Shizuka Building: Lobby

As I spoke to in a previous post, I purchased the Kato 23-438B N scale building and a Tomix 4015 Corner Shop Buildings and my fingers were crossed that the corner shops would fit on top of the Kato building. I was pleased when it did, seeing as that was the cornerstone of my whole idea for the roof area. I tackled the rooftop first (write up to follow) and then moved on to the interiors. 

When I took the Kato building apart, my 2.5 year old helped. ::wink::  

"Hmph...Daddy isn't sure how this bottom comes off. ::tug::: It should pop right :::tug:: off," to which she said, "Pull it. Take off the bottom."  heh

I was slightly shocked that the floors were all loose and held in place by the walls and a center light bar shaft through the center. Pretty smart, but messy once you have it opened up.

I held the pieces together and numbered the floors in case they needed to go back in the same way they came out. I'm actually not looking forward to putting them back in post-build. 



The lobby area itself is built with lots of potential action, which is grand.

You can see that there are several platforms, walls, an elevator shaft that all the way up the left side inside (THANK you, KATO! I have several buildings with no elevator or stairs and it bugs me! :) ) and a few other elements you can play off of. My first round of laying stuff into the scene was pretty simple, but I might add a bit more...even though it's hard to see without lighting. (SEE: Need to learn about building illumination, dang it)






I wanted a center statue for the lobby. Something large and grand. Something tourists would visit the building to see. I went to the local toy store and picked up this little plastic horse. It fit height and length wise and was something grand - or, at least it would be after a few layers of paint.

I went in on it with a layer of lack, then a few greys to try to make it look like stone. A dull coat will be applied later.






I used some of my "B Team" Preiser N scale people that I painted up for the interior. The paint-up wasn't horrid on the figures and it totally works for a less expensive, internal people scene addition. I used some unpainted Preiser's to be showroom dummies (on right) and used my sheets of random scaled art and books to give the inside some additional depth.







So easy at this scale. I just printed up several sheets of books, bookstore shelves, antique shops and the like after doing a few Google searches. Once downed, I placed them all on sheets in Photoshop as to what they were - a sheet of books, interiors, exteriors, etc. with some on photo paper and some on plain letter paper. Now when I need something like this lobby filled, I just go to the printed sheets. Most of these interiors can't be seen very well, but the depth and the internal variance really helps the scene.




As you can see from the image below, the interior details add just enough here to make it look like there is life in the building. Things going on. Action. I love doing this with these otherwise hollow and empty looking structures. The Kato building comes with window signage on a plastic frame that slips into the floor with simple tabs. Pretty handy. Some of these signs may be replaced in the future with images of other areas of the Shizuka layout or Soyokaze and the fishing area there. :)

The KATO building comes with window signs

If you want to see someone doing this dialed up to 11, check out  Quinntopia over at    http://www.quinntopia.com/ ! Amazing stuff. The internal items with lighting are really something I'm aiming for in the Bright and Glorious Future® ! :)

QUINNTOPIA: LED section
http://www.quinntopia.com/search/label/led%27s

Cheers!