Contact us for further information or to place an order at:
Phone: 650-740-7074 e-mail: tom@tomandersen.biz US Mail: Andersen Model Kit PO Box 201 El Granada California 94018 USA
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| New Release: Now Shipping Tres Casas |
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New Adobe Kits Coming Soon
Julie & Tom are working on the pilot models for upcoming new Adobe kit releases. We are working on:
Tres Casas: Three adobe houses included in one kit
Now Shipping in H0, S & O scales
Adobe Railroad Station
General Store & Post Office in one building
Bodega (Warehouse)
Adobe Plaza ruins: Modeled after the adobe plaza in Chimayo, New Mexico
Gas Station & Repair Garage
Releases beginning in Fall 2010
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Tres Casas:
3 Adobe Houses in One Kit
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| Tres Casas |
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| Tres Casas: 3 Unique Adobe Houses in One Kit
This kit uses the same construction techniques as the rest of our line of adobe buildings.
Casa Numero Uno: Simplest of the three houses, #1 features a porch roof with Spanish Tile & timber posts. The mud is partly eroded, revealing the adobe bricks below. Footprint: 22' wide x 20' deep
Casa Numero Dos: #2 has more style, with the parapet featuring the step design typical of the southwest on the front wall and the corners. It also has a dutch door with massive strap hinges. It also has a patio in the rear enclosed by low adobe walls. The mud on #2 is also eroded revealing the adobe bricks. Footprint: 21' wide x 25' deep
Casa Numero Tres: #3 is not only the largest house of the three, but is in the best condition. The mud shows no erosion indicating regular upkeep. It features an arched top front door and two arched top doors to the bedrooms off the patio. The patio is accessed from the front via a portal gateway featuring two gates with a curved top. Conical buttresses provide structural support at the corners. Footprint: 41' wide x 27' deep
Tres Casas Kit prices:
HO: $49 S: $65 O: $79 plus shipping & sales tax if shipped within Calfiornia
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| Casa Tres Front |
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| Casa Tres Rear |
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| Casa Tres
Casa tres is the largest, best kept & most stylish of Tres Casas. It features arched top front & bedroom doors. The patio gates have a curved top that accentuates the subtle curves of the hacienda design. The stone patio in front of the bedroom doors has random mortar lines.
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| Casa Dos Front |
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| Casa Dos Rear |
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| Casa Dos
Casa Dos also features a patio somewhat more modest than Casa Tres. Not as well kept, adobe bricks are exposed due to erosion. The roof line features the stepped design typical of the southwest.
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The dutch front doors of Casa Dos feature massive strap hinges that are nearly the width of the doors.
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| Casa Uno Front |
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| Casa Uno Rear |
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| Casa Uno
Casa Uno features a Spanish Tile front porch roof. Like Casa Dos, it also suffers some erosion of the mud coating over the adobe bricks. Both the front & kitchen doors are planked with horizontal & diagonal braces.
Remember: All 3 Houses are included in one kit! Available in HO, S & O Scales
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Caballo Blanco Trading Co.
& Julie's Southwestern Art
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Now shipping our latest adobe kit. Caballo Blanco Trading Co. & Julie's Southwestern Art which features scale reproductions of Julie's oil paintings of Indians & buildings in the American Southwest. Other goods include Indian blankets, a picture of a cow's skull, and an image of a Navajo Indian Chief's necklace. The main building features a dutch door in front, and a rear door, with some erosion exposed adobe brick, AMK castings. The painting shelter features a Spanish tile roof.
HO Scale: $39 6" Wide by 3" Deep
S Scale: $49 8" Wide by 4.5" Deep
O Scale: $59 11" Wide by 5.5" Deep
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Julie's Cantina & Dance Hall
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Most popular of our series of ADOBE model kits is the Cantina Julia y Salon de Baile which is Spanish for Julie's Cantina (saloon or railroad cafe) and dance hall. The bar and barstools are in the open air covered patio, the dance hall is inside through the saloon doors and corbel supported portal. Alongside the building near the saloon doors is the Horno (Indian oven, usually for baking bread) with it's long handled paddle for handling the baked goods. Around the back, down a short well travelled path, is the bano (outhouse).
The patio area has a flat roof, supported by vigas (roof rafter poles), also used in the dance hall area with it's roof of Spanish tile, as well as the flat bano roof. The patio roof has two canales (gutter trough's) for rainwater drainage. The walls are mudded with AMK adobe mud like our other adobe kits; however, the cantina has some areas where the adobe mud has eroded revealing the adobe bricks below.
Like our other adobe kits, this is an easy model to build, estimated time is 6-12 hours. Usually shipped the next business day following payment.
