High Rise / Skyscraper building kits ??

[domino]

Hey

Does anyone know where to buy kits for High Rise or Sky scrabers building N scale ?
I have been surfing the internet but no result.

domino

[CaptOblivious]

Didn't Atlas used to make a few of these in N-scale? Specifically, the really big ones on Doug's layout, here:
http://japanese-trains.com/setagaya/newrhs4.jpg
and in the background here:
http://japanese-trains.com/2sides/PA066513m.JPG

[domino]

Didn't Atlas used to make a few of these in N-scale? Specifically, the really big ones on Doug's layout, here:
http://japanese-trains.com/setagaya/newrhs4.jpg
and in the background here:
http://japanese-trains.com/2sides/PA066513m.JPG

Yes they did, and i have one of them, but can`t find the rest or other manufactors who make high rise building kits.
I have also tryed to find some scratch build buildings, but they are not great made, so i passed on tem.

domino

[cteno4]

Not much joy here with larger buildings, just the old atlas buildings. they are now horribly expensive when the do pop up on ebay.

there is the heljan/kibri hospital/apartment high rise that is listed as HO, but if it is each floor is about 5.5' tall! maybe for little people, so works well with N scale to get good sized walls. the first floor is more HO scale with the doors.

I have seen a couple of chaps on ebay with various scratch built large sky scrapers but few really great quality.

there is the chap of flickr with a lot of high rises he has kitbashed. a great resource for ideas from various kits. warning if you go this direction you get into some big bucks fast with the number of kits you will need to buy to start tricking out buildings! dpm, tomix, kato, and greenmax can all be kitbashed larger

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55063726@N00/collections/72157612768739708/

finally you might think of scratch building your own. the cool thing about many modern skyscrapers is they have little in the way of external details. if you start with clear or tinted acetate for the walls then apply small strips of styrene and/or scoring with a matte knife vertically or horizontally you can create the main external details you need. the atlas kits only external detail is small scores in the plastic. this approach is a lot cheaper than trying to kitbash kits! if you use this technique in the back and then some kitbashed in the foreground it will help mask less detail maybe in a scratch built behind.

cheers

jeff

[Bernard]

Domino - Take a look at this thread we had earlier on skyscrapers:
http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,83.0.html

I have one of the Atlas buildings that I got a while ago but I don't know what they are selling for now. My personal opinion is that they are too large and take up a lot of space on a layout. They also have a metallic gloss finish and if is very hard to add more details with paint.
If you find any interesting skyscrapers in you search please post them.

[cteno4]

Yes im not a fan of the atlas bldgs either. i grabbed a square and extension a long time back and a hexagonal and i have a rectangular built that i got in a misc box of bldgs at a show for $5. not built well but figured i could maybe add external strips of gray painted styrene at each floor to cover up some of the defects. they are really only good for a background space filling building. they go for $50-150 now on ebay every few months. they come up very infrequently now. they use to go for like $20 and i kicked myself for not grabbing a couple more just to use as parts. atlas stopped making them quite a while ago in N scale.

the tomix high rise is super easy to extend higher and pull apart to paint. also you can do some cleaver things by putting groups of them together. the tomix layout room vol 2 book has some really good ideas for making more unique buildings out of them. bill reviewed the book here

http://jtrains.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/kilopost-layout-room-volume-2/

if you ever get your hands on the tomix diorama book there are even more cleaver uses of the tomix high rise. one was putting it on its side to use as a large station/walkway over a bunch of tracks. very cool.

the kato multistory apt bldg also comes apart easily to make higher versions and looks good tall and its prototypical (i have a shot of one that is i think the prototype ofr it at like 12 stories). they also come apart easily if you want to repaint them. i took few units of the two shades of brown and made one 9 story alternating color building and a couple 3 story units.

the kato prebuilt high rises can also be pulled apart to make them taller as the chap i mentioned did. unfortunately i think you only can pull out 3 or 4 stories to pop into another one and requires a little hacking and whacking as it does not come apart like the tomix high rise does. some of the greenmax kits give pretty good walls to cut up and extend taller and/or wider. the new greenmax is built to do this, but gives little flexibility in design in reality unless you buy a lot of extra kits. the older kits require you to cut them up and frankenstien them yourself.

