It’s 2022, and many new Z items coming this year from Marklin including Vectron series locomotives. The first release for this new series is painted and lettered for OBB as item #88234.
Based on OBB (Austrian Federal Railways) prototype class 1293, Marklin 88234 portrays a multi-system locomotive built by Siemens Mobility. Era VI thus currently used in Europe. Operating for little more than 4 years the multi-system OBB Vectron’s are certified for use in Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, and Italy.
The very handsome modern locomotive is modeled in Z with 4 pantographs, add-on handrails with highly polished silver wire and bold paint and lettering for OBB. Snow-blades are suitably represented too!
Running characteristics are up to the standards achieved with the new motor technology. And headlight and trailing lights are LED powered.
Very exciting new locomotive class featured in the Marklin Z line-up.
Rural scenes for Z gauge are just one category of MBZ offerings. Another is railway buildings. For this post I am including examples of both. Plus the Marklin tank locomotive and beer car from starter set 81567 (2003- 2008).
Dealer inventories of MBZ Z scale kits are sporadic, Reynauld’s of Illinois seem to be MBZ’s exclusive dealer in the United States, but their inventories of the kits always run few in number even before the pandemic affected shipping from Europe. I have never had a problem ordering an MBZ item, they each have arrived eventually even the back-ordered ones. And patience pays off as nothing compares to MBZ.
The pros and cons of MBZ kits has been covered here before, and I would be remiss to recommend them again without those comments in case someone new has come across this post. Cons: MBZ kits are a bit primitive, cardboard warps easily, kits can smell burnt when they are removed from packaging, parts sometimes need extra cutting to remove from sheet, and sometimes parts are missing. Note: kits can be a struggle to assemble, and they require problem solving along the way. And some parts easily deform. Pros: after the kits are put together and painted they look great: “from another time”. And that is to say the buildings look authentically old.
A few general instructions: always prime every part before assembly with MBZ’s primer, this step will control the later saturation of paints plus strengthens the cardboard material. MBZ pigment paints soak into the cardboard, but the color can be built up with additional layers. Note: highly recommended to follow MBZ’s painting instructions. Don’t expect precision, it is best to give yourself over to messy and inconsistent paint application. Detail work can be done as the last step with traditional acrylic model paint for moldings and architectural details.
Here are the buildings I picked-up from a recent trip to Reynauld’s, barring duplicates this is all they had to offer me on this trip.
Train Attendant’s Hut (MBZ #16 016): 3/4 inch (height) x 9 1/16 inches x 3/4 inches. Paint: MBZ pigment paint 46 200 with charcoal dust: dry and wet application.
MBZ 16 016MBZ 16 016
Machinery Shed (MBZ #16 063): 3/4 inch (overall height) x 1/2 inch x 3/4 inches. Paint: MBZ pigment paints 48 600 and 40 723
MBZ 16 063MBZ 16 063
Framework Barn (MBZ #16 165): 1 5/8 inches (height) x 1 1/2 inches x 1 3/4 inches. Paint: MBZ pigment paints 46 280, 40 723, 40 612, 48 600, and 40 020
Barn (MBZ #16 087): 1 9/16 inches (overall height) x 1 3/8 inches x 2 3/4 inches. Paint: MBZ pigment paints 46 280, 48 600, 40 723, and 48 060
MBZ 16 087MBZ 16 087MBZ 16 087
Massbach Train Station (MBZ #16 140): 1 1/2 inches (height excluding chimney) x 2 inches x 3 9/16 inches. Paints: MBZ pigment paints 47 150, 48 600, 40 612, 48 060, 40 723, 40 020, and green acrylic modelers’ paint (Testors)
MBZ 16 140
Putting the buildings together with Marklin starter set 81567 (2003 – 2008) are its locomotive and beer car. Originally this set was sold with an oval of track (1 X 8590, 1 X 8500, 4 X 8520, 6 X 8521), mini-club white transformer, red plastic re-railer, class 74 tank loco, refrigerator car painted and lettered for GANTER Bier (1865 – present), and gondola with present load.
