Outland Models buildings

[keiichi77]

I came across buildings by Outland Models (China) on ebay and was wondering if anyone has tried these?  They seem to have some nice designs that could work very well on a Japanese layout. One of them looks like a copy of the Kato 4 Floor Office building which makes me wonder if they are all copies of other manufacturers. Some of the designs look original (well to me anyway), they are inexpensive and look ideal customization and bashing to make higher buildings.  Any thoughts?

 

 

 

 

[cteno4]

Looks interesting! Where can you get them?

 

Jeff

[the_weird_one]

Looks like they have an eBay store

 

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Outland-Models-CN/N-Scale-Spur-N-1-160-/_i.html?_fsub=13903080010

[kvp]

 

 which makes me wonder if they are all copies of other manufacturers

More or less. One of them looks like a long out of production 0 gauge kit that was scanned, shrunk and got most small details deleted. Also one of the N scale buildings looks like a greatly simplified H0 walters kit. I would say they were only inspired by some existing kits, but the models got redesigned to better match the production methods used by the manufacturer.

[Robert46]

It looks good.. another option for lower price plastic buildings... Thanks for the photos.. :)

[JR 500系]

OOpppsss spotted!

 

I have some of their buildings, but I did not buy them from their ebay store...

 

They originated from making these buildings for Gundam Dioramas:

 

 

Picture from their store in China...

 

I thought they looked great as N scale buildings so I bought some:

 

My latest purchase from them

 

Although they looked great, some minor additions can be done to make them more 'Japanese':

 

Perfume Girl group ~

 

I need a better printer...

 

They have these nice tower carparks that are very common in Japan...

 

A small warehouse...

 

They come in small packs unassembled without instructions, but are very easily assembled together without glue and just simply snap fit in. They're evolving their buildings more to make them look more realistic with more details, but they usually come in the same boring grey base colour, but that can be easily solved with some self-painting ~~

 

 

[ToniBabelony]

These bigger buildings look okay for background models (I'm guessing laser cutting), but those smaller details that are listed on the eBay website look like low quality 3D printed junk...

[railsquid]

The windows on the residential buildings (e.g. the one with the "Perfume" girls on) are distinctly not Japanese - you never get windows with top lights, especially in apartment buildings.

[keiichi77]

Their US ebay store seems to have the best selection of larger N scale buildings, even more then the China store.

 

US

 

http://www.ebay.ca/sch/outland_models_us/m.html?item=201522860257&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

 

China

 

http://www.ebay.ca/sch/outland_models_cn/m.html?item=171999659861&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

[kvp]

The gray buildings seems to be CNC milled, while the smaller, colored items are 3d printed. The quality is lower than shapeways because of the precolored material, but at least the same CNC machine could do it with a printing head that cuts the larger buildings.

[ozman2009]

They have what appears to be an extensive range in Z scale, although some of the items look like repetitions. I'm tempted to buy one or two, just to see what they're like "in the flesh".

[ToniBabelony]

The quality is lower than shapeways because of the precolored material.

No, it's becauase it's done with a low quality, low resolution (probably a FDM/FFF) printer. The cheapest option, but also the least satisfactory in outcome. It's more like a glorified and computer controlled glue gun, rather than a sophisticated printer for these resolutions.

[cteno4]

interesting. funny they have different things with the us store vs canadian vs china. many things in the canada store ship from the us but are not in the ebay.com store! same building with bid and buy it now at the same price. 

 

the bigger buildings do look to be CNC with all the rounded corners in the windows. many do look like copies of kato and tomix with a few mods. buildings do look similar, but these are a bit too at times!

 

Picked a few up to play with.

 

oh for a laser cutter to produce buildings like this!

 

jeff

[kvp]

The items seem to be in china with delivery within a month. The german (european) buy it now price with free shipping equals with the starting bid + ~2 usd shipping. This is a good trick to get them listed as both cheap, cheap to ship, free shipping and lowest price+shipping.

