N scale city, highrises and Skyscrapers

Great Scaper

New Member
Hey everyone I'm new on here. I'm building a huge city for my N scale Layout. The layout is not together yet as I've just been building structures and details. It's going to be pretty large. I'm just starting on a few of my factories now. I also have a few more skyscrapers I'm working on too. I've got lots to do still so it'll be a couple of years before I get the layout together.

Here's a photo of some of my buildings...I'll leave a link to a slideshow I put together!

Actually this website is refusing to host my images for some reason. Strange.
2233639527_38ce65b604.jpg


........ so to see better detail you can look at some of my buildings and structures here as the photos will be much larger...
Here's a link to my slideshow I have on Flickr.com

thegreatscaper's slideshow on Flickr

Some of these buildings have taken me a long time. Like the Large DPM Hilton Hotel high rise I built. There's a company called Custommodelrailroads.com that's coming out with a bunch of old school skyscrapers for N scale in the spring. I've also got a couple of more really cool Tomix skyscrapers I'm working on and the Bronze Atlas hexagonal one. IT will be the tallest but I'm customizing it with a slopped glass roof to make it really unique.

Well I hope you enjoy!

Cheers, Bob
 

scubadude

Member
Bob, I've said it before and I'll say it again.....you're buildings are
B-B-BAD TO THE B-B-B-BONE!! :thumb::thumb::thumb:
 

Great Scaper

New Member
ScubaDude! (cool name) by the way!

Thanks. this is my second website I've posted on. I think that's it. I've been reading some of the posts on here and it seems like a cool site.

I took a few more photos last night and added them to my gallery. So I thought I'd repost my link.

Jet Rock,

I will. This is only half or less than half of the space I'll take up to run the layout. I've gotten some cool ideas from other websites and photos I've found lately off the net.

It's fun, but a lot of work. I think I'll be another couple of years before the layout gets put together!

Woody, and others...
Many thanks on the compliments. :thumb:
 

Biased turkey

Active Member
You are on the wrong forum Great Scaper, this is a model railroad forum, not a model architecture forum :)

Very impressive , could you please give us some more details about the construction ?.
Do you glue the pictures to some foamboard or cardboard ?.

Jacques
 

Great Scaper

New Member
Biased Turkey...

These are almost all Styrene Models. One is Porcelain, some are Harder Plastics. But I never ever use cardboard and photo paper...YUCK! hahahaha...

I wish I could post photos on here it's not allowing me to. Grrrrrr

Here's a few more links to how I put together specific buildings. I've not photographed all my building constructions but I can definitely go into more detail.

Can someone tell me why it won't let me post photos? I put the link into the image bar, the photo comes up in the message screen but when I go to post the message the photo gets erased and just the link comes up. Weird. I'd love to show how I did specific buildings and post the photos of what I used to do it etc. If not I can always do this on my flickr account. but then you'll have to click links instead of just viewing the photos on here.

Anyways here's The

DPM high rise..Hilton Hotel
thegreatscaper's slideshow on Flickr

The Kibri Hotel, these kits were made in the 60' and 70's I found mine on Ebay and kitbashed them. I'm creating another version of this one.

thegreatscaper's slideshow on Flickr

This is a Tomix Highrise...this one is getting a bit bigger this weekend. Three stories higher for the taller one and two stories higher for the shorter one.

thegreatscaper's slideshow on Flickr

I built this office building from scratch, it was one of my first buildings I've gotten a bit better since this guy but I still like it in it's rather rough form. I wish it was a little taller, I have a plan of upgrading it, but that will be a project down the road! :D

thegreatscaper's slideshow on Flickr

Here's an industrial building I did...
thegreatscaper's slideshow on Flickr

I'll post a few more links tomorrow. But this gives you a rough idea. :D

Funny thing about the Architect forum joke. On my flickr account I've had a developer ask me if I do this for a train set or If I had a business for building buildings for developers. I've also had a couple of requests from people on Flickr if I sell my stuff. hahahaha... Nope just for my train set layout!

I'm actually a Landscaper! Another means of Artistic Expression! :D

Well, I hope that helps a little bit!

I'll keep you posted!

Cheers, Bob
 

mcbane666

Member
Great job on the office building,

have you thought about adding the top of an elevator shaft to the roof?

and if you cut out a couple random windows, then added some lexan that you have heavily tinted, you could have a light in there and it would give a feeling of a real sky scraper at night
 

SD90

Active Member
WOW those buildings are incredible! That will sure make a great city sceen! I can't wait to see more!
 

SD90

Active Member
What size layout will you be creating? That would be a great backdrop, using those skyscrapers!
 

jesso

Member
Wow that is a great city that you have built! Thank you for sharing. I can't wait to see more of your work!
 

