I’ve been detailing the interiors of the shop and the station building on my Chitetsu module. Materials used are from a variety of sources - styrene, acrylic sheet, ABS, paper, basswood, paper, shim brass and foil. A lot of the detail ‘parts’ for the shop came from the spice rack in our kitchen!
One thing I’ve discovered is that buildings with interior detail need a lot of lighting if the interiors are to be visible…
Cheerio,
Mark.
Mark,
VERY nice work there! [tup] Isn’t it fun?!?
I’m actually installing a hardwood floor in my Alexander Scale Model NYC Freight House. Unfortunately, it’s after the fact so I’m having to do it with 1/2 a roof glued on. [:(]
I had a “plywood” floor already installed in it but it looked too uniform. I thought a 1 x 8 hardwood would make it look better. So far it has, but it’s really been ackward to install the individual planks in the back of the station. All in all, it’s been a good learning experience and now I’m learning how to better detail things.
I’d also like to add crates and palates and boxes to fill the storage room to make it look like it’s being used, as well as hand dollies and people. Some indoor and outdoor lighting will also add more realism.
Keep up the good work…[:)]
Tom
Nice!! Are you saying you are using actual spices in those crates on the shelves?? It may be a silly question, but if that’s the case, aren’t you concerned about insects attacking the interiors? or have you somehow treated them to keep it from happening? I know anytime I’ve tried to use Natural materials on the layout, it’s been a problem.
I think the converse is true as well. Lighted buildings need detailed interiors if they are in the foreground. Otherwise it becomes too obvious they are just empty shells.
I think those are really nice and great interiors for buildings, but it seems like that would be very time consuming…So what do you do if you don’t have the time for all of that, but you don’t want an empty shell either? Most of my main buildings are places that would be closed at night, so they really don’t need interior lighting for “nighttime” operation, so should I do what i’ve seen in most of my magazines and things and just black out the windows?
Looks Great! I’ve done some of my IHC’s that come with interior details. Does anyone have a source for generic interior parts? I saw a company last week that sold passenger car interiors. Tables ,chairs,bench seats toilets,ect. All individual parts that would have worked great in buildings, but I can’t find the link again. There’s a company called Greenway Products that sells some great details for Industrial interiors.
Seeing is level of detail is amazing. Please tell me you are working in HO or larger. I can’t imagine I could ever do something like that in N scale.
Keep up the god work.
I’m thinking kinda what Heljan and company have offered in the past, albiet with update technology - digital images of actual interiors being available from the web (or via digital camera), printed on Matte Photopaper, glued to cardstock or plastic sheet braced and painted black (to prevent light bleed through), spaced a small distance (few mms at most to kinda restrict viewing angles) in from the windows to give depth (perhaps either a ‘box’ sitting inside the building with images on all four sides, or just two sheets front and back if the building has no (viewable) side windows - perhaps a downshot if there is a roof skylight. (Heljan used to provide cartoonish images to paste in windows, but realistic, flat finished images I feel would be better). This would be good for second tier or further back building (‘way back building can still get the good ol’ black painted interior view blockers sheets, and close up buildings get the modeled interiors).
The Gateway Division of the NMRA has some building interiors and exteriors too on their site, along with some signs: http://www.gatewaynmra.org/download.htm
Bob Boudreau
Thanks for the compliment, Tom. It certainly is fun, and makes a nice change from building rollingstock.
I can sympathise with you. I attached the roof to the first shop I built for the module, and then decided to detail the interior - never again!
That’s how I regard this module, as a learning experience. Like yourself, I’m improving my skills as I go, which is my intention.
From what I can see on your website you’re doing nice work too. The freighthouse looks very effective. I particularly like your FM coaling tower. Kit, or scratchbuilt?
All the best,
Mark.
Mark,
Thanks for the encouragement. [:)]
It’s a Suncoast coaling tower: As close to scratch-built as a kit can get. Put at least 100 hours into it. (I’ve probably put at least that into the freight house and keep getting more ideas as I go along. Scary.)
One of these days I’ll get around to weathering both of them.
