I've been fumbling around with the idea of adding a city scene to my ho scale layout which already has a good sized town on one end, though I would like to have a bigger city on the other end. I'm not planning on having my trains go right through town, in fact, I'd rather have a small siding area and concentrate my city buildings in one central location. My question is does anyone have any good links or ideas for cardstock skyscrapers? I know that I've tangled with the scale idea but I remember about a year or two ago of Rod Stewart's ho scale layout in an article in MRing that had many tall buildings and I can't get it out of my head. I really like the tight knit spacing with many different things (scenes) going on. I've got my rural areas (like many layouts have) but would like to have a very busy city area in the mid 1960's to early 70's era. I do have the City Scenes MRing book that came out some years back though I need links/ideas specifically for the tall buildings. I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to post pics and will post of my newly scratchbuilt Drive-In theatre when I get a chance. Many Thanks!
What part of a city? What size city? What region and when would the buildings have been built?
You might want to read John Pryke's Building Urban Scenery available from Kalmbach and elsewhere. He covers the alternatives of printed buildings/flats, 3-dimensional background buildings (full or partial models) and buildings that hide things. In addition, he covers streets, rooftops and other scenery. There is a brief description of Mike Palmiter's approach to building skyscrapers.
Co-owner of the proposed CT River Valley RR (HO scale) http://home.comcast.net/~docinct/CTRiverValleyRR/
I've got about a 3' by 3' area to play with. I know that I can't fit a heck of a lot but I plan on using a few techniques to make the city look bigger. The book I spoke of in my post is John Pryke's book "Building City Scenery for your Railroad," I've read this although I need info on where to find cardstock building kits of large buildings and/or skyscrapers.
3x3 doesn't allow that much area for a large city, By using selective compression and some forced prospective you may achieve some desired results toward a smaller city or show the outskirts of the metro area w/ the backdrop the city skyline.
This is a large town w/ a city skyline @ the backdrop. The area is about 3x5
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Bob, Those are absolutely fabulous shots of a city scene. I would like to know what the "foreground" background buildings are made of. I am right now struggling to find suitable background buildings, scenery, etc. on my small shelf-type switching layout in a smaller city setting. I'm trying to find something relatively inexpensive that could be used to "fill the void" in those open backdrop spaces.
Also, in addition to being an EL fan, I'm also a Chessie fan. Nice shots of the yellow, vermillion and black units!
Take a look at page 50 of this month's MR. There is a great city scene in this layout vist article.
I've visited Bob's club layout shown in the pictures above. The scenes look even better in person.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Check out the PWRR - 3 from this blog post. The skyscrapers are foam core.
The PWRR 3 - Downtown Philly
JSperan Check out the PWRR - 3 from this blog post. The skyscrapers are foam core. The PWRR 3 - Downtown Philly
Man oh man oh man........the PWRR 3 is very impressive, just what I want!!! Many thanks, so inspiring!
E-L man tom Bob, Those are absolutely fabulous shots of a city scene. I would like to know what the "foreground" background buildings are made of. I am right now struggling to find suitable background buildings, scenery, etc. on my small shelf-type switching layout in a smaller city setting. I'm trying to find something relatively inexpensive that could be used to "fill the void" in those open backdrop spaces. Also, in addition to being an EL fan, I'm also a Chessie fan. Nice shots of the yellow, vermillion and black units!
This scene was done by a fellow club member. Many of the buildings are DPM and Walther's. Not sure of all of them, as we still have hundreds of buildings that are from our old layout and structures that club members just decide to build for future use.
I don't think ANYbody has nailed the city scene better than Vic Smith ....
http://www.gothamcitysub.com/pages/vic1.htm
Mark.
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Mark R.I don't think ANYbody has nailed the city scene better than Vic Smith .... http://www.gothamcitysub.com/pages/vic1.htm Mark.
Vic Smith certainly makes a great city scene.
Here is a link to an old thread about realistic looking urban scenes: http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/135841/1523468.aspx
Smile, Stein
Yep.ITell YouWhat.