Hi guy’s
Mirror skyscrapers seem quite common in the big city’s these days.
Has any one tried making them out of plastic mirror and Auto pin stripe as either main scene or background buildings.
If so how did you deal with the corners of the structure as on real structures like this, I believe the glass is usually only curtain wall rather than a structural part of the building.
regards John
Well, the glass is as you say a Curtain wall, that is: it supports no weight, but it surely IS a part of the building.
I am modeling the New York City Subway, and while I have not gotten to the tall buildings yet, I can surely imagine them! Around Times Square I’ll not need to model buildings at all, only the lighted advertisements that are attached to them! 
But LION will have to build tall buildings and him has not decided yet how to do this. Him was thinking plastic, or perhaps smoked plastic for this. I might just round the edges and let two round edged sheets of material meet at a 90 degree corner. Him has had good luck with printing building elements on the computer and might use these as the horizontal or vertical members.
LION would put a single screwyflorscent in the base and then blank out most of the windows so that light would only escape from random windows. Him was thinking of building the WTC but those plans seem to have fallen through: In HO scale the foot print would have to be almost 4’ x 4’ for each tower.
LION (unskilled modeler that he is) would probably set the taller buildings in the middle space, and surround them with smaller kit buildings so that the base of the towers would be unseen.
ROAR
[:-^]
I believe it was on a layout from Calgary that I saw at a show one time.
They had made a skyscraper out of that egg crate material that they use for suspended ceilings, probably about 3/8 or 1/2 inch square and then had mirrors in behind those outer walls. I think they had also put a window tint film on the mirrors. It might not have been to scale, but it sure did look good. I was impressed.
Johnboy out…and looking up.
Hi John,
The mirror is a good idea but I would suspect that tape will look like well tape. Closer look at buildings downtown today is that you need to create a frame. In other words, the glass is just a curtain and not structural. So off the structure is a “frame” so to speak on which the glass hangs. So what I would do would be to use thin strips of styrene to create the look instead of tape. That would go for the corners as well.
Good Luck, Derek
You can get mirrored finish plexiglas in 1/8" thick sheets. The corners can be mitered if you have a table saw with a good plastic cutting blade. I would just but joint the corners and use some .010" styrene to cover the joints. Also use this to make structural ‘beams’ for some of the floors. I would paint the styrene first and use a hypo needle cement applicator. You could also use the smoke tinted plexi as well.
Just some suggestions. I used to work in a professional model shop in New York many years ago and that is how we made model buldings.
-Bob
Hi all
Sorry for the delay in reply my computer has blown up so am using the girl friends lap top, When I get the chance to use it for hobby forums. Until I can replace my computer[:'(]
Thanks for your thoughts.
4" doesn’t seem a big enough foot print for a High rise that would have to be at somewhere in the region of 18" tall for the visual impact.
I take it the ladder frame for want of a better name would have something like ten foot centre to centre spacing?allowing for any services that have to go into the floors and ceilings.
How thick would the floor slabs be? I would think the floors would be part of the visible ladder frame? That’s if the floor slabs would be visible on this type of structure…
The thought on pin stripe was to create the window frames rather than the main supporting structure.
regards John
Just some thoughts, from a guy who has poured and finished concrete on many multistory / highrise buildings, on your 10’ between floors, it’s actually closer to 12’, to make way for the “forest” of plumbing, heating, ventilating, and A/C ducts, electrical conduit, communications conduit, fire sprinkler plumbing and fixtures, etc., that is all located in the ceiling space, above the “drop” ceiling that you see when in the rooms.
If the building is framed in steel, the floor slab is light weight concrete, and it is poured on top of structural steel decking, and is about 4" to 6" thick. If the building is framed in concrete, poured in place concrete columns, and floor slabs, the floor thickness varies with the design of the slab, which includes “beams” that are formed and poured with the floor. Non of the floor slabs are visible from the outside, once the building is complete, as the exterior “skin” of the building covers the edges, and is insulated to create a thermo break so the edge of the floor slab doesn’t transmit cold into the building.
Column spacing on any of these buildings varies by design, but can be anywhere from 12’ to 30’. I would think that a building with a “mirrored” glass exterior, viewed from a distance, the only thing you would see is perhaps the thin joint between glass panels. Or you could make an exterior “skin” to look like precast panels, like the egg crate building mentioned earlier, and have the windows mirrored, which can be done by painting the back side of the window material.
Check out a group in Yahoo called scalemodelcities. They have lots of great ideas, and buildings.
