High Rise / Skyscraper building kits ??

[Scaper]

 I've finished phase 2 of my Kato office buildings kitbashed. They are extra base parts from the high rises I'm going to be building.

Here's some finished photos..

To see the build up and stages of this browse this link...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55063726@N00/sets/72157623387427855/














If you see the odd gap it's because the tops and sections pieces aren't glued down yet. I'm waiting for lights. I'll start the next phase in the next month or so.

Cheers, Bob

[Bernard]

Bob - In your kitbashing do you ever create situations or even funny scenes? I'm thinking of the photo that Darren posted a while ago with the workmen boxing themselves in as they were fixing a small parking lot.
Also if you haven't already, how about starting a new thread in Personal Projects, I think members will have a lot of questions on the methods you use for "kitbashing", I know I would.

[Scaper]

 Bernard,

 I'd love to do a thread in personal projects. As for doing funny scenes, I'll have to start doing that. I did get these funny little people for a funny kitbash to do soon.

Caution... X rated material...
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/4388874595_93220e58ff_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/4389642384_7031796f11_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4388873537_cbd0952313_b.jpg

I've got a bunch of different Noch Sexy scenes packets...pretty funny. I may make a Excort Service Business. Other than that, the other things I have plans for is window washers cleaning windows of a skyscraper and other things like that. But I'll have to take some time to think of something more humorous. Thanks for the tip. :D My next building, I'll make something funny in it. :D

[disturbman]

Like a Spiderman peeping at working escorts? 

[cteno4]

interesting, i just saw a picture of the star house box up on plazajapan. it comes assembled except for all the balconies on the end. thise you have to clip off the sprues and assemble. from the angle of the picture i could not see a manufacturer in english. mine are in transit some where in sal...

http://tinyurl.com/ygljt8l

cheers

jeff

[quinntopia]

interesting, i just saw a picture of the star house box up on plazajapan. it comes assembled except for all the balconies on the end. thise you have to clip off the sprues and assemble. from the angle of the picture i could not see a manufacturer in english. mine are in transit some where in sal...

Jeff...mine arrived the other day, and I finally opened it up and took a look at them yesterday.  I wrote up a quick 'review' of what they are for my blog, which I should get posted shortly.  I was struck by something you said, in that they 'come assembled'.  This is true, and it surprised me as I thought they were going to be kits!  They're going to be a lot of work to customize, though, i can tell you that much!

[cteno4]

Quin,

I thought they were a kit as well. maybe this is not the same series as the first aoshima apartment buildings. the detailing does not look as good. perhaps they are doing a two pronged approach of some assembled, less detailed and some more detailed kits? did aoshima's name show up on the box anywhere? any manufacturer name?

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

scraper,

is this one of yours?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250596548242&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_565wt_1073

just saw the field of buildings in the background and thought of you!

cheers

jeff

[bill937ca]

I thought they were a kit as well. maybe this is not the same series as the first aoshima apartment buildings. the detailing does not look as good. perhaps they are doing a two pronged approach of some assembled, less detailed and some more detailed kits? did aoshima's name show up on the box anywhere? any manufacturer name?

Tramway is a different company than aoshima. I think Tramway is another name for Dauphin Ltd which i understood to be a small shop.

Watch carefully when you click on the link!!

http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~tramway/

[cteno4]

As far as i could tell dauphin is just a reseller/importer, not a manufacturer, but maybe they are now contracting their own products.

jeff

[quinntopia]

Yes, these "tramway" starhouses are completley different from the Aoshima buildings.  Not only in terms of overall quality, but packaging and everything else seems to indicate no relation at all.  I don't see any similar logos or anything on the boxes either.  In terms of quality,  I'd put these in the Tomytec quality category, except at least Tomytec has better details!    I'm not too disappointed, becuase I'll be doing a lot of modification to this.  There are more photos on my blog BTW.

[Shashinka]

Needs a ghost in the window.   

[cteno4]

I think all the speculation came from the name on the release of the star house containing "suburban Landscape series number 2" and this was right after the aoshima apartment buildings came out with the large #1 on the end of the box... also both were apartment buildings.

its interesting that Permil had upgrades available for each of these kits when they hit the market.

still interesting

cheers

jeff

[quinntopia]

I started spray painting the disassembled pieces.  I was originally going to paint the window frames black....but once I had them painted, they looked too much like prison bars!  On that note...given the small size of these apartments, and the 'bars' on the window, maybe this would be a fine 15 story jail!

[disturbman]

Maybe you could cut the bars off the windows and replace it by something else when adding your "glass".

[Scaper]

I was thinking the same thing adding glass instead of the bars.  I've ordered 3 kits myself. I'm going to try my best to completely change mine too. I've been buying lots of new buildings and selling some older ones.

Jeff, sorry for the late reply. Yes that was mine. It was a model I built oh..about 15 years ago. For what it is, it's not bad. I just went through a huge clearing spree. I've sold so many older models and kits it's crazy. Starting from scratch on a lot.

Anyways it sold for almost 30 dollars so I'm happy.

