High Rise / Skyscraper building kits ??

[cteno4]

just a cross post of an older high rise development...

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,2568.0.html

 

cheers

 

jeff

[quinntopia]

I just inquired about buying more of these buildings in a lot. They are now sold by Auhagen and come with different balconies. But I can use the tops from the old models I didn't use and make a completely different looking high rise with them.

 

Bob, really? Auhagen makes these now?  Do you have a link?  I never heard of 'Vero' so like seeing what they have out there!

 

I really like seeing the 'original' balcony, re-painting those really helped the model a LOT.  The orange/yellow balconies were way too plastic looking!

[cteno4]

Bob,

 

hey it would be great if you could point out a few of the kits you think give you the best bang for the buck to do larger apartment and office buildings walls like this. the only one i know of that give a good amount to work with is the Heljan hospital building. the vollmer and faller kits dont give many stories to work with.

 

this is great stuff to think on!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Scaper]

Jerry,

 

These are the same kits as those old Vero Kits. I read somewhere that Auhagen was Vero but I'm trying to find that out. I ordered a Catalogue off The net this week. Jonathan sent me an email on it. Where there were some N scale high rises offered back in the day similar to CMR's todays.

 

 

I'm looking at ordering 17 of these Vero kits. I'm getting quotes from various sellers to see the best price I can get.

 

Jerry I found this building on ebay yesterday I'm just waiting to see if the seller will ship it to Canada. I noticed that you have one and I've been looking for it for a long time. The seller says this is a Vollmer kit but I have no info on it.

 

 

Do you have a product number or manufacture of this kit?

 

Cheers, Bob

[Bernard]

Scraper - Welcome to the forum, I too agree, you're models are amazing!

[Scaper]

Thanks Bernard, I'm still learning but getting better all the time. It's funny buildings I built two years ago I thought were so awesome, I look at now and say to myself...dang.... I wish I had known this or that...now they bother me. But that's the growth of modeling right! :D Anyways thanks for the compliments. Anyways I look at some other's work with that ...Wow.... That's so awesome!!! and inspire to as good as that. So I appreciate the compliment but I'm not there yet by any means.  hahaaha.

 

JEFF.. I missed your post I most apologize.

 

For the best bang for the buck kit bash... You're going to laugh but I'd say model power kits. They are so cheap.. I mean like under 8 bucks a kit. They can be really easy to bash and you can make some amazing models.

 

Here's a couple that I got... One is made by my buddy Jonathan I bought off him cause I love it so much and the others were some I built like wow... 12 some years ago so mine are not that good as I knew nothing about modeling at the time..but they'll still give you a great start.

Here's my model power set.. I'm going to do some more of these soon.

[Scaper]

Also the tomix 4044 buildings are easy to bash and are cheap.

 

And some of the coolest kitbashes are the DPM structures. I'm going to be doing some more of these as well. I won't spill the bag on what I'm planning on doing but I'll keep you posted.

Here's my one dpm kitbash.. I made a major blunder on the top but it's not glued down so I'll fix it this year and add a fourth section to it too.

 

Check out what Jonathan made of this building in HO Scale... This is Awesome!!!

 

Anyways there's a few starters for cheaper readily available kits to tinker with. My advice with the model power kits. For some reason as soon as you glue the windows in those kits the wall want to bend on you. I always reinforce the back of these walls with pretty thick styrene strips running in both directions. Just make sure you give your self enough room to glue windows in...

After gluing the next wall piece on I then ran strips horizontally as well. My walls on my Model Power/ Pola buildings now are flush all my old ones warp and bend. I'd suggest doing the same with the new lunde buildings as well. All my old lunde building walls warped too.

[Mudkip Orange]

Yeah dude, crazy realistic.

[jappomania]

Hi Bob ! ....

I don't find words for your work so...

you are a Master Builder

in Italy to make a similar work I need building license, paing house tax etc...

 

BRAVISSIMO!

 

ciao

Massimo

[Bernard]

Bob,

That interesting about he Model Power Kits, the manufacturer is located in a town not too far from me. I used to go there and purchase defected kits from them.

