Extending the City

Ahhh... Fall is here! And with the coming of Fall, its time to spend more time in the train room!  Despite my lingering ideas about building a new layout, this weekend I chose to clean the track, run trains, and take care of a few details.

One of the things that I decided take care of today was to finally do something about the 'blank space' referred to as the 'negative zone'.  What I did was added in three buildings that, since completion, have say idle on shelves!  Above (and below) are some photos showing where I placed the two Vollmer buildings that I completed way back in December of last year facing the tram line with their backs to the main rail lines.

I also placed the "Quinntopia Hospital" across the tram line from the Vollmer buildings.  Yes, this alignment now makes absolutely no sense (did it make sense before?) with the tram line running right in front of the hospital!

There's some open tarmac around these buildings and the tram line that, I suppose, is just really poorly utilized parking spots right now; a good location for a future tram stop I think!

Looking 'down the road' (miraculously, the below is one of about 20 photos I took from this angle that was NOT blurry!) you can see the Dali-esque inspired urban layout that the hospital/Vollmer neighborhood of the layout experiences!  Ah well....at least they do get access to public transit (and at least there is now a reason for a tram to visit this line!).

The above experience should make clear why I am considering a new start for a layout...I've just run out of room but - unfortuantely? - not ideas!!!!  No fear, I find it hard to part with things, so I am sure the layout will continue to stay well for quite a few more months or years!

That's it for now! Hopefully I'll have a few more updates on the layout and other N gauge hobby stuff shortly!  Thanks for reading!

Vollmer Buildings

After the long process of building the Luetke Office Tower, I've since taken on a few smaller projects.  Vollmer makes some of the nicest, traditional buildings and (like many of us) I've had a few that have been sitting unopened in their boxes for some time.  So it seemed like a fun project to take these on. 

The first structure I built was the Vollmer 7650 "Coffee House", which I built pretty much exactly as designed in the kit, with the usual exceptions of adding lighting and custom painting all of the pieces to make them a bit more unique than usual.

The second structure is the 7654 "Public Records Office".   With this building I decided to take advantage of the fact that there are 4 really nicely done walls and yet only one side (maybe two) will ever be visible on the layout.
Below you can see the three sections (in the kit, this would be the front and two sides) that will make up the 'front', with the 'back wall' making up a side wall.   Since I'm using all four of the provided walls to make up just two of the new walls, I had to create a new side and back wall sections, which you can see to the right and above the four kit walls in the below.

Their are a couple of challenges. A relatively easy one is getting the walls to line up in such a way so that it looks like a real building front and not like the 'sides' that they really are.  This was pretty simple.  The harder task was to re-create the roof-line, which has several different angles and gables that were a challenge to get correct.  I used the original roof section to create templates for the roof angles (you can see this above on the side wall styrene section I created), but cut the roof section into separate pieces to get the gables.

 

Given that this building will be lit with LED strips, the interior walls were giving the customary coat of black paint to eliminate all the translucency of the plastic, and some balsa wood strips were used to provide structural support as well as a mounting base for the LED strips.

A few ground floor details (which includes a new styrene ground floor to match the new buildings foot print) were added.  Faily minimal; some patterned paper for background walls, some Kibri picnic benches for tables/chairs, and some cheap Chinese N scale figures to add a bit of dimension.

Obviously, if you look close enough, it will be apparent that I used the side walls to make the front of the building a lot longer, but if you didn't know better, this trick is convincing enough! The below photo shows the 'extended' Public Records office building and the traditional coffee house.

 

Another view of the structures from the opposite end. 

Not evident in the photo is what I ended up doing with the roof.  As you can tell from the above photos, the roof structure was created with styrene, but this is far too smooth and lacks texture even if painted to work well.  I decided to try my hand at using the relatively cheap, downloadable roof tile patterns from Scalescenes.  When I first applied the paper roof tiles (making several prints and many cuts to try and match the odd angles of the gables and roof!) it did appear a bit too 'papery' for me, but I weathered them up a bit with some weathering powder and matte spray which seemed to improve the appearance to acceptable levels.  I am probably still more of a plastic guy, but I think this technique works well enough for me now (NOTE: One of the challenges I have with any paper structure is that my layout is in a garage, so humidity is more of a challenge than it would be in a normal house.  Time will tell how this will impact the paper).

I do have to admit that building this Vollmer structures is really enjoyable...the scale of these projects is not so large that it can seem overwhelming, but the detail and character of these kits are a lot of fun to put together!