Jerry, I need to browse your blog again, it's been so long. Cheers, Bob

[cteno4]

another interesting high rise up on ebay!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110509314449&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_4539wt_1073

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

just a note that curt got some more pictures of his layout buildings being done by cmr!

http://www.japanrailmodelers.org/photos/kurtslayout/index.html

article

http://www.japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/curtlayout.html

been interesting watching how they go about making their models. helps to have all sorts of great toys like laser cutters and the like!

cheers

jeff

[bill937ca]

Very interesting layout. 

[Scaper]

Jeff,

 I have seen some of these pics on CMR Website. Is Curt paying CMR for custom buildings? I've contacted Jeff at CMR oh about a month ago on getting some custom stuff done. It's not cheap let me tell you.

Anyways thanks for posting this link.

Cool!

[quinntopia]

Wow, great to see all of those unique looking buildings!  Curt's a lucky man!

[cteno4]

Jeff,

 I have seen some of these pics on CMR Website. Is Curt paying CMR for custom buildings? I've contacted Jeff at CMR oh about a month ago on getting some custom stuff done. It's not cheap let me tell you.

Anyways thanks for posting this link.

Cool!

curt is having cmr do most of the layout framing, track, buildings, base scenery, and structures (mix of commercial and custom stuff). he is doing the detailing and finishing the scenery in the more rural areas. so probably getting a better package price than just a building alone! see his article about it in the link below on the jrm site.

it aint cheap though!

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

my gosh, an atlas hexagon and square highrise up to $193!!! i guess things can go wild on ebay!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230473312034&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:US:1123#ht_500wt_1095

cheers

jeff

[quinntopia]

That's just crazy! Wow. That must've been a really competition, becuase the rationality on that left a long time before it ended!

And in the spirit of this thread, to2Leo was the the 'first' to break the news on some really cool new structures from Kato over on this thread:
http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,2979.0/topicseen.html
For modern, urban modellers, I don't know if you can ask for much more from Kato! Wow!

[cteno4]

Interesting adaption of atlas walls and curving it as well!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110548889594&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_4594wt_915

cheers

jeff

[Bernard]

Jeff - I don't want to hi-jack the thread but.....how is Curt's layout coming along?

[cteno4]

good, they hope to have it done in september. he just send another picture with the shinkansen station built on it. just put it up on the jrm site.

going to be fun when its done! been looking for a 4mm bottle of sake to break over the nose of the first 0 series thru the station!

http://www.japanrailmodelers.org/photos/kurtslayout/index.html

cheers

jeff

[disturbman]

This is a helluva layout! You guys are going to have some fun once you'll be starting running trains on it! Gosh! I'm jealous jealous jealous!

[cteno4]

Yes it should be fun to go over and play trains there! he has a nice basement in the house for just this train room like this along with a tv so we can watch train videos at the same time! he also has a unitram loop and some ttrak modules so will be lots to play with!

he is not having them do much scenery in the rural end and thats what he will putter on and slowly develop with structures (natural process, right!) and also he will be detailing all the street scenes. he plans on lots and lots of people! this is the guy that put walls, desks and people inside his kato buildings on his unitram layout! INS may come after him for bringing 10,000 chinese figures and another 1000 tomytec ones for the foreground!

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

another guy on ebay selling custom high rises. he says he will build them for folks as well

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-office-building-13-floors-skyscraper-/140418872978?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item20b19df692#ht_531wt_1060

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

some more custom high rises on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-building-contemporary-ART-MUSEUM-5-floors-/140422673276?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item20b1d7f37c#ht_500wt_896

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-building-office-14-story-skyscraper-/140422669787?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item20b1d7e5db#ht_500wt_896

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-building-office-6-story-high-rise-/140422671574?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item20b1d7ecd6#ht_500wt_896

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

another interesting custom. looks like might be atlas high rise walls with corners added.

cheers

jeff

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320557156141&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_500wt_1075

others

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140423810482&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_500wt_1075

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140423813139&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_500wt_1075

[quinntopia]

My goodness some of those custom jobs go for a pretty penny. Wow! 

[cteno4]

My goodness some of those custom jobs go for a pretty penny. Wow! 

well when you figure how much time must go into scratch building some of these or the cost of parts from smaller buildings it can add up very fast!

some more

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140426985927&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_500wt_1075

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-building-SKYSCRAPER-32-floors-free-shipping-/140425386040?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item20b2015838#ht_500wt_1075

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-building-Marriott-Hotel-6-floors-high-rise-/140424912496?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item20b1fa1e70#ht_500wt_1075

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-building-SKYSCRAPER-27-floors-tall-/140424914735?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item20b1fa272f#ht_500wt_1075

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-7-floor-building-downtown-office-/140426988257?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item20b219cae1#ht_500wt_1075

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-building-5-floors-your-downtown-scene-/140426990323?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item20b219d2f3#ht_500wt_1075

cheers

jeff

[quinntopia]

I wish the photos were better, and had more close ups so you can get a sense of the construction quality.  The quality, or at least the appearance, of these buildings seems really inconsistent.  Some look awesome, others like real amatuer jobs.