Question: The houses that they make are pretty much European in design, would that look work on a Japanese layout? Or what revisions would you do to make them work?

[Scaper]

Ahhh right a japanese layout! I'm thinking North American...sorry. I did a 4 hour quick bash tonight on a Kato 23-434A building that would work well for a japanese layout. Well part of the buildings anyways. I was bored of my Tomix bowfront building project so I pulled out two old bases from these models as I used the upper floors for a future detailed skyscraper project. I thought I could make an interesting building by ripping these apart painting them and detailing them up for selling on ebay.

 

 

I used an extra unused roof part of the KATO 23-431A Kato office building for the balcony I had to cut it up. I find so many uses for the unused base kits of my kitbashes. Anyways This was a freebe for me cause I had extra parts. I still have to glue to the upper two floors down but I'm going to wait as I cut holes in the floors for lights so I won't glue it down for some time. Now that it's done I'm not sure if I'll put it on ebay. I may keep it! :D Funny hey.

 

Some minor detailing... I rushed this one..it took me exactly 4 hours to do..

[cteno4]

hey the new start houses may also provide some interesting wall sections and detail parts for some high rise kitbashing...

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10104416

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Bernard]

I would love to see what Scaper does with this kit!

I like the Starbucks coffee shop....but does that mean you to have one on every corner of your layout?

 

 

hey the new start houses may also provide some interesting wall sections and detail parts for some high rise kitbashing...

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10104416

 

cheers

 

jeff

[quinntopia]

Bob/Scaper:

Do you have a product number or manufacture of this kit?

 

No, mine is, in fact, a bit different I think.  Looks like the same top, but the one in the photo you show looks like an HO Scale ground floor? I saw another kit on eBay that made it appear that this was part of a larger Kibri station complext...which makes sense given the large clocks on mine.  I'll see if I can find the auction for this (since ended but may have the details you're looking for).

 

JeffCteno4

Have you checked out these Aoshima kits?  I don't think they're particularly cheap (and they're LARGE, so shipping from HS was a beast!), but their very nicely done...lot's of pre-paint etc...  There's two to a box so you can combine one kit for 8 stories.  I'm in the midst of combining 4 of them for a 16 story apartment....

[quinntopia]

hey the new start houses may also provide some interesting wall sections and detail parts for some high rise kitbashing...

 

I just got notice from HS that mine are on their way!  I think I ordered 3 boxes... I know that seems awful high, but like in the prototype, I'm running out of land and need to go UP!

 

Just to warn everyone, Bob/Scaper is a BAD influence!!!    Once you start hanging around with him, your buildings start getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger!!!!  Ahhh...the gold old days when I thought my Tomix 4018 was a BIG building! http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10009834 

[quinntopia]

Here's one of those Heljan kits on eBay right now.  I couldn't find these for a long time, but this has to be like the 5th or 6th one on ebay in the past couple of months

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270541451460&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[cteno4]

quinntopia,

 

check with your lhs and see if they can get these kits, i got them through leestrains.com last year. they are listed as HO, but really are n scale on the floors.

 

yes i have two sets of the aoshima apt buildings. was thinking about doing a double high one with one set. there are a huge gob of parts in them! they also wall off each apt internally so you can light just a few of the apts nicely! just have to do a little fiddling in the stairwell connection between the two kits of you go higher.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[quinntopia]

yes i have two sets of the aoshima apt buildings. was thinking about doing a double high one with one set. there are a huge gob of parts in them! they also wall off each apt internally so you can light just a few of the apts nicely! just have to do a little fiddling in the stairwell connection between the two kits of you go higher.

Sorry Jeff! Didn't know you had this already!  I should have known better!

 

You are right about the parts...I've spent this entire Saturday doing almost nothing but clipping sprues, trimming sprues, and gluing.  So far, I have all the balconies done...which is a lot.  Since its 20 stories tall (2 kits, so 4x5) that's 80 balconies, each with separate floor/railings, so 160 pieces to cut/trim/glue!  Then there's the railings...another160 or so of them to cut off.  This thing is a time beast!  I make myself feel better by looking at some of Bob/Scaper's photos for inspiration!

