Ansell Industries N001 "Dom's Sub Store" Picture Review

[danielb]

Howdy y'all,

Last year I spotted a laser cut wood kit on eBay that seemed both cheap and promising - the Ansell Industries "Dom's Sub Store". After purchasing the kit I received a message from the seller stating that the kit was of his own design and would I mind giving it a bit of a write up after I'd built it to provide feedback on the pros and cons of the structure.

I thought I'd go one better and provide a picture review of the kit from sprue to full assembly. I have not painted the kit yet, but I see no difference between this or any other laser cut wood kit as to the precautions one must take when painting - risk of warping, risk of obscuring the finer details by putting too much paint on it, etc.

So, without further ado, here is my step by step build guide and review.

1. The Kit
What you get in this kit can be seen below - three sheets of laser cut wooden components, a laser cut card window/door sheet, and a small sheet of acetate for the glazing. You also get a set of concise instructions on assembly and the designers tips on ensuring you get the best from the model - paint some parts before assembly, be very careful with the card doors, etc. Tips which - for the purposes of this guide - I totally ignored! :P




2. Basic Assembly
The idea is to carefully follow the instructions as the first few stages to get to this point - the side and rear walls assembled with the bracing beam between the two sides (a clever idea and one which gives much needed strength to such a fine kit.




This stage is very simple to get to - just ensure you read the instructions before making any cuts so you have an idea of what you need to do before you start.

The kit is fiddly and as with all laser cut wood kits it is a lot more fragile than your average Cornerstone plastic kit - but also much more detailed. But taking your time and being careful with the individual parts will provide a great looking model, so ensure that you do.


3. The Building Front
This is easily the most trying part of the process, but stick with it and take your time and it's also relatively simple. The idea is to assemble the store front from 7 individual components - the wall, the window/door frame, and 5 capping pieces to give the architecture some interesting lines.

Building slowly and carefully, following the detailed explanation in the instructions should leave you with this...
Front assembled:


Card doorframe and detailing sheet added:


Be extremely careful with the laser cut card - it's understandably fragile, but very finely done.


4. Final Assembly
With the difficult part now done, it is merely a matter of completing the main assembly before adding details. With the store front and roofing pieces now attached, you should have this:




Last of all it is a simple - albeit fiddly - matter of attaching the garage door, vent, and the front and rear steps.



At this stage you should be cutting and adding in a piece of the acetate used for the glazing, but as mine still needs painting, I have understandably omitted this stage.


5. The Finished Model
Once done, you have a unique and highly attractive little store to add to any urban section of your layout.






6. Closing Thoughts
I'm quite pleased with the final product - it looks much better "in the flesh" than I expected given the photographs on the eBay page. For such a small structure it has a certain amount of presence to it - more than I expected.

The model is well designed and finely manufactured, I had no trouble getting any of the parts to fit, though some of the holes which allow for the detailing pieces to be added to the front were a little generous on their proportions - being a fair size wider than the tabs designed to fit in them. Though this does not really effect the assembly in any real way, and considering the fragile nature of the construction material is actually quite a good thing. I've had one or two laser cut kits from more established manufacturers break on me due to that exact reason - the slots are too small for the tabs to fit into.

Assembly was very straightforward, the instructions were detailed and concise, including images in places where words might have cause confusion. The kit took me around an hour to assemble, though I did take my time with it and was also taking photos at each stage for this review.

I feel that the price is more than fair for the model you get, and I am tempted to get a couple more to fill smaller spaces on my urban layout.

Would I recommend this kit and this manufacturer? Yes, I most certainly would. The only thing I can really complain about with my experience here from purchase to assembly is that I'd like to see more than just 2 laser cut wood kits on this manufacturers eBay store! As it stands, Ansell Industries offers this kit, and a rooftop aircon unit.

If the only fault you can pick with a manufacturer is that there were not MORE products available to purchase from their store, then surely that speaks volumes for their products as a whole? I'm very interested to see what they come up with next, and hopefully will get to see so sooner rather than later!

One final note - I am in no way affiliated with Ansell Industries other than as a satisfied customer.

[zosimas]

link to the ebay store?

[danielb]

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ansel...06157006146831
Ebay store: http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/charons_bo...p2047675.l2559

Simon's latest kit is a laser cut car showroom which looks awesome and is definitely something I'll be picking up. He's also taking pre-orders on a new warehouse/factory kit that looks lovely.

Hope that helps.