HOW DO I BUILD A MODERN HO SCALE SKYSCRAPER?
E mail Rod Stewart. No seriously, I’d love to see him become a contributor to MRR with articles on structure building.
Use pexiglass for the walls with a wood support on the inside, the windows can be made by using strips of either styrene or construction paper grid on the outside to simulate the concrete of the building. Lighting the interior can be done with any normal bulb and by using electrical tape to black out rows of windows from the inside you can make a pretty convincing building.
Check BACHMANN they just announced a rerun of their skyscraper kits. All are in the $100 range.
3 ways: Buy a kit, kitbash, or scratch built.
Skyscraper kits tend to be very expensive, but the option exists. I’ve build several of CMR’s buildings including the Park Hotel. These kits are awsome and they offer expansion sets so you can build you’re building as tall as you wish. The second option, perhaps the most cummon is to kitbash one from other kits. Several euro brands offer modern buildings (Faller, Pola, Kibri, etc…). Buy several of them and try to stack them togather, actually is not that difficult. Walthers modulars, DPM and City Classics are perfect for kitbashing tall buildings. Another way is to scratch build it, this is the most difficult option and requires a lot of craftmanship. Tall building require a more rebust structure. Here some web pages that may be of great help on your quest.
http://www.custommodelrailroads.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55063726@N00/collections/72157612768739708/
Some years ago I visited a home layout that had a really impressive big city scene with modern skyscrapers that really did scrape his sky (that is, they very nearly hit his ceiling). Some of them may have been hiding support columns.
Basically, the guy had used those egg crate style panels for suspended ceiling flourescent light fixtures. Some of them come with mirrored surfaces and that is what he used for some structures. When you looked closely at it you’d realize what was going on but the initial impression was of something realistic. Other structures were harder to figure out what he did but it might have been a “box” made of blue tinted mirrors, covered with clear acetate on which had been drawn a grid for windows, perhaps using india ink or sharpy. We did not have a chance to quiz the guy as to his techniques but the main point was these were not super detailed in reality, but until you had the time to really stare at them the eye was fooled into thinking they were.
Dave Nelson
I have built three ‘tall’ buildings using Walthers Modulars, but I used a couple of tricks to keep the cost down. First, never buy them at regular price! The regular price is ridiculous! They are regularly on sale for about 60% off the regular price. Second, I only modelled the visible part of the building which is behind several structures in the forground. To get an approximatley 30" high building, I only built about 14" from the Walthers Modulars and the rest below the sight line can be just enough structure to support the top of the ‘skyscrapers’ at the right height. It can barely be seen so anything that mimics the structure above will work, such as photo copies of the real walls assembled to cover the lower surfaces. Sorry but I need to get a better camera to take proper pics.(Edit) I just re-read the original post and realized that the OP was asking about ‘modern’ skyscrapers. The Walthers Modulars are perhaps a little dated for that purpose. Also, I forgot to mention that I don’t use the windows supplied by Walthers. They are too industrial looking and have rather thick muntons. All I did for the windows was put a piece of .010 x .020 styrene across the middle of the window to simulate a sash joint.
Dave
If your talking those ugly glass and metal monstrosities they call modern architecture you may want to look into joining a Yahoo Group “scale model cities” there are some pretty creative modelers there and have tons of great information on how to stuff. If your looking to build something with a little more style then check out CMR they have some really excellent and really big buildings. I’ve never built any of their sky scraper type buildings but see them all the time at Timonium and they are first class kits. Their level of detail is incredible.
Look for series of artcles by a man by the name of Lorrel Joiner. Probably in the early 80’s. One issue of MR. Had detaled construction on how he laid out walls and built the buildings.
There are many different styles of skyscrapers, but the key to each is repeatability. If it’s complex arch type windows with a bunch of frilly junk around it, I would go the plaster/ hydrocal route so I would only have to make a master of 1 window, then cast as many as needed. If it’s the newer boxes with square windows and thats it, styrene of the appropriate width strips (area between windows) is run up, and accurately cut blocks are placed between to create the area between the different floors. A stiffner would be needed across this and coulb be incorporated to be a part of the window frames. Some floors would be good to hold things square and stiffen as well. You can go as crazy as you want on details, but I would shy away from thin styrene to avoid having a jello box.