Moving the Cathedral

As can be seen in the above photo, I've been able to get another city block wired up and lit.  While I'm waiting for all my track to arrive for my expansion, I've had some time to work on smaller projects that I've skipped over; wiring and adding my buildings is one of those projects (ballasting my track and 'painting my rails' is another one).

I've had this 'plan' for this second city block for quite some time.  Its a challenge as it incorporates the Vollmer cathedral, which is far deeper than most buildings and therefore extends the entire width of my 'blocks'.

An idea struck me that I think may improve both the city block and the cathedral.  What I'm thinking of doing is moving the cathedral to the current (well, 'proposed') site of my 'tram stop'.   This area is also the sort of 'dead zone' inside my track oval that is difficult to integrate square buildings easily.

Of course, this change means that the tram stop and tracks need to move.  I have few options as you'll notice a bridge over a road (which leads to a tunnel) that would be very difficult to move.  The nice thing about moving the tram stop is that I can use the area on both sides of the church for both a smaller tram stop and a sort of 'plaza' or parking.

Another option, and one I don't care too much for, is to turn the church 90 degrees.   Hmmm....I don't care too much for how this looks, but it would require a lot less work!

Another project that I must absolutely get to next is road striping.  I'm a bit tired of looking and plain streets and I also think that it'll be a lot easier to add striping now before too many structures or details are added later.

Okay, that's it for now...back to the train room!

A New Station - Combining Kato with Vollmer

The main railway station on Quinntopia has, since any of the 'little plastic people' can remember, been the Kato Overhead Station.  Its an ideal station of course, as it takes up little room in the crowded downtown area of the city but yet still provides access to the two lines that serve the inner city.

However, the little plastic people of Quinntopia had some issues.  For one, they didn't like climbing all those steps to get to the station, and then have to go down a bunch of steps to get to the train.  Is it too much to ask for an escalator-or an elevator?  My response has always been that if its good enough for Kato (and, presumably, Japan), then it should be good enough for Quinntopia.

Another complaint the LPP ("Little Plastic People" from now on) have about the station was that they think that a modern, well-lit, central-city station should have something more of a grand entrance?  My response has always been that art deco rail palaces are so 20th Century. And what's wrong with that really long stairway anyway?

Ultimately, I had to agree that the LPP had a point (which is one of the reasons its so hard to glue them down, another topic....), and that I really needed to do something about the downtown station.  Then I came across this:

It's a Vollmer 7510.  A modern train station (which is an oxymoron in the United States) from Germany that is now out of production.   I really liked the glass walls, the modern architecture, and in my own imagination, I could visualize the incorporation of this building with its large, welcoming entry/lobby, second-story offices, with the Kato Overhead Station. 

So that's what I did.  I had to completely disassemble the 7510, and gave just about everything a new coat of paint.  This meant that the Kato station needed a similar paint job; so they both went under the brush (or spray can to be more accurate). 

From the street side, a new entrance with lots of light, and large lobby and (in my pretend world) and elevator to wisk the weary travelers to the overhead concourse:

Of course, with all this renovation, the 'old' overhead station needed some improvements.  The most visible is the stairway down to the platform got an upgrade with new glass walls providing a view of the trains as you descend to the platform anticipating your journey.

And of course, the 'main entrance' now attempts to be a bit more inviting to our LPP travelers' with a large glass facade:

 Hopefully, this will keep the LPP happy for a while.  However, I have a feeling that they have more demands that I must meet.

Future Building Projects

As my city begins to take shape, I've discovered I might not have enough room for everything, but I still have several buildings and structures yet to be completed and make their debut on the layout.  In addition to my procrastination and delay with my attempt at my second skyscraper scratchbuild, I've also picked up a lot of kits, both old and out of production, as well as new, that will house the residents of Quinntopia.  I thought it might be interesting to share some of these if for no other reason that its interesting to see some of the building options out there.

Although this building from Heljan is advertised as HO, only the ground floor is really HO, with all of the upper floors more appropriate for N Scale people.  Strange, but not unsurprising given the somewhat liberal interpretation of 'scale' often found in model buildings.

Next up are a bunch of classically kitschy bunch of boxes from the fine folks at Faller.  First up is Faller 2291, which is a 'boutique' with apartments on the top level.  As it is, I'll probably hold off putting this one together until I can find another one like it to give it some extra height versus the existing 4 floors.  I do admit, I really love the 1960's style 'boutique' lettering that make up this buildings marquee.