Marklin BR 74 (74 701) loco and Ganter Bier Car, MBZ 16 087, 16 165, and 16 016Marklin BR 74 (74 701) loco and Ganter Bier Car, MBZ 16 165Marklin BR 74 (74 701) loco and Ganter Bier Car, MBZ 16 063 and 16 016Marklin BR 74 (74 701) loco and Ganter Bier Car, MBZ 16 087 and 16 140Marklin BR 74 (74 701) loco and Ganter Bier Car, MBZ 16 087 and 16 140
Few Notes on Construction: -Massbach Station (16 140) was missing parts to complete foundation on freight depot, but easy to come up with a solution: left over parts in the kit painted to look like stucco masonry
-barns feature beautiful interior details that are best finished before kit is built
-instructions sheet shows opposing wall part flipped, this will make sense when you look at the instructions for the first time: a bit misleading! CAREFUL!
MBZ Pump Station and Water Tower are good examples of those used in Germany, both feature brick construction and tile roofs. Built alongside rail yards and residential buildings water towers are abundant and variously designed throughout Germany. Pump stations provide the water and water towers pressurize the system through gravity feed.
The pump station by MBZ is the only one of its type offered for Z scale, it is a very good kit with construction challenges due to its small size: corners are a little tricky to join. Other manufacturers’ kits start with stiff cardboard frames glued to finely detailed outer wall and roof parts, MBZ kits rely on thick side walls and roof parts to be all-in-one parts which are much more difficult to secure and finish with sharp corners as with examples in this post.
MBZ Water Tower 16093 is of a rather plain construction but features nice brick embellishments. Corners do not go together easily with this kit otherwise it is an easy kit to build.
Available at Reynauld’s 16092 (Pump Station) $16.84 and 16093 (Water Tower) $33.23
Siding: MBZ HO kits may vary greatly from their Z gauge kits featured in this blog.
Accessorizing MBZ’s farmsteads and rectory might include their bee house and bake oven: 16133 and 16175.
These great little stand alone structures and very easy to build, but you will need tweezers and patience. I pre-painted the parts due to the small size and followed up at the end with some touch-up painting.
The bee house is accessed by a door on the back wall, but it can be married to a barn if desired: many were. Stone foundation was painted with dry brush.
Brick ovens were built for large houses or production baking of other sorts including the commercial enterprise of a local baker. Although it could be used for general baking and roasting they were generally used for bread baking. Building a fire to heat this large oven was impractical for a small farmstead, but infinitely more practical for MBZ’s Rectory (R16089) who’s retired priests and ministers could find comfort and reflection baking loaves of bread for their community.
Available at Reynauld’s 16133 (Bee House) $7.39 + 16175 (Brick Oven) $16.16
Hohenberg House designed to be a multi-family dwelling or shop and dwelling with stucco construction and mansard roof further extends the MBZ rural offerings.
Kit was easy to assemble with the exception of the dormers which were challenging to seat in roof panels. Note: imperfections are part of the charm of MBZ kits and wonky dormers are part of that charm.
The large building kit 16071 includes 4 buildings including barns and farmhouse. This very interesting MBZ kit includes 4 buildings also available separately with open frame/stucco construction farmhouse, stucco barn and two random rubble stone foundation barns. Two barns: one small and one large stored hay, feed, equipment and the occasional member of this farm’s livestock community. Roof color was applied with dirty sponge and pigments. Stone foundation was painted using dry brush.
MBZ 16071 (farm house)
Multi-generational farmhouse with shuttered windows and flagstone open porch is at the center of this farm complex. Stucco was painted with white pigment mixed with yellow pigment followed by light dusting of dry gray pigment to weather and age stucco.
