Looking for any informed opinions on:
Micro-Metakit Lemaco Fulgurex Fine Art (by Trix) and any others I may have missed..
Want to buy a few of these, but I want the best detailed ones? is it true the the Micro-Metakit is the Rolls Royce of Brass models?
Thanks
Sam
If you want museum quality, you can't get better than Micro-Metakit. Multiple cylinder (i.e. those other than 2 cylinder) locomotives have working gear, etc. Fine, fine detail.
Some of the Trix Fine Art and early Brawa brass items were manufactured by Micro-Metakit - Brawa's King Ludwig II's train.
Lemaco is the best of the triumvirate that is located in the Lausanne area of Switzerland. Metropolitan and Fulgurex are the other two. Metropolitan is out of business.
DHL, NMJ, Günther, M + F (Merker + Fischer), Westmodel (aka Bachman-Westmodel), & Gerrard should also not be overlooked.
Several of the manufacturers also had kits of their locos and rolling stock available. M + F (Merker + Fischer), Günther, Modeloco (pewter instead of some brass parts), Weinert, Westmodel, & Gerrard are a few examples.
I have probably missed several, but I am sure someone will chime in with more....
I can only repeat what was said about M+F kits many times in de.rec.modelle.bahn: avoid them! They are supposed to be very unreliable mechanically and their fit is said to be very bad.
Regards,
Werner George Pflaum
Thanks Werner. That is good to know.
M&F are at the good end of the spectrum of white metal kits. As such there is a lot of fitting to be done on every piece because white metal castings are _not_ dimensionally accurate. I've built several of their mechanisims and have not been impressed. (Wu K and Pr S4) The British seem to like the lightweight etched brass fold-up and solder frames, but I consider them to be too light and fragile for regular usage. The loose tolerances of a twelve coupled mechanisim are just too much and their method of getting the fixed wheelbase around curves is horrible. OTOH a Machima motor and NWSL gearbox is about as good as you get!
Regards, Greg.P.
Thanks for all the answers Gentleman... The consensus across the board(s) seems to be Micro-Metakit, so I went and ordered a (02301H) Bavarian Blue,Black, and Red, S 3/6... I can't wait for it to arrive now!
Here is a link to a picture of the item.. the dealer was rather helpful I might add.
Am ausgezeichnetesten!
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