PRODUCT REVIEW: DUSTIN 1:32 AND 1:24 SCALE BUILDER'S PLATES
Manufacturer: Manufacturer: Robert Dustin, 334 Auburndale Avenue, Newton, MA 02166. Price: Etched metal builder's plates $12.00 per pair and up depending on item.
TALK ABOUT BEAUTIFUL! Robert Dustin's 1/32-inch thick etched magnesium builder's plates will provide elegant detail to any locomotive. The lettering is crisp and legible, the colors accurate, and the thickness very close to perfect scale.
Dustin derives his designs from original drawings, rubbings, and photographs. He guarantees his work to reproduce the prototype faithfully. While his catalogue warns it may be necessary to clean up the edges of some plates, those of our samples were perfect.
Two styles are available: stock and standard. "Standard" plates allow your choice of any road number and, where applicable, any year. Builders include Baldwin, ALCO, Schenectady, Brooks, Richmond, Cooke, Heisler, Rogers, or Porter. Dustin also has the distinctive plates of the Pennsylvania, New York Central, Union Pacific, and two or three other railroads. "Stock" plates come with construction numbers corresponding to the year. They include all the builders above (in a variety of styles) as well as Climax, Lima, Rhode Island, and General Motors/EMD.
Robert Dustin's locomotive builder's and number plates are superb little jewels.-RR
