In the process of modeling a main St. thru a town. I will be constructing many buildings. I would like to include some inside detail without spending too much time. Does anyone produce interior photos or decals that could be fixed to a false wall? Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. THANKS…Jerry
There was an article recently about taking pictures of local interiors and printing them in a proper scale and using scenes we know. I have not tried that.
Someone showed very good results he got by photographing local businesses (like a dry cleaner, pizza shop, etc.) with a digital camera and then printing the results on his computer.
I picked up a couple of Model Power kits very cheap. They come with interior detail parts. This is the interior of Baldy’s Barbershop. I painted the small plastic parts, but the wall and floor patterns were supplied with the kit, along with interior lighting. The only thing in the detail that was not supplied was the barber. He’s a Preiser guy who graciously concented to having his full head of dark hair painted over to take the part of Baldy.
This is the same scene viewed from the outside of the building. The interior lighting is a bit low. It’s a 14-volt bulb, and I just powered it with a 9-volt battery for the picture.
As you can see, the details kind of get lost. So, you can relax a bit on the detail level. A bit of simple “furniture” will go a long way. I made simple tables and benches for a restaurant and sat a couple of low-grade figures down, and it looked pretty good.
Another solution is signs in the windows, particularly for storefronts, and curtains in other places. Tissue paper makes good curtains. Put them at different heights for a more realistic effect.
Thanks’ It gives me some ideas. Jerry Seems you would have to have a real wide angle lense to get the inside of a building, I’ll look into it.
You can download a few interiors and some signs here:
I went on my computer and designed walla and got some paintings off a program. I added chairs by Presier and figures from various companies heres a quick phot I had already posted earlier.
and upper layers
Luckily I saved what I did so I can change it around and add.
I am also working on Walthers White Tower Burgers but changing it into a music store such Sam goody etc.
The best place I found is go on ebay to collectables -paper- postcards and seach the postcards to find interiors, then copy and paste into a publisher page where you can crop and scale to HO or what ever scale you model. Also you can find great signs under ink blotters or go to advertising and find signs to copy. You can also go to your left over parts box and use shapes to put 3D items in side your buildings. Make window shades from manila tags or color paper. Small parts made of plastic or metal from everydays items that have broken or cannot be fixed can yeild shapes that can represent interior or exterior items like vents, gears, machinery ect. Just look at things and think what it might be used as!
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/kempland/glassplate.htm
Here are a few interior postcards.
Here are some ink blotters that would make nice billboards. Just copy and paste then crop and size to scale!
You can also get background buildings!
Endless items for you railroad just copy & paste.
Ther are several locations for interiors and signs. One is http://www.trainweb.org/tylick/signintro.htm. another is http://www.railtownwindows.com/. and http://www.gatewaynmra.org/products.htm. Google can also has interiors that you can use by searching imagines. I have used all of these for my finding interiors.
Bill
Thanks alot Tomkat…They were very helpful. Jerry
Jerry, You might be interested in looking at this:
http://www.windowworks.theshoppe.com/
"Window Works is designed to enhance the look and feel of your model buildings by adding over 400 interior photos. Import images from your personal library of photos. Crop photos for the perfect fit. Add blinds, shades and signs to improve the look of a window.
Window Works also comes with a powerful pre-made building tool that facillitates making and changing window interiors."
Mark
The August 06 Model Railroader had an article “Quick and Easy Interiors” on page 54. These are simple and cheap details; they will not win any modeling awards, but are adequate for many buildings with smaller windows. A building with a large picture window diaplay would need more detail because more will be seen. Smaller windows just need to give the idea of what’s inside. In another article on modeling industrial buildings (I don’t remember when/where), they talked about cutting small blocks of wood, painting them medium gray and installing them on the building floor. The point of this article was if you can not see the detail, the shape will give the impression that there is something inside the building.
Here are some signs I copied off ebay…you could also use some inside a buildings.
Also you can copy people, machinery, ect. I also look for interior views that are close to scale from trade magazines that show insides of factories or wharehouses. Try to find photos that are not too glossy that will give off a glare. If you layer the images they give off more depth to the view. Add 3d items also to add to the scene. You will find that there are endless items to choose from!
Just copy & paste…Resize & crop to fit your scale…Print, trim and and when you put them in side of a building the give just enough detail to make them stand out.
