Large building kits, city centre style

[Arthur]

All sorts of boxing and re-branding has taken place over the years. Heljan certainly made some of the Walthers cornerstone kits and some of the steelworks range later appeared under the Trix brand.

 

This twin loco shed,

 

http://www.americanrailroadcentre.com/Model_PowerTwin_Track_Loco_Shed/p277359_654601.aspx

 

has been available under both the Hornby and Model Power brands.

[Joseph_Pestell]

I believe that Model Power have sourced from more than one European manufacturer for their buildings.

 

I would agree with other comments that the DPM American buildings are closer to British than the various European ones. But for a layout set in the 1980s, go for scratchbuilt UK-type buildings from the 60s and 70s. Square boxes with very little by way of architectural detailing. Starting from a sheet of perspex (or similar) not difficult to build up successive levels of glazing bars, brick/steel panels etc.

 

If worried about your abilities to cut straight enough, Plastikard/Evergreen strips are a godsend.

[rob D2]

I see your point jim, but I have not got much time to devote to buildings really. I find foamboard too soft and easily marked. Plasticard is a mare to cut when thick. Card isn't very durable.

 

I think I just have to accept, that I'm a "shake the box " modeller, where my interest really lies in building a diorama to run the collection.

 

I think my station plank will utilise much of scalescenes output...

[Trains&armour]

I believe that Model Power have sourced from more than one European manufacturer for their buildings.

 

I would agree with other comments that the DPM American buildings are closer to British than the various European ones. But for a layout set in the 1980s, go for scratchbuilt UK-type buildings from the 60s and 70s. Square boxes with very little by way of architectural detailing. Starting from a sheet of perspex (or similar) not difficult to build up successive levels of glazing bars, brick/steel panels etc.

 

If worried about your abilities to cut straight enough, Plastikard/Evergreen strips are a godsend.

 

 

The model power kits are indeed older European kits, mostly from Heljan and Pola, and some from Faller. The demolished building mentioned above is a Pola kit from the late eighties. Pola used to have a nice range of backstreet buildings that weren´t all too obvious germanic in appearance. They should be relatively easy to anglicise, (at least I hope so, as I have a large stash of them lying around from my german railway days!) Pola is defunct, but a lot of it´s buildings are now marketed by Faller and most kits can be found on Ebay, But to mirror the comments above, scratchbuilding really isn´t that difficult!

 

Sierd Jan

[Jamiel]

I just found this thread and have found it very helpful, although it has shattered a couple of illusions, namely the Yorkshire Bank building on Wibdenshaw being the Kibri turreted corner shop as shown by Rovex on the previous page, and also the factories on Shenstone Road being the Kibri factories.

The examples here and those I have mentioned do show that with some repainting and some skilled kit bashing that a very Germanic building can be made to look very British. It also shows how much of an influence the north European architecture had on Britian, especially during the Vicotian era.

Thanks to the information here I am going to order the Kibri 38294 Corner Terrace House and maybe a Walthers building as well, and then get my scalpel out to start anglicising the building.

Jamie

[russ p]

One source that hasn't been mentioned on here is triang arkitex . For those that don't know it's a construction kit that basically makes 60s era tower blocks etc.

It can be glued and modified to make excellent city buildings

[Red Devil]

If anyone wants some of the KIbri factory parts for a low relief bash, Miniatur Wunderland have some parts on a special offer.....One pack of windows will not do one wall section though.....!

 

https://shop.miniatur-wunderland.com/catalogsearch/result/?SID=vkps1qnbvf0is36tsocgb25vc2&___store=en&q=kibri&___from_store=de

[phil_sutters]

Depending on your skill level, the downloadable card models can now offer the opportunity to mass produce multistorey buildings, customizing them as you need to add variety. Scalescenes do flats, offices, a big hotel, mixed high street 'backs' and a multi-storey car park in low-relief. 

As they are computer generated, one can adjust the scale and make alterations. The pdf format can be difficult to make alterations to, but one can fall back on printing and scanning to create a jpeg version.

[Jamiel]

If anyone wants some of the KIbri factory parts for a low relief bash, Miniatur Wunderland have some parts on a special offer.....One pack of windows will not do one wall section though.....!

 

https://shop.miniatur-wunderland.com/catalogsearch/result/?SID=vkps1qnbvf0is36tsocgb25vc2&___store=en&q=kibri&___from_store=de

Much as I hate to start a bidding war, there are some of the same on Ebay at £0.99 starting price which I was hoping to get, but then 6 days is a long time for the price to click up anyway.

