The Model Masterpieces kits T
At the rear of the roundhouse is the boiler house (above left and right). Behind the round- house stands a pipe rack for storing long sections of boiler tubes (below left) and the car shop, which was scratchbuilt using photographs of the prototype structure as a guide (below right). Additional piles of clutter can be found alongside the building (bottom).
he principle roundhouse struc- ture of the Como scene is based on historic HOn3 kits from Model
Masterpieces of Englewood Colorado. Sadly, the Model Masterpieces kits are no longer generally available, although they are sometimes seen on eBay or at swap meets specializing in narrow gauge.
With their finely carved
stonework, clean “dental stone” cast- ings, custom cast plastic and metal de- tails, the kits set new standards for fi- delity when they first appeared in the early 1970’s. The Model Masterpieces line included the major components for the Como facility (roundhouse, ash pit, boiler house and turntable) as well as separate cast detail parts such as doors, windows and smokestacks. While the choice of the Como round- house seemed clever at the time,
it
was both too large and too small. Many
modelers, myself included,
ten had buckets filled with fine sand that could be quickly dumped on a small fire or smouldering ashes. Also placed about the scene were bits
of clutter: boxes, ladders, locomotive parts, barrels, buckets, weeds and so on. These help to tie the scene together and make it look like an active locomotive repair facility. These have been added in
the scene using assorted castings and leftover parts accumulated in the scrap box over the years. Some kit parts from SS-Ltd. were also liberated to provide clutter. It is a good idea to always save all the left-over bits from kits so they can be used as details in these scenes. Like the interior detailing, the exterior clutter is an ongoing project.
found the roundhouse and turntable too large for a small HOn3 layout. At the same time the roundhouse, being of 1879 vintage, was too small for many narrow gauge locomotives. The outside framed “K Series” locomotives of the D&RGW, for example, are much too long and wide to fit through the Como roundhouse doors. The doors do fit the appropriate Mason and Cooke South Park locomotives and the C-16 and C-19 class locomotives of the Rio Grande. My kit, which I pur- chased in August of 1974, still sits neatly wrapped in its boxes awaiting a time and space for its assembly. (It is hard to believe that it is now nearly 40 years since that tour to Colorado!)– DAVID STEER
The Model Masterpieces kit for the Como roundhouse originally was supplied in three sections. The basic kit assembled into a roundhouse with three stalls. An accessory pack could be added for the remaining three stalls and another pack for the boiler house. Illustrated here are a stone side wall from the round- house, stone arches for over the roundhouse stalls, and the walls of the boiler house. Later, in 1976, Model Masterpieces issued a “Gold Box” version of the kit that included all the components together.
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 61
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