Large Scale Central

Building a hotel bigger then you have room for

Modeling
#1

I am looking at building a hotel that was in our town years ago burned down in 1926. It was 140X50 feet, 96 rooms five stories high. Its the 140 feet I don’t have any place to put it and no place to enlarge the layout. How do you build it to make it look like the original ?

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This is the back looking down in to the village.
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This is one end.

For anybody that wants to go down the rabbit hole here is a link to the local paper of the time just search Ontio (means beautiful mountains). Article on the fire is July 2, 1926 front page.

Unadilla Times

PS: I plan on putting it on the back side of the layout. The way my layout is you cant really look at it from the back side, mostly just the front and one end.

#2

just shorten it.

this would be 30 to 40 ft. shorter, without loosing the overall appearance:

saw-hotel02

and if you are afraid, that so it would seem too high, just leave out one storey.

#3

Mark,
They way I read your post it is not as simple as just making a structure looking bigger.

You stated that you do not have space for it so I’m thinking why build that particular structure anyway?

Unless you really really want it and if you can’t have it your going to cry your eyes out?

P.S. Why not just make a flat and not focus heavily on scale then? You could do a CAD mock up CAD being Cardboard Assisted Drawing then cut it out and play with it on the layout. CAD with duct tape is way cheaper than wood.

Hope that makes sense.
:rooster:

#4

I am thinking about making it smaller not sure how that will look.
CAD is a good idea I think i will try that, I already draw every thing the size I am going to build it to make sure I like the proportions.
I would not be greatly disappointed if I cant make it, I think it would be a fun build. I never thought I would like building models as much as I do.

#5

Ok, now we are getting somewhere and I understand. So with that said why not pick a couple of smaller structures you wanna model then and space them over all that real estate you wanna cover with one structure.

#6

If it is too big for your G gauge RR make in HO scale! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

#7

Joe is right.

You can use forced perspective—a visual trick that manipulates scale and distance so a scene appears much larger or deeper than it really is.

Objects that are smaller, less detailed, and positioned higher or farther back in the scene are interpreted by the eye as being farther away creating the illusion of miles of landscape beyond the foreground.

When we went to a railway convention in California decades ago. A modeller running live steam on a mountainous layout pulled off the illusion really well; when his G-scale train disappeared into a tunnel in the foreground, a smaller-scale “doppelganger” train—HO or possibly O scale—emerged from a higher tunnel further back on the layout.

Because of the size shift and elevation change, it looked like the same train had travelled a great distance into the mountains. The result was a layout that felt enormous, far beyond its actual footprint.

There are heaps of YouTubes available. Here is one.

#8

Ok @Rooster I have been thinking and maybe build half of it, that would fit. Of course @Hines has a good idea too as it will be on the back side of the layout. So I think I will use CAD and see what we like. Of course Marie thinks I am crazy to want to build something this big.

#9

Mark,
Doing some homework for you and this is your hotel from a distance. If it was me I would skip the hotel or as stated downscale it ( I would probably go about 1/2 to O scale 1:48) . However I strongly recommend the CAD first.

I quickly tooled around the town a bit and like many northeast towns it’s loaded with different types of architecture. Why not take a drive around the area with Marie and find a couple places you both really like and something she would be into painting.

I remember driving around old historic railroad towns with Hollywood looking at all the wonderful architecture. The one place we stopped at there were a couple people on the porch staring at us. I said to Hollywood you know what they are thinking don’t you?

He said yeah, with the cameras they probably think we are with a historical society. I said nope, they probably think a couple a gay guys just bought another old property in town.
He started laughing and said…wait for it…“Shut up Rooster”!

Here are some examples I quickly found in your area.

Why not the library ??

Just some thoughts?
:rooster:

One final thought is perhaps find something off the Sanborn Fire Maps and research it if possible. Plenty of cool buildings that are more realistic/suitable for G scale.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3804um.g3804um_g063131886/?st=gallery

#10

oh, building something big is no problem - just a question of time.

this here i started 15 years ago:

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#11

That is a neat and interesting Hotel Mark.
Since you would place it where the back would not be seen why not build just the front? You can make the facade as deep as you want. Looking at the photos I would build it about 3" deep then build the porch and that small jut out seen in the end photo to scale with the rest. You could also try to compress the build here and there to make it more manageable.

I built a facade as a companion piece for the Bootmobile in this years Mik challenge.

LLBeanstorefront

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Yours is bigger and more challenging but I think a facade is the way to go.

#12

I gotta go with Todd on this. Here’s some flats / facades I did a few years back, based on historical buildings in Virginia City NV.

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You can also install lights if you want.

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To Bill’s point, I should have scaled these down a bunch, at least by a 1/3 if not 1/2. I scaled them 1/24 and they feel too big for something that’s supposed to be a bit distant.

You can get away with a lot of things, for background buildings. For big foregrond buildings I’ve eliminated doors, windows, even an entore floor.

Your cardboard mockups will definitely help you decide though.

#13 
 Lots of ideas, I will be using CAD and trying the false front idea and I think O scale would work great for where I plan on putting it. I have a house drawn up that I will be doing first and with summer here I will be busy with outside stuff not always RR related unfortunately.
@Rooster thanks for suggesting the library, it is a interesting building, we drive by it all the time and never thought to model it (it does set back from the road), I think the library would make a good house too, I will probably model it. On another thought Marie thinks you have to much free time to have looked up the different houses. :rofl:
#14

Mark,
I’m sorry but Marie is entirely mistaken !

Make note that I said: " I quickly tooled around the town ".

LSC is my relaxation time because when I have too much time on my hands I become dangerous! I’m currently making time to play with my 1:1 house model so kinda in historic house mode/mood anyway and it’s relaxing for me.