Are modern city buildings needed in the hobby?

[darth9x9]

More modern fast food restaurants and gas stations are needed but no one (manufacturer) wants to pay for the use of a trademark. Look at the UP fiasco. [PLEASE, NO FLAMERS!] The profit on a plastic structure isn't that much (with the exception of the Bachmann buildings as the $90 buildings sold for $30 when they were dumped on the market...but I digress). Adding the trademark fees makes producing such a model prohibitive.

[Anonymous]

jetrock: thanks for the shoebox idea. i know just where to apply it.

those interested: does anybody know any architects? modelbuilding is part of their training, and they all have one or many setting around gathering dust. 1/8th inch and 1/4th inch scale models are common. all are modern era.

-rick

[Anonymous]

I'd say probably not. The majority of modelers, even now, still model eras
between 1900 and 1960, with the majority in the 1940s-1950s period. As such, what is REALLY needed are industrial downtown city architecture buildings. I can't find ANYTHING like this for N-Scale., which is what I am using.

Other posters already pointed out the City Classics buildings that Bachmann did in HO, that flopped because they were too big and too expensive. Well, in N-Scale, I bet they would have been much more popular.

Another thing. What we really need are not "skyscrapers". The overwhelming majority of buildings in a city are not 80-story monsters. And that's even more true in the 1940s and 1950s. What we need are the mid-sized buildings, 8-15 stories. There are plenty of nice kits in the 2-5 story range.

[Anonymous]

Model railroader and "Modeling City Scenery" have articles in it about making buildings out of a plexiglass (or is it acyrilic?) for the walls and then matboard strip and vinyl tape for the non window (technical term) parts of the walls. While the article was focusessing on 30 and 40 foot buildings, I'm sure the method would work for the 5 to 10 story modern concrete and glass buildings that are in the smaller down town areas.

[RedLeader]

QUOTE: those interested: does anybody know any architects? modelbuilding is part of their training, and they all have one or many setting around gathering dust. 1/8th inch and 1/4th inch scale models are common. all are modern era.

Once at the university I scratch built a 80 stories skycraper using pre-molded styrene beams (i.e. plastruct) and translucid plastic sheets. The buidling looked like it was designed by Sir Norman Foster. Unless you're trying to model the Chicago Tribune, Petronas or the Christler Tower, modern skycrapers are easy, specially the ones designed by SOM or Mies Van der Rohe (The Sears Tower should be a night project). If you've seen the layout at CSI, you've noticed that the building replicas are not in scale hight, If they were, they'll dwarf the trains and scenery to such a level that they'll have to model the trains z scale to fit the Sears Tower in HO.

Truth is, that these kind of models would be extramely expensive to porduce. There are a lot of modern era industries at the market right now. Walthers is making a good job in this. PikeStuff products are perfect for modern factories. Many of todays manufacturing plants are plain "shoe boxes" of PVC panels shaped in various poligons, usually rectangular. Again, unless your planning to model a refinery, cement plant or any chemical processing, I recomend PikeStuff's modules, I used them in my office to make a BOPP line muck-up we designed, the rest just add any silos and stuff, that are easy to find in the market.

[bn7026]

They are an interesting change to the country scenery done by a lot of modellers.

Be prepared to spend a lot more time on the scene than you would for a country scene. I like modelling city areas but the next layout will have only one city scene out of the 4 scenes I plan to have. Scatchbuilding is a necessity for city modellers and a lot of new buildings are more than just glass blocks - the architectural styles are changing.

Typically city highrises are commonly made as models by architectural modelmakers mainly for developers. Once the development is completed these models become surplus to requirements and if you know the right person a new home can be found on a HO or N scale layout - I remember one being used on a layout in Melbourne Australia.

Tim

[eastcoast]

I am a modern modeler. Most of my structures had to be
kitbashed to bring them up to date. My city is restricted to
10 stories or less ( headspace ) and I am doing just fine.
As you look at some other than metro areas, you will find
that not all cities have to look like New York or Chicago.
I am trying to replicate a portion of Tampa, FL that is just
off of downtown. Beautiful metro by the bay. A modern city
would not neccessarily be reflected in the buildings, but also
to jazz it up, cars and trucks, people of today's society are crucial
in conveying modernism. If you want modern, vehicles ARE on the
market at most every hobby shop. I am still young by modelling
standards, therefore, I model post 1970 and into the future as that
is when my city will be a small metro. Good luck..

[Anonymous]

Yes, modern buildings are needed. But for me, My HO scale Eastern Railroad is in the 50's and there are alot of city buildings on the market for me. I just need a good interlocking tower.

[chutton01]

Well, people have already mentioned we have some very nice modern industries, and in regards to generic ones they are right - e.g.Pikestuff for Corrugated walls, Great West for Concrete walls (witness the very large modern industry article in the Nov 2004 MR), the Nu-line modern warehouse kits (now those are monsters right out of the box) and even Herpa Warehouse kits (on sale now at Walthers).
However, traveling the industrial parks of North Jersey, Long Island, and the Philly area, a lot of modern distributors/warehouse/manufacturers (industrial concerns) often have very nicely designed stone/brick/stucco clad buildings, with copious amounts of windows, imposing front entrances, and manicured landscaping. These buildings are usually a warehouse/manufacuring section of 1 story (which is the height of 2 normal stories to give a very generous inside ceiling clearence) and one or two stories of office space in front. I guess the problem here is that these buildings tend to be unique for each office campus/industrial park (albiet the same design is often used over and over within each campus), so although it is possible to create a generic one (same as a generic modern gas station/food-mart, generic strip-store mall, generic diner), a specific one may be kinda limiting (much like a Sears Tower or... an Independance Hall (I remember when I was a kid during the Bicentennial, those kits were everywhere). OK, perhaps the industrial facility may NOT be as well known as those two other buildings...
Also, alongside the tracks passing through suburban areas, you gotta have pastel faux-victorian-style row Townhouses and small brown-brick 3-story professional office buildings adjacent (often on the former sites of coal dealers, tank farms, small lumberyards, and multi-story brick mills which closed decades ago) - these newcomers come complete with lots of hedges and small, stunted-growth trees.
BTW, those long-abandoned multi-story brick mills mentioned above - if you have any left standing on your modern layout, convert them to Self-Storage Centres or Health Clubs for complete accuracy...