 

Sadly Gaugemaster who sell a lot of their materials don't seem to stock those parts at the moment.

 

The Scalescenes PDF's are very good, but I guess it is a decision whether to model with flat printed, but very detailed surfaces, or to start with a plain plastic relief brickwork and build up colours and weathering.

 

Both have methods have great examples on the forum.

 

Jamie

Edited September 3, 2016 by Jamiel

[Trains&armour]

shows how much of an influence the north European architecture had on Britain, especially during the Victorian era.

 

 

 

Jamie

Hate to say this, as I'm Dutch and not British   , but it's the other way around, especially in the area of factory architecture.

[Jamiel]

Here is an example of a shop I have been working on kit bashed from the Kibri 38294 Corner Terrace House.



I have just used the facade on the right of the above photo and anglicized it to make a Victorian high street shop (newsagent). Work is still in progress, and the back is entirely built from scratch, but the Kibri kit does make a great frontage. The doors and windows on the ground floor have been replaced, and that floor made a little higher.



Details of the build are on my layout thread linked below.

Jamie

Edited April 6, 2017 by Jamiel

[phil_sutters]

I see that Smart Models do some tenement buildings at £6.99 a download. They are a bit depressing looking, but then so were the blocks on the Paddington approaches, which you referred to. The latter are probably now highly sought-after central London apartment blocks.

[richard.h]

i have to agree with earlier posts as I'm a fan of Walthers Kits, they are easy to anglicize and you normally get extra parts included ideal for kit bashing. The scale difference doesn't really show but it can be used to advantage if you place them at the rear of the layout to enhance perspective, also most of the factory kits can be modified into low relief buildings giving you a lot of coverage for your money.

 

I did find when purchasing them that European dealers especially German had a much better stock range than the UK so I ordered most of mine from there

[TrevorP1]

i have to agree with earlier posts as I'm a fan of Walthers Kits, they are easy to anglicize and you normally get extra parts included ideal for kit bashing. The scale difference doesn't really show but it can be used to advantage if you place them at the rear of the layout to enhance perspective, also most of the factory kits can be modified into low relief buildings giving you a lot of coverage for your money.

 

 

That's good to hear as I'm planning to 'bash' 'Middlesex Trading' as part of a 3D back scene for my Kings Cross Loco Yard inspired project.

[Red Devil]

One or two here..... On the left a pair of Atlas Middlesex Manufacturing....the right hand building has quite a few bits o the Walthers Argosy Books building

 

[davefromacrossthepond]

rovex, jamiel and red devil,

 

Excellent job on those structures!  I've been playing around with several Walthers and DPM kits trying to figure out how to Britishize (is that a word lol) them.  Y'all have provided me some excellent material to start with.  Thanks!

[Jamiel]

Just bashing a couple of Walthers Argossy Bookstores into a town centre department store. Many thanks to Red Devil for the recommendation of this kit on the previous page.



I plan to build a portico entrance to fill the join. Here playing in Photoshop with the design.



I will post more on my Ellerby thread as it progresses (link below).

Jamie

Edited January 30, 2018 by Jamiel

[rovex]

Just bashing a couple of Walthers Argossy Bookstores into a town centre department store. Many thanks to Red Devil for the recommendation of this kit on the previous page.

 

 

I plan to build a portico entrance to fill the join. Here playing in Photoshop with the design.

 

 

I will post more on my Ellerby thread as it progresses (link below).

 

Jamie

 

I like it, but given the cost of those kits, that won't have been cheap

[ianLMS]

I know you have said you aren't confident with your scratchbuilding, but have you thought about downloadable kits? These are half-way between kit-bashing and scratchbuilding. They are printed sheets, stuck to sheets of card (very durable - I bet there are hundreds of layouts 30+ years old with card as the main medium for buildings still going strong) not too difficult to make and very cost effective.

 

They have a full range of townscapes and are easily modified with several options for appearance to chose from. I have used several of these kits and it helped me a lot with developing my scratchbuilding skills.

 

Try here; https://scalescenes.com/townscenes/

 

Much cheaper than the kits and all you need is 1mm and 2mm card, very sharp knife, stick glue, UHO/Evo-stick and access to a printer. You can reduce the print ratio if needed to give forced perspective (i have used 90% and 75% for buildings further back and 100% for near ones)- not something you can do with a plastic kit. Interior details also available and you can weather the buildings when finished with powders etc. You can additional detail such as plastic guttering, chimney pots, etched windows etc to enhance the model as well.