DPM kits are also another option to kitbash, but most are brick (not really used a whole lot in taller structures in japan) and the window styles are not quite the right shape or style. you can clip out some of the window detail to make something interesting and i have thought of the idea of trying to fill in the brick texture with plaster (maybe with some white glue mixed in). these kits are cheap and have lots of detail parts and give you separate window frames (great if you want them a different color, have fun painting in different colored window frame on greenmax kits where they are moulded into the walls!).

over the years i have done some searches on high rise pictures (mainly japanese) and also keep my eye out when looking at pictures of japan to build up a catalog of photos for reference and ideas. another good place for ideas is to look at the paper models out there in small scale. i have grabbed a bunch of these for use eventually in ttrak, but the simplicity of lines and details gives you a good idea of what the key features to go for are if you decide to scratch build anything.

cheers,

jeff

[Bernard]

Jeff - Years ago I saw a layout at an Electronics store set up with video cameras around it to test them out. This is where I first saw the 3 Atlas skyscrapers. I went out and bought the Hexagonal building for $20.00. Since then I've been trying to incorporate that building and it just takes up too much area. I found if you use the Atlas skyscrapers you have to design around them.

[cteno4]

Bernard,

yep ive come to the same conclusion. glad i go the two of them for like $20 also, but would not spend a hundred on one now! the concept is simple enough that they should easily scale down if i want to slice them up some. the hexagonal even though interesting seems to be the hardest to fit into a scene well. figures i could always redo it into a square or rectangular or a two tower job since it has a lot of plastic in them. it is going to take space to fit them in! they also need some distance as up close they lack detail.

so planning is right! hey if they never fit i can always sell the kits and make enough to buy a bunch of kato, tomix and greenmax and do some more kitbashing!

cheers

jeff

[domino]

thanks guy`s.

I was wondering  if i should start build my self,but having trouble finding dealer that sells scratch buildnig stuff,do you know any ??

domino

[cteno4]

Domino

dont know of any that sell stuff for more modern high rises, just windows and doors for older buildings. most of the scratch building detail parts out there are all for older buildings.

i would look at kitbashing first from the greenmax kits [old and new] and ones like the heljan hospital. they have a lot of potential and would probably be quicker than starting from scratch.

other option is starting with tinted acrylic/acetate and apply some simple horizontal details with thin strips of styrene or colored construction paper. vertical lines in the glass could be done by vertical scores or even a silver pen marker first, then apply the horixontal detail stuff over that.

i was just at the museum of science and industry in chicago today and they have a huge HO train layout that models both seattle and chicago downtowns. many of the more modern buildings were actually printed walls w/o any relief at 3-4' away it was hard to tell they were done that way unless you looked very close. would be harder to in n scale and if you used them in the background with more detailed buildings in the foreground it would mask this more. there are a number of paper modeling kits out there [most free] that could be good starting points.

cheers

jeff

[CaptOblivious]

i was just at the museum of science and industry in chicago today and they have a huge HO train layout that models both seattle and chicago downtowns. many of the more modern buildings were actually printed walls w/o any relief at 3-4' away it was hard to tell they were done that way unless you looked very close. would be harder to in n scale and if you used them in the background with more detailed buildings in the foreground it would mask this more. there are a number of paper modeling kits out there [most free] that could be good starting points.

I love that museum, and that layout. Did you tour the Zephyr on display?

Domino: Buildings done in the international style should be really easy to scratchbuild, as they are always boxes, and always have minimal detail. Plus, they're totally prototypical…

[cteno4]

No i walked all around it though. i made the mistake of waiting till i left to go inside (thinking it was not a tour) and when i got out and had to get going the next tour was over a half hour wait... pity as i would love to have seen it as i have the n scale model.

layout was great, wish there were a few more trains going, think a lot of it was built before computer automation to really make it more alive. the size is really impressive as i dont think i have seen a layout bigger than that, helps that its in a huge hall so you can see the whole thing and also see it from the floors above.

interesting to visit the grand daddy of science museums. museum exhibits are my profession so i have always wanted to see it, dwarfs every other place in the country and probably world. was able to learn a lot watching the visitor reactions and interaction with the exhibits. always helpful.

cheers

jeff

[domino]

Thanks guy`s

Will try to make something my self , just to see if i can 

Brian

[cteno4]

interesting idea is up for sale on ebay. its an atlas hexagonal building that has been kitbashed in to a triangular sears tower design! very cleaver!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110421258353&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_3507wt_1108

cheers

jeff

[Bernard]

interesting idea is up for sale on ebay. its an atlas hexagonal building that has been kitbashed in to a triangular sears tower design! very cleaver!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110421258353&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_3507wt_1108

cheers

jeff

Extremely clever and to me the first shots give an optical illusion of oneside being flat. It makes for an interesting building.