Available now in three scales:
HO Scale: $49
Footprint 6" wide x 4.75" deep
S Scale: $65
Footprint 7.75" wide x 6.25" deep
O Scale: $79
Footprint 10.25" wide x 8.5" deep
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The bano (outhouse) features the same exposed adobe brick & mudded siding as the cantina & dance hall, with a flat roof, vigas (rafter poles) & a canale (rainwater trough). The door is an Indian blanket.
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The saloon doors
are a rustic Southwestern/Mexican style,. The doorway leads to the dance hall, features corbels, lintel & door jambs.
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The rear door is a simple wood door & brace, with jambs & a lintel. All the windows have lintels as well, as adobe is notoriously poor in strength over a span.
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The Chapel of Our Lady of Talpa
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While doing research for our St. Francis of Assisi Church in Taos New Mexico, we discovered that plans had been drawn for the Chapel of Our Lady of Talpa (La Capella de Senora Nuestra de Talpa) by the same WPA crew in 1934 that had rendered the invaluable architectural drawings of the church. We were fascinated by this quintessential small New Mexican chapel, and decided to make it the second in our series of adobe kits.
Bein so much smaller than the church makes it an easier m odel to fit in to a mature layout, and a much quicker and easier model to build.
Built & Reviewed by Editor/Publisher Bob Brown in the Jan/Feb 2009 NG&SL Gazette
HO Scale: $39
Footprint of Building: 2"x6"
S Scale: $49
Footprint of Building: 3"x8"
O Scale: $59
Footprint of Building: 4"x12"
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St. Francis of Assisi church
Taos, New Mexico
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Our first adobe kit is the St. Francis of Assisi church (San Francisco de Assis) in Taos, New Mexico Not only is the church still standing and in good condition, mass is celebrated six days a week! It also houses it's own gift shop.
The book "Centuries of Hands" (by Van Dorn Hooker, Sunstone Press) tells the story of why this is so. For over 200 years, the church has been "remudded" by it's parisioners. Adobe buildings are made from adobe bricks, which is then usually covered with a coat of adobe mud. This material does exceedingly well in hot, baking sunlight, which is found most of the year in the southwest. But it does very poorly in rain, which erodes the mud coating, and, if left unchecked, the bricks as well. The "canales", the gutter troughs to lead the roof water extend out 4' from the walls to avoid this erosion.
The members of the parish gather annually by tradition and remud the walls of the church. The men mix the mud, which is applied by hand by the women of the parish. It is a festive occasion, celebrated with long tables of food and social discourse.
As mentioned above in the chapel description, we worked from drawings rendered by ten architects & draftsmen in 1934. They intrically drew the ornate detail of the front doors & arch. We spent 30 hours reproducing these on CAD, to create the master casting for the doors & arch included in the kit.
Our model is a reduction of the actual size of the church. Even at that, it is a large footprint. You could extrapolate from our instructions and build to prototype size if you wish.
HO: $69+$5 Shipping
Footprint of Building: 9"x13"
S: $85+$10 Shipping
Footprint of Building: 12"x18"
O: $99+$10 Shipping
Footprint of Building: 17"x25"
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Preiser Franciscan Friars
The perfect figures to go with our St. Francis of Assisi Church or the Chapel of Our Lady of Talpa.
Sold individually, $4 or complete set of six, $20.
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| Preiser Franciscan Friars |
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How to make Chili Ristras & Cacti
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| Chile Ristras in Truck |
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Here is how Heinz does it in his own words:
The chili ristras:
You need seeds of Italian parsley (the one with flat leaves). Take a loop of thread, dip the part with the bend into a puddle of AC glue and then into the parsley. When dry repeat that. Then knot the thread ends to a viga or wherever you want the ristra to hang.
The cacti:
I made two little flat plaster squares (ca. 2“x2“) to be used as a mold. I scraped a simple flat cactus shape with about a dozen leaves into one of these pieces. All leaves must have a connection to its neighbours. Some small air canals were scraped as well and a funnel to pour molten lead into. The second piece of plaster was fixed onto the first and then the lead was poured inside. The leaves of the casting were twisted a bit in all directions and two or three of these castings, painted and glued into the same hole, make a fine grown cactus. The fruit are red sand grains glued to the leaves.
The ocotillos:
Were the easiest. Some single end twigs of heather got a little red foam dot at the end to represent the blossoms. Several of these twigs were then glued in the same hole.
That’s all.
We would add to this our idea to cast the cacti leaves in resin as it is much safer than working with lead. Tom & Julie
PS: More of Heinz' great work pictured below:
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| Heinz Cactus |
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| Heinz More Cactus |
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| Heinz Ocotillos |
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| Heinz Adobe Warehouse & Church |
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