Review: A new round of 'O' Woodland Scenics Buildings

There was a new round of buildings from Woodland Scenics.  This set of 3 included a bike shop, a country store, and a billiards/barshop corner store.  I found myself in Chicagoland and picked up the only one I thought would fit in my industrial mini-city for about $89 after taxes from Menards. (A huge savings off the 129 or 139 MSRP despite needing to add my own LEDs to light it up).  Menards appears to team up with WS each year and has their own version of the buildings produced with alternate paint schemes.  Probably helps WS with tooling costs.

Anyway, here are some shots of the building I got.  Going to work to get the menards off the glass.  Not sure what I will do for the interior yet...that is a bit down the road.

Modeling: HO Oil Tanks in O

Was at a hobby shop sale a few months back and went exploring the HO aisles to see if there was anything I could use in O scale.

Found some nice tanks by Rix Products.  It took a few hours to put together the separate layers.  You have to pay attention to the rivet detail and be a real rivet counter.  It looks good...supposedly the 60' tank is roughly 30' tall and 12' in diameter in O.

Definitely something worth looking at if you're planning on doing an oil tank farm like I am doing.

I ended up painting mine oily black...almost a brownish color when the paint dries.  That is not reflected in the photos below.

Modeling: Yorke Studios Covered Hopper Unloader

This is the unloader that Tom just came out with.  Took about 3 hours to do.  Neat little kit.  Its about $35 when shipping is included.  

You can click on the images for Hi-res shots.