I’m modeling the late 70’s - 90’s, basically the period when the Amtrak F40PH was in use. I’m having trouble finding buildings that are suitable for that time period. Outside of some Bachmann plastic built-ups, there just doesn’t seem to be much out there that represents periods past the 40’s-50’s.
Any suggestions?
If you take a look at railroads of that era, most of the buildings were not new. A 1920’s-era building with modern signage is perfectly appropriate for an Eighties layout. Walthers offers some modern office/manufacturing buildings, like Peterson Tool Specialties, Tri-State Power Authority, Medusa Cement, Black Gold Asphalt, the ADM grain mill. Great Western Models has a nice line of modern prefab steel buildings suitable for all sorts of modern industrial buildings, Pikestuff has some of these as well.
What sort of modern-era structures were you thinking of building? Industries, businesses, homes, etc.?
I was going to have two primary areas in my layout – an industrial area near the train station, and a suburban area at the foot of my planned “mountains” (actually more like major hills that you would find in Minnesota).
For the industrial area I had planned medium to heavy industry. For the suburban area I planned modern housing, a shopping mall, gas station, auto dealership, etc. I don’t anticipate the industrial area being a problem, it’s the suburban area that I’m having trouble with.
I was probably asking for trouble when I chose to model suburbs. But I’ve lived in the suburbs all my life, and I wanted to model something that fit my reality.
Bachmann has most of what I was looking for in plastic built-up form. I was hoping to find a kit that offered a little more realism. I know I could try my hand at painting the Bachmann structures to add some realism, but I really don’t know where to start with that.
Hmmm…I paint every kit, regardless of whether it is “molded in realistic colors” or not.
A shopping mall in HO scale would be pretty immense, even remotely to scale it would dominate the layout and most of the inside would be invisible, but a strip mall wouldn’t be hard to do at all. Just make a big broad box out of cardstock or styrene, wrap the back and sides in cinderblock-sized brick sheeting, slap some pre-made door/window mouldings from City Classics or DPM onto the front, add a roof (either one of those shingled mansard-roof jobs or a plain flat roof with some air vents and A/C units on it) and add on some signs that say DONUTS, DRY CLEANING, AUTO PARTS, BEAUTY SALON, KWIK-E-MART et al, and paint the whole thing beige and brown.
I’ve seen quite a few modern gas station and semi-modern ranch house kits out there–a lot of the European model companies produce a lot of structures that have a very “modern” feel to them that might be well-suited to what you’re doing.
Suburban homes might be a natural for trying scratchbuilding–stucco is easy to simulate with cheap and easy-to-work cardstock, modern casement windows are pretty easy to model with some striping tape and clear plastic, and the tendency towards simpler lines in 50’s-80’s suburban houses means there isn’t as much gingerbread and other fiddly little details to worry about.
Pola and Kibri (both in Walthers) are European firms that make nice models of modern car dealerships and petrol stations.
seeing as everything seems to look the same nowadays you could change the signs and they would fit right in.
Pola also makes a few kits of “ranch style” houses that are a bit small but could probably be used to represent a modern suburb.
I think they also make some sort of strip mall kit. Time to spend a nice cozy evening with your favorite beverage in your favorite easy chair poring over the Walthers bible!