Great Scaper

New Member
mcbane,

I've thought about adding lights to many of my buildings, yet it seems like so much work, mind you that hasn't scared me building what I've built so far...ahahahaha, I have an elevator shaft for it, I just need to paint it and glue it on. I'm also going to increase the height a bit too. I'm going to redo the whole ground floor, lift it up a bit, put some underground parking two levels with stairs going up to the first floor of office. I'll add some green space, gardens trees. I've figure this will look pretty good and it won't be that hard to do, while looking pretty authentic. I'll post this when I'm done but I've got a lot more buildings and factories to make still before I do that one, but you never know. :D

My Layout will be mostly an Urban scene. I will have a subway and or a bullet train on a viaduct. Also there will be regular box car trains, and iron hoppers etc. with a steel production industry. I've got the big blast furnace kit, Coke ovens, Electric Furnace etc. I've got the big Kibri Crane kit, with a lot of other industrial kits. I'm wanting to build a port, that will have a freighter, container ships etc, with trains coming in and out of the port and industrial area, coming in and out of the city.

As far as the size of the Layout I'm not sure how big this will have to be to make it work. All I know is I love N scale, I need a warehouse to build something like this in H.O. :D I've actually had a few H.O. guys say how amazed they are at the detail achieved in the city structures. So I guess that's a compliment! :D

I haven't built one of my industrial buildings except for some of the factory buildings. One of my next high rises is going to be a kitbash of the Bralick building. I've only got two kits right now, but I think I'll use four or five of them to build a tall one! I think it'd look awesome beside the large DPM kitbashed high rise I built. I want some more earlier, turn of the century style buildings. I like the Department 56 Flatiron Building I got. I have a bit of work to get rid of the yellow painted windows, and the little bits of snow that came on it. The dremel tool will take care of that! :D and I'll paint the yellow windows black, there's a light inside and some windows are cut out it looks pretty cool when turned on, but will look better with yellow painted black.

I'm making three different Greenmax highrises too. Two of them will be side by side, one will have a 7/11 store at the bottom, it fits perfectly, while the other close in style will be a bit taller. It's going to look really awesome! I'll post these buildings as I get them done too.

Anyway of posting photos from my flickr account on here?

Thanks again for the compliments!
 

Herc Driver

Active Member
WOW! What an amazing collection...I'm not too sure how much space you'll need, but those buildings will make for an amazing layout with some tracks and road, cars and people. Really, really nice work.
 

palmsprings2009

New Member
Wow....I have never seen anything so vast in n-scale. This is why n-scale is so amazing....could never do this in any other scale...well maybe Z!

How did you make the fancy, round, brown building on the almost far left of the 1st image in your gallery for the city?
 

Great Scaper

New Member
Hey I think you mean the Flatiron Building. If so, you can buy them from Dept 56. Here's one being sold on Ebay. I still have to blacken the windows in and remove the little bit of snow that comes on it. But it's exactly N scale and has incredible detail! It has a light inside too, which looks really good.

Dept 56 CIC Flatiron Building #59260 MIB - eBay (item 330207845856 end time Feb-26-08 18:39:51 PST)

Dept 56 also made a scaled version of the Empire State Building. It's out of production now. But they come up on ebay all the time too. I've been tempted to buy one, but I'm going to wait for Custommodelrailroads.com to come out with their N scale highrises instead, the H.O. ones look awesome!

They can be found here.
http://custommodelrailroads.com/
Look under building kits. The New N scale versions of all these buildings are going to be made available for purchase in April. I'm also waiting on a couple of Tomix buildings coming out of Japan 1:150th scale in April too. :D

I know the city is going to be pretty massive, but other than the industrial area and port it will be mostly my layout. I think it should look pretty cool when it's all done with lights, roads, billboards, people, vending machines, fire hydrons, street lights, trains, etc. Lots of work still to come! :D
 
oh, now I know..

All my local hobbystores are sold out of the hilltowne hotel. I see why.:mrgreen:I need 2 myself. What city are you modeling? Looks great.
 

traingeeks

New Member
Any chance of selling any of your buildings!!!!? They are awesome I need one or two good buildings for my layout. If not would you post instructions on how to build them when you stack them on top of each other? WOW... I loving your buildings.
 

Great Scaper

New Member
Hey! I've had so many people ask me if I'd sell my buildings! hahaha. No I'm keeping them for my future layout.

I've been trying to figure the best way to share the information on these. I was almost thinking about creating a website, detailing the parts I used, the buildings. The building make, year of production, part numbers etc. with detailed photographs.

In the short term, what buildings were you wanting to know about? I can let you know exactly how many I used and where I got them. I found all the Kato and Tomix, Greenmax buildings...many not photographed.. really cheap, like almost half of retail after taxes.

Let me know. In the mean time, I'll look into creating a website!

Many thanks again for everyone's compliments!
 

Art Decko

Member
Outstanding, really nice work!

Very nicely constructed and finished, I like your choice of colors (realistic, and not over saturated, as is so common).

Bravo!
 
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