Realistic (Fake) Building Interiors

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JDL56

Member
I admire people who create intricate interiors for their models. That's way beyond my skill level. But even if I could do it, most of the 50 or so buildings on the CP Rail Manitoba & Minnesota Sub. are flats--I couldn't add interiors, even if I wanted to. But I did want some of the buildings to have realistic looking insides, as seen through the windows.

But how? One day, while driving downtown, I noticed that you can't actually see very far inside a building in the daytime--two to three feet, at best. So I went back one morning and took photos of windows and put them in my flats; see results below. More photos and information about how I did it can be found on my blog at http://cprailmmsub.blogspot.com/

John Longhurst, Winnipeg

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Wow That looks better than an actual interior!..Love the vertical blinds too.. Great Job!..I know gateway page has some interior pics for warehouses and stores. What you did looks awesome!
 


Brilliant!

You could take it a step further by cupping the print-out a bit, concave to the viewer. That way as you pass by the building, side to side, the appropriate parts of the interior will be visible. This of course requires a bit of depth and an existing hollow interior to the structure. But it could be done in very little depth - even 'flat' buildings have some depth.
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Those interiors that Ken mentioned are beautiful, but that's the opposite of what you would see on a typical sunny day. You would expect to see something that bright and well-lit if it was night (if you were looking into a brightly-lit interior). But that's not the case for most buildings during the day.

John Longhurst
 
With the small view you get in model buildings. Well smaller then O or maybe S scale. I would say the only way to get a really nice interior effect is to place pictures in stregic ways into the windows. Or, set the photos back a little bit and add figures just in front of the photo. Almost as if your transisioning the eye from models to the pictures without the eye really realizing your looking at it that way. You just dont get the same when trying to get actual models of all the furniture and counters and other details items. I attribute this to your brain looking inside and knowing its a model with a model interior so your trained to see it that way. But with 3D pictures like those from the website Loto posted. You can see that using various angles of real life things like counters, shelves, merchandise, you actually get a very convincing effect.

I will admit though that there are some modeled interiors that can look pretty good. Garages, gas stations and service counters where there is only a few things inside the room are OK. But try to model something with a lot of isles, displays and general clutter that would be too difficult to use real models in would be a bit tough to convince the eye to believe.

I also have to say. I really like the verticle blinds as well.
 


Looks great John, I've used the same method for warehouses but left an inch in between the door to add lighting


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