At Milwaukee’s Trainfest last weekend I saw some modern looking skyscrapers on, of all things, the excellent Lego layout that is on display each year. The Lego website is huge and I was unable to find the kind of glassy looking bricks used on these skyscrapers but odd as it may sound, I would investigate Lego for raw materials
Dave Nelson
I have built several MODERN model skyscrapers out of acrylic and styrene plastics the largest up to 48" and a city with almost a hundred buildings
Basically you Build an acrylic box and cover it with styrene strips. The acrylic keeps the building plumb and serves as the window glazing. There was an article in MR back in the MId 80s which showed this technique easy using masking tape and styrene strips. You can also use aluminum strips and mirrored acrylic panels to make shiny Modern Skyscrapers. CMR and Bachmann only make 1950s and older high rise buildings for that steam railroad crowd. For newer stuff you have to make your own or find Kibri, Faller or Volmer kits. But you may need several to make a tall building and that can get expensive. I suggest find your local plastic supply house and cruise the Home depot for ideas. egg crate Light disfusers make good modern building facades. In one of the pictures linked above the silver building to the left is made from aluminum flashing sheets, clear acrylic, aluminum duct tape and chrome egg crate light difusers all from Home depot! Also as some one else noted the yahoo group scale model cities is good. I am on there and there are some other folks with other interesting techniques
Check out my website for more picts or check out flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ac_catenary/sets/
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what kind of materials and tools would i need to build a skyscraper and is it real hard to do
I just received my Walthers flyer in the mail. There’s a big picture of a new product, an 11-story building. It’s got a fairly large footprint, and the text says it comes with 3 different lower facades so you can customize it to fit your era. The best part, believe it or not, was the price. I was in the $60-70 range, very reasonable for a structure of that size.
Large gorilla not included.
See eBay’s Plaza Japan (Office Buildings) for scratch-building ideas. Note how these office building kits only use 2-6 floors to capture the city’s atmosphere.
Also think about forced-perspective with a city/industrial backdrop – Plus partially built-out and/or building-flats – All behind fully-constructed office buildings in the foreground.
Several suggestions so far, including how to replicate familiar window patterns without having to detail it all.
One material that I haven’t heard mentioned yet is foam core board. Whenever I build large structures now, that’s what I use. In my case, this tends to be large mills and mines, but I’ve also done an enginehouse.
Foam core board is cheap, which makes it ideal for large buildings like a skyscraper. I tend to use black foam core for most larger structures now. When I need a window, I install the frame in the sheathing, then put the glazing behind it. The black foam core makes the window pop out, without the need for detail behind it or even a hole in the foam core. You can always easily cut a hole if you want lighting behind a window.
The part you’ll need to solve is what to use for sheathing. Fortunately, virtually anything will stick to the paper that covers foam core. You have to be careful with solvents where the foam center is exposed. I tend to use Titebond wood glue to assemble the foam core itself, but then use a solvent type of cement to attach corrugated sheathing to the structure over the paper covering without incident.
The LION needs to build many tall buildings, and so will probably use many of the techniques mentioned here. I really do want to model some of the tall buildings outside of the South Ferry stations. I have taken many pictures of them and the bottom line is I may try to use a photograph of the buildings and attach this to foam to give them depth and corners.
We will post the results when and if there are any results.
ROAR
It depends on what type you want.
Rod Stewart, yes, THAT Rod Stewart, the rock and roller, mentioned using kits stacked one on top each other to build his in an article in the MR magazine, oh about a year or so ago.
You have been given several ideas, so about any type can be built if you set your mind to it and want to scrap build with a variety of materials.
Modulars form DPM can help…I think with the technique Rod used.
Here is the starting page from Walthers with a variety to choose from:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?quick=modular&start=0
Good luck in your endeavors!
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I think that’s a great technique. If you want to go a step further, you could print out the photo and carefully cut out the windows. Then, glue the picture to a piece of clear styrene or plexiglass, and put some lights inside. You could use some balsa wood or styrene strips to add columns or ledges.
It’s n-scale, but this blog has a good 3-part story on how he scratchbuilt one, and the techniques should apply to HO. He’s built up quite a few skyscrapers using a variety of techniques- you may get some good ideas there:
http://quinntopia.blogspot.com/2010/05/almost-complete-not-so-simple.html