 

I agree, kind of cool how they set up the interior for lighting.  That should make it a very solid building as well!

[Scaper]

I bought 3 of those star buildings. I'll see what I can do with them. Has anyone else bought the Star House? Weird looking model for sure. I'm not happy with the over all look of quality but it should make for a different shaped structure which will be nice. It'll just take some modifiying I think to make it look somewhat realistic.

 

Funny comment about Warning about me! hahahaa.  too funny.

 

I ordered 2 of those aoshima apt buildings I should get them this week. My plans are to build taller versions of these. I'm not sure how high I will go with them. I was shocked at how expensive these were to ship. Crazy. I also ordered 2 of those Tomix station kits for  using as a base for a highrise building. I'm excited to see what you guys come up with these buildings. I'm not sure about this building as I've not started it yet but I can tell you I can feel your pain. I'm in the middle of a Kibri apartment bash...waiting for more parts.

 

Here's 144 Balconies... I had to pick sand clean up all the old glue and flower planters off them..grrrr.

[cteno4]

the star houses are in sal as we speak, so ill know in a week or two what they look like in person.

 

hopefully aoshima will continue with this series at a good clip!

 

btw aoshima owns Hobby World. kind of odd a model company would own a whole hobby shop like that.

 

jeff

[quinntopia]

I think it would be great if Aoshima continued along these lines!    From what I can tell, this is their only N gauge structure.  I really like their approach to this model.  Even though its footprint is not dramatically bigger than a lot of other models, a lot of thought went into it.  I'm relieved that I'm almost finished!  Its amazing how many 'little' things it takes to 'customize' these buildings (and all I'm doing is simple stack of 4 of them on top of each other).  The stairway thing was the most obvious challenge, but I think I have that fixed now...maybe photos by this weekend! 

 

As for the 'star house' from "Tramway"...it'll be interesting to see if we see more models from them as well.  I agree with Bob (and likely a lot of others) that it will be nice to have something with a bit of a different shape to it.  This one is going to take a lot of detail though....  I just checked and it just cleared customs in San Francisco and is on its way! Woohoo!

[cteno4]

I think the star house is actually aoshima a well, as its listed at #2 in the series. we will see when we see the box! the kit style looks very similar to the first aoshima apartment buildings.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Scaper]

Jeff the starhouse was listed as being made by Tramway.

 

This Kato department store is selling for more than brand new kits. It seems if you list something as a skyscraper it sells for crazy amounts on ebay these days. :D

 

As for those Grand Hotel kits I've got three of them right now in boxes. I'm going to make an addition to my Hospital scene. I'm glad I bought them last year. I got them from an online business in Quebec Canada for 32 dollars each. They have been selling for over 90 dollars on ebay for unbuilt boxes lately. Just crazy!

 

I've almost finished my Tomix Bowfront building too. I just needed to add some interiors to the second tower. Jerry Helped me with some of the detailing ideas on this model.

 

Cheers Guys, Bob

[cteno4]

Jeff the starhouse was listed as being made by Tramway.

 

 

I know, but i remember something that i saw when it was first announced that made me think its actually aoshima behind it. also its listed as #2 on the series coming out just after the aoshima apt blds that were listed as #1. I think aoshima may be looking ofr a brand to put the train stuff out under. hw (aoshima) actually lists it as Dauphin for the manufacturer. they did some importing of the german combo trams (hiroshima and nagasaki). the first apartment building by aoshima was released under the brand Skynet on HW that curiously also does some small two axle trams... hw only lists some N and HO train model kits under Aoshima directly. so something odd is going on.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Scaper]

Something odd is going on! hahahaaa... funny.

 

Well if anything is encouraging there's a #1 and there's a #2...so soon there'll be a #3 and 4  :grin

 

Jerry I finally found one of those Vollmer station kits unbuilt #7510 Funny there were several differen versions of this model. The guy was selling a lot of them. This is the one I bought.... Cruddy Shipping costs but it's the first one I've seen in 2 years still in a box.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220565162990&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

 

Here were a couple of his other kits he was selling.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220565162591&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220565163333&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

Cheers, Bob