Approaches to building city blocks

Al:

 

In the winter portion of our layout, I created 8 city blocks that hold about 20 buildings each. I used a porcelain sidewalk material and the buildings are flush with the sidewalks.

 

 

If you can, I like to build my city blocks on the workbench and then transfer them to the layout.  It is a lot easier working on them there and you can weather them and add extra details very easily.

 

 Art

 

That is a great looking cityscape. It gives me hope - I may not be able to model the way I have seen other forumites do, but I might still build something interesting using some store-bought village pieces and finishing the scene with roads, trees and sidewalks. Well done sir!

I make the block with streets and sidewalks as a removable unit then place the buildings all painting and detail to buildings is done first. All my scenery comes out in sections.

 

Clem

I've done it both ways and frankly I don't think it matters.  I tend now to build one at a time and put each done separately, but that is just because I only do another building every once in a while.

Thanks Gary.

Thanks for the input guys

 

Al

 

 

Al....you can take a look at the picture below to see my city buildings.  I tend to build them one at a time and then place them on the layout.  The reason is because..for me...it is easier to move one large structure at a time.  It also allows me to make changes more quickly...in other words, I don't have to remove a whole section of buildings and can replace, change, modify, etc. one building at a time if need be.  I am with Lee here...I think it really doesn't matter.  I can see a lot of reasons to construct the blocks in sections but for me, my structures are so large that I decided to do one at a time and place it on the layout.

 

Alan

Alan - are all those buildings scratch built or ...?   I'm getting ready to do my cityscape. I don't necessarily need skyscrapers but want typical city buildings and can't seem to find anyone who sells them.  MTH probably comes closest, but even most of their stuff is more like suburb buildings. Thanks for any advice or references here.  Peter 

Peter....some of the buildings are scratch built, some are kits, some are kitbashes, and just about everything in between!

 

I am not sure what kind of buildings you refer to as "typical"...so...you may want to look at our Ameritown structures if you are willing to put together some simple kits.  In addition, many of the off the shelf MTH and Lionel buildings can be kitbashed as their floors can be removed and / or added to in order to create a more custom look.  You may have to sharpen up your scratch building skills!!

 

Alan

Hey, thanks for getting back to me.

I can peruse MTH buildings through searching its site and have found a few that work well. 

I don't know how to peruse Lionel buildings as it's website doesn't yet have 21st century product locating search capabilities (lol).  Wish I could figure out a good way to see Lionel buildings as I liked several on the Grand Central Station Christmas layout in NYC. And even those are impossible to locate S I don't know the stock number or whatever.

In terms of Ameri-Towne, there are more than several buildings I like, but I can't get past the unrealistic vertical edges. The bricks going up all vertical joining edges should be overlapping between the touching walls. In comparison to ready made offerings, these kits are not cheap if you consider the time and effort to complete and then still ending up with a product that is structurally unrealistic. Wish they would fix this problem as Ameri-Towne has quite a few buildings I could use. 

Thanks again!

Peter....A lot of folks cut off those vertical edges and then join the walls...but....I think you may want to consider researching on Google "storefronts".  I believe you will see that it is not uncommon to have a vertical border of bricks between buildings especially if they are in a city block abutting one another.  The fact is, in our scale, many times it is going to take some kitbashing and customizing to get what you want.

 

Alan

Sot on!   Absolutely true on both counts.  

 

I use Goggle to both get building fronts and its maps street view to check out places I want to model and many times in the ages and places I am modeling, the "seams" between buildings are vertical brick.  In some places it seems to have been the way they did it in the early/mid 20th century.

 

As for bashing and customizing and even scratch building, my experience is you also never get what you most want without it. 

Guys, I wasn't talking about separate buildings that abut each other. I was talking about the bricks of different walls of the same building overlapping each other where the walls meet/connect. For instance, the front and right side of the same building edge. In real life, the entire vertical "meeting joint" of these two walls has overlapping bricks.   No worries - I got the answer on where Alan's beautiful buildings came from. Don't want to hijack this thread. Thanks again.

Peter

Peter...I think some of us thought you might be thinking about building a city block of buildings which usually join each other.  In that case, one would not see the vertical bricks you are talking about.  Anyway, here is a suggestion:  score a mortar line on every other brick on the edge you are talking about.  This won't take long and may improve the appearance...

 

Alan