I’m starting a new layout. My kids want to make it modern. Are there building kits available for modern day stores such as WalMart, McDonalds?
I’d caution against doing a Wal-Mart because they are HUGE and would take up a lot of layout real estate (same reason it’s not a good idea to model stadiums or airports). If you really want to have Wal-Mart, I’d recommend having a picture of it on your backdrop. You could take a photo of your local store, print it to appropriate size, and paste it on your backdrop.
From just doing a quick search of HO structures on www.walthers.com, I found the following:
Vollmer makes a Burger King, but it’s kind of pricey ($46.98)
Lifelike has a KFC, but it’s the old style w/ the red & white metal roof.
International Hobby Corp has a Howard Johnson’s, but it’s also the older style.
I thought someone made a Denny’s at one time, but I couldn’t find it on the website.
I’m sure there are others, you’ll just have to do a search. Or, if you can get your hands on a Walthers catalog, that may be even better.
Dan, thanks for the backdrop idea. My four year old’s mental inventory of buildings to add to the layout is somewhat limited. I haven’t seen a lot of newer looking buildings yet, but I’m still in the planning stages and will keep looking. Do many of the hobby stores carry catalogs for sale or should I try the manufacturer’s websites?
It’s your layout. There’s no reason you couldn’t “downsize” a Wal-Mart into a small shop. In fact, a lot of people would like to do that to the full-scale ones.
City Classics makes a grocery store building. You can photograph or download the appropriate signs to change it into your local super market. I download a lot of graphics for my own layout. I’ve also created a lot of small businesses named after my daughter’s friends. They all get a kick out of it. Maybe your son would like a gas station, or a pet shop?
On second thought, make him a doctor or a lawyer.
Pikestuff has some modern, metal type buildings, good for warehouses, etc.
Your LHS should have a catalog for you too look at, may even have a copy you can buy. Also check out Walthers.com on the internet. I haven’t looked for Horizon yet, but they must have a site or catalog somewhere.
Don’t forget that old buildings are still around, some still doing their original task, others converted to new uses.
Good luck,
Most urban areas have buildings from all eras. A simple way to modernize would be to make billboards and signs with current companies logos and ads. For example you could make a billboard that said “McDonalds two blocks to the right” and have their logo on it.
I’ll break out the camera and the buildings I can’t change-over I guess we will just have to make them.
I believe kits for concrete “tilt-up” buildings are available in both HO and N scale, don’t remember manufacturers. (You can always browse through Walther’s catalog or look online at www.walthers.com) Tilt-ups are those modern monoliths made of concrete panels often made off-site, trucked in and “tilted up” into place for walls. The kits are usually intended to model warehouses. But that is the kind of building in which I frequently see Wal-Marts. It is just that perhaps a quarter to a third of the front wall of the building has opening in concrete with glass sliding doors and large windows. I believe Grandt Line makes modern store-front type windows that could be cut into the concrete kit wall pieces-- or there may be some that are made for large storefront windows. Kits such as the tiltup normally come with truck loading doors and/or rail loading doors, which for a warehouse are often located either along one side of the building for tracks and the other for trucks. For a Wal-Mart store, the truck loading doors would be used, on side AWAY FROM the customer entrance. Doors for auto department might also be appropriate.
It would be up to you to rearrange kit to fit what you envision, but I think it would be an easy matter of simply putting kit pieces together differently than manufacturer intended.
“Results may vary with user’s imagination, ingenuity and creativity.”
Store would probably NOT have rail access. (Would a Wal-Mart WAREHOUSE be more appropriate for a railroad layout?)
http://www.summit-customcuts.com/
These kits are pricey but look pretty nice.
Another way of putting a big building into a scene is a “Low Relief” building against the back scene. This just builds about 1" of building along the back edge of the layout. It tends to save an awful lot of scenic painting… and/or you can put a photo scene for the rest of the city behind it.
Walthers do low relief structures.
An alternate is to take an ordinary structure and slice chunks of it - like cutting a square cake straight on at least two opposite faces. If you’re crafty you can combine chunks of different faces into one long face… you only need a minimum of two return walls (From the modelled facia back to the back scene). If you really cheat you can get away with one - by positioning the structures saw-tooth style along the back scene — or none - by putting a building face across the angle in a corner of the board.
Saw tooth is particularly useful because you can angle the structures so that a loading dock can run along the face without having to turn parralel to the back board edge… which looks better anyway bacause it adds new angles and breaks up the outline.
A couple of the low relief structures in Walthers cat are very big modern warehouses… these would cover a lot of back scen and/or corner for you. Qute a lot of big modern warehouses curve their walls to match property lines.
Flat roofs are a lot easier when changing angles and making curves. Modern facias often rise higher than whaterever roof is behind them - like old “Wild West” saloon fronts - even a wooden front in front of a tent back then [:)]
Another thing with angles is that you don’t end up with the gaps between buildings running straight away slap into the backscene. This is laways a bit of an issue to get to look good.
Back at McD’s or Walmart etc. You don’t even have to put up their big name… you can put up o
In case you haven’t seen it, Walthers also has a Taco Bell.