[inobu]

There are two aspects, Modeling and rendering.

Most of the buildings I see are rendering more so, than modeling. I think detail is the determining factor between the two.

Inobu 

[cteno4]

Inobu hit it here, many high rises models are just rendered, in that the gross level details are there, but not at a very fine scale details (although some high rises dont have much in the way of details.) true modeling really brings out the details well and thus when up close it really pops. rendered buildings can work if they are in the back and you are only seeing them from a distance on the layou. Also partial obstruction of your view can do interesting things as the foreground detail can trick the eye into translating some of it to the background objects, but at times you can get it doing the opposite of a large contrast popping out!

here is an interesting gross level detail you can add to your high rise!

http://www.crookedbrains.net/2007/06/discovery-building-shark-week-discovery.html

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

some more on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140430535566&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_500wt_1075

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140430537133&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_500wt_1075

cheers

jeff

[SubwayHypes]

wow really cool thread!  looks like im gonna have to save up some money and buy one of these one day lol.

in the meantime...i bought all the new giant buildings from Kato...only 3200 yen a pop good deal IMO./.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/list/460/0/1

[cteno4]

two more

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-Building-SKYSCRAPER-11-floors-high-rise-/140433339687?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item20b27ab527#ht_500wt_1075

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-Building-SKYSCRAPER-12-floors-high-rise-NICE-/140433338163?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item20b27aaf33#ht_500wt_1075

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

more ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300452682886&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_791wt_834

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310238810529&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_791wt_834

he also has some other interesting strip malls scratch built for sale

http://shop.ebay.com/ansky98/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340


cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

Ok got a new installment from Curt on the progress of his layout with CMR. its getting near completion! he wrote up a little update article and i added more pictures to his photo gallery. going to be a very sharp layout!

http://www.japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/curtlayout2.html

http://www.japanrailmodelers.org/photos/kurtslayout/index.html

cant wait to go over for the christening! finding an n scale bottle of sake to break across the bow of the first shinkansen run may be a challenge!

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

more highrises on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-SKYSCRAPER-building-19-FLOORS-NICE-DETAIL-/140438168438?pt=Model_RR_Trains#ht_500wt_1075

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-building-high-rise-7-floors-/140438165745?pt=Model_RR_Trains#ht_500wt_1075

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-building-high-rise-9-floors-office-hotel-/140438164036?pt=Model_RR_Trains#ht_500wt_1075

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

a double tree inn

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300454806000&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_839wt_834

this guy does a lot of custom decals as well for vehicles

cheers

jeff

[Bernard]

Found this on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/DoubleTree-Hotel-and-Conference-Center-/300454806000?pt=Model_RR_Trains

[cteno4]

more form this guy

mariott hotel

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310241492319&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_822wt_834

bank

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310241492406&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_791wt_834

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

and more

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140441115749&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_500wt_1075

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140441114497&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_500wt_1075

cheers

jeff

[bill937ca]

Not exactly skyscrapers, but these are from Auhagen, a German producer.

http://www.auhagen.de/inhalt/cms/front_content.php

http://auhagen.de/inhalt/cms/front_content.php?idcat=82&idart=96&xtc_catid=47

#14466, 6 floors.

http://auhagen.de/inhalt/cms/front_content.php?idcat=82&idart=96&xtc_catid=49&xtc_pid=15419

#14464, 5 floors

Apparently Euro Train may be the only distributor in the US. These are N scale,although TT seems to be there focus.

"Euro Train Hobby inc. specializes in HO and TT scale train models and accessories for model railroading manufactured in Eastern Europe, such as East Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary and countries of former Soviet Union. I, as the founder of the company, started my collection of model railroading about 25 years ago with TT scale from Berliner TT Bahnen. That is why it is familiar to me and I will try to supply to U.S collectors as much of European TT as possible."

http://www.eurotrainhobby.com/index_cat.php/cPath/95_96?osCsid=7d3rl3q0mannup05rs44lhavg7

Two multi-story houses for $18 doesn't sound too bad.

[quinntopia]

Thanks for posting this Bill!

Not exactly skyscrapers, but these are from Auhagen, German producer.

I picked up the 14464 kit ("2 Wohnhauser") when I was in Paris this summer.  Haven't put them together yet (too busy with other projects this summer!), but it should be interesting to combine these two to get a 7 or 8 story apartment out of them.  Also, I believe Scaper discovered that these are actually older kits from a now-defunct manufacturer out of the old East Germany (I want to say the firm's name was "Velo") which explains why these are so different from Auhagen's other buildings, and don't seem too contemporary!  If memory serves, one of his massive skycrapers is built from these older "Velo" kits now being made by Auhagen.

[cteno4]

more from this guy on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300462403860&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_839wt_834

http://cgi.ebay.com/Urban-Firehouse-/300460321579?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item45f4d4ab2b#ht_856wt_834

http://cgi.ebay.com/Office-Building-/310246693576?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item483c24dac8#ht_791wt_834

too bad his photos are usually washed out and hard to see how he models these.

jeff