Anybody ever scratchbuild a staircase/escalator?

[scott]

We might need to do this, so I was wondering if anyone had any examples, hints, or suggestions...any help would be appreciated!

[CaptOblivious]

I did, once, but it was simply a strip of styrene with a trompe l'oeil  stone staircase I printed out glued to it! So that's no help to you at all, is it…

[David]

I assume the difficult part is getting all the little correctly sized, even steps. You could just borrow the stairs from an overhead pedestrian bridge kit. For example:

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10007592

 

(check picture of instructions, which shows the steps are seperate component)

[CaptOblivious]

You're thinking about taking up casting of parts, right? You could make a small length of stairway by gluing small strips of styrene into stairs, then cast this piece in plaster or plastic, and assemble these cast sub-assemblies into longer lengths.

[scott]

I only need three, so I'm not sure I want to get into casting. But using pieces of styrene  could work OK.

 

And hacking up a Greenmax kit is also a good idea--hadn't thought of that. I'd need to find out the measurements and get my design farther along to see if they match up.

[bill937ca]

There are escalator / stair pieces in the Tomix 4048 Bow Front Building....

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10028712a6/20/6    (its laying on its side in this photo)

 

which have been used before to create an escalator.

 

http://homepage2.nifty.com/peeta/layout_39.html

[quinntopia]

I can't recall the blog where I read about this technique a year or so ago where he created 'steps' by printing out a pattern that gives the visual effects of steps.  I recall the photos of this work when it was completed, and if you didn't know they weren't 'real' steps (just printed output from a computer) you wouldn't know the difference.  Not sure if that helps, but its one way to go.

[scott]

Bill--thanks for the links; that's an interesting idea

 

Jerry--I seem to remember that to; I'll see if I can find a link somewhere

[disturbman]

I'm pretty sure that's Don work on Shogatsu.

[quinntopia]

Found it!

 

Yamanote-sen!

http://cargoplus.dynalias.net:82/content/view/39/21/

[CaptOblivious]

I knew I had gotten the idea somewhere...that's where I learned of the idea!

[scott]

Cool--thanks, Jerry!