Someone mentioned this technique on another thread. One of the best techniques I’ve seen for this was by Mike Palmiter. Here are some of his articles.
Modeling highrise buildings on a core of plexiglass
Model Railroader, August 1992 page 109
Modular City Buildings from Design Preservation kits & Plexiglas
Railmodel Journal, December 1993 page 18
Easy big buildings
Railroad Model Craftsman, May 1995 page 64
Skyscrapers in HO from City Classics parts
Railmodel Journal, May 1996 page 60
Jon
At one time, I’d thought about building several tall buildings for a layout, and even went so far as to draw up the designs for them, but that’s as far as it ever got…
Tracklayer
I visited a layout on an NMRA tour that had an impressive skyscraper scene – the guy had used the metallic gloss plastic grating often seen in flourescent light fixtures.
Dave Nelson
Nice, basic, tutorial for building such large structures. I’ve done the same sort of thing with DPM, City Classics, Kibri, and Walther’s larger kits. The City Classics models are probably the easiest to work with, since they can result in a 9-story tower by cutting and stacking just two kits.
Similarly, don’t overlook putting structures that are basically tall to begin with on several pieces of 2" foam block for your buildings situated against the backdrop, or at least toward the rear of a scene, where their missing lower floors would be hidden by foreground structures. One of these days I’ll get a digital camera, figure out how to upload images to a storage site, and post some of my city scenes here.
CNJ831
sounds good i’ll check it out.
alco,
Thanks for the highly valuable information. It’s sure to come in handy for my layout.
~D
Can we get more info about the flourescent light grid posting? Sounds interesting but more info please… Don’t wet our appetite.