I picked up this nicely modern looking building about 6 months ago, but once I recieved it, it seemed more appropraite for Z scale than N!  The floors are just way too short to look good sitting next to other N scale structures.  I like its general appearance, and I plan to give each floor a little more height by replacing the 'blue' sections with higher sections of styrene.  As I picked up the first one pre-built, I wasn't even sure as to its manufacturer, but came across this unbuilt kit of the Faller 2293 so that now I'll be able to give this building several more stories as well, which should look pretty sharp:

Speaking of 'doubling-up' buildings to add more height, I also now have 2 unbuilt "Columbia Hotels' from Faller (2294) which will be interesting with the right lighting and a fresh paint job....

One of the unbuilt kits I'm most excited about putting together is the Faller B-905 high rise...they just don't make them like this anymore!  It looks great on the box, and the built examples of it I've seen from other modellers look really good.

 

And just to show that not everything this big is out of production, a building that they apparantly do still make, are these Skynet/Aoshima apartment buildings from Japan.  I was amazed at just how big the boxes are that they come in and, in a case of possible overkill, I ordered 2 boxes of these, which could mean for some very high apartments in Quinntopia!

Another building that is apparantly an older kit now back in production (although seemingly impossible to find) is this Kibri 7120.  I'm debating on whether or not its 'high' enough or if I should hold out for a second kit to give it some more height.

Some future kit bash/ modifications include taking this already built (again, another building picked up for cheap on ye olde eBay) modern German train station, and combining that with my Kato Overhead train station.  While I like the Kato Overhead station, the 'entrance' (just a couple of covered stairways) was somewhat underwhelming (although I expect entirely prototypical of these types of stations in Japan) and the combination of this modern station with the Kato overhead might actually be quite cool. 

A couple of more buildings that I am thinking of 'combining' are these two.  I don't know the catalog numbers, but its almost possible with some trimming to make the large building the 'top half' of the shorter shops building.  In this way, I bring to the people of Quinntopia even more retail space and living room at the same time!

For the time being, that's my list of building projects, which will be fun and keep me busy at the workbench for a while!  Seriously, some day I will get back to running trains!!!! 

I should also send out a huge thanks to "Scaper" whose been giving me a lot of great tips on where to find these buildings on eBay! 

UPDATE - A late arrival from Germany....

This is an interesting kit, and a very retro-looking cafe with a definite unique look!  I came across this on eBay without any knowledge of Herpa's history of making N scale structures.  So here is a Herpa B605.   From the package design, this looks like it was 1960's era.  Quite cool, not sure if I even want to build it if these things are as rare as they seem to be!

Doubling up a Vollmer 7728 Gift Shop

I purchased a Vollmer 7728 N Scale Gift Shop almost a year ago. It sat on the shelf while I tried to figure out what to do with it, until I finally decided to order another one and attempt to make this a much taller building than the original designers intended, similar to what I did with the Greenmax 29 building. This was a very tricky kitbash, as the front of this building has unusual recesses and different windows on virtually each floor.

The first step, whenever I put together a new building, is get a paper towel and some water and clean off the sprues. I then remove the parts from the sprues and paint them (given how light the parts are, I usually place them on some masking tape so they don't go blowing off onto the ground or worse!). If I plan to light the building interior, I also put a coat of paint on the inside walls to ensure that no light can pass through the plastic walls.

My final plan was to combine the top two floors of each model together, as these floors are all 'recessed'. That will make the bottom four floors flush with the building front. I ended up having to use some styrene strips to make the entire front look seamless.


This is another 'fashion' store (I'm getting my daughter to help me come up with store ideas, and she thought my city needed more fashion stores!) but rather than use mannequins (e.g. N scale figures) in the shop windows as I've done with other stores, I just used images that look like those you'd see in a fashion store window. I sort of expect that this building won't be as visible as others, so I didn't go overboard with a lot of detail like I tend to do with others!

Again, lot's of LED's went into this building, and there is even one floor where the apartment dwellers can be seen inside (although the photo here is pretty crappy...can't get the camera to focus on the interior!). For most floors, I used the 'window coverings' that Vollmer includes...these do a nice job of simulating drapers and ensure that there's a bit of variety on every floor like you'd expect from a 'real' apartment building.

On the back side, there are large windows that I diffused with some laquer spray and overlaid with some clear orange acetate. I don't even know if this side will be visible but...well, at least its done.

All in all, this will be a bright - and colorful!- building on the layout! I still haven't decided what the roof sign will be yet (the sign up there now in the photo is a placeholder) but that can be worked out with other details later!