Mike.
for the footprint of tall buildings (if not the design), check out these
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3764
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3770
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/181-201
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/160-88003
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/160-88007
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/322-1713
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/396-23
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/396-28
Don’t forget “selective compression”, you do not have to model a 100 story building to give the impression of a tall building, same with the length and width. A low relief building or a flat against the backdrop will also work
If you want something in black glass, check a store that sells stained glass supplies. Spectrum Glass makes some very good black glass, both opaque (can’t see thru it at all, but shiney) or translucent. Maybe they could put you in touch with a stained glass artist who could cut and grind a piece for you including beveling the edges, or maybe the shop could do it as well if you explain what you want to do.
The World Trade Center was 200’ x 200’, so put 4 fifty foot box cars end to end and that is how long the foot print will be. In HO scale the base of each tower would be about 28 inches square. You need not model the top of the building, because it will not fit in your train room.
If you will model a city, you would put the tallest buildings in the back and you would reduce the scale to give the scene a feeling of great depth.
Or you could model a hole in the ground and tell visitors that that is where the World Trade Center used to be. LION modeled the Courtlandt Street subway with this in mind, Him will keep some of the crushed beams in the station as a memorial to the WTC as on my layout there really is no place to model the towers, and given the way the layout wraps around itself, I could build such towers in any one of several places and it still could look correct.
It would be interesting to m
On a thread a few weeks ago I suggested using old CD’s cut in squares or rectangles to model mirrored glass buildings. I have not tried it myself as I model the 50’s. It would take more work than mirrored plexiglass but would be free if you have a bunch of old CD’s to get rid of. Use dimensional styrene for the framework. I have seen these type buildings in all sizes and shapes. They don’t have to have a huge footprint or height.
IIRC, Atlas had some of these type buildings available as N scale kits back in the 90’s.
Jim
So, how good a ink-jet printer do you have?
This person has an interesting N scale collection
And this is your MR community’s thoughts about the subject from our past lives (November 2010, to be exact)
Whom do you ask about ink-jet printers.
LION has no such thing. Him uses color laser. Can print clearly in 2 point type. If you can get down onto one of my platforms and read the signs with a magnifying glass, you could find some very choice signage.
ROAR
Hi Jim
Can’t be sure on dates but yes Atlas defiantly did do some “VERY BIG” sky scrapers in “N” scale.
I am pretty sure they where mirror finish as well.
regards John
There used to be an GREAT book on urban city designing by Kalmbach called, “Building City Scenery for your model railraod”
http://books.google.com/books/about/Building_City_Scenery_for_Your_Model_Rai.html?id=an20nJ-H4agC
In this book they show you how to construct mirror highrises from scratch.
You’ll pay more then $35 for it now (if you can find it)
I think you have the wrong book - I have the same book right here (J. Pryke, 2000 - same as the Google books link), and there is no mention I could find (I checked every page) of “Mirror Skyscrapers” (aka International or Modern style architecture). The architectural styles featured in the book are generally Concrete w/ Brick Curtain wall, Concrete Block, Brick, Stone, and so on.
This makes sense as the core of the book revolves around the author’s Union Freight RR layout in downtown Boston in the late 1940s, with mentions of other layouts set in the 1930s, and the fashion for glass-tower skyscraper really didn’t get started in America until the UN Secretariat Building and Lever House, both completed in 1952. Not saying they didn’t know how to use glass architecturally before then, but those were the seminal structures of the archtype glass towers…
I could have sworn there was an article in there how to build sky scrappers. The author used mirrored plexi and stuck think strips overtop the plexi edges to represent window panes.
However I’m working off memory. I lost the book when my basement flooded in 2006.
I remembered this thread, and stumbled across this website - John’s Trains and Layouts. I believe we have already established the basics of glass-tower skyscrapers in this thread, but I do like his interior and lighting techniques (also, we learn from him that lots and lots of Spray Paint cans make good weights for gluing building sides [:P])
I had forgotten that monks have long been on the forefront of printing technology…
Amazon lets you view some of the book when you click on the photo and the article of how to make a modern skyscraper pops right up. But it doesnt discuss the reflective mirror walls though.
Im wondering if this might work but it looks a little to stark and bright to potentially look right on a model.
http://www.amazon.com/150-Vinyl-Adhesive-Tape-Hologram/dp/B0043NJHZE
Hi John,
Besides some of the methods already noted here, you can also go the route of creating a styrene ‘core’ or frame as the primary part to creating the shape of the building. The best part about styrene is it can be bent and shaped much easier than plexiglass can if you desire rounded corners on parts of the skyscraper. This is primarily due to the fact that you can buy styrene in varying thicknesses. After you are happy with the frame, you may want to check out your local craft or art stores and look for small mirrored mosaic tiles (for art). These usually come in numerous colors and sizes, and have an adhesive backing to them. They are also thin enough to bend and wrap to the contours you have created.
The plexiglass route is also highly effective and with thin styrene strips and/or artists (or matte) board – which takes weathering well, the sky is the limit on what you can create.
Hope that provides you with another option.