Ho Scale Modern High Rises


jbovinette

Florida Railroads
Hello all. I'm looking for modern day high rises in HO scale. Most of them will me backdrop. Does anyone have any ideas? Or would I have to make my own?

Thanks,
John
 
For some reason i thought i remembered KATO having High Rises Buildings? I think Kibri or Faller might also have a couple you might be able to use and kitbash to make them to look more American, that is if your looking to model American High Rises.... lol
 
Here is one I built in 1:96 scale. I built the tall part, not the lower building which I think is only 4 or 5 floors. That is an HO SD70MAC on the base. I think it was about 45 floors. Can anyone guess what/where it is. It is in a western US city, I think it was built in 2005-2006. Hint: Hammered Man.
big_bldg.jpg
 
Paul, not a clue, since I left the West in 2005 but it's a pretty impressive building. How much does that whole thing weigh?

John, if you look at Larry's picture, you'll see he did some pretty creative things with air filters. There are other found objects that can be made to look like skyscrapers with a little imagination. I know one guy who used cereal boxes painted white or bronze with plastic strips for the outside floor supports and black electrical tape for the windows. It wouldn't have looked too good at the front of the layout but looked remarkably realistic four feet back. Rix's Smalltown USA has one five story building at http://www.rixproducts.com/kelsey_nicole.htm that would be easy to add on to with the modular windows and Plastistruct materials used in the kit. City Classics also has a nice line of inexpensive five story buildings that would also be easy to add on to. If you're looking for really modern glass and steel types, Kibri and Faller both have one but they are really expensive and kind of ugly. You would need to rework them to look more American.
 
Thanks Guys for the advice. It's tough to find modern day stuff in HO scale. Hey kjd that is one impressive building. What did you use that for anyway? Larry, that's pretty creative. How much did all those air filters cost you man. Those things aren't cheap! I've looded at Kibri and Faller and those would take too much to make them look American and yes they are very expensive.

Thanks,
John
 
Here is one I built in 1:96 scale. I built the tall part, not the lower building which I think is only 4 or 5 floors. That is an HO SD70MAC on the base. I think it was about 45 floors. Can anyone guess what/where it is. It is in a western US city, I think it was built in 2005-2006. Hint: Hammered Man.
big_bldg.jpg

Easy. That's the WaMu Center in Seattle, by NBBJ Architects. 598' tall, 42 stories.

NEXT! :D
 
The building is made out of plywood, acrylic sheet and polyurathane foam. It is the WaMu Center. The building in the front is the Seattle Art Museum. How did a modeler of the NYCS know that?

I have built lots of high rises but usually on a lot smaller scale. For high end buildings I used acrylic sheet and scribed it with a laser withour removing the protective paper. The window mullions, spandrels, etc. were uncovered and painted. If the spandrels and mullions were different colors, one was peeled then painted then remasked and the rest of it peeled and painted. Then when the rest of the paper was peeled you ended up with windows. Sometimes if a building had lots of releif, the windows with mullions would be one sheet and stone work or whatever was another sheet laid over it.
 
Larry, that's pretty creative. How much did all those air filters cost you man. Those things aren't cheap! I've looded at Kibri and Faller and those would take too much to make them look American and yes they are very expensive.
_________________________________________________________________
Thanks,
John
___________

John, Those are tower fans & some of them still work. I bought them from Walmart for $5.00 ea. When I worked there from 2003 to almost 2008 when a customer brought 1 back because it didn't work or had parts missing I bought them. I originally bought 12 of them. Then I buy them at yard sales for about the same price & also people see them on my layout & give me their old junk ones out of their sheds. I take the guts out of the non working ones & add some painted plexiglass from top to bottom & wa-la a skyscraper.
There's some buildings there made out of the floroescent lite covers that are in drop ceilings. Then there's 3 NASA tall buildings made out of Shelf(painted clear plastic) retainers that I got at WM for free out of the dumpster.
Then there's a big building made out of the fan blades(round & tall) out of one of those non working fans & a little half round aluminum display mouldings out of electronics.
A lot of the Walmart Supercenters are going thru a major remodeling of the stores. If you go behind the store ""Everyday"" & check what they throwaway you get some real nice stuff. All it takes is a little imagination & a lot of trial & error. Found Junk makes nice buildings. If you had to buy one of those tall buildings in HO scale you are looking at $500.00 ea. in kit form.
I have 18 tall skyscrapers & I have about $50.00 tied up in all of them put together.
 
The building is made out of plywood, acrylic sheet and polyurathane foam. It is the WaMu Center. The building in the front is the Seattle Art Museum. How did a modeler of the NYCS know that?

It helps that my second passion, after railroading, is high-rise architecture. :p
 
Scratchbuilt highrises/Cities

I have built a total of 14 modern highrises in my HO scale city from materials that you can find in Homedepot and various Crafts/Art Stores
3384844716_c7ffc0a8bf_b.jpg


3384025927_53fa7d82fc_b.jpg


I have about 6 more High Rises and a Station Head house to Build and the Layout will be about 85 percent finished. This layout is 2 two layouts in one. one for trolleys and another for heavy traction
 
Modern High rise buildings

The buildings are made of clear and colored acrylic and lexan plastic as a building core. Styrene sheets/strips are then glued on as required. Windows are made from plastic matrix sheets and window shades are made of tape. I have not lighted the buildings yet but because of the construction it should be easy. I use a CAD program to design each building before it is built and print out exact elevations which I use as templates when building. If I had a laser cutter I would be in business.
 
Truly the work of an architect. We want more pictures of your layout! Looks like you have an interesting trolley line running through town.
 



Back
Top