Besides Plasticville, what do you use for buildings?

Having become rather tired of the appearance of Plasticville, I have eliminated almost all of it from my vintage postwar AF layout (with the exception of the signal bridge, the greenhouse, and the Gilbert No. 590 Cedar Hill switch tower). If one is trying for an authentic postwar 'look' beyond Plasticville, one can purchase new-old 1940's Skyline lithographed craftboard kits with the intent of building them. I also use vintage Mini-craft, Gilbert/Mini-craft, Gilbert accesories, and Gilbert's own RR and sideline structures, such as those done in painted sheet metal, the No. 767 Branford Diner, etc. Little of this is strictly S scale, but then the route I am suggesting is geared towards recreating a vintage postwar style layout. Unfortunately, it also represents a bigger investment than using Plasticville. See a few examples below.

 

If one is trying for a more detailed (more contemporary) result than what I am outlining above, many of the Skyline kits (which usually tend to be "small O", or HO) also do provide a great starting points from which one can perform further detailing using modern parts from Grant Line, and so forth. Skyline kits show up at venues such as York and on ebay. Many recently produced S scale kits are also listed for sale and shown in a completed form on the Portlines Hobbies web site.

 

Hope that this is at least a helpful start.

 

Bob

 

 

 

Ah, you've hit on one of the key things missing in S: Ready-to-place or Cornerstone type building kits.  We seem to tend to concentrate on locomotives and rolling stock, structures are almost an after-thought.

 

Another problem is some companies, like DSL Shops (resin kits) have come and gone.

 

Hopefully, MTH will scale down some of their structures for S, but their farmhouse and large brick passenger station are almost perfect S Scale.

 

Outside of Plasticville, you're getting into the more complicated wood/cardstock and resin kits.  A good sample can bee seen here:

 

http://www.hoquathobbies.com/Structures.htm

 

There's also Bar Mills Scale Model Works:

http://www.barmillsmodels.com/...chk=1&Itemid=999

 

And Grand River Models:

http://www.grandrivermodels.com/home.html

 

And for paper buildings in S, there's Clever Models:

http://www.clevermodels.net/

 

Unfortunately, these aren't "shake the box" type structures, but the Bar Mills kits are laser cut and go together rather well, you just have to be a little patient.

 

I'm using a combination of structure kits on my railroad:

 

This is a Bar Mills Saluna's Tavern repurposed as a general store.  If I had it to do over again, I'd move the stairway to the back.

 

This depot is a PBL Sargents Depot resin kit, no longer available.

 

Lehigh Valley water tower and coaling tower.  The smaller buildings are Kanamodel kits, also no longer available to my knowledge.

 

My one "Plasticville" branded kit.  It was marginally HO, depending on which door you measured.  Bachmann blew these out a couple of years ago.  I replaced the rubber-scale side and rear doors and windows with Grant Line parts.  Still needs a little work.

 

This catches part of the long gone DSL kits at the bottom of the photo, that's a Lehigh Valley "Hawk Milling" on the left.  The sphereoid water tower is obviosly Lionel, it works fine for S.  The streetlamps are Plasticville, by the way...

 

However, I felt the water tower looked a little too modern for my late 1950's era layout, plus Athearn offered this industrial water tower in HO and it looks just about right for S.

 

Finally, the Athearn water tower from the ground perspective, DSL drug store on the right, Lehigh Valley Hawk Milling on the left.

 

As you can see, I've got quite a bit to do to finish some of these structures.  One of these days...

 

Rusty

I used Laser Art structure kits. They come in S and O scale. Both can be used on an S layout. Also, if you purchase non-collector grade Plasticville they can be painted and some details added to make them very realistic.

Gandy

A few of the inexpensive Clever Models kits mentioned earlier..

My version of Paul Yorke's Factory kit (free)

 

 

You might try some of the ERTL buildings as they are 1/64 

they have a old western town that can be repainted and look pretty good

Ertl also has 1/64 farm buildings and equipment.  I've seen some of it on a couple of S gauge modular layouts, very nice.

Thanks! I'm ordering the farm set and house.

Rusty, beautiful work!  Got a picture of the mth depot?  I looked online without success. 
I use some HO buildings that look right, maybe add height.  I really hated to part with so many nice O buildings but generally they were too large for S scale.
I'm also having a time finding suitable S crossing gates.

