Modular Building / Terrain System in 1:160

[ljudice]

It's hard to know what to make of this, except it looks like it has some possibilities, especially for making background neighborhoods...

http://www.parvia.com/

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Weird.

It looks like Katamari world.

[wcfn100]

I see a RW modeling contest ahead!



Jason

[AlkemScaleModels]

It's hard to know what to make of this, except it looks like it has some possibilities, especially for making background neighborhoods...

http://www.parvia.com/

According to the WSJ 80 percent of all toys lose money. I think Parvia might be one of them.

[Chris333]

Make me want to take of my shoes, put on my slippers and wait for the trolley to come through my living room.

[C855B]

Did you check the "About us"? This is a US company! Wow. I immediately figured it to be European. Somebody - several somebodies - spent a lot of sleepless nights coming up with this system! I think this must've started over a coffee-shop meeting where, after a fourth latté, somebody blurted-out "What would happen if SimCity could be used to build a real model? And do it with RP!"

The biggest potential I noticed was detail bits, but that part of the site didn't want to work for me.

Anyway... interesting link, and interesting concept. Worth checking every so often. I wonder what possessed them to choose N scale instead of 1:144 that the miniatures crowd likes?

[sizemore]

I just like the old man walking down the street.

[ljudice]

The only thought I had was that you could churn out a residential "block" of houses in cookie cutter fashion.

Frankly, there is a major, gaping hole in N-scale - houses. It would seem to make a lot of sense to do a line of IMEX-like simple, cheap cast models to depict typical neighborhoods - ie...  Appalachian row houses,  Southwestern McMansion Condo clusters, etc...  I think these would sell like hotcakes.

It almost sounds like Parvia is trying to create a new hobby???

If any of this can be leveraged for N-scale model rr-ing it would be great though.

[MichaelWinicki]

They have a long way to go to reach the IMEX level, which quite frankly isn't that bad...



The two IMEX buildings are on the end, with two of the more expensive Atlas houses in between.

Between IMEX, Bachmann, Atlas and MP there are quite a few plastic ready-built houses out there.

Throw on some Dullcote and weathering (maybe some even a little repainting here & there) and you have some decent houses.

[Nato]

  I just spent 45 minutes or so surfing their web site. The biggest flaw that I can see on the buildings is that windows,doors are either printed on flat or could be stick ons. Rased molded windows even if not see thru would improve the looks,also interriors and displays curtins blinds etc. in the windows would help. Check out that HO sized satellie dish on the house in one of the home page photos. I clicked on get a starter set. These won't be out till January but the map of cities or towns that the sets will represent are interesting even if the map is sparcely populated. "Muleshoe,Texas""Seattle,WA the companies home town,Aneheimm,CA,Madison,WI, and some town backeast (I can't recall the name without re visiting site). The vechicles shown seem to range from old and current Wilking N Scale, Tomy Tech Japanese cars (Police cars at wreck scene) ,old N Scale car kits 1953 Merc. I built several of these cannot remember the maker,and a large Green Wilking Magnus Farm Tractor and wagon on a residental street.Also some Woodland Scenics like their Ice Cream Truck. Love those trees,really really love em. I'am going to have ta get me some. Especially the shorter height ones in the planter tubs along the streets.The overly blue water is being revised so they say. I always wanted to do a suburban town as a kid with O or HO Plasticville. Now I guess I can? Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

MTL's little Christmas Village + Kato or Tomytec collector scenes = Parvia

I'm not sure it will appeal to Americans. Now if they produced vehicles and used these scenes as a backdrop like the Japanese so, that might be a different story.

Would I get this? Nope.
Would I get this if it had a detailed vehicle on it? Yep.

[Mark5]

IMEX premium.

Sorry, those look like toys. Great stuff for kids!  ;D

Mark

[DKS]

I'm still trying to fathom some value it might have to modelers. But I don't see any advantage even using elements of it for background stuff. They don't even look all that American. It's more like a roleplaying board for the Sims or something.

The website is almost hopeless. Their odd coding makes navigation flaky: in Chrome, the back/forward buttons don't even work. Some pages are missing (like the Help page), and the Contact Us form bombs. Many of the products, like the detail parts, don't even have photos.

I agree that the appeal is probably limited in America. I could see the folks who are into airport modeling might like it; everything is stylized in that minimalist vein. But I have to wonder why they chose 1:160, especially since it's not even vaguely realistic, so I can't imagine there would be a lot of model railroaders lined up to use it; I'd have gone with one of the scales that Herpa Wings and others use.
 

Frankly, there is a major, gaping hole in N-scale - houses.

Really? I found the following manufacturers offering houses in N scale (and I've probably missed a few).

http://www.laserkit.com/laserkit.htm
http://www.atlasrr.com/
http://www.blairline.com/
http://www.branchline-trains.com/laserart/intro.htm
http://www.gclaser.com/
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/
http://www.imex-model.com/
http://www.ihc-hobby.com/
http://www.microstru.com/
http://www.modelpower.com/
http://www.nesm.com/nscalemodelrailroad.htm
http://www.osbornmodelkits.com/
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/
http://www.rslaserkits.com/

I'll agree that we could always use more, but I wouldn't claim there's a major gaping hole.

IMEX premium.

Sorry, those look like toys. Great stuff for kids!  ;D

I'd say that, with a little painting/detailing/weathering, and surrounding them with trees, they're quite passable as background structures.

[Mark5]

I'd say that, with a little painting/detailing/weathering, and surrounding them with trees, they're quite passable as background structures.

We'll just have to agree to disagree.

(I have a shelf layout, which is 18" to 24" deep - these won't fly for me)

[Allentown Hump]

Is that a BLMA Porta-Potty?