Hey all, I've been looking at the HO scale Life-Like building kits, and just recently picked some up. I found that they were surprisingly nice kits, with minimal mold defects. I just thought I'd get some alternate opinions on them.
Never had a Life-Like kit but have a few Bachmann. If your happy with them, all that matters. I like my Bachmann School building or Daycare or whatever it is. My niece loves it, and that's good enough for me.
I think the baseplate on many of the Life-Like buildings detracts from their realism, but otherwise, they are reasonable. Walthers Scenemaster has made a lot of them obsolete, but the houses and 'modern' buildings are still relatively useful. I've built the KFC for a friend, and that was a fun model just for the novelty. A lot of kits date from the era of the 'Plywood Pacific;' many of the industries or stations are 'pocket-sized' to fit on smaller layouts. With the rising popularity of modern-era modeling, there has definitely been a push for larger industries that accept more than one car. Walthers has been pretty good about making large structures like warehouse backdrop buildings, and they basically have the market cornered. I think the Life-Like kits build reasonably well, but they have a poor reputation with me. Whenever you see one of these buildings, either on a layout or at a train show, they are almost always unpainted plastic with big globs of glue all over. It would be nice to see some of them done up with realistic colors and weathering. I don't think they are bad models, but their market is usually beginner modelers who may not execute the build to the best degree, so I think some overlook their potential.
