Hi from Belgium,
I see a lot of advice about CMR, www.custommodelrailroads.com but I don’t see often their tall skyscrappers on layouts.
Did anyone try them? May be in Nscale?[:-^]
I have a 135 Nscale turntable from them and it’s very a very precise working model whit roller bearing feature even it’s still unfinished.
Marc
Marc - For the most part, these are really expensive kits and I would expect that very few typical modelers over here would be willing to invest in them. Anyone building a complex city scene of any size appreciates that it requires an absolute minimum of several dozen full structures plus more than a few flats to really carry off the illusion of a city. Even just purchasing a small selection of key buildings for a scene from CMR could potentially run into a couple of thousand dollars, maybe more, and few hobbyists are willing to spend that sort of cash on what is basically a limited area of background scenery for their trains, no matter what the quality.
My impression of CMR is that it is more a company specializing in the building of highly detailed custom layouts for the wealthy than a supplier of structure kits for the average hobbyist to build. Kitbashing more affordable structure kits into tall buildings is a much more sensible approach for most of us.
CNJ831 (urban modeler)
I haven’t built one of their skyscrapers but I have purchased two of their smaller structures. Since my city scene will be the last section I tackle, these have remained in the box but I have opened them up to look at them. The overhead concourse has me very curious. The walls seem to be constructed of several layers of what seems to be either a clear flexible plastic or acrylic material which I am guessing will be laminated to the window glass sheet after being painted. I haven’t look at it close enough to see how those walls will be stiffened. The instructions look fairly detailed and complete. They definitely seem to be a type of construction I am not familiar with.
I was fortunate to have acquired several of the Bachmann skyscrapers before they were discontinued and you can probably still find these on e-bay. They seem to be a more conventional plastic construction.
Modulars are another option for skyscrapers.
Checkout the products from IMAGINETHAT Laser products as seen on Cody Grivnos product report. Cool lookin stuff for the big city modeler. BILL
I assume you probably mean this one?
http://www.imaginethatlaserart.com/
No big city buildings in N scale there …
Stein
My bad. I did not look at their website. I had just got done looking at Codys review at the trade show. BILL
My immediate reaction was the photos were fuzzy and from a distance which makes my negative oriented mind immediately question if the detail is up to snuff. I’d feel a lot better about spending that kind of money if I could see a close up of the details.
Marc,
CMR Buildings are first rate kits. The structure is made with laser cut white acrylic. They are able to scribe in mortar lines and a lot of other detail in the surface of the acrylic. With the exception of the newest ‘really tall’ kits, I own just about every city building kit they offer. I also purchased the Add-On kits for some of the buildings so they’ll be even taller when assembled.
Their customer service is also first rate. Every time I’ve emailed or called with a question, they are quick to respond and have followed up to ensure I was satisfied with their answer.
Don Z.
These are impressive and beautiful looking kits, too. However, I note that they are wood kits made to represent mainly stone, or brick, buildings. I had occasion to examines some of these close-up in their raw, unpainted state and have to wonder just how much painting (number and thickness of coats) would be necessary to fully hide this fact, yet not look over painted. I don’t recall prices when I was perusing the models, but I would expect they may be even more expensive than the CMR kits. Anyone here actually have purchased one of these kits and would care to relate their experiences and how well they finish out?
CNJ831
In case anyone just saw this thread in the general forum, Marc also asked the same question (“has anyone tried the CMR tall buildings”) in the layouts forum, and was given a link to a thread on N scale tall city buildings over on trainboard:
http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=96133
Some nice N scale tall buildings there - CMR and Lunde (of DPM fame) models.
Smile,
Stein
Since this topic appears in two forums, I guess I have to reply twice.
I spent time in the CMR booth at the Hartford Train Show this summer. The models look really nice in person, however, CMR is a professional model making organization with lot’s of skills and experience.
You can download any of the construction manuals from their web site. The buildings are build as laminations of Plexiglas type materials. A bit different than working in styrene. And being built in sections that stack, they need to be assembled square and precisely.
They are expensive for the “real-estate” they cover on a layout, with the n-scale less expensive than the HO scale items.
If you can find them, the Bachmann CityScenes styrene models offer more detail for less money (I don’t know if they are in N-scale though). The Lunde models are patterned after some of the Bachmann models (same designer). and are reasonably priced. There just aren’t a lot of choices as of yet.
Alan