Here's an image of the station from the MTH Ready to Run catalog, I thought I had a picture on file from my modular days, but I guess not:

 

 

Model Railroader had plans of this station some years ago, we checked the measurments against the drawing and it's pretty much spot on for S.  It's a large building, but a lot of town stations were.

 

If I recall, NJ international did some S scale crossing gates.

 

Rusty

NJ International S Scale Crossings

Thanks guys!  Rusty, i picked up the Walthers "city station" yesterday.  Somewhere I read that with a half inch of height, it was useful for S scale, as are a lot of their buildings.  Are you the one who built the Walthers HO elevator in S Gaugian a few months ago?  I bought that too, just can't see yet to build it.
Brady, I've thought about NJ but I'm such a non techie that the crossing gate mechanism puzzles me.  I need to see if Z Stuff does their gates in S.  It appears that all they did on their S signals is lower the height on their O gauge units.

Nope, that's not mine in the Gaugian.  I thought about using the Walthers kit, but opted for the LVM kit instead.

 

Walthers also did their Cornerstone Series Dairy in O, which is a smallish building for O and a bigger one in S.  I've seen several S Gaugers use this building.  The trick is to make sure the loading dock lines up with reefers and trucks by raising the track and parking lot.

 

Rusty

John,

 

Carl Tuveson has some HO Model Power signals on his layout, they're inexpensive, but I'm not sure about the control circuits.  The NJ and Z-stuff signals are pricey, and after reading a couple of presentations on installing signal systems I'm considering just picking up some Bachmann (Plasticville?)  non-operating HO signals and mounting them on bases, if needed.

 

 

Brady

 

Carl Tuveson also kitbashed one heck of a nice roundhouse using the IHC/Atlas O 2 stall engine house kits.

 

One other thing I forgot.  The NASG sponsored a S Scale plastic modular brick warehouse kit a couple of years ago that you might stumble across. 

 

Unfortunately, the project became such a fiasco due to forces outside of NASG's control, I think they've pretty much sworn off the structure business.

 

Rusty  

Since we're on the subject, in a recent issue of CTT there was an article on a nice S gauge layout, and the author mentioned using O gauge automobiles since many AF accessories are a little large for S. A good example is the Minicraft Bungalow..



An S scale auto was too small, but this 1/48  Tucker (and an O gauge figure) seem to be about right. 

Next to the S scale Clever Models Company Houses I'm using smaller autos that were marketed as O gauge, but are small for O.   People are the same thing, O gauge folks come in many sizes and are pretty easy to find.  Bowser sells figures marketed for O, but many look just like the figures Flyer used to sell.  

Perhaps in a true scale environment the 1/64 M2 machines autos work all the way around.

Brady

Brady, I have a couple of M2 autos.  
They sure look small to me.

Oh, I dunno, they look the right size to me:

 

Rusty

Sweet land of Goshen that's nice work! 
Who made the signal please?

Sweet land of Goshen that's nice work! 
Who made the signal please?

I recently found some beautiful "HO" buildings that are very close to "S". They are Woodland Scenics Built&Ready "Home Sweet Home" Victorian house, and "Filler-up&Fixer" 1930s style gas station. Both look very natural with Arttista "S" figures and "S" size cars. They are already built, and nicely painted and detailed. Not cheap at about $75., but well worth it IMO.

Sorry I missed your question, John.  The crossing signal was made by Shilo Signals I bought these somewhere in the late 1990's-early 2000's.  Never wired them in, they just look nice.

 

http://www.shilohsignals.com/

 

Unfortunately looks like the crossing signal's no longer available.

 

Rusty

I'm eclectic in my building choices which run the gamut from the plastics of Plasticville, Lionel, MTH, Atlas, Revell, Ameritowne, Korber. Can't leave out the the ceramics I've gotten from Dept.6, LeMax and even a couple from Khols and Walmart plus some laser wood kits too. Only building I don't have are cardstock ones.  

Thanks for sharing the link Brady.

I have an Ameritowne, American Modelers, Twin Whistle, Downtown Deco, Woodland Scenics, Atlas, Weaver and MTH to name a few.  Matt

 

Bashing things to fill the void is part of the S legacy.

