More On30 Kits.....

Raymond received another two packages from the United States during this past week. The first arrived on Monday 29 November from a laser kit manufacturer called Raggs to Riches. Joe Fuss and his wife make a large range of narrow gauge laser cut kits. They sent a nice personal note to Raymond about the kits he had purchased. Both Raymond and I are keen to have a go at quite a number of their kits although Raymond is the only one of us who so far, has the money available to buy them. They are certainly not simple kits rather they would be termed craftsman kits.

This parcel contained the Dolores Oil Depot. It is based on the Continental Oil Company (CONOCO) Depot in Dolores, Colorado.

The box containing the Dolores Oil Depot with the instruction book.

The second kit was a model of the two-stall Ouray Engine House located at Ouray on the Colorado narrow gauge. There was a third box which contained numerous items to detail inside the engine house.
The Ouray Engine House box and instruction book

The box of detail parts for the Ouray Engine House.

More detail parts for the Ouray Engine House.

A list of the detail parts for the Ouray Engine House.

On Friday, 3 December a box arrived from Stoney Creek Models containing a laser cut and Hdrocal kit of a scrap yard. Besides the scrap yard itself there are heaps of details parts included.
The Scrap Yard kit supplied by Stoney Creek Models

Inside the Stoney Creek Models Scrap Yard kit. Note the CD of instructions.

Raymond reading the instructions for the Scrap Yard Kit.

Despite buying a few items from overseas we are very strong supporters of our local hobby shop – Austral Modelcraft. The items purchased from overseas so far are not available in Australia as we feel it is silly to ask a shop to order one kit as that is all they are likely to sell. Gerry Harvey (Harvey Norman) and some other retailers are making a lot of noise about people buying “on line” and no doubt there are many who take advantage of the high vale of the Aussie Dollar and low cost of importing CDs and books from overseas when compared with local prices. As I have said we have purchased items that are just not available in Australia. EDM Models in the UK and a couple of other small kit manufacturers only supply by mail order. The Government has had a long standing policy of allowing items such as this to a value of less than $1000 into the country GST free. The cost and workload to value and calculate GST on these individual items and then collect it would be astronomical. If some retailers get their way all items purchased overseas will be slugged GST and possibly import duty as well.

Saturday, 3 December, Raymond and I went to Austral Modelcraft where Raymond purchased another ten N Scale freight wagons while I (believe it or not) purchased a 12 pack of Cobalt point motors ready for that layout we keep talking about building. Raymond’s collection of N Scale freight vehicles has now reached almost 400.

We spent Saturday afternoon in The Shed having a cold beer and brainstorming some ideas for the layout and scenery. I am currently making a list of the plywood and timber to start construction of the framework for the layout. We want to have this delivered before Christmas so we can start work.