I want to make a 5-story block long building. Can I do it with Walther’s Modules?
I’ve seen the stuff they show, but the tallest they show is 2-3 stories. I haven’t really gotten a sense from their .pdfs. Can they go up or do they just go out?
The current Walthers catalog shows some price winning modular structures and one of them was a high rise. Theoretically, there really is no limit on the size. Five storie should be no problem. The main thing with modulars is keeping everything plumb, level and square as you work your way up. Any misallignment of components on the lower levels will compound itself as you go up.
I haven’t used Walther’s modules, but I have used DPM parts to kitbash taller buildings.
You will have to add some good bracing behind the walls. You may also have to do some careful fitting when stacking wall sections on top of each other. I have seem thin pieces of styrene used as “separators” between wall sections. When painted, it looks like a concrete wall cap often used in real construction to strengthen a brick wall.
Darrell, quiet…for now
Chip,
Indeed you can. I would reccomend printing a few copies of the .pdf’s and laying them out one wall at a time. Some of the sections are single wall and double wall so be careful here. Look at the Walthers web page under the item description, what you see in the picture is what you get. You will also see what I mean by single and double wall sections. Remember, wall sections, pillars, roofs, foundations are all separate packages. I hope I named them all.
A five story building a block long will look great!
Hope this helps! Chris
Thanks guys.
I haven’t decided how I’m going to square up the building. My first impulse is to build a foam super-structure and glue the walls/braces to that.
The downside is that I cannot do any interior work if I do. Of course, in N-scale I’m not sure how relevant that would be.
Until I build something, I won’t know if it bothers me or not.
Even though it’s DPM not Walthers modulars, this building is essentially three stories tall. No problem butting them together even taller if I had needed to. Just reinforce inside well before final assembly, and keep it all straight.
In your opinion, which is better, cheaper, more versatile, the DPM or Walthers?
Just to give you an idea of what can be done, the prize winning structure I was referring to has a 6 story center section with a 5 story wing on one side and a 4 story wing on the other. Altogether, it is 9 sections (18 windows) long. It is a real monster.
I ordered the 2007 N-scale catalog this week. I can’t wait to see it.
I work in HO and I prefer Walthers. Structurally, they are pretty similar but it is my feeling that DPM’s components, specifically windows and doors, are out of scale. The just look too big. I’ve used DPM for back ground buildings but I wouldn’t put one up front for that very reason.
I think I would agree about the scaling of windows etc. The Walthers components from what I have seen have better windows especially. I haven’t ever compared the pricing, I really don’t have room on the layout for anymore massive construction, as my city is supposed to be a small desert town.
Could you help us all and take a rule to some of the different models… and tell us how they come out please? I think that a little extra width on a door isn’t too bad but they do need to be the right height.
Does anyone have an opinion on whether Walther’s plastic modules or DPMs hydrocal are better… from the material point of view please? And why?
Has anyone tried planning everything out carefully and making a single support board to go behind all the parts from a single piece of thin (high quality) plywood? What glue would you use?
N is probably more difficult for thickness but I feel that in H0 it should be possible to get away with maybe even as much a 4mm ply with all the windows cut out and the surrounding material chamfered at 45 degrees. A lot will depend on how big the windows are.
Maybe for a wall with huge wndow area the solution would be to strengthen it with a sheet of steel with all the bits cut out for the windows. So long as there is a way of persuading the steel to not wiggle this would give immense strength,
Then again… not all windows need to be see-through…
Good to see you back in action Spacemouse! [8D]
Could you help us all and take a rule to some of the different models… and tell us how they come out please? I think that a little extra width on a door isn’t too bad but they do need to be the right height.
Does anyone have an opinion on whether Walther’s plastic modules or DPMs hydrocal are better… from the material point of view please? And why?
Has anyone tried planning everything out carefully and making a single support board to go behind all the parts from a single piece of thin (high quality) plywood? What glue would you use?
N is probably more difficult for thickness but I feel that in H0 it should be possible to get away with maybe even as much a 4mm ply with all the windows cut out and the surrounding material chamfered at 45 degrees. A lot will depend on how big the windows are.
Maybe for a wall with huge wndow area the solution would be to strengthen it with a sheet of steel with all the bits cut out for the windows. So long as there is a way of persuading the steel to not wiggle this would give immense strength,
Then again… not all windows need to be see-through…
Good to see you back in action Spacemouse! [8D]
PS What’s going on in this huge building?
If you look further into my three story shop, because it’s an open building with interior details, I was able to stiffen it with scale beams and supports like a real building (almost) The DPM are not Hydrocal, they are plastic also. DPM is easy to cut also , which helped in modifing for my application. Interior shots on my website. Of hand unless you really building a huge building like Spacemouse is considering, stiffening is not a great concern, Although I have noticed on DPM products the larger sections sometimes are slightly warped which need to be stiffened to keep them straight.
Dunno yet. I’m leaning towards brewery, but not set yet. I want a deep urban canyon to create the feel.
Chip, I downloaded the DPM pdf (HO scale) and made a mockup using the templates. I’m attempting to build a 8 story building but the scale just seems way too big. When I compare it to the Scale Structures Victoria Falls hotel that I just completed, it’s twice as tall but only 3 more stories than Victoria. It looks a little ridiculous because it’s too imposing. I’m thinking of compressing it down to 5 stories or maybe trying the N scale templates. Haven’t tried the Walthers templates yet.
Sigh! I have that Victoria Falls kit and I would have loved to build it. It just does not fit anything that I model or plan to model. I fear that it is going the way of eBay. They are going for $70-80. Too bad, that there is no mechanism for us to trade what we have for what we need. When I sell stuff on eBay, my wife thinks that “income” should go to bills. If I trade what I have for what I need, she can’t take that.
I stand corrected. I got out the ruler and the Walther’s and DPM’s are about the same size, with the Walther’s actually slightly bigger. I think I may have been prejudiced by previous DPM kits I bought which definitely were out of scale. On one kit the door was about 10 scale feet high. I don’t know if it is the spacing of the windows but for some reason everything on the DPM’s just looks taller. It’s probably just previous experiences with DPM prejudiced my view of them.
I was going to suggest you take a look at Walthers Prarie Star Milling and separate PS Grain Elevator for your brewery but then I remembered you are doing N scale. They don’t show this as available in N scale yet. They are sold separately but built to mate to each other. I put the two together as part of my brewery complex. Breweries had to receive grain and grain elevators were one option.
I think I have seen some large N scale kits which are built from modular parts like the PS Milling kit. You might want to consider one of those. The nice thing about using these modular kits is you can add on modular sections to make them as big as you want.
Dang - I would have bought it from you had I known. It’s a really nice kit. I’m using it to represent a building in my hometown that is still standing. I had a few people look at it without telling them what is was supposed to be and they recognized it right away. I intended to use the DPM modular for the same effect on another landmark building in town but I gotta think about the size and placement - the way it is, it will hide too much other stuff.
I have built the Walther Dairy buildings and find them to be really great. There is no problem going for height if you use 1/8 inch music wire as vertical supports.
You can drill holes into the layout surface to support the music wire. Glue the interior walls to the music wire as you add stories.
Music wire is available at almost any R/C hobby shop or at most craft outlets.