Alternative source for detail parts

[Arlaghan]

Was at Model Expo today... their train selection after the clearance blowout is abysmal, to put it nicely. However, I went for paints, tools, and building materials, so my visit was somewhat a success.

While there, I checked out their model ship detail parts: I purchased a couple sets of stanchions and some thin brass rods to see about making my own railings, here are the results:

 

[Arlaghan]

While there, I also picked up some chain that they had. Now... if you use N scale, the links on this chain are comparable (in length) to the "chain links" on the front of a modern Atlas N scale engine (though a bit thicker). The package says 42 links per inch.

For you HO'ers out there, I would imagine that this is gold!

 

[Gary Pfeil]

Wow Arlaghan, those railings are great!

Gary

 

[belg]

What's website address for Model expo? Love the railing by the way. Great use of material.

 

[jim currie]

railings look fine what company are they from?

 

[Arlaghan]

This is a LHS for me, but they are catalog/internet order first, retail store second, here is the website:

http://www.modelexpo-online.com/

Click on "Fittings" (lower left in the orange menu)

The chain is under "Chain" (duh hehe) and it was $12.99.

The rails are composed of STANCHION, BRASS 2 HOLE 8MM 4 PK in the "Stanchion" category...

And thin brass rods (you probably can get this from your LHS) but for me it was $1.09 for five one-foot pieces in the "Metal Rods, Tubes & Wire" category of the 1/32" thickness (I believe).

The chain and stanchions (as well as a bunch of other cool stuff) is distributed by Model Shipways (which is owned by Model Expo) but they are manufactured in Italy - where all the cool Italian ship kits are manufactured.

EDIT: By the way, even though I model in N and got the 8MM stanchions, they have a whole bunch of sizes suitable for HO and even O scalers