[bc6]

Thats an awesome looking building!!!!

[to2leo]

Thats an awesome looking building!!!!

with an awesome price 

[bc6]

Thats an awesome looking building!!!!

with an awesome price 

I know, someone really likes it enough to bid on it. 

[cteno4]

Well when you figure the amount of time it would take to build this and the fact these atlas highrise kits now go at a real premium, it isnt so bad.

could make the same wall material on the atlas buildings from smoked acrylic sheets and just score the lines. if you want the mirror effect you can back the acrylic with reflective tinting film.

it is a really nice design to give straight front face for the street. would be great on a diagonal street corner! maybe a 5 way intersection!

cheers

jeff

[domino]

Hey Guy`s.

Well, call me crazy, but i got it, yes i bought this fine looking building, i could not get it out of my head, i would look great on my layout, just to bad it wont get her for my very first exhibition on Friday.
Let me hear what you think i should pay for the building including shipping to Denmark from the US, keep in mind that it is a big building??
It will give an idea if i been fooled or not.

Thanks
domino
Brian

interesting idea is up for sale on ebay. its an atlas hexagonal building that has been kitbashed in to a triangular sears tower design! very cleaver!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110421258353&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_3507wt_1108

cheers

jeff

[to2leo]

Congrats Domino,
Please feel free to post pictures of your exhibition and the building when all is said and done!

[bc6]

Nice score on the building domino, its a fine looking building. As far as shipping goes I would say about $40 should cover it.

[domino]

Nice score on the building domino, its a fine looking building. As far as shipping goes I would say about $40 should cover it.

Yes i paid $ 40 for shipping , and the building ??

Brian

[bc6]

Nice score on the building domino, its a fine looking building. As far as shipping goes I would say about $40 should cover it.

Yes i paid $ 40 for shipping , and the building ??

Brian

If I had the money to bid on the building I would pay $200 for it.

[Bernard]

It is a unique building and an "eye-catcher" on any layout. Congratulations.

[cteno4]

This comes up a lot on train boards about how much is too much to pay for a custom building like this. many folks just cant think about spending more than$20-30 for a structure, ever.

Folks that build stuff like this will tell you that it can take dozens of hours to produce a custom building, so if you guy it for a hundred or two hundred you are getting a great deal as you end up maybe paying only $2-3/hr for all the labor that went into it. If you dont have the time or skills or experience to make something like this then unless there is something massed produced this is your only route.

this looks like a very nice and interesting building and its seems to 'speak' to you so it sounds like its a good deal for you. others may never think of dropping money on something like that, but they are not you. you certainly are not getting ripped off in price or shipping it looks like, only question is is it worth it to you and that seems a strong yes!

please post lots of pictures of the building when you get it as its really interesting and would be a good thing to simulate folks in making high rises! I am thinking my hexagonal atlas high rise kit is going to go this way now! never was really happy with the look and feel of the hexagonal building on layouts. this triangular form with multiple towers really has a nicer feel for a smaller city scene and still lets you have a tall and good sized buildings. also packs in well with other building around it and lets you have a nice off angle street as well as a nice straight face for the front street face. also the different height towers give you setbacks which make seeing into the scene with a few other larger buildings around it better.

cheers

jeff

[domino]

Hey guy`s

Yes , i really wanted this building, it is what im looking for and since i cant build one myself(at this point)i must pay for these buildings.
I paid $ 300 including shipping(260 for building and 40 for shipping)to Denmark,i dont think it is very expensive considering the time and effort that goes into build something like this,ofcause $ 300 is a lot of money but i think i got a great deal im happy with,and besides no one else has one like it 

Brian
domino

[cteno4]

another interesting high rise on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110423530083&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_2464wt_978

this chap has a few neat ideas of using the metal angle stock on the corners. makes for an interesting corner detail while covering up corner joints that can be the pits to make clean and pretty!

i cant wait till i get some time to start fiddling on a bunch of high rises like this, too many ideas keep rolling around in the back of my head.

cheers,

jeff

[cteno4]

Some atlas square and hexagonal building kits are up on ebay at a steep starting price of $70 or buy it now of $75

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270442900063&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270442904725&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

cheers

jeff

[Bernard]

Some atlas square and hexagonal building kits are up on ebay at a steep starting price of $70 or buy it now of $75

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270442900063&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270442904725&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

cheers

jeff

I bought mine years ago for $25 USD. Does Atlas still make these buildings or are they discontinued?

