The kit comes in a plastic jewel box and contains a number of different items: A twelve page booklet of instructions stapled in the upper left corner, a "Guide to Better Structure Building" (for any and all structures) pamphlet; two sheets of roofing strips, a small sheet of signs, a small sheet of acetate (window glazing), six small sheets of laser cut kit parts (one of which is paper), a small bag of cast white metal moldings and a piece of sponge rubber to prevent the contents shaking around too much.

The instructions are made up of seven pages of text instructions, three with photo steps and two with diagrams of the pieces making up the kit. At this point they seem pretty detailed and complete but time will tell for sure! One aspect of them that I don’t care for is that while they are specific to the N Scale kit they keep referencing the HO version! Strange!

One big difference, the HO kit has in addition to the three shacks, some fencing. The N version replaces the fence with a billboard that is identical to the one included with the Bar Mills' Lunch Counter kit. Even so, the instructions still include the steps necessary to construct the fence!

I’m not sure that I would recommend this kit as a first time laser-cut kit. Maybe if you have built other kits, have patience and are prepared to handle the quite small pieces of trim (of which there are quite a few). There are no tabs and slots to help with alignment and the detail parts/trim are of the self adhesive variety; i.e. peel 'n stick.

Unless you want to do it anyway, painting can be kept as a minimum (natural wood appearance) but some really is necessary, mostly for the roofing and the siding on one of the shacks. Of course, some overall weathering would also be appropriate!

I plan to build all three of the shacks even though I may only make use of one or two of them. The third will be waiting for installation as part of another scenery project!

The blog entry will be updated once I have finished building the kit or if I come across something that negates any of the comments I have made above.

PS I just realized that I left the instruction sheet out of the above picture! I'll try to include it when I complete the construction write-up later on! You are not missing much; it should be there for completeness, however!

Update April 25th 2008

The first shack has now been completed and a couple of pictures are included. This is the smallest and most run down of the three shacks. Because of its smallness it was a little tricky to put together but some care and patience won out in the end!

I have to include a rant about the instructions at this point! They are N scale specific but they use pictures of the HO kit and continually reference the HO kit! Not only that but they include whole sections of text that are applicable to the HO kit only! For example, the HO kit includes a fence whereas the N version does not (it includes a billboard) yet an entire section of the instructions is devoted to the building the fence! Yes, it does include instructions for the billboard as well! The HO kit also (apparently) includes some exterior details that are not available with the N scale version. Instructions for these are also included!

Having said all that, I also have to say the instructions are actually very good! It's just all the extra unnecessary stuff that is annoying!

Update May 13th 2008

Shack #2 has now been completed and a couple of pictures are included here. This is the biggest of the three shacks and is reasonably straight forward to put together. The peel ‘n stick (not enough stick for me) trim is somewhat delicate since it is pretty thin and needs both careful cutting (use a new blade) and handling.

The trickiest part was probably the “coal bin” on the side. It is cut from card stock and was a little difficult to handle; plus, I found the lid to be a little on the small side.

The overhang was not as bad as I expected it to be; just be sure to add the roof striping before the support!

An interesting aspect is the sanding of the paper signs to provide thinness and an aged appearance!

Shack #3 is next and then I’ll determine which two I will use in this scenery area. I am pretty sure that that this shack #2 will find a place here though!

Note: Once again some HO stuff muddied the instruction waters!

Update May 21st 2008

Shack #3 has now been completed along with a couple of pictures. This is the middle sized shack although it is only just a little bigger than the first one. As with the other two, the peel 'n stick trim is quite delicate and the "stick" is simply not sticky enough for me. In all cases a coat of Dull Cote provided the final "glue" that held all the trim in place.

This shack has minimal instructions, they say if you've built the other two you already know what to do and if you haven't, then read the the instructions for them first! I understand why they did it this way but since this shack includes window frames and a separate door and frame, I think a few words addressing these might have been in order!

On top of that the windows and door frame were a little on the large side for openings provided. As with #2, signs were sanded and glued into place where they followed the shape of the wall very nicely. I had never heard of sanding paper until these kits but it sure works well!

All three are done now and it actually looks as if I can use all three of them in the intended area. I just want to make sure I don't overcrowd things.

My web site will be updated with further information in the near future.

BryanC  Alligator Lines