[JR 500系]

Please allow me to add on:

 

1) The buildings are commonly in a single grey base colour, but they have some painted ones, but will costs a little more expensive. Nonetheless, still cheaper for the size of a skyscraper

 

2) The buildings are very slightly 'smaller' in size if compared with Kato/ Tomix ones. Not very noticeable, but they are scaled to a scale of 1/144 for Gundam models. They still look good as background fillers

 

3) The windows are there, but they are empty, i.e. no glass or coverings, just empty holes

 

4) I don't like the patio they always include in some of their buildings, as Japanese buildings rarely have much patio unless hotels/ restaurants... But they can be easily removed or simply do not fit them on.

 

5) The material is quite thick, so I see a potential for interior lighting. Let me try some out to see the effects and will post them here.

[cteno4]

makes sense. had not thought of it that way.

 

it was odd that some of the ebay.ca offerings shipped from the usa but were not on ebay.com! shipping us to ca is not cheap...

 

jeff

[kvp]

Afaik 1/144 is larger than 1/150, not smaller. The painted and cnc-d buildings are made from prepainted styrene sheets. This is a common way to make nicer door signs in offices. Any surface that is cut will reveal the color of the base material. For clear windows, any smooth clear plastic packaging material or projector sheet can be used. They can be cut to the size of the wall with scissors.

[cteno4]

Yeah the acetate sheets from Tomix and kato building boxes works well for glass! Just use a general plastic cement, not ACC as the acc fumes will fog the clear acetate for a good distance around the drop of glue and sometimes does not really show up for a while!

 

The 4% increase to the 1/144 is rarely noticed in a situation like this. Depending on how soft the stryene mix they used I'll give a whirl at cleaning out the rounded window corners. Nice to have some different shaped buildings. I got the larger ones that look similar to the old greenmax high rises.

 

Jeff

[JR 500系]

So I tried to fit in some 3rd party LED lights today into some of these models. Featured here is a newer version of their 'Japanese' shopping mall:

 

 

Here is how it looks like on the inside. There is a centre 'floor' piece which is not only good for adding ore strength to the structure, but also great as a light divider between the building...

 

 

A small hole is made easily on the plates to run in the wires...

 

 

Looking good for now! Now to assemble it back...

 

 

Not bad! of course now to test it in the dark to view the true effects...

 

 

Looks great! The white and blue is clearly divided, but the white seems to be too bright...

 

 

And the light will seep through the connections at the joints...

 

In conclusion, these buildings are able to be fitted with interior lights almost without any need for modifications, while most of the Tomytec ones need some work to 'blacken' the walls..

 

 

[kvp]

If you want them to remain disassemblable, imho you can glue a strip of L shaped black paper to one endge only, which would cover up the seams but still allow maintenance later.

 

The shopping mall looks great btw.

[cteno4]

Jr, thanks for the internal pictures! Looks like heavier styrene than tomytec or even greenmax which would account for the light dampening.

Seams are always an issue with light leaks. Kvp's solution is good for disassembly.

Also using more, dimmed LEDs stems the light issues a lot as well and distributes the light more evenly.

Will be fun to get these,nthey should arrive this week, although I have not gotten a shippment notice yet

 

 

correction just got the first class shipping notice!

 

Jeff

Edited February 22, 2016 by cteno4

[JamesTu]

I have used both the ready coloured and the unpainted buildings in this range. They are not as detailed as other manufacturers, but to me, that was part of the fun. The unpainted buildings I painted using Valspar masonry paint which gave them a concrete look and texture. I used their 500 ml sample pots which can be mixed to any shade as this paint was cheap.

The extra Japanese decorations were either left over  from other Japanese kits, or downloaded from the internet.

[cteno4]

James,

 

hey sounds great! Great if you could post some Picts, great to see what you did. I'm intregued with the masonary paint! Sounds like a good building paint. Did you brush or spray? The sample pots are great to use like that. I use the craft acrylics a lot and the flat ones can be thinned and sprayed and give that flat concrete look as well.

 

i now have most of the range of these buildings I've picked up in the last year or so on ebay. Popped a few together and as you say they are not a s detailed but with some additions they can look great and all a lot of variety! Bit more of a challenge to light but some plastic L stock in the corners and internal paint can help stop that, just a lot more interior prep work to do then if you want to light them.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Kiha66]

Thanks for the info James, mind posting some photos?  Getting actual reviews is one of my favorite things people share on this site, after the amazing projects. 

[cteno4]

BTW the plain jane version of the buildings assembled as is do match the pictures on ebay listings.  

 

jeff