Heljan structures

Hi,

Is anyone familiar with the quality of Heljan kits? My LHS has a few gathering dust for years on its shelves. I figured they don't sell well because they're too European-looking for US layouts. There is one that I think I can use, but before I buy it, I thought I'd check to see if people steer clear of these because of any quality issues.

Thanks,

Kenny

Reply to
Kennynovak
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I've had beautiful ones, and I've had ones that were garbage. As a rule though, they're pretty "average".

Heljan does (or last did in the past) most of the kits sold under the "Walthers" label, and they also own many of the old Revell dies.

Don

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Reply to
Trainman

And, if they are kits sold under the Heljan label, they're likely fairly old. I can't remember them releasing anything new for...like...well...decades. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I think most of their newer better work has been done mostly for Walthers (as Don said) and on the large city buildings Bachmann sold a few years ago.

Jim

Reply to
Ctyclsscs

Thanks for the information, guys.

Kenny

Reply to
Kennynovak

On 18 Apr 2004 10:42:25 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Kennynovak) purred:

They are pretty decent models and wonderful basis for making East coast and some upper Midwest cities since there was a heavy European influence there (I lived in the NE and many Heljan buildings looked almost exactly like local ones did) The biggest difference is the windows as they have the more complex European mullions but those are easily adjusted with some thin styrene sheet. The models were well molded and had good proportion. If you can get a good price on the buildings, you won't go wrong getting them if you model the Eastern half of the US (they make a good base for all but the most distinctive Western buildings, too.)

cat

Reply to
cat

Heljan building kits vary in quality, largely depending upon their date of introduction. The earliest models were mostly of Danish prototypes. The earliest ones often required a lot of fitting work to create a decent model. The more recent introductions generally go together quite well. Heljan produces a lot for other firms and the quality control obviously relates to the price the intermediate is prepared to pay. For example, Marklin buys their roundhouse from Heljan and sells it at Marklin prices and the quality is excellent. ie, everything fits together neatly. Marklin also buys/bought Heljan kits for it's much cheaper "Hobby" line and the quality is basic/crude and quality control is poor.

Reply to
Gregory Procter

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