I read a lot on this forum about lighting the interior of structures, but what about adding interiors to store fronts?
I have a series of DPM buildings that form a street along side my main line. But the store fronts are dark and deserted.
What do others do to make their store fronts appear to be in use, not vacant.
Photos would be welcome.
Rich
Alton Junction
Rich,
About all the first floor buildings on the layout have interiors in them. This one pic' is a Walthers Cornerstone backdrop building which is only 2 1/2 deep. I added a floor to match the outside dock a back wall out of Mattboard and added from my printer images of industrial interior shots that I copied from Google images of Industrial interiors, just picked out the ones that fit my purpose. You can find just about any type of interior You want. It helps to have a color printer though. I can also resize the images to 1/87 scale. Then I added a cast metal fork lift truck and still in the process of adding more detail, inside and outside. I only stopped because I'm working on the rest of the area and did not want to vac' up any detail by accident.
Take Care!
Frank
You can always play like there is a new Walmart nearby and put for sale or for rent signs in the dark, vacant store front windows. That is what my little town has done.
Charlie
charlie9 You can always play like there is a new Walmart nearby and put for sale or for rent signs in the dark, vacant store front windows. That is what my little town has done. Charlie
Gotta say, Charlie, the For Rent signs in the windows appeals to me.
You could cover the Windows with signs of beer, wine, lotto, check cashing and food stamps
That is what my town has done
Jim
I've put interiors in many of my buildings. One thing I learned early on is that, unless you a building a display model with a removeable roof, you don't see the interior very well. So, I look for models with large front windows, and I realize that simple, inexpensive solutions are just as good as spending a lot for small detail parts.
This is one of my favorites, the City Classics Diner.
This model is only a few inches from the aisle, so I wanted it to stand out. I built this interior from scrap styrene.
The floor and tablecloths are printed on my computer, as are the interior walls. Your mind turns a piece of styrene scrap painted silver into a napkin dispenser. I used nicer figures near the windows and cheap ones in the back. The customers at the counter are literally sitting on a tack, stools made from carpet tacks and red paint.
For my Walthers Merchants' Row kit, I built interior walls and ceilings, and once again downloaded and printed images.
My go-to place for these images is http://www.cgtextures.com/. Many of the images can be "tiled" to create a larger picture for floors, or repeated end-to-end for interior walls with wainscotting and such. I insert the pictures into Microsoft Word for scaling and printing. If you print them on cardstock, they help "seal" thin plastic walls that would otherwise glow when lit up. I find that Aileen's Tacky Glue from a craft store is the best adhesive to hold printouts to the inside of the kit.
For interior walls and floors, I like thin foamboard from the craft store. Real buildings, particularly ones like Merchants' Row, will have inside walls and ceilings, and not all the rooms will be lit up at night. For this one, I built a second floor interior as well.
The lights for the storefronts are mounted on the underside of the second floor. That keeps the lamps from being directly visible through the windows while still lighting the individual rooms.
The interiors are pretty simple. I added a few cheap figures before gluing it together. In this case, I found the sidewalk to be fertile ground for planting details like the Gold Medal Models bicycles and the parking meters from Hi-Tech Details.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
For quicker results, I look for images on the internet, in this case a bank, sized it, and printed it on glossy paper and stick it underneath.
Joe C
When you drive down a business district you really do not see much if anything of the interior in terms of detail. And during the day you do not really sense that the lights are on inside
But neither do business interiors look dead/dark as they do with an empty kit. You do have a sense however vague of the shape and bulk of larger items.
I think creating a sort of box of light colored or white styrene with very generic darker shapes of "things and stuff" (for a food store, shelves and counters but not the cans of beans and fresh produce) is probably sufficient unless you intend close up photography of your street scenes. The main point is not to be looking into a dark void (if nothing else walls that block views of all other windows, not to mention the second floor windows seen from the first floor!).
Dave Nelson
I'm with Dominic - the Google and a good printer are your best friends in this case. Though the Great Recession could definitly put a hurtin' on a small downtown and those "for lease" signs aren't a bad idea...
Sean
HO Scale CSX Modeler
OK, this is good stuff guys.
BTW, awesome photos, Frank.
There is a gentleman who sells interior pictures sized for HO scale if you are not into doing the photoshopping yourself:
https://sites.google.com/site/johnsmodelrrdepot/1-ho-scale-business-building-interiors-sheets-3-00/photos-business-building-interior-sheets
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!