DPM Under Woodland Scenics

Just received my first shipment of three new Design Preservation Model kits, and I must say that while the product is still the inexpensive, quality resin kit it always has been, the instructions have improved dramatically.

The Corner Turret Building for instance has a 3 page fold-out, with a color image on the cover of the completed building (versus a single page in previous kits, with black and white images only).

Furthermore, the molds have been updated to give each of the walls "alignment pins" so that the corners are more likely to match-up squarely. Sweet!

Addendum: the kits I first built must have been old as dirt, as the "newer" DPM kits also have the longer instructions, with the only difference between them and the Woodland Scenics being the color picture on the front, and replacing the paper instructions with a heavier cardstock. Even the "older" kit I received today had the tabs inside for the walls.

This morning I discovered that when I painted the brick onto the factory and "discovered" the new (to me) technique of painting mortar after the brickwork itself, it must have been at least a day or two (or a week, as I was working on it weekends), because acrylic, while dry to the touch, may take days to fully "cure". After about 14 hours, I went to apply white mortar to one seemingly dry wall of the newest building, and turned it pink. The white paint must have rehydrated the red mortar and mixed with it after I had gone to wipe off the white. Ugh. I did a small patch, so maybe instead of repainting (again), I'll put a sign there.

It's obvious that if I'm going to make these to sell, I need to create some sort of assembly line, where I can let kits sit and dry while working on others.

New and Old

The turret is comprised of five separate, tiny little pieces.

After the red had dried (not cured) , I went and painted the details. No mortar yet though.