Double-decking DPM Designs

[OldEastRR]

Cobbling up new front walls for DPM stores to make ones taller than 2 stories. Two story downtowns are great for little towns, but midsized ones have larger but not monstrous retail downtowns. I've seen some buildings that have ornate first and second floors but then plain ones above that. So I stuck some DPM walls together to see if I could duplicate that. See what you think.


Tried inserting but no go, you'll have to takethe link to Photobucket.

[peteski]

Hmm... your URL works if inserted as an image.

[wazzou]

I don't know where to start, to be honest....

[John]

I don't know where to start, to be honest....

I see what you are trying to do, but this isn't the way to do it.  To be honest ---

If you had two of the bottom section, you could cut the lower floor off, and splice the upper section to the wall .. the other cornice should probably also come off ..

adding the two pieces you have there doesn't look good, nor would you see this in real life


Here are a couple of examples of how to do it correctly

http://www.augustastationmaster.com/mkp_retrospective/thumbnails/600x450/Hilltowne_Hotel__Kitbash.jpg

https://www.flickr.com/photos/55063726@N00/sets/72157624028013826/detail/

[railnerd]

Agree with what has been said… if you are going higher, cut off the cornice and use more "front" wall sections.

If you want to keep it as is, maybe go ultra modern to follow Ed's law (there is a prototype for everything)

From: http://toronto.curbed.com/archives/2014/07/02/king-condos-hanging-on-to-heritage-hotels-facade.php:

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

When ever you are trying something like this for the first time it is always best to build off of a photo. These type of buildings can look like anything and it is hard for us to see what you see with out a proto pic.

[jpec]

Make some copies of the walls and use those for testing your ideas...it's a little low-tech but a heck of a lot cheaper than whacking kits.

Jeff

[nickelplate759]

That would be an unusual building.  It's rare that a masonry building doesn't have its doors and windows lined up vertically.  The easiest way to achieve that would be to use parts of the the same wall (perhaps modified) for the upper section as for the lower section.

George

[OldEastRR]

OOps....I should have said this was a VERY rough version, more of a look at how plain upper floors over ornate lower ones make a bigger building. Yes the cornice would have to be cut off or reduced to a minimum. Or moved to the top.
And I'd rework the plain walls so the windows all lined up with the ones on the lower floors (or use other spare DPM walls  to do this). The spacing and number per floor of windows on the upper walls would be same as the 2nd floor except a plain facing. The bricks would all be the same color.

I saw this design in a old picture postcard of a downtown (see circled building) and I think I've seen it in real life in various older cities. I'm assuming the builder wanted an ornate façade for the business part of the front, but just plain brick for the residential apartments on the upper floors. Or maybe that's all the owner would pay for.
Also I want to get away from the uniformity of a downtown with all completely-ornate fronts. And get some 3 and 4 story fronts. Mixing bashing and stretching kits is the easiest way to get different buildings from the identical thousands on other layouts. Otherwise its Scratchbuilt City.
I always have some inertia over cutting up perfectly good kit parts, but I'll get busy on a "finished" version of this style.

[peteski]

How can you tell that the 2-story building circled in the postcard has an ornate 1st floor?  To me the entire front facade looks to be plain.  I think there is a rolled up awning between 1st and 2nd floor.  Nothing like what you are describing that you want to model.

[DKS]

To me the entire front facade looks to be plain.  I think there is a rolled up awning between 1st and 2nd floor.  Nothing like what you are describing that you want to model.

This.

I'm not seeing much of anything that's ornate in this scene; about the fanciest storefront is the camera shop in the foreground, and that's just the "modern" 3D lettering.

[Roger Holmes]

When you are kitbashing windows should generally line up in vertical columns.  A thin piece of Evergreen strip on top of the cornice hides the seams between the rearranged wall sections.

[DKS]

There are all manner of variations, from subtle to extreme, one can make with DPM kit parts, and remain believable. Sometimes just simply swapping storefronts and cornices is enough; other times, you can make (relatively) enormous buildings by assembling duplicate parts. Here's just a small sampling of what I've done with DPM parts to break the stock kit look. Sometimes the bashes are inspired by specific prototypes, and others are generic blends that emulate the character of a particular town.



















And these are just storefronts; you can make a wide variety of different things like row homes and industries with DPM parts.

[John]

Oldeast .. I applaud your willingness to stick your projects out there and subject them to comments .. the comments so far have been very enlightening -- and lots of good tips .. I learned a couple of things myself ..

[OldEastRR]

DKS.... how did you fabricate the two building fronts in the first picture? What kits and reassembled how? those look like what I'm trying for.