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Offline skeeterbuck  
#1 Posted : 14 May 2018 23:56:34(UTC)
skeeterbuck

United States   
Joined: 15/12/2015(UTC)
Posts: 523
Location: Maryland, Baltimore
This is my review of this Noch kit. I've always be a sucker for a neat looking Stellwerk and coupled with the idea of a nifty "laser cut" kit this one has been on my radar for some time. The rather high cost (selling at approximately $60) has put me off this kit until I happened across one on of all places Amazon for the low price of $15.00! Woot This is my kind of deal so I immediately ordered one thinking all the time I going to get some sort of cancellation notice. To my surprise that didn't happen and I received a shipping notice and it arrived soon thereafter. The contents of the kit are sheets of heavy high quality cardboard that is laser cut and also laser engraved details into the cardboard. They are either in the correct colored cardboard or are then factory painted and or detailed with paint. The cardboard sheets contain the following pieces:

Sub walls, roof sub structure, floor and base in a dark gray cardboard, 4 exterior brickwork walls in a brownish color with orange highlights, roof shingles in one piece that has to be folded and glued after being cut out in a very dark gray color (off black), block work around the base in a light gray, brickwork chimney in an almond color and underside roof framing in a brown color. The kit also includes two injected molded light gray plastic sprues on rain gutters and downspouts with more than enough to complete the kit. Finally there are two sheets of plastic, one is clear for the windows on the upper floor windows and one of translucent for used on the ground floor windows and door windows. There is no interior parts provided in the kit as well as no base. A small tube of Uhu wood glue is included in the kit. I used this to assemble most of the parts in the kit. It performed like a typical white style glue and can be reduced with water. This is what I did as I found the glue too thick straight from the tube. I also used a cheap small brush to aid in the placement of the glue.

This is not my first laser kit and I'm rather familiar with most types of construction kits. You start by adding the window sheets once cut to size on the sub walls from the inside. The lower translucent windows were no problem and went on fine. On the upper clear windows the plastic is the type that's impervious to any type of glue. I didn't want to run the risk of getting the whole building completed and close up to only later somehow poke a window loose and then have no way to reach inside to reattach it. I substituted clear styrene sheet plastic which could easily attach using regular plastic cement. After it dried, I tested to be sure that it was securely attached. The sub walls are then assembled and went together with no problems as well as the sub roof. The actual shingle roof sheet needs to be folded on two joints and glued on two joints to form the proper size and pitch of the roof on all four sides. I wasn't too please with this as the glue joints have an ever so slight gap went assembled where the folded joints were exact. Also lining the roof up to have the exact amount of overhang on both sides and ends proved to be a challenge. I would recommend that the roof fold joints be cut. You will then end up with four individual pieces that would be easier to align and could be adjusted to minimize the gaps I referred to earlier.

The next step is to apply the finished brickwork sheets to the sub wall assembly and here's where the real problems begin. The brick sheets have a 90 degree bevel on the inside so that when they are butted to the adjoining wall they will be flush fitting on the corners. The problem is when you align the bricks to the window cutouts and door the sheet edge overlaps about 1 mm on each end. If you move the sheet for a good fit on the corner it no longer is in alignment with windows and door cutouts. Cursing This IMHO is just poor designing on Noch's part. To overcome this, I had to carefully file the correct amount off of each edge while maintaining the 90 degree bevel. You talk about a real pain in the rear, this is it. I ended up doing one wall each night. Filing, checking then filing some more etc. until I was able to get a good fit. I will admit that I am very particular when it comes to modeling and to me it's either correct or not correct. There's no half ass'n it when I building something.

After this fiasco the rest of the assembly went rather smoothly. The roof fit OK and the gutter/downspouts went well though they are rather fiddly as you intentionally have to cut and fit them to the building as they are of a generic design to fit any size building. I ended up weather the roof, chimney and foundation block work to better match the brickwork on the walls. I also added a LED to the second floor on one side for lighting. To me this looks more realistic than equally lighting overall. I also fogged the inside of the clear windows to hide that there's no interior. This kit would be a good candidate for a complete interior on the second floor. Enough talk, lets see some pics. As always if you have any constructive comments please let me know. Thanks! Chuck

https://www.noch.com/en/...-tower-tannau-66108.html

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thanks 12 users liked this useful post by skeeterbuck
Online kimballthurlow  
#2 Posted : 15 May 2018 11:12:33(UTC)
kimballthurlow

Australia   
Joined: 18/03/2007(UTC)
Posts: 6,653
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Thanks SB, nice review with good tips.

Have never done a laser kit, so this is a good warm-up.

Kimball
HO Scale - Märklin (ep II-III and VI, C Track, digital) - 2 rail HO (Queensland Australia, UK, USA) - 3 rail OO (English Hornby Dublo) - old clockwork O gauge - Live Steam 90mm (3.1/2 inch) gauge.
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