Welcome to Thunder Mesa Kits, offering unique, limited run 1:48 scale model kits from Dave Meek’s Thunder Mesa Studio. Our specialty is On30, but all of our original designs are suitable for O, On3, or other 1:48 scale model railroads. We do not offer kits in other scales at this time.
Our kits feature laser cut precision, complete instructions, and full build videos for ease of assembly. Limiting the run of each kits means that we can focus our full attention on each project in turn to assure the highest possible quality. It also means that you as a builder are guaranteed to own something that is unique and won’t be turning up on every model railroad you see. Everything we do is designed and manufactured in the United States.
The Gold Tooth Mine
COMING JULY, 2026!
The first kit from Thunder Mesa Kits is the Gold Tooth Mine! Featuring precision laser-cut parts, custom 3-D printed resin detail parts and three exclusive figures from Characters Count Miniatures, corrugated roofing from Full Circle Models, and full instructions.
These kits will be available in very limited quantities and 1:48 scale only. Reminder that my Patreon members get first chance to buy a kit and they are on schedule for an early July release.
Finished footprint is 8x3.5".
Kit materials consist of laser cut basswood plywood, MDF, basswood, Laserboard, paper, cardstock, brass wire, steel music wire, styrene nut-bolt-washer castings from San Juan Modeling Co, and 3-D printed resin detail parts custom designed for this kit. Also included are laser cut stencils and printed signs. Full assembly instructions will be included with the kits and will also be available for download from this website.
Projected price: $170
The Gold Tooth Mine sits very near the site of Cinch Latigo’s original discovery. Following Cinch’s disappearance, the claim was being worked by a prospector named Jack Muldoon, AKA Gold Tooth Jack. Both the prospector and diggings got their name when Jack’s pickaxe glanced off a stone, sending a small chip toward his face, knocking his right front tooth clean out of his mouth! Turns out, the chip was nearly solid gold, and Jack had a local dentist form it into a tooth to replace the missing incisor. So Jack earned his nickname, and the rich claim became known as the Gold Tooth Mine.
Eastern capital came to town not long after, and bought out most of the early prospectors, including Gold Tooth Jack. The claim was consolidated into the Latigo Mining Company, who invested in the property and greatly improved the works there, adding the new headframe and distinctive structure that still stands today.
Pre-production pilot model shown. Base, paint, and scenery items not included.
The Story of Latigo
Our current run of kits all exist within the story of Latigo. Never a real place, Latigo is inspired by dozens of authentic gold and silver boomtowns that sprang up all over the Wild West near the end of the 19th Century. Each new kit in the series will find its home on the new Latigo section of the On30 Thunder Mesa Mining Company layout, expanding on the larger story there. A new kit is scheduled to be released about every three months or so, along with a corresponding build video on Dave Meek’s Thunder Mesa Trains YouTube channel. The structures will be freelanced designs for the most part, but will reflect common building styles and practices of the era suitable for small towns from the 1800’s to the middle to late 20th Century (with proper modifications). Each new kit will have a “history” of its own while telling another part of the Latigo story. As each new kit is introduced, the structure will be filled in on the layout map, continuing until the entire town is completed - a multi-year project.
Here’s the tall-tale of Latigo’s founding:
Gold was discovered in the area when an itinerant saddle-bum by the name of Cinch Latigo was shooting at a rattlesnake. He missed the snake, but the lead bullet from his .45 split a nearby rock in-two, revealing a gold nugget bigger than a man’s fist. As was often the case, news of the new strike spread like wildfire, and soon the early prospectors were followed by merchants, saloon keepers, fallen ladies, confidence men, gunslingers, and speculators. A boomtown sprang up overnight - first called “Rattlesnake” for the way gold was discovered, but later renamed as “Latigo” when the railroad and post office finally came to town.
And that’s where we find the town now, right around the turn of the century, as the old boomtown is just starting to get respectable - but isn’t quite there yet.