I am just finishing up with the DPM building “the other corner store” and I temporarily placed it on my layout right across the street from my completed Merchants Row II. Something is not right here, the corner stores doors and windows are substancially larger. Also, there both suppossed to represent three story building,but the corner store is substancially taller. Whats the problem? It really bothers me, it just doesnt look right.
It could be in scale…Older downtown business varied in sizes including doors,windows and height.You see in the era most downtown buildings was built it was fashionable to have larger windows,doors and ceiling heights…It was more of a business social status then anything especially for shoppers.
After all the bigger the store the better.Kinda like saying"We went shopping at Sears Saturday"-a social status brag back in those years…
What brakie said. Try putting a WS metal kit next to one. Rocky’s bar looks more like a broom shed.
If you think you’ve got troubles measure Barbie sometime; if she is 5’6" tall then she has an 18" waist; if she has a 24" waist then her height is 7’4" . . . . . . . . . . which could be an ideal height for the WNBA among other athletic activities.
Back in the '60s Bachmann’s first halting efforts at N-Scale structures resulted in several buildings with doors that a midget–I’m sorry, a vertically-challenged individual–would have had to stoop to get through. One of their gas stations had a service bay with the door so low that a driver in an MGA would have had to lie down in the seat to avoid creasing his head.
Get an accurately scaled adult human figure and compare it to the doors and other details of the buildings dependent upon human size. You should then have a better idea on whether the structures are properly scaled.
Mark
Sometimes I think it all goes to personal likes & dislikes. As others have said here, buildings differ in size, both height & width. My grandmother owned a home with what I think were 12’ ceilings in it. So even an accurately scaled model of it would look way out of whack when compared to a more modern & modest home.
Downtown buildings are the same. Here in Findlay, there are buildings that are different heights right next to each other. It looks strange if you think about it but you are looking at the real thing.
Even “scale” doesn’t mean much… some of those old buildings had doors that were both tall & wide. And a window can pretty much be any size and be “right.”
The one that gets me though is the Model Power (I think) passenger station that appears to be a dead ringer for the Atlas passenger station. They both say HO Scale but i’m telling you that you could put the MP station inside of the Atlas one. Someone’s idea of scale is a little off.
dlm
We have 1:1 buildings right here in Leesville that look the same way. One will have 7 foot high doors and the one next to it has 10 foot high doorways. The owners of many of these buildings deal with the problem in a variety of ways including partially filling in the extra space and mounting regular size doors and windows, which usually makes the problem even more obvious because the bricks almost never match.
Quick and dirty check - put a scale standing figure next to the door and see where the knob is. Even those ten foot humongudoors had their opening hardware and locks at a height of 36 inches or so.
Modern construction is driven by the standardized 4 x 8 plywood sheet and standard-length studs. Pre WWII, that standardization didn’t exist, so ceilings were generally higher and rooms had odd dimensions, all driven by the architect’s dreams and the customer’s whims.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - where the standard tatami is 915 by 1830 mm, and has been for centuries)
Check again. Only the corner turret building on the merchants row is 3 story. All the rest are 2 story.
This is one of the reasons that todays buildings are bland and boring. Look at an old downtown. All the buildings in the block are different. No standards, no building codes, just very creative. What you have gives the city charicter.
Don’t bet there were no building codes! More than a few places (Chicago and Virginia City, NV, for two) mandated masonry construction after devastating fires well over a century ago.
What the codes didn’t (and still don’t) mandate is things like ceiling height and room dimensions. Commercial builders and standard-size materials are responsible for that.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Ive had buildings that we drive 18 wheelers into and able to do a figure eight inside with a 60 foot turn radius at the steer.
NOW THAT’s FUN!
Come into the place off the street downtown, turn around and emerge from the doorway ready to go back the way you came.
Some of you old ones will recall Carl’s Corner. Interior doors were about 12 feet if I recall. And about 5 foot wide too.
Actually some codes (like the ones in my neck of the woods) do mandate minimum ceiling height (7-1/2 feet I believe) and other dimensions. Still builders are free to exceed these numbers of course. That, at least, makes for some variety.
The government likes to regulate EVERYTHING.
Karl