[cteno4]

Bernard,

same here i got mine like 6 years back for about $20. yes the have been out of production for quite a while.

cheers

jeff

[Bernard]

I remember Altas made an extension for their Skyscrapers for $10 USD. But the building were so tall to begin with you really didn't need the extension kits.

[cteno4]

a square and hexagonal set were just snapped up with buy it now for $75 ea!

jeff

[quinntopia]

In my view, the best bet is to go with several sets of the Kato (or Tomix) modern high rises.  They look great and are relatively easy to modify to extend.  I have the Atlas Square skyscraper kit (still unassembled), despite the fact that it would probably look pretty cool, its so big it doesn't leave a lot of space for other buildings (and I can of think that you can't just have this big, monolith looking skyscraper next to a bunch of tiny buildings).  I will probably cut it down to reduce its footprint by at least half, but haven't figure out a good way to cut it.  Yikes! 

The other issue I have with the Atlas kit(s) is that they used very thick plastic with not chance for interior lighting.  Since everyone of my buildings does have some level of interior lighting, I'm concerned that it would look like something more appropriate from 2001 a Space Odyssey than a real city! 

[cteno4]

Quintopia,

you are right these will really stick out unless there are some other heafty buildings around them as well. doug dig wiggle them into setagaya pretty well though. it is tough to do interior lighting as you say. i think what you would need to do it just paste some small boxes on the inside 1 floor high and maybe 1" long to represent an office and put an led into it. that way you could just have alike a dozen offices lit on a face randomly around the building.

im more inclined to make my own when i get there as i think layering strips of plastic on top of tinted plastic will work well to create some interesting high rises that will not look like the plain old atlas kits!

cheers

jeff

hexagonal just started at $25 now

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350243770346&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_5220wt_942

also hex and square at $70 start and $75 buy it now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-IN-BOX-ATLAS-HIGH-RISE-HEXAGON-no-2836_W0QQitemZ270446048485QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item3ef7d734e5&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_500wt_957

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-IN-BOX-ATLAS-HIGH-RISE-SQUAIR-no-2835_W0QQitemZ270446048045QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item3ef7d7332d&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_500wt_957

[quinntopia]

im more inclined to make my own when i get there as i think layering strips of plastic on top of tinted plastic will work well to create some interesting high rises that will not look like the plain old atlas kits!

I agree!  Any good leads on sources for good tinted plastics?  It seems like there should be a lot of options, but I find it really hard to find 'dark black' and transparent plastic, or something that is both reflective and semi-transparent.  There's got to be a source for this stuff somewhere!

[CaptOblivious]

im more inclined to make my own when i get there as i think layering strips of plastic on top of tinted plastic will work well to create some interesting high rises that will not look like the plain old atlas kits!

I agree!  Any good leads on sources for good tinted plastics?  It seems like there should be a lot of options, but I find it really hard to find 'dark black' and transparent plastic, or something that is both reflective and semi-transparent.  There's got to be a source for this stuff somewhere!

A search for "mirrored plastic" and "mirrored acrylic" return promising results. Your best bet is to contact one of the manufacturers, explain what you want to do (you might compare your project's goal to mirrored sunglasses?), and see if they have something that meets those needs and a retailer to sell it to you…

[cteno4]

Quintopia,

first thing to do is look in your yellow pages to see if there are any plastics or sign makers in your area. these are usually the best place to start looking for acrylic and other plastics. usually after some poking around and a few visits to industrial parks you were not aware of in your area, you will find a gem of a place with a wall of misc scrap plastic they usually sell at $1-2/lb! this makes it a worthwhile place to stop buy now and then if you are nearby to see whats laying around! last time i picked up a bunch of clear acrylic sheets like 1/16" 2'x4' for like $2 each. lots of other interesting scraps there as well! they usually also carry 4' x 8" sheets of styrene, gaterfoam, syntra, and other interesting plastics and the cost for a 4'x8' sheet is usually cheaper than a much smaller sheet you can get at the hardware or hobby shop so you can divvy it up with friends and get it really cheap! also when i have bought some sheet and scrap they sometimes just throw the few $$ of scrap in for free to get rid of the stuff and make me want to come back again (can we say junkie...)

on the tinting lots of folks use the tinted mirrored tile sheets. these are glass or acrylic tiles like 0.5" square that are stuck to a plastic sheet. you can easily cut them apart along the tile lines. to me these usually just look like reflective/tinted glass tiles, and dont give a good building look to me.