Tom
Not a silly question at all, Jeff. I used poppy seeds and some other tiny seeds I don’t know the name of to represent the fruit and veggies on the shelves. They’re only treated in the sense that they’ve been soaked in acrylic model paint to colour them, and then Dullcoated afterward. To be honest I hadn’t considered the possibility of insects munching on the model! [:)] I’ll have to keep an eye on that. What problems have you had using natural materials?
Cheers,
Mark.
They are indeed. But on the upside, the module only has eight smallish structures, so the amount of time and effort required isn’t too great.
A method I’ve found effective in the past was to make walls and floors out of coloured card, and to make the rough outlines of furniture, office fittings or the machinery inside factories with contrasting colour card, or from coloured offcuts of styrene or stripwood. In many cases all you need do is to “suggest” a very basic interior, if the model is not close to the layout edge, and is therefore less easy to see inside of.
All the best,
Mark.
I have, but they’re in Japan, and don’t do mail order or internet sales. I either stock up when I’m there, or go without!
Cheers,
Mark.
Thanks, bukwrm. The model is HOj, which is 1/80th scale. Don’t worry, I’d never attempt anything like this in N scale either.
Cheerio,
Mark.
My pleasure. I reckon that your layout is going to develop into something quite special, judging by your photos.
OK, I’ve seen these kits mentioned, but this is the first time I’ve seen one built. Nice! I love modelling electric railways, but I do sometimes miss all the wonderful paraphernalia of a steam shed.
You’re not wrong! It’s amazing the way these things take on a life of their own. But I’m sure we’d alll like to see how your modelling progresses.
All the best,
Mark.
Many years ago in my teens, on the layout I had at my parents house, I had used a lot of natural materials… I sifted gravel for the track ballast (the type of gravel with a lot of sand used in mixing concrete ), dirt, and other things. Well, At the time I was somewhat unaware of things like minerals and other materials in dirt that might attract bugs… Add to that the fact that due to an unseen water leak, a part of the house sill had become infested with carpenter ants. You know when you see one, there are a million more somewhere right?? And they Love wet wood. Nice and soft for them to chew on. I had also used lichen (boughten from the LHS) as vines, trees, bushes, etc… Well, I began to notice that things were diminishing and disappearing that I hadn’t changed. Guess what the ants were dining on… That’s right, My scenery [xx(] … Even glyceryn soaked and dyed, the lichen still provided plenty of sustanance for the little critters. They had also rearranged some of my ballast, I suspect in an attempt to build a nest or to remove whatever it is they get from dirt and soil… I never saw any of it actually going on but it must have looked like a scene from an Irwin Allen sci-fi film. Six leg Invaders roughly the size of HO scale children destroying my layout [alien][:0]…
The bug problem in the house was resolved but thier damage was done and to a flat broke teen, was devistating. I’m of course in my own house n
Scale Structures limited seels a bigillion detail parts for buildings including many detail parts. They are listed in the walthers catalog.
Here is what their search engine came up with.
James
That is an interesting account of your bug problem, Jeff. I’ll be mindful of possible insect infestation in the future.
Thanks for the compliment. [:)]
I must say that I’m not really all that budget conscious when modelling. If I can find a commercial model that’s better than one I can build, I’ll happily buy it. Likewise, if I can build better than I can buy, then I build. But having said that, structure building - particularly structures for a Japanese layout - is when I prefer to use what I have to hand, and try to develop new or better methods for scratchbuilding. There may be HOj kits for structures, but I’ve yet to see any.
All the best,
Mark.
I’m guessing the j in HOj stands for Japaneese… The closest thing I’ve seen to your scale is the UK 00 scale stuff. Not Japaneese of course… To be honest, unless they were directly next to each other, I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference without breaking out a scale ruler. I have a fine scale miniatures coaling tower that I bought several years ago and was a bit disappointed, after the money I’d spent, at what was in the box.
http://www.rolleiman.com/trains/P1000466.JPG
http://www.rolleiman.com/trains/P1000468.JPG
The snapshots with the on-camera flash don’t do it justice and It built into a nice structure but for what I got for the money, I could have built it at 1/10 the price and had something closer to a Wabash prototype. Not that this one is very far off though… The only photos I have of the prototypes are locomotive photos in servcice facilities. Usually, I can’t see anything in the photos above the coal chutes. The only thing I changed from the intended model is the lights, which when the area is completed (the reason there are no coal chutes installed yet) will light up. I made sure however that