NEW PRODUCTS and news..

Updated 04/09/2008
Lately I have been getting a lot of questions about kits being in stock or "do we have this or that" product ready to ship. I have also noted that certain hobby shops or dealers will tell customers that a kit is "not available" when it actually is. This is a bit annoying. Our policy is that if we are actively advertising a product here on the web site or in the media, the kit is ready to ship. We don't advertise any product that we are not actively manufacturing or in the case of reserved kits, planning on making, no trial balloons here. I always make it a point to have advertised products as being available at the time the web site is updated or the magazines hit the street. (note that the web site is updated nearly every week, I don't always change the date of "update") The only deviation from that is when you will read that reservations are being taken on a kit, such as our Pro Patria Mill project or if a product is marked as "special order only" as listed on the web site. In any other case for any of the kits or products we have advertised you can order them at any time knowing they are in stock. Having said that, here are times when I may be out of stock on a kit. That situation only lasts a week or so and if you place an order for a kit that may be out of stock, it will be put in production within a day or two of your order. We normally won't even tell you of this because we know that the kit will get delivered in a reasonable amount of time. If a hobby shop or dealer gives you run around about a kit not being available..... (this has happened on several occasions) we found that the hobby shop just didn't want to order the kit, was not really a dealer, or had some other reason for telling the customer the kit was not available. If you want the real scoop when that happens, call me at our BS line: 802-258-3869 or on the order line (orders only please) 800-653-8214. We'd also like to know who it was that told you the product was not available so we can let them know that we have the kits available. thanks, bill...

Pro Patria Mill info

The footprint for the HO mill is 15" deep, about 25" wide and 15" tall. The HO kit is $425 and is available NOW!!.

The kit consists of a plywood "interior structure" with our usual tabbed and slotted walls, covered with 2x12 strip wood, our peel and stick windows and doors and a variety of roofing material including our wood shingle material, tarpaper, and Northeastern Scale Lumber corrugated roofing plus a hand full of assembly templates to ease building the stick assemblies ...

Now I'm not one to quote statistics... But it seems to be the trend lately.. so: over 400 laser cut parts, over 800 pieces of strip wood, over 40 pages of instructions and parts pages, over 150 photos..... well, you get the picture... they won't last long, only a few more than what we have for reservations will be available, then they are gone. So, If you want one, even if you are not modeling Rico or the RGS, you better let us know because this is one major bit of kit, even if it's just going to sit on the shelf, it won't loose it's value...... and with over 10 years of experience even we get one right.... top quality, excellent design, easy building though you do need to have a bit of time set aside to build it. Ours took over 100 hours...

SEE THE PRODUCT PAGE FOR MORE INFO Click the image below to go to the product page

I have had some interest for an O scale version of this monster, well, we are going to do it. The footprint is 34" deep, 48" wide and 30" tall. SEE the product page for pricing info, yes, we need your reservation if you want one... It's not the size... yes it is, the huge size means more than double the wood of the S scale kit and almost 3 times the laser cutting. Our stock sheet size is fixed, therefore we get fewer parts per sheet when we go to O scale, so it means instead of 1/3 more material, it will take more than double the amount of wood to make it all work So, O scalers, step up, make a no deposit reservation for delivery early next year.

Some of you may have seen Stoney Creek Designs limited ed. Village Grocery, well, this one is coming in S from us. I hope to have it ready in a few months. The long awaited "Smith & Kalins Harware" will be out in time for the narrow gauge convention. More patterns have been made for the white metal details to be included with this one along with some gas station details to go with our gas station kit.

Available now is a set of telegraph poles with cross ties, the kit includes 8 poles for $16.95.

At the last update I announced that we had aquired the Portland Locomotive Works line of laser cut kits. I have decided to pass this on to our friend Ken Berlo at Mount Blue Models. I havent't had the time to get them back in production and don't see the time on the horizon. You can get him at Mount Blue Model Co The transfer took place on Feb 6 2008 so it may take a day or two for him to get it announced on his site.

Coming late spring 2008 look for the Stock Pens in HO scale..... probably in May or June.

Below are a couple of items for Sn2 using N scale track, trucks, and loco mechanism. They are ready to go though it might take a week or three to get them fully on the shelf. Let me know if you find them useful.... The Box Cab is #T-2120, is made in laser cut thin plywood and sells for $29.95 less donor chassis, it uses an Atlas baldwin VO-100 chassis, Atlas # 51006. The ore cars go for $32 for a set of 3, less trucks and are cast in white metal. The ore cars use Kadee Arch Bar trucks with couplers.

The N scale water tanks are still on the list   

Look for Ophir Depot and the tram house in N scale later this year

 

Rico Engine House in S scale late 2008

Silver Plume House in  HO now shipping......

Southern Pacific Port Costa Engine Facility...coming spring 2008 for sure!!!!

lastly, I really don't like making promises with dates for kits we hope to produce. As always seems to happen something get's in the way. Rest assured that all of the above kits will be produced as soon as I can get them done. I have planned this year to try and get as many of the promised kits in boxes and available to you. Keep in touch and keep sending the emails of encouragement. thanks, bill banta

banta modelworks
802-258-3869 (BS line) 800-653-8214 (Orders)
email-mail: billbwks@sover.net