Sankei MP03-48 Secondhand Bookstore 1/150 N scale

I'm continuing with the Santa-san Sankei gift kits. This time it's the Secondhand Bookstore kit.



For this round, I wanted to try out the Elmers Glue Stick that Ted DiIorio mentioned on the Facebook group. It seemed odd - a simple glue stick, but he swore by it and said that he had success with it, so I wanted to give it a go.

I remembered my glue weight this time. Key for putting these paper kits together. :)

I went with the standard Elmers white glue and toothpick and the results were the same - ok, but the walls had to be weighted and I had to wait until they dried a bit before moving on.


Next came the glue stick. I rubbed some on both items I wanted to glue and stuck them together and the results were grand. It was a firm fit with little spill over and a bond that was rather solid, but one with a little wiggle room to re-position if need be. I even made a mistake and I was able to remove the piece without damaging the wall it was mounted on. I was really happy about the glue stick. Sadly, I've already placed my order for another type of glue - Deluxe Materials - Roket Card Glue, but it's still a good thing. I'm looking forward to trying it out as well.

As for the kit, it's grand like all the other Sankei kits I've put together. The cuts are clean, instructions are pretty easy to follow and the process is definitely fun. There's something that is a lot of fun about building these kits. It's not a "box of sticks" kit, but it's also not something like a snap-tight kit either. Just challenging enough to make it interesting. 

I tossed in a small "scene" inside the shop just so it looks like something is going on inside.

The process is usually the same for all these kits. Build the walls, then stick the walls together. Here you can see the walls ready for assembly. And here is where I thought about using another type of glue - Duco Cement. I've used this as my go-to cement for a while now and it's grand. ((Just don't use it on pink foam! :) )) So, I thought I'd try using it for the walls and floors this round. It wasn't great for putting wall to wall in the wall building, but it worked really well for putting all the final parts together.

The big issue - as usual with these Sankei kits - was getting things to line up properly. In this case, it was the floors fitting into the slats in the walls. Without glue, it was an easy fit to find, but with glue on, the small slat was difficult to line up. I tried to squeeze a bit harder and...squish! The wall caved! LOL

You can see the small bend where the wall bent. I was able to fix it, however.

The Duco worked well overall. The fit was good and the bond was quick. Nothing slipped or bent or bulged. It was one of my most successful wall builds, really.

I used another one of Santa-san's Sankei gifts for the back. A small AC unit that was a lovely little addition.

This was the cleanest build for me so far. I really think it was the "right glue for the right task" that came into play. Walls went together well without bowing, parts went on without having to glob on glue and the Duco option had everything setting quickly. I was really happy with this effort.

In place, it works well with the other buildings around it.

I was looking over the sheet that came with the kit and remembered that I had left the last bit of detail in my office when I was building it. On night two, I took the final Sankei panel and the building back upstairs and finished the building off with some signage.

 

Ah...much better. :)

Now that I'm spending a little more time with these kits and a little more time during the building of them, they are more enjoyable. Using the right tools is helping as well. No more sloppy glue splattered buildings for me! 

This weekend I'm going to try another kit - this one has much more detail and little flourishes. We'll see how it goes.

As always, comments and questions are welcome!