1:32 SCALE PLASTIC DETAIL PARTS
Manufacturer: ADV, available from Railway Garden, Ltd., 4210 Bridge Street, Cambria, CA 93428. Price: 35601 blacksmith tools set, 35605 food and beverage set, 35609 urban accessories set $15.00 each.
LEAVE IT TO Railway Garden, Ltd.'s Sam Muncy to turn up another unique and attractive product line. This time he has found three sets of European domestic "doodads" with some typically American applications.
The urban accessories set, for example, contains a water fountain, hanging lanterns and ornaments, and address tiles. No, they are inappropriate for most rural American train depots but, yes, they might be right at home decorating a fancy residence or drawing attention to a rustic shop.
The food and beverage set consists of barrels, sacks, a bucket, a basket, two and a half loaves of bread, some game and fowl (recently deceased), and a duck on a skewer. No, they are inappropriate for the local supermarket or the waiting room of your depot but, yes, the hobos on your layout could certainly find a use for each.
And the blacksmith tools? No, a little too primitive for your locomotive shops but, yes, completely appropriate for (what else?) the local blacksmith.
Each piece is a clean, white plastic casting (probably styrene) with virtually no flash. The parts are fragile, though, and much better suited to indoor than to outdoor use. The detail is fine (one reason for the fragility) and the representations are accurate. A little paint and, golly, you'll have some swell pieces to lend atmosphere to your 1:32 scale scene.
A few parts might work in 1:24 scale, but anything beyond that would be stretching credulity.
All right, they are less exciting than, for instance, a Union Pacific Big Boy, but the level of detail is in the same league and they certainly cost less! That is something you may want to consider when shopping for "doodads" to decorate that 1:32 scale town where your Big Boy stops for water.-RR