 

Failing that, some of the resin and/or laser cut kits are very nice too. Lcut Creative, KS Models etc do nice laser kit stuff, Townstreet or Skytrex are good for resin, 

 

Ian

 

EDIT: Just realised original post was over 5 years ago!!! Bit late to offer alternative solutions so ignore lol!!!!

Edited January 31, 2018 by ianLMS

[Glorious NSE]

The model power kits are indeed older European kits, mostly from Heljan and Pola, and some from Faller. The demolished building mentioned above is a Pola kit from the late eighties. Pola used to have a nice range of backstreet buildings that weren´t all too obvious germanic in appearance. They should be relatively easy to anglicise, (at least I hope so, as I have a large stash of them lying around from my german railway days!) Pola is defunct, but a lot of it´s buildings are now marketed by Faller and most kits can be found on Ebay, But to mirror the comments above, scratchbuilding really isn´t that difficult!

Model Power even sell some kits that were originally sold as OO models by Hornby...

[Jamiel]

I like it, but given the cost of those kits, that won't have been cheap

It has cost £80 for the two Walthers kits from Gaugemaster. Given the number of windows I would want etches for and all the other materials, it doesn't work out much more expensive than scratch building. The advantage for this sort of building is the shaping of awkward curves around the windows, etc. I will end up with quite a large building for my costs.

 

I looked at cost of the station building I scratch built mostly following plan I was lucky to see and photograph at the National Railway Museum and in the end I think that cost around £100.

 

Here that is next to the building I bashed from the Kibri facade.

 

 

One thing I am planning with the Kibri kit to reduce costs is the take moulds and cast resin sections to do the same kind of extension I have on the Walthers kit. I am also planning to do that on some of the scratch built building I am planning as there will be a lot of repeated windows and detail sections that need to be replicated to not look messy.

 

Ian, I did look at the Scalescenes kits and have downloaded a couple, but I found that I like working with plastic brick card and can get the weathered look I want more from those (very mucky northern town). I also build my scratch buildings with a thin plywood frame, so they are extremely strong. I have used the Scalescenes kits as the basis for making some designs, and also for interior detailing prints, they are very nice if you want to have the look they give.

 

I'll post some images of the store when it is finished.

 

Jamie

Edited February 9, 2018 by Jamiel

[shortliner]

www.Banggood.com from China do several modern buildings (in pain grey plastic) at cheap prices, with free shipping - they take about 3 weeks to arrive - but look carefully because they come in a range of scales - some suitable for HO and others for N. To my eye, the have a slightly "mediterranean" appearance, but that may just be my impression The buildings are fairly basic with minimum detail, but for the price..... Speaking of price, if it is not shown in your local currency, hover your cursor over the currency symbol and it will show a list - select yours and it will change the price to yours. Hope it helps

Edited January 31, 2018 by shortliner

[shortliner]

Cheap windows - Hobbycraft do plastic mesh for cross-stitch in various sizes and colours - by Darice.  The perfect size for HO would be 5 count (5 holes per inch) (currently out of stock) - but 7 mesh may fit your requirements - it also comes in 10 and 14 count which may be fine for N gauge -cut to fit the size needed. Back with clear plastic lids from food trays or tape down, on a flat surface. some plastic food wrap as flat as possible - spray with the stickiest cheap hairspray you can find and drop thecut outplastic windows onto it and leave to dry then cut round the "frame" with a new, sharp, scalpel blade.

Edited January 31, 2018 by shortliner

[Joseph_Pestell]

www.Banggood.com from China do several modern buildings (in pain grey plastic) at cheap prices, with free shipping - they take about 3 weeks to arrive - but look carefully because they come in a range of scales - some suitable for HO and others for N. To my eye, the have a slightly "mediterranean" appearance, but that may just be my impression The buildings are fairly basic with minimum detail, but for the price..... Speaking of price, if it is not shown in your local currency, hover your cursor over the currency symbol and it will show a list - select yours and it will change the price to yours. Hope it helps

 

I would say definitely Asian appearance but one does see some in Spain that are quite similar.

 

For ease of finding them, maybe worth pointing out that they are by a company called Outland (Coffee Outland). But I agree, at that price, a cracking opportunity to carve up in various ways.

[Jamiel]

I am definitely not the fastest modeller in the world, but here is a photo of how the department store is progressing. It might even be finished by this time in 2020.

I am posting more detailed updates on the thread for my layout Ellerby:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/53110-ellerby-buildings-rolling-stock-scratch-kit-building/page-25



Jamie

Edited January 3, 2019 by Jamiel