Newest N scale office building. (Tomix 4034 kitbash)

[Scaper]

I started a new but small project this last week. I've been on a 6 month vacation from the hobby. So I started with a small project. I have had 3 of these small Tomix office buildings for at least half a year now. I'm going to kitbash them into a modified taller version.

Here's my flickr link to this projects photo set.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55063726@N00/sets/72157625184595567/

Each pic in this set has explanations of what I've done to that stage in the project. Also I'll be adding more pictures tomorrow. and as I do more work on this over the next week. I'll keep adding pictures of the progress and posting descriptions of what I've done.

Anyways I hope this turns out ok. It took me a long time to rip all the walls and glass apart on this building. Grrrrr.

More to come.

[cteno4]

Scraper,

thanks for the detailed picts/process! I had looked at those tomix buildings a long time back about doubling one of them up, nice to see its not that bad to do. i got one partially disassembled to do a repaint, and you are right they are soundly glued together! going to have to try this as i have 6 of these buildings i picked up really cheap at a train show like 6 years ago!

cheers

jeff

[Scaper]

Thanks Jeff.

 I got all the panels painted today. So I'll start assembling this thing tonight. I'm looking forward to making the floors for this building. It'll make a huge improvement in the look of this building.

Wow...6 of them. That'd be a tall looking building. Especially as they are quite narrow. When you get into it, you'll have to post some pics of your kitbash. :D

[cteno4]

wasnt going to go for the ultra tall, maybe like an 8 story and was also looking at painting a few different colors and maybe trying to put two together side by side with a common first floor. they were very cheap so i thought they might have some use!

cheers

jeff

[Scaper]

Jeff, I could see how that'd look cool two wide and several high. I agree these are very cheap buildings to buy. That said they are cheap in how they look too. But they have a lot of potential.

I only got a little bit of work done on this project today. I basically only got the facade parts painted. I'll get more done on this over the weekend. I'll be posting more pics on my flickr account over the weekend.

Here's how the kit looked from the beginning.


This is were I left things this afternoon.


I'll be doing a lot more on this tomorrow. :D

[Scaper]

Here's one of many pictures I uploaded on my flickr account tonight. I worked on this building for over 5 hours today (Saturday)...

All the pictures I uploaded on my flickr page today are of the different stages of this evenings work, with descriptions of what I did in each photo.



Here's the link to my flickr page... all the new pics are on my first 2 pages of my account currently. I'll add more tomorrow night.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55063726@N00/

Cheers, all.

[Bernard]

Really nice work, what I really like is how after cutting the wall, glass, etc., when you assemble it you don't see any seams. I never sure when I sand the styrene if it's going to show scratches.

[Scaper]

Thanks Bernard

 It took a lot of work to sand, paint sand...to make the seems as close as I go them.

I still have a lot of work to do on this building. This building is still not glued together, I have to cut floors for it, add interior details, add the side glass, add the floors to each story, then glue it togher, age it, add signs, add window blinds to various windows, and have an access to allow a mini florencent tube to be installed in the building, and some floors need to be blacked out from being lit up too.

Anyways all in time. I hope to get some more work done on this, this week.

All the best, Bob

[Scaper]

I've updated some pics in the link above. I've not had a lot of time to complete this project.

Here's one of the many new pics on my link.



 I still need to paint the white fronts of the floors and also adjust them so you can't see them from the front, I need to add office floor details, Also I have to age and weather the building, store signs and shopping level details etc.

Still lots of work to do.

[Scaper]

I've uploaded 16 new pictures to my photo set on this building today to my flickr account.

That said I still have a good 4-6 hours of work still to finish this building. I hope to have it done by tomorrow. Then I can start on my next project.

Here's one of my latest pics I've uploaded...and where the building is at this point.



Cheers all, Bob

[cteno4]

Bob,

nice work! love the strapping tape blinds! too bad the tape strands are not more even in their spacing. this is something ill have to be on the lookout for in the craft store, theres got to be something that can be used for that!

also love your interiors, quite fun! shows how little is needed to set the scene.

cheers

jeff

[to2leo]

Are you doing a recession scheme with the For Lease sigs?
The Strapping is a very good and fast idea.

[Scaper]

Thanks guys.

Jeff I know what you mean about the spacing in the strapping tape. That said nothing's perfect, in fact even blinds had imperfections in them themselves.

I have to be honest and give Jerry ( Quinntopia ) the honors on this find. He was the one that got me onto the strapping tape and the interior detailing. Jerry's on this site I know periodically as well.

to2leo  - I got the idea of having for lease signs in the windows from a contact on Flickr. This is one thing I like about my flickr account. I've met some really cool contacts who have really helped me with ideas and who also share their work. I've created a new series of galleries from my contacts pages, showcasing their work. There's a total of 9 galleries now I've made on my contact's work.

You can browse their photos here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55063726@N00/galleries/

Here's a little bit of a better pic of the interior of this building I'm working on.


I'll have this finished tonight. :D

Cheers all, Bob

[to2leo]

Thanks for sharing the Flickr links,  I am tempted to revive mine!

[Scaper]

Your welcome... It's a good way to log projects and I try to share as much as I can to help others find kit numbers or share how I did specific projects etc.

I use to just show finished buildings but I had so many people ask me how I made this building or that building so I decided I'd log progress on my structures. It takes a lot of time...but it's fun.

I like how Jerry (Quinntopia) logs his progress on his blog, while also having a flicker account. Same with Jonathan and others. Either way it's an extension of the hobby.

I think the biggest benefit to have found Flickr and taken the time and work to post and log my buildings online, is that I've met some amazingly gifted people online. People I consider friends. People I've learned so much from, and who also keep me motivated. To me that's more of the hobby than anything. Helping each other out, sharing work, ideas etc, while making friends. :D

That all said...

I finally finished this building tonight. I only worked on this periodically. Like once every three or four days.

I'll post my final pics tomorrow. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. :D

Also I started my new project tonight. :D

[cteno4]

Bob,

yes thank you very much for all the pictures and posts, it really is a great inspiration and good noodling points for others to stimulate them into doing their own stuff! really is a very very important part of the hobby!

was just at mb kleins (modeltrainstuff.com) new store (they moved a couple of years ago but i have never gotten to the new store) yesterday and one of the etched brass details was nice venetian blinds. they actually didnt look quite as good as i thought they might as they were a bit too perfect. has to be a solution between the tape and these! back to lurking the isles of the craft store! actually i think in person from any distance the tape works just fine anyway! keep thinking there must be some scrapbooking paper or something that has this effect of white or silver lines on clear acetate. unfortunately white or silver is not printable (well easily)!

keep the projects coming!

cheers

jeff

[Scaper]

Thanks Jeff... Funny you post is. I'm the same way. I always browse isles of different stores looking at odd ball stuff thinking of how something could be used for a model.

As I mentioned I finally finished my building yesterday...here's some pics.

Well as promised... I uploaded some pics of my completed project today.

Here's a selection of pics from my photo set.

Again if you want to see all the photos you can see them here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55063726@N00/sets/72157625184595567/with/5233741708/

Here's some pics of the final building..
The Billboard..












I've kept the top unglued as I still want to be able to slide the back off so I can add lights and adjust floors when it comes to building the city.

I got the signs from a business magazine...the take the train sign came from an insert in the HO Walther's Catalog. Everything else is pretty self explanatory.

Again there's more pix on my flickr page I posted.

On to the next project. :D