Interesting Modern Office Building on eBay (German manufacture)

[quinntopia]

One thing I like about the JNS Forum is that there are a few folks like me that really like the modern / urban, building aspect of N Scale (at least I'm assuming so from my fellow forumites posts!).  Anyway, its great to have a place to chat about buildings!

 

But that's not the reason for THIS post!

 

I recently won a really cool looking building that I've never seen before from a guy in the UK, he now has another version of this building up for auction.

The manufacturer seems to be German, and as you can tell from the photo, this is one structure that (losing the German ads/companies) could work in a Japanese city (or Canada, Australia, China etc!!!)!

But, here's the weird thing. Its a bit undersized for 1:160 N Scale, I actually think it could be Z Scale.  Does anyone recognize this building and know who the manufacturer is and what scale its supposed to be?  I imagine it could be N Scale from the 1970's, when perhaps less discipline as applied to the size of buildings and so on.  Anyway, somewhat curious.

 

Oh....and here's the link to the auction (I have had good dealings with him and would recommend):

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130337536928&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

[quinntopia]

Also, my plan with the building is to essentially take it apart, use the window's and other details, to make the building more close to 1:160 scale.  I expect that 1/4 in or 5/16" strips of styrene in place of the kit's 'blue sections' will give it enough 'floor height' to help it match the Kato/Tomix buildings (and other N stuff)

[bill937ca]

7.5cm x 6cm (aka 75mm x 60mm) base is close to the size of Kato's commercial building bases.  I'd say 1/160 or 1/148.

 

These Kato buildings are 140mm (14cm) high to the roof line (without the machinery room).

 

http://www.kato-unitrack.co.uk/kato-dio-town-23-432a-metro-series-6-floor-office-building-1716-0.html

 

http://www.kato-unitrack.co.uk/kato-dio-town-23-432b-metro-series-6-floor-office-building-1717-0.html

 

http://www.kato-unitrack.co.uk/kato-dio-town-23-435a-metro-series-6-floor-office-building-3-1722-0.html

 

http://www.kato-unitrack.co.uk/kato-dio-town-23-435b-metro-series-6-floor-office-building-3-1723-0.html

 

It'll be almost the same size as these Kato buildings and look similar.

[cteno4]

Im pretty sure its an older Vollmer, but i think no longer in production. could be a pola, kibri or faller. vollmer has several city buildings similar to this, that can squeek in as japanese with some good signs on them! i have a few here i wanted to see what i could do to make them more japanese. you see these on quite a few japanese layouts, i think from the days before there were a lot more modern japanese office buildings like the kato diotown line.

 

http://www.reynaulds.com/products/Vollmer/7726.aspx

 

http://www.reynaulds.com/products/Vollmer/7728.aspx

 

also in poking around i found a faller item that could go well on a japanese layout. bus/bike stands.

 

http://www.nguaging.co.uk/item.asp?itemid=4855

 

http://www.ngauging.co.uk/item.asp?itemid=4856

 

cheers

 

jeff

[ToniBabelony]

I think so as well that it's a Vollmer building. It has not that smooth Faller feeling to it. Maybe it's an early Pola model, but I doubt it...

 

I've experimented a bit with these kind of 'modern' West-German models, but they need a lot of work to fit in a modern Japanese era. The 40~50 Shouwa period seems appropriate to me, but nowadays these buildings are tend to disappear and make room for 21st century stuff. Shopping buildings are hard to convert, but offices and houses are quite easy going. You just have to repaint the hell out of them, preferably with the dullest gray one can find to get that 'concrete' feeling. It always does the job and doesn't look bad either (ugly also has its beautiful side).

[quinntopia]

These Kato buildings are 140mm (14cm) high to the roof line

Yeah, that sounds right, but the thing that through me off is that this 'german' building has 8 floors versus the 6 from a Kato building.  I'll get a side by side photo so we can compare.

[bill937ca]

Floor heights do vary in buildings.  Most are 8-10 feet, but sometimes they go as high as 12 feet. Ground floors are often higher.

[quinntopia]