buildings a buck a storie

[odd duck]

 Hi   I've been working on a pulp city project for a while and I've come across a cheap shortcut for scratchbuilders in dollar stores,wooden craft boxes! they come in a variety of shapes the one Ive used most is  10cm x14cm and 6cm high with a 2cm high hinged lid, I remove the lid and flip it over to make a flat roofed building just glue matchsticks on the underside of the roofsection to prevent sliding they can be stacked up to three or four high windows can be cut in (carefully it's cheap wood) or painted on , most of mine have brickwork scratched on.So far I have 3, 3story townhouses 1 4storybuilding with groundlevel store 3 2story stores and 4 2story rowhouses. They are in various stages of completion I got ahead of myself trying out new ideas as fast as I got them. I also made a couple of arab/afghan mud buildings with a couple of the smaller boxes. SORRY I Don't have any pictures here,I'm still learning how to use my digatal camera and computor hopefully I'll get some pic.s to you soon. I think this is a great shortcut for scratchbuilding I got 15 buildings for around $40(cad) in materials I hope these boxes are available in other countries outside N. amer.

[twrchtrwyth]

Interesting, pics please.

[odd duck]

http:s284.photobucket.com/albums/1129/madmalg/picture070jpg
trying to get some pictures posted but I'm a computor doofus

[Svennn]

[Svennn]

[odd duck]

 whoh!!! Thanks Svennn ,The steet set up includes a couple of foamcore and brickpaper Facades that I was working on before the craft box invasion the brickhouse is one of the four rowhouses I mentioned in the origional post here are a couple of buidings with one of the $1craft boxes used to make it
it's one of the smaller ones but the openning in the side makes it easy to convert to a storefront with a couple of cuts  or a row of windows with a couple of balsa wood inserts

[Burgundavia]

Those are pretty nice buildings. They are based on mdf, right? Is it me or is that building in the middle have mdf that is lifting up?

[odd duck]

The base is hardboard it has warp a little but fortunately it's not attached yet so it will be replaced easily everything is unfinished I got too many ideas too fast on this project it was supposed to be a few building facades with a couple of fully detailed corner models then I went to the dollar store after looking at Matakishi's city and the light bulb went on!  Here is the corner drug store with  a experimental fire escape and sign being test fitted

and one of the smaller boxes made int a arab house

[fastolfrus]

So is the drug store two sets back to back ?

Anybody seen any of these on this side of the pond ?

[odd duck]

The drugstore is made from square boxes 11.5 cmx11.5 did'nt have any left over when I took the photos.The rectangular and square ones are the most versatile but there are loads of different shapes oval ,octagonal there is one hex shaped one that come with horizontal slits on the sides that would be an instant ww2 pillbox if turned it over and you got rid of the lid with the unicorn or fairy shaped cutout on it! some of them come with a ornamental screen insert on the lid or sides that could be used as wrought iron balconies or raillings.there's even one shaped like an airport control tower or the top of one.

[dlmos]

Wow!  Those are really good, I especially like the fire-escape.  Did you make the stair rails for the buildings on the street scene pic yourself or pick them up somewhere?

[odd duck]

The stair rails are made from toothpicks and bamboo skewers. the toothpicks are a round type made in china with a patterned (sp?)end, that said "stair railing " to me I first came across them at work and then at an asian grocery store and a dollar store, The banisters are as mentioned  bamboo skewers with a 90degree notch cut in to fit over the railing tops the railing pieces were just stuck into the foamcore sides with a little glue. though next time I think I'll use matchstick spacers cut to length sandwitched between plasticard or something to keep everything a little straighter. the fire escape is made from a 1/2 inch square mesh(a type of chicken wire?) not totally happy with the results so far but I think it has potential if only from a cost aspect