GREEN MAX

Has anybody ever heard of this company. They make structures and details and are located in Japan. the prices look good, don't khow how much it is to ship from there to the US, so i was wondering if anyone has any experience with them.
Paul

 

Hi Paul,
I have a few Green Max structures and they're pretty good BUT, they are modeled after Japanese buildings and the instructions are in Japanese. The quality of the plastics used isn't as good as the Kato structures but in most cases you'll make up for it in the price. Unless you are modeling a scene from Japan they great but if not you could try kitbashing a structure as a test to fit in with what era you are designing for. Also all the decals that come with it will be in Japanese.
As for shipping, if you plan to get some of these buildings from ebay sellers from Japan, the delivery in most cases is extremely fast but a little costly. What might be inexpensive in the initial price could be made up in the shipping. I have bought some Japanese items from Plazajapan on ebay and he is excellent, in some cases I got the item in 3 days which surprised me. Just check a seller's ratings and I recommend you email the Japanese seller with questions. Good luck,
Bernard

 

Some of the current Kato office buildings appear to be knock-offs of the Green Max structures from the early 1980's... perhaps Kato bought the molds??? I've got a couple that I was going to 'Americanize' by removing some of the obvious Japanese details (included some molded on stuff)... but gave up and figured buying Magnuson Models (later DPM) would be adequate for me.

 

We have several Green Max buildings on the SDSoNS layout:

http://sdsons.org/Layout Tour/powerplant.JPG

I'm told this bridge is also Green Max (it's not Kato)...

http://sdsons.org/Layout Tour/bridge.JPG

 

Yes, I think so. I have one and I think it is better than the Kato as it is better detailed. It is a kit that must be assembled. I didn't know it was Green Max.

 

It's interesting that the track on this bridge is hand laid on a solid piece of PC board. Notches have been cut on the edges of the board to give the look of ties. A gap was cut up the middle to isolate the two sides. So far, the rails in the bridge have never had to be fixed. Knock knock knock.

 

I have some catenary and transformer poles that were made by them. They look almost very similar to the Kato ones. The details are very nice.

verse

 

I had a Green Max motor/chassis that was 'supposed' to power the Small Scale Logistics resin Shay kit (which predated Atlas). The resin wasn't all that bad but the chassis was beyond redemption. I sold it back on Ebay. It was really, really, bad.

I've also bought Kato and Tomytec from Plazajapan, took a while to get here but the prices were good and so was the service. He's got a big Ebay store of things you just can't find in the US.

So I think I'd feel OK about Green Max as long as it wasn't somthing that RAN.

 

Kato - Green Max Bridges

I dug mine out of the future projects warehouse storage.

Kato on the left; Green Max on the right.

I looked for some of these for sale on the internet, including ebay; I couldn't find any. It may be uncommon to find them now.

 

Another source for Green Max items is Hobby Link Japan. Click on "Railroad" at the top and use the drop-down menu on the left to find their products.

 

Had a Green Max powered chassis years ago that I built a Western Railcraft brass photo etched trolley car kit onto.It ran beautifully,little can motor & front mounted drive & idler gears,fantastic.
Alas,I sold it plus 4 unbuilt western railcraft tram/trolley kits at the club sometime ago.
Their bridges are very nice,have a bunch of them stashed away for the layout