Why is there no city building kits > 3 stories?

[DigitalGriffin]

I'm having a hard time finding HO scale city buildings that are greater that 3->4 stories. How can you convey a big city feel of the 30's and 40's if you can't put up big city buildings at least 5->6 stories tall?

Looks like I'm going to be scratch building and kit bashing my first project. *cringe* Problem is high-rise buildings from the 1900s->1940's are still rather ornate. (ie: Chrysler Building and Empire State) So where do I begin to add on details to a basic structure?

Can anybody recommend any good books or articles for this?

[MisterBeasley]

You might want to look at modulars. Walters and DPM both make modular sets. Korber Models http://www.korbermodels.com are less well-known, but they sell individual pieces and their prices seem quite reasonable relative to the big names. I haven't ordered from any of them, so I speak only as an observer. I did notice some Korber sets on ebay a couple of days ago.

[jecorbett]

Bachmann sold a number of skyscrapers a few years ago but i think they discontinued the line. Apparently there wasn't enough demand for the. You still have several options. Walthers and DPM both make modular systems which allow you to make buildings as big as you want and in any configuration. The other option would be to buy several of the same kit and cut out the bottom floor on all but one and make your own skyrscraper as tall as you want. George Selios did this to make many of the early high rise buildings on his F&SM layout.

[wjstix]

It seems to me someone made HO skycraper kits - maybe Bachmann?? I remember seeing them a year or two ago, maybe they're not in production anymore?? I'd have to check my Walthers catalogues for the last few years. I remember it because I remember thinking that one of kits reminded me of the Foshay Tower skyscraper in DT Minneapolis.

[dgwinup]

Most modelers model smaller towns and cities. Small towns and cities usually have building code restrictions limiting buildings to 3 stories for fire fighting purposes. Fire-fighting equipment is limited in reach and small towns can't afford the big equipment that large cities can afford.

Model manufacturers follow what most modelers want, so they produce a lot of 3 story buildings. There are selected models greater than 3 stories, many of which are European in design.

The new modular kits are great for constructing those tall buildings. It's similar to kit-bashing with all the dimensions already worked out for you. Also search the magazine index. I know there have been several articles over the years about scratch-building high-rise structures using very easy to follow procedures.

One question. How big is your layout? It is very unusual for any layout that can accommodate a building the size of a Chrysler or Empire State building! Even in Z scale, an Empire State building would need extra high ceilings just to fit in the room! On an average, large layout, buildings over 10 stories often look out of place and out of scale.

Just my comments, and they are worth every penny your paid for them! LOL

Darrell, quiet...for now

[gvdobler]

Anything that is too tall on a diorama or model railroad ends up looking out of place. Because the airspace above a scene is unmodeled, anything that penetrates it will not look right.

Since the manufactures are only going to make what they can sell a lot of they stay away from things like skyscrapers, etc. Very few people have modeled a floor to ceiling layout that would accommodate a very tall building.

Most people model a vertical space of only about 75-150 scale feet. If you had an area that modeled a vertical space of say 200-300 scale feet, then a 4-5 story building would look just fine.

[DigitalGriffin]

Well I was aiming for 5 story buildings.

My space is L shaped with one leg being 15'x20' and another leg 8 1/2 x 26 1/2"

[wjstix]

IHC makes a couple of buildings that are about 5 stories like their fire station, they use the same basic structure for several different kits. I know the fire station is one because I kitbashed one into a Post Office by replacing the fire doors with different windows and doors, pretty easy to do.

[gvdobler]

DigitalGriffin

It is the vertical space modeled that makes it look right , not the horizontal space that you have. With the space you have available you could model enough vertcal space to make it look right.

A shelf layout that is 24" deep and only models about 100' scale feet tall might look okay with a building that is around 60 scale feet tall (12 feet per floor.). You certainly would not want to go with anything taller on a small shelf type layout.

Good luck. Show pics when you get it done.

[RedLeader]

Euro brands like Faller,Herpa, Kibri, Brawa have several city buildings of 3-5+ stories. Bachmann's skycrapers can still be found at some LHS but sell for about 100 bucks! Browse through the Walthers catalog and you may find what your looking for. Kibri has a 10 floor apartment building calla europahaus I think, but I think is about $150! www.kibri.com

[CNJ831]

Digital - There are a lot of tricks that you can employ to make buildings "look" taller than they really are when modeling an urban scene. I'm currently working on a high-density downtown scene on my layout. The city is 12 feet long and 3 feet deep (about 50 fairly large structure in all). The thing to remember is that good modeling is largely smoke and mirrors, so you honestly only need to give the impression of size, not build it all. Here are some of the tricks I've used to make my city scene really impressive:

1) Raise street-level about 4-6 inches above tracklevel, i.e. the tracks are in a cut with a retaining wall on one side, the side toward the aisle of the layout is open.

2) If you have streets roughly paralleling the layout's edge, narrow the street widths so you can't see all the way to streetlevel from the front of the layout. Now raise some of your buildings on pieces of 2-inch foam. You gain about 2-stories.

3) Be creative in kitbashing your largest structures, particularly toward the back of the scene. I've taken ones like Walthers' Hardwood Furnitude Co., buildup the 4-story base as normal, then built an additional 3-story section and placed it on top the of first with a slight setback. Presto...a really big 7-story building. Art Fahie of Bar Mills is great at kitbashing such big city structures. Take a look at his N gauge layout on-line for ideas.

4) Try to have at least 3 layers of structures between the front of the layout and the backdrop (4 is probably better). After the first row of buildings, the depth of each following row or street should narrow. The already large buildings against my backdrop are only 2-inches deep and are standing on 4-inch blocks of foam (the largest is one of the Bachmann "towers" and something like 11-12 stories tall!).

5) Give the impression of other very tall but distant buildings with photo-quality pictures of city structures glued to the backdrop so they stick out over the tops of the 3-D structures.

Also, do a web search for the Urban Modelers' SIG. Lotsa interesting ideas there.

CNJ831

[jon grant]

You can always kitbash and 'mix and match' some of the kits that are available - I used mainly Cornerstone and DPM for my tall buildings at the back of my layout, and mixed them with Walthers backscenes.










My layout is set in South Chicago so the tall buildings were essential.


Jon

[dehusman]

City Classics sells taller buildings.

Dave H.

[Tilden]

What would really be nice is modular kits/parts that incorporate selective compression so you can have buildings that look massive but don't take up the entire room. I would think it would be possible to make "3/4" size wall sections/sindows/doors and then "2/3" size and "1/2" size. Thus one could add stories but take up less space.

[RDG1519]

For the big city residences, they were mostly two story in Philly and 3 stories in New York. Yes there are exceptions but in general this is true. Remember houses do not usually have elevators.

Industrial buildings began getting elevators probably in the 1890's. Most older industrial buildings, usually with brick pilasters, were in the 4 to 6 stories. It is unusual to see taller. I know what many do on layouts but if you study the older brick structures in the big cities they are mostly 6 and less. The advent of elevators and concrete pilasters (brick curtain?) allowed for taller, but what I see in Philly is usually 6 and less.

In modeling be careful of brick canyons. Don't forget the beautiful brick industrial architecture from Europe especially with breweries. Faller and Kibri to name a few have wonderful kits and they lend themselves nicely to kit bash. Walther's has done a remarkable job of mostly American style industrial buildings.

Don't forget fire escapes and water tanks on roofs.

Don't over do it with height. I know there are a few who will disagree with me, but overdoing it on height takes away from the reality of the scene.

Hope this helps, Chris