I have a couple of non Plasticville bashes on my layout.

 

As mentioned my roundhouse is made from 3 Atlas engine houses. I used the brickwork, windows and doors on a scratchbuilt framework made from spruce and roof from aircraft plywood. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a long truss bridge spliced together from two Lionel bridges.

 

 

 

 

 

My grade crossing flashers are made from ones found at Michael's Christmas displays.

 

 A curved double crossover bashed from AM turnouts and crossing.

My country grocery/gas station from an Atlas O speeder shed.

 Signals from modified Model Power with LEDs added.

 

Just a few ideas..

 

Carl

Here is a look at the 1/64 Ertl farm set.  Mixed with 1/43, 1/48, and 1/50 models. You can note the size of the cattle as small for O it may work well for S.  The chicken coop is K-line.

Added a concrete foundation to the machine shed. It was a bit short for the 1/43 equipment.

Oh...I almost forgot the most important building on my layout.  It's the town bar!  The town on my layout is called Beawslaiw.  It's a rural town.  But...it does have a bar called, McCuaig's Maui Lounge.  It's a great place to get a Mai-Tai, or a Primo beer!  On Thursday nights you can listen to Lucy Lahaina serenade you with Hawaiian songs.

Matt

That's a beautiful building built from a kit from Bar Mills.

If you want a similar building already built up you can get this from Menard's online website:

Mark

 

'cept it ain't S Scale...  The Bar Mills kit is.

 

Rusty

Prefer laser cut buildings  and resin structures in kit form.

To those of you that showed "O" gauge items...I take it you don't mind that these are "oversize"? Do you use "S" figures with "O" structures (in fact, how many of you use "S" figures?).

My own experiance is...I was sort of OK with all "O" stuff, but once I started using "S" automobiles, I wanted "S" figures to go with them...which made the buildings look huge.

Metal figures are kind of a cross between S and O.  Also listed for O27.  Some don't like the base on each figure.  

From their website.

"General Information:   

Metal Figures are 1 1/2 inches tall from the base and are compatible with O, O27 and S gauge layouts..............................................."

Joe, I use a mix of both scale size people but try not to mix the scales in the same area.

If a building tends to look too large for S figures I use the O figures around it.

Actually I have placed O scale buildings and people farther back in the layout and used the smaller S scale structures and people up front.

This creates a kind of "reverse" perspective and tends to make the viewer see all the people as the same size. S scale people viewed at a distance are very small and detail is lost. It works for me though I'm sure others would view it as heresy.

I have a loop of Superstreets running throughout the layout between O and S gauge structures. The vehicles are wildly oversized when compared to true 1/64 vehicles but most viewers like the animation and overlook the size disparity.

The important thing is do what you like...it's your layout.

Mark

Joe,

 

You could always group them - the O gauge stuff in one area, the S in another.  I have a Mini-Craft Bungalow (with an O gauge Tucker Torpedo parked out front) in one area, but in another area the S scale Clever Models Company Houses and a couple of K-Line Cruiser autos (large for S, small for O ) parked  out front.  Figures are grouped accordingly

 

Brady

Guys,

You may want to check out this site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/t...s/72157637791065893/ 

 

Or this: http://www.bigindoortrains.com..._building_fronts.htm

 

Mark

 

Mark, the Frankenbuilding is terrific, and what a great use of broken Plasticville! 

Hi John,

Thanks for the kind comment.

I found picture of another similar building made for a close friend.

It's only about 2 feet wide. Being much smaller than the original I'm thinking of calling it "Son of Frankenbuilding". No lights or people installed yet. The third floor railing is actually a balcony railing. The "Clock" is a small old broken watch. The ladder is from a Marx tower.

Mark

Very nicely done, Mark. I've got to try one of these flats myself. I had a good time looking closely at Frankenbuilding to determine what walls you used. I think I have it figured out. I don't know what you used for that cornice....part of a plate rail?

 

In any event, I forwarded this thread to the editor of "The Villager"(the quarterly newsletter of the Plasticville Collectors Association), with whom I had been corresponding on other matters. I suspect he'll be very interested. 

 

As you finish the "Son of " building, please post further photos. At the risk of redundancy, "well done"!