another approach for tinting is to use the mylar tinting film for windows. you can get this in a whole range of tinting and reflectiveness. you just wet your clear acrylic and press this stuff on and squeegee out any air bubbles and let it dry.

other techniques you can use on acrylic sheet are to use a plastic scribing knife (its kind of a backwards facing knife point on a handle for a few bucks at the hardware store) that will make a small grooved scribe line on plastic sheeting. you are meant to then bend it away from the scribe line to snap the plastic off w/o having to cut all the way through it. what you can do with this is scribe small vertical and/or horizontal lines that appear in the faces of glass sided high rises.

cheers,

jeff

[cteno4]

atlas high rises on ebay now at reasonable starting points, wonder what they will end up going for?!

cheers,

jeff

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200381627586&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_500wt_1112

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200381628799&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_500wt_1112

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200381631133&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_500wt_1112

[cteno4]

nice little scratch built highrise.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300348290605&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_774wt_840

jeff

[Bernard]

nice little scratch built highrise.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300348290605&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_774wt_840

jeff

Jeff - I see it's the Wachovia Bank building. The present bid is 36.99 USD but does the winning bidder also get the "Federal bail out money?"

[cteno4]

Jeff - I see it's the Wachovia Bank building. The present bid is 36.99 USD but does the winning bidder also get the "Federal bail out money?"

LOL, yes but you have to pay it back to paypal later...

jr

[quinntopia]

I was one of the lucky ones who had one of the Atlas Skyscraper kits (the square one) however, as others point out, the footprint of this thing is HUGE!  So, I left it in the box trying to figure out how to fit this huge monolith on my layout...and did I want it that bad to take up so much expensive real estate?

The answer was YES, but, a modified yes.  I cut it down.  Seems sort of sacrilegious to cut and hack away at something in such demand, but I did really want a modern looking skyscraper.  So, here it is! 



I took about a third of the fronts off, and cut the sides by about half.  The result is that its still huge, just not so much.  Cutting it was a pain though as Atlas uses a really thick, brittle plastic for the castings.  The upside is that they are sem-transparent (barely), so I blacked out the inside walls and have it backlit to make it look like office lights are on.  For the ground floor, I added an "HMV" along with a small office door area (a bit hard to see in this photo).  What do you think?

[cteno4]

Quintopia,

very very nice! much more in proportion to most of the other n scale buildings that most reasonable sized layouts would have.

love your use of internal screens to block the internal lighting to only have some offices lit!

excellent work!

[serenityFan]

With the tower light and the HSBC signage, for a couple of seconds there I thought that picture is of a real life scene!

[cteno4]

this scaled down building has me really thinking the simple high rises i have been noodling on using just smoked acetate and some cross pieces on each floor on the outside will make some great medium sized high rises like this.

thanks for the great stimulation on this. it really is a great work, even love the radio tower light on the top. again excellent work!

cheers

jeff

[Bernard]

Incredible! I have the Hexagon building and I could never figure out how to light it. The results on your building look great. I'm not sure if I understand how you did the lighting because I know the plastic used by Atlas is thick.

[quinntopia]

Bernard,

For the interior lighting, I used those strips of LED's that are sold at hardware stores for 'under cabinet' lighting for kitchens.  They are about 30 or 40 dollars, but depending on the type you go with, you get 10 or 12" strips with about 10 led's on each strip (the 'hockey puck' versions could also be used, but didn't seem as bright).  The number of LED's also helps to diffuse the light (LED's are sort of narrow by themselves).  I wish I had more as I would like to have it a bit brighter, but happy with it for now.  An alternative I considered was those light bulb's they sell for Department 56 houses.  A much cheaper route, but I get nervous with having too much incandescent light and its heat in a confined plastic space!

I have three of these LED strips hot-glued to a central column in the middle of the building, using the power supply that came with the LED strips also relieves power drain for other buildings (where I use a more conventional LED w/ resistor to a 12v DC power supply that I wire myself), just finding room for the plug on the power outlet strip was the hardest part!

[Martijn Meerts]

I see you have the vollmer church.. Lovely model that one =)

[quinntopia]

I see you have the vollmer church.. Lovely model that one =)

Yes, its one of my favorites! One of my 'inspirations' was the models of downtown Gotham City used in the Batman films....this cathedral has a great gothic look to it! What I wouldn't give to be around those models when they are done filming!  And to know some of their techniques?  That would be awesome.