Anyone know if rio grande models uk kits are available anymore?
Not to the best of my knowledge.
Doc
Sorry…no they have not been produced for at least 10 years.
Gary Armitstead said:
Sorry…no they have not been produced for at least 10 years.
I was able to buy my Pagosa combine “transkit” from them about 5-6 years ago. I also have a Gunnison plow bought a couple of years earlier. But then all went quiet. I read somewhere a year or two ago that if you can get a number of orders together for one model then it is possible the owner will be willing to produce a batch. Their models are mainly a mix of laser cut/engraved ply, some with formed brass sheet parts (like the Gunnison plow’s blade) and with some white metal accessories (some appear to be from Ozark listed parts). Decals were produced by Stan Cedarleaf - a possible lead here ? I’d love see their stuff come back into production. If they were not willing or in a position to do it themselves perhaps the owner could be persuaded to sell on the laser cutting, decal artwork and instruction sheet data files as well as any specialist masters and forms for unique molded/formed assemblies. Their webpage is still up https://sites.google.com/site/riograndemodelsuk/ so maybe some more leads there.
There is a guy in the UK, who trades under the name of Resurgam Models (his FB page will come up if you Google), who might be looking to diversify out from his recently introduced range of SAR NG themed stock. Perhaps he could be persuaded to approach Rio Grande here in the UK with a view to taking over and producing these items. He works with some very good laser cutting specialists. You should see what fine detail he can do with L/C MDF, not just the car bodies and underframes but the trucks too. I think he could do this line of models some justice. He’s a good guy to deal with in my experience. I hope this helps.
Max Winter said:
Gary Armitstead said:
Sorry…no they have not been produced for at least 10 years.
I was able to buy my Pagosa combine “transkit” from them about 5-6 years ago. I also have a Gunnison plow bought a couple of years earlier. But then all went quiet. I read somewhere a year or two ago that if you can get a number of orders together for one model then it is possible the owner will be willing to produce a batch. Their models are mainly a mix of laser cut/engraved ply, some with formed brass sheet parts (like the Gunnison plow’s blade) and with some white metal accessories (some appear to be from Ozark listed parts). Decals were produced by Stan Cedarleaf - a possible lead here ? I’d love see their stuff come back into production. If they were not willing or in a position to do it themselves perhaps the owner could be persuaded to sell on the laser cutting, decal artwork and instruction sheet data files as well as any specialist masters and forms for unique molded/formed assemblies. Their webpage is still up https://sites.google.com/site/riograndemodelsuk/ so maybe some more leads there.
There is a guy in the UK, who trades under the name of Resurgam Models (his FB page will come up if you Google), who might be looking to diversify out from his recently introduced range of SAR NG themed stock. Perhaps he could be persuaded to approach Rio Grande here in the UK with a view to taking over and producing these items. He works with some very good laser cutting specialists. You should see what fine detail he can do with L/C MDF, not just the car bodies and underframes but the trucks too. I think he could do this line of models some justice. He’s a good guy to deal with in my experience. I hope this helps.
Thanks for the latest on Rio Grande Models UK. It’s been quite a few years since I last dealt with these folks. I don’t even remember the owners name now…David, I believe? Too many years and the memory is vague. I believe he had a garden shop and did custom landscaping and the model work was a side business. I know at the last conversation I had with him, he was having issues with the custom miniature ply he was using and he was getting a lot of warping during the laser cutting. I did work with him on the design for the Chili Line Bay Window for the AMA/Accucraft J&S coaches.
I had not realised you had some involvement with Rio Grande UK Gary. Likewise I cannot remember the proprietor’s name but the garden centre business reasons ring a bell. I dropped a line to David Williams at Resurgam to make him aware of this excellent line of models now seemingly lying fallow. He admits to not being aware of them but confirmed he will be looking at diversifying from his initial SAR NG (South African Railways) themed range in the future. He said now aware he might take a look. A seed hopefully might have been sown. One of Mike’s current occupations - firing turns on one of those NG/G16 Garratt monsters on the 25 mile long Welsh Highland Railway through Snowdonia. The guy’s heart is in the right place.
Its interesting when you look at Resurgam’s presentation style, high levels of fine detailed laser cutting and etching on the parts of his kits and the detailed plan like instructions, you get the impression he might have seen some of Rio’s output for inspiration but apparently not. Unlike Rio’s his kits though have the most remarkably detailed truck assemblies which would be a plus for this range if reintroduced. Mike’s skills, abilities and production partners would be a very good fit with this range. While we have a number of “wood cutters” in the LS hobby here Resurgam would be the one that comes closest to RIo’s for quality, no disrespect to the others but they are pitched at different price points. Let’s hope he might look into this seriously and see if there is a viable market to make them available again. And perhaps even add to the range.
Max Winter said:
I had not realised you had some involvement with Rio Grande UK Gary. Likewise I cannot remember the proprietor’s name but the garden centre business reasons ring a bell. I dropped a line to David Williams at Resurgam to make him aware of this excellent line of models now seemingly lying fallow. He admits to not being aware of them but confirmed he will be looking at diversifying from his initial SAR NG (South African Railways) themed range in the future. He said now aware he might take a look. A seed hopefully might have been sown. One of Mike’s current occupations - firing turns on one of those NG/G16 Garratt monsters on the 25 mile long Welsh Highland Railway through Snowdonia. The guy’s heart is in the right place.
Its interesting when you look at Resurgam’s presentation style, high levels of fine detailed laser cutting and etching on the parts of his kits and the detailed plan like instructions, you get the impression he might have seen some of Rio’s output for inspiration but apparently not. Unlike Rio’s his kits though have the most remarkably detailed truck assemblies which would be a plus for this range if reintroduced. Mike’s skills, abilities and production partners would be a very good fit with this range. While we have a number of “wood cutters” in the LS hobby here Resurgam would be the one that comes closest to RIo’s for quality, no disrespect to the others but they are pitched at different price points. Let’s hope he might look into this seriously and see if there is a viable market to make them available again. And perhaps even add to the range.
Max,
Thank you for the information. It would be nice to have someone doing these kits again. At the time Rio Grande Mosels UK was doing these, they were considered “pricey” kits. But this was before Accucraft/AMS started to market the #212 combine. That was when I became involved with them. Just to be correct, my involvement with them was to find someone to produce that famous Chili Line Bay window and that’s when RGM UK and I got together. His old website had the photo of the prototype bay window along with a brief explanation of how this came to be and he mentioned my name.
Would be great if they even just produced some of the conversion items that they had, it’s a shame some of these f scale kit items and builders are becoming less and less