Review

The Walthers Cornerstone series of kits have been with us from many years. They are an important part of our hobby, as they are easy to assemble, and they build into credible replicas of all types of structures necessary for a layout of any size. They also lend themselves readily to kit bashing. If you have been around th hobby long enough, and seen enough layouts, you have seen many variations of these buildings.

Valley Citrus Packers is based on a building that was located in Santa Ana, California and once owned by the California Packing Corporation. The prototype was actually a cannery, not a packinghouse, but the size of the structure, and its mission style architecture, makes it a good fit for either one. Prototype packing houses and canneries were very large structures. The finished building occupies a space 8 3/8 inches by 9 1/8 inches. Comparing it to the prototype, it would occupy only about 10-15 percent of the space that the prototype did. Even so, this is a fairly large building for an average sized layout. It occupies almost one square foot of space. Add a parking lot and a siding, and you'll get a 2 to 2.5 square foot scene. This is a respectable portion of a typical four foot by eight foot beginner's layout.

The model comes molded in medium green plastic, the base and foundation stone work pieces are molded in a tan color, an the roof is molded in black. TO get the most out of these kits, you have to paint them. I liked the green on green shown in the ad and on the box, so that is how I decided to paint mine.

I began by stressing the walls with a wire brush to add wood grain detail. The walls were then airbrushed with Floquil Depot Olive. The roof panels were painted Floquil Weathered Black, and the stone foundation strips were painted concrete. Walkways and stairs were painted with Mud. Windows and doors were airbrushed with Pullman Green. All parts were left on the sprues for painting. For the dark green trim, I used Scalecoat Pullman Green, which I applied with a brush.

Test fit all of the parts before gluing. This is a good technique for any kit and can save you problems down the road. The windows and doors were attached per the exploded diagram included in the instructions. Window glass was glued on the rear of the window frames. I used Faller Super Expert plastic cement. I like this product, as it is a gel and will stay where you put it. The bottle has an applicator tip, and as long as you don't get careless, you don't have to worry about using too much.

There is a nice base for the building, and it uses a key and slot system to help you assemble it correctly. I glued the four walls to the foundation and held everything in place with clamps and machinist squares to keep everything in line.

Fit up of the parts was very good. The only problem I had was with the stone foundation pieces. There was just enough shrinkage from the molding process that you can have any two corners mate perfectly. The other two will have a small gap. A little squadron putty or Dr. MicroTools will take care of this.

After the wall to base joints and foundation joints had set, I attached the stairs and loading dock. During test assembly of the roof, I found that I didn't Like the look of a plain roof on my model so I found some half inch black masking tape at a local art supply store and applied it to the roof and clerestory to simulate rolled roofing. This is a simple upgrade that makes a big difference. The roof vent and handrails were added last. The roof vent can be located wherever you wish. These last parts are somewhat delicate and could be easily damaged or knocked loose while handling the building during painting.

Even with a flat finish the building looked a little too bright, so I weathered it lightly. I added a few drops of white to some depot olive and dry brushed this lighter shade of green randomly on the walls, to give the look of fading paint and an older building where thin spots in the original paint job are starting to show. The entire building was sprayed with Testors Dullcote. The stone foundation pieces and the roof vent were given an India ink wash, as were the loading dock and stairs. SP Lettering gray was dry brushed onto the roof to highlight the seams. The last think I did was spray the building lightly with a weathering wash of Floquil Dust. I left the base unpainted. When placed in a scene, ground cover will obscure it, so I didn't feel it necessary to try and blend it in.

A small sheet of decals is included with the Valley Citrus Packers logo and various signs. Since my model will see layout service I have not decaled it just yet. I will probably use something a little more prototypical. Such as the Del Monte logo that was on a prototype structure at one time.

Multilpe siding served the prototype. Some packing houses, were even served by multiple railroads, such as the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe. There is enough flexibility in the design to allow you several variations of rail and truck service.

The only problem I had with this kit was the number of windows versus the number of doors. And the handrails. Walthers seems to have chosen the office portion of the prototype to model. Prototype packing houses had fewer windows and more loading doors. This won't matter too much on a small layout, where siding lengths are often limited to one car anyway. The handrails were a little too chunky, but with this material anything finer would have been very delicate. Advanced modelers will probably want to do something to upgrade them.\

This was an enjoyable project that took three evenings to complete. Painting and weathering took two evenings, and assembly took one. I liked the kit well enough to purchase a second one, which will be kitbashed into a flat background structure. Valley Citrus Packers will make a fine start or addition to the citrus industry on your layout.