MBZ 16071 (barn 3)
The small storage barn or shed is comprised of stucco, its use was determined by what needed to be stored whether equipment, feed or ciders. This kit is less detailed than the other three so details could only be suggested by paint. Stucco treatment included few areas of repairs to show age, it would have been slightly less maintained than the main house structure thus keeping it water tight was enough maintenance. Presumably the first building erected on this farm perhaps starting out as a barn/farmhouse combination, it may have been used for numerous activities long before the large barns and farmhouse were built.
MBZ’s ‘rural’ structures include houses, barns, farmstead out-buildings and granary. It is an extensive line of rural structures based on German prototypes which in some cases can be adapted to fit an American themed layout. In some cases German prototypical barns moved to the United States with little variation from those found in Germany. The long history of European immigrants settling in the United States have expressed influence in many ways and combinations thus looking for interesting buildings for American layouts could thus be found within MBZ’s line-up.
An older design granary used for storing animal feed or grain is a striking example of a rural German structure used for the same purpose as American grain elevators, but this one based on a late 19th century structure stored bagged grains and feed versus silo storage featuring automatic chute feed. This granary was a centrally located storage facility located near a siding supporting numerous local farms.
Built using MBZ ‘Pigment Starter Set’ (R72217) and Noch Laser-cut glue.
Note: smokestack was not included with kit, I made it using polystyrene tubing. I did not install dormers, I liked how it looks without them.
Two buildings from MBZ’s large farmstead kit 16071 comprising farmhouse and 3 barns including one with an apiary.
MBZ building kits are German inspired architectural forms available in multi-scale kits including an extensive line-up in Z. Building and finishing a kit has unique challenges that are quickly overcome after constructing a kit or two. Included in this post are a few notes I hope are helpful for successful building.
MBZ kits are automatically age old buildings with history time-stamped into their design and fabrication. Giving a model building history through weathering and aging is easy with MBZ, each kit starts out with a baseline moment in time at least 50 years ago. Adding more use and age to the look of a building is up to the modeler: perfect kit buildings for Era I, II, and III.
Cardboard used in MBZ kits vary from other manufacturers, its natural color is gray/brown thus painting is required after the application of a solvent based primer.
Prepping the cardboard requires priming with MBZ Primer R72214 (pre-mixed) or R72211 (unmixed), I recommend the pre-mixed version. Priming is required due to future mold issues as suggested by manufacturer. Flattening parts after priming and before gluing is required: large parts including roof and sides warp heavily after priming, but rolling parts against the warp flattens them easily. Manufacturer suggests painting with pigments applied with sponge. MBZ pigments are water soluble, and they can be mixed together for custom colors. Consistency of paint should not be too wet or dry, it is applied with a wet sponge but avoid caking pigment. Air-brush masking tape should be used to isolate sections to be painted with sponge application. Dry-brush, air-brush and fine brushwork can be followed up later in construction for fine tuning. Pigment paints dry matte, and I recommend a light air-brushing of matte water based lacquer as a final protective coat.
The manufacturer suggests UHU ‘Hart’ glue which is fast setting but I find it messy to work with, I recommend Noch ‘Laser-cut’ glue which is fast setting and quick drying. Note: other fast setting white glues or wood glues should work well, but a fine applicator bottle available at craft stores should be considered. The few parts that are not always included in MBZ kits are ramps and steps which must be built by the modeler. No partition walls are designed in many of these kits thus requiring custom masking for interior lighting. I nice feature of these kits are stone-laid interior floors which can be exposed in a diorama through open doors with perhaps a wagon parked within the barn.
Note: barn buildings illustrated in this post used dry brush technique to highlight and paint stone foundations whereas sponge application of paint was used for uneven authentic weathering of paint. For glazed terracotta tile roofs I apply a light application of Renaissance Wax (micro crystalline acid free wax) which gives a gloss surface without being too glossy or too thick looking plus it is a non-yellowing museum quality wax available at library supply houses and fine art supply shops.
