I need at least a partial skyscraper for my city scene and am trying to find if there are any kits out there. All of the large buildings from Walthers seem to be of the brick, industrial-type. I’m looking for a concrete and glass office building, the type you would see on Park Avenue. Has anyone seem a kit for something like this in HO scale? I don’t need something that is to scale from a height perspective since this will be on the lower deck, just something that is 12-13" in height and width. Any ideas? Thanks.
A few years back Bachman Spectrum had a Metropolitan Bldg & A Trade tower in their cityscenes line. You might be able to find them on ebay. List price was $80 & $90. I love the whole line, makes it a lot easier to model a city.
If you don’t have any luck finding the discontinued Bachmann structures, you could probably get some decent results with plexiglas sheet, either by masking out the window positions and spraypainting, or cutting/prepainting Evergreen styrene strips and cementing those onto the plexiglas to delineate the rows of windows.
(Caveat: I haven’t actually tried this yet myself, your mileage may vary! [:D])
Actually, this is a standard technique for building architectural models. Make the entire wall from a single sheet of plexiglas, overlay with whatever (properly precolored) for the metal or masonry details (concrete is masonry) and use chart tape (again of appropriate color) for window mullion detail.
If you want nighttime illumination, haze the inside of the plexiglas, then mask out the windows you want illuminated and spray with two coats of black and one coat of aluminum (mask any surface that will have to be glued during assembly.) With the reflective interior, a string of small bulbs down each inside corner on the viewing side (bulbs not directly visible through any “lighted” window) will give an acceptable effect.
If you want to detail any of the interior, all bets are off.
Thanks for the suggestions. I saw a basic description of the plexiglass approach in “Building City Scenery” and was thinking of trying that though I have not done much scratchbuilding before. The Bachmann buildings would be good alternatives. I found an auction for the Trade Tower on Ebay and may go that route as well.
All good ideas so far. My humble [2c] the walther’s catalogue does list some “office buildings” in their HO book. Now these are all from Faller and the like though so they are a tad on the european side. Small town USA makes some multiple story buildings as well 5 or 6 story ones. They are worth a look,mind you they make nicer large retail or apartment type buildings, they are however good kitbashing candidates.
Seems your in luck, I just got the new 2007 Walthers Catalogue and there are a couple in there under structures. There are two kibri kits on page 577, they are a 7-story and a 10-story office building kits. On page 525 under BUSCH models there is a modern highrise office building kit that is made to look like mostly glass with metal bracing. The intial kits come as 6-stories but you can purchase add-on floor kits that have 2 floors a story. also from kibri on page 571 there is a highrise under construction kit.
Hope this helps.
Hello. I realize this reply is coming a day or two late : )
I keep an eye on eBay for vintage HO products and occasionally come across a product called AMERICAN SKYLINE, which was made back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I believe Halsam made these building sets, but I could be wrong.
Marketed as children’s building blocks, the sets actually produce quite attractive skyscrapers in HO scale. With a bit of painting and detailing, I’ve no doubt such a building would suit your purposes perfectly.
If you’re interested, search eBay under TOYS for keyword SKYLINE. If you don’t get a hit, try back in a few days.
Might try modeling the building/skyscraper as a “backdrop” and taking real digital pictures of the scene you want to model. Use DPM or other buildings as the front buildings to create the 3-D effect. This worked well for me on my last layout modeling downtown Wichita, KS.
Just a heads-up that no one else has yet mentioned on this subject: I hope you have a high-ceilinged room. The Empire State Building would be about 14 feet high in HO. Of course you could do it in a more achievable 7 3/4 feet if you use N
