We enjoy kit building and believe in sharing our knowledge with our customers. As such, first impressions are very important. When you open an SRM kit, the first thing you see is an instruction book that many say is the best in the industry. We take pride in the fact that all design, tooling, building and directions are done in house. To guide you though every step, we provide an extensive instruction book, loaded with photos, drawings and supplemented by plan cards and color posters. It covers everything you will need to know including: the history of the bulding, equipping your workbench and color palette, planning for the location, all building, painting and weathering techniques and the complete scenery development of the diorama.We know you'll like what you see and we also know that the fun begins, but does not end with making a great first impression.

Hope to be hearing from you & thanks for taking a look.

Bob Van Gelder, Proprietor

e-mail: southriv@comcast.net

• Delabarre Woolens •

NOW SHIPPING!

Click the links above for more info and how to order.

What do we put into these kits that makes them so unique? We start with a plausible design, usually based on an actual structure that once existed or still stands. We find our subjects during our travels and reseach. When we settle on a subject building, we delve into it's actual history and the manfacturing or production process that took place on the premises.

Once the design is fully deveopled and the activities understood, it is time to create our master patterns for the eventual production of the kit. First, masonry wall patterns and supporting detail prototypes are hand-crafted in painstaking detail. This step alone saves the modeler mega - hours in potential scratch building time. Molds of these patterns are then made: Urethane is used to make the castings of the masonry walls. Small detail parts are cast in pewter. Wood sides are made in basswood and laser cut for a precise fit. Special Grandt Line windows, scale stripwood, metal etchings, special roof materials and many other details are also included. The first kit is built in our studio as a diorama, the process photographed and documented at every step. The completed display shows the kit in a possible setting and is helpful in generating ideas.

South River Modelworks and all material contained within this website is copyright © 2010 by Robert Van Gelder
Our First Kit: Delabarre Tap & Die
Since 1990, SRM has produced museum quality HO Scale Structure kits that everyone from the contest winning model builder to the motivated beginner can enjoy. Whether your interest is in the model railroad hobby or just model building for fun, our kits will entertain and provide you with a feeling of accomplishment, SRM Craftsman kits build into museum quality models without the painstaking and time-consuming process of modeling from scratch. For many modelers, an SRM kit has been the first serious modeling project they have embarked on. Many of our customers have won top honors at national and regional model railroading conventions using our kits.