How to Build a Model Skyscraper

Throughout this website, there are photographs of several large and spectacular O-scale model buildings. Some are small, some large, some would even qualify as skyscrapers. They are different sizes and shapes, and different styles and colors. Most of them were built using building fronts available from J & C Studios. These fronts are not outright building "kits", however - they are just the unfinished sides of a building. So how then, does one go about using these fronts to construct a building?

Constructing a model of a simple, four-sided building is essentially very simple: glue the four sides together and you're done! Of course there's a little more to it than that, and here I attempt to explain the basic steps in constructing a quality, large size building that will last trouble-free for years using simple and inexpensive materials.

I am no master craftsman. Honest. These steps should prove that to you, and also demonstrate that if someone with my skills can do it, then you certainly can too.

These instructions assume that you will be making a building using the West Park Tower fronts. But most of the techniques can be applied to constructing any kind of structure. You will notice that this page is also incomplete. There are sometimes links or references to photos which simply don't exist. From time to time, I try very hard to remember to take good photos of my works in progress, and update this tutorial, but I still have a long way to go to make this as useful as it could be. Check back occasionally to see if things have been updated, and also please email me with suggestions and tips.

This page is long, and you will likely not want to read it all in one sitting. It also contains links to other parts of our website, and links to other resources to aid you. I recommend you bookmark it, and use it as a reference as you attempt to build your project. The steps are listed in order, however reading them through once before attempting your project may reveal some things to you which could affect how you start and complete the early steps.

If you've never scratch-built a custom structure before, then you are in for a challenge. You will likely make mistakes - some will be correctable; others won't be. This is normal - no master modeler got there without butchering some kits and projects along the way. "The master at anything was once a beginner." The important thing is to take your time, think things through, "practice" (or "dry-fit") your construction moves before using the adhesive, and mostly, just don't be afraid to try it.

We learn by doing...

Step 1: Painting the fronts

One of the first things you need to do is decide what color you want to paint the exterior of your building, and use this color to paint the front surface of your fronts. The front surface is the side that is white.

The West Park Tower fronts are designed to aid you in creating a certain style of building - namely what is sometimes called a "cement-facade" building. Best results are easily achieved using some variety of light tan or beige color (cement or stucco), or perhaps some kind of gray (slate or stone).

I have always used simple spray paints available at home improvement or craft stores. The paint used to make the original West Park Tower is the one pictured in this photo. As with any kind of spray paint, best results are achieved by applying two or three light coats, letting each coat dry before applying the next. Keep the spray can a safe distance from the surface of the front (maybe six to 12 inches). Overspraying an area will result in odd textures or patterns upon drying, and can also cause the front to adhere to the newspaper or whatever you're using to protect your floor.

Be sure to get paint on the inside edges of the windows, and the sides of the building fronts so that the interior color of the matteboard itself will not show when the building is complete.

Step 2: Mounting the corner struts

Once all the fronts have been painted and are thoroughly dry, pick one of them to start with and place it face down on a smooth, flat, clean table. It's not a bad idea to stretch an old bedsheet over the surface of your table to protect the table surface as well as the painted sides of your fronts during the rest of the process.

With the building front facing down, take a piece of square, wooden dowel and place it along one long edge of the front. What we are doing is mounting the corner struts of your eventual building. These will run vertically along the length of each of the four corners, providing a way to join all four fronts together, and forming the basis for the lateral framing and corner bracing which comes later.

At this point, it makes sense to choose which of the two shorter edges of your front will be the top, and which will be the bottom of your building. The fronts are symetrical in both dimensions, but for the sake of simplicity (and these instructions) you should choose which end is up and perhaps even mark it on the back side so you can refer to it later.

With the dowel placed along one edge, use your fingers to ensure that one end of the dowel is exactly even with the "bottom" edge of your front. See photo. Then, with a sharp pencil make a mark on the other end of the dowel at exactly where the top edge of your front is. Now, you know the front is 20" tall, so you could just measure the dowel independently to 20" and cut it. And this is fine, but you may wish to consider these two things before doing it that way:

  1. If you want to protect the matteboard fronts on the bottom edge from getting beat-up over time (you'll be picking this thing up and placing it back down a lot to change bulbs, etc.), then let the corner braces extend just a little bit (maybe 1