Three painting kits offered by MBZ will get you started, I recommend ‘Pigment Starter Set’ (R72217), it includes numerous pigments, primer (unmixed), and sponge for $55.49, it was more than enough for painting 13 kits. The kit includes a very high quality sponge, but other sponge shapes and sizes are available at art supply shops, they fall within the category of pastel sponges which are tight cellulose sponges which can be used wet or dry, pastel artists use this type of sponge dry only which readily allows mixing of charcoals and pastels.
Note: MBZ kit builds are best treated with a loose approach without worry of precise paint application: using a dirty sponge gives much more depth of color than a clean one between coats of paint.
Siding: Reynauld’s in Illinois is the exclusive USA dealer of MBZ, they have in store examples of finished kits as well as paint and accessories.
MBZ’s rectory is a sizable structure comprised of stucco and shingle roof, it features stalls for wagons.
Roof section arrived heavily warped which is straightened with triangular sections of cardboard found in the kit.
I was after a representation of aged tinted stucco which was achieved by layers of gouache watercolor. Dirt kicked up from the ground was applied with airbrush.
Parts with rough edges made during the laser process were smoothed over with glue and then painted.
Carriage stalls include open beam detailing plus cobble floor which I plan to allow viewing of after building is set on my layout.
Roof coloration involved much experimentation of layering various colors over a primer coat tinted with brown. Rubbing and dry brush supplemented heavier applications of paint. Roof was top coated using an airbrush of a protective finish of gloss varnish which noticeably popped the color. .
Stucco texture was accentuated by wet and dry brush applied to drying paint. Layers of colors were built up slowly and shading was added with a dark lavender color to suggest shadows around moldings.
Interior of building shows the simple and uncomplicated construction which owes to a less than precision kit with imperfect joints, but that could owe to the look of these buildings settling over time and age which is entirely subjective of course.
All and all an interesting kit but one you need to build without worry of perfection.
MBZ’s rather large 3 bay locomotive shed features an attached administration building. Entirely constructed of brick this kit is rather challenging to paint and assemble.
Very large siding parts in this kit arrived heavily warped which required a little patience but overall not a big deal, the curvature in the parts seem to curl due to the laser-cutting process owing to the nature of this kit. One part I was unable to correct, the long wall on the administration building was not designed with a second structural cardboard to laminate with, I would recommend fashioning a stiff cardboard and gluing it with this part before installation.
Roof sheathing for the whole kit was not included as depicted in the instructions thus raw cardboard was the only provided roof which on its own is hideous, I built the roof sheathing out of 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper that I sanded lightly and airbrushed gray/black. No roof ventilation was included so I used spare parts from the Archistories shed kit which is an area to improve on in the future.
Careful brushwork around windows and the added highlight in the bricks.
Wooden doors were painted out on back of administration building. This kit included brick overlay at corners, but my kit had damaged/frayed bricks so the result was okay.
The brick panels have a very interesting pattern brought out by applying color by brush in one direction (left/right) and another color angled up and down: crosshatch. I also applied a variety of colors to the window glazing.
You can only win at building MBZ kits by embracing color which has been layered.
I spent a considerable amount of time under-painting the front of the bays and doors with transparent paint gradually building up to more opaque applications. Doors are wood and accepted paint differently than the paper sections.
Doors feature common small brass hinges which in this kit are challenging to install, but the doors can be permanently glued in place as another solution, not many modelers need moving shed doors.
I airbrushed the glazing to give a hazy grimy look which will be nice to feature with interior lighting including a flickering red light to suggest welding.
Note: I glued a piece of gray paper to the underside after completing the kit, I found the structure to have a rather weak base, and I don’t plan to install it on a layout for awhile.
If you suffer through this kit like I did and complete the building perhaps you will find satisfaction for it on your layout, I like the end result, it’s unique with big scale suggested.
Siding: Reynauld’s in IL is the dealer for MBZ, they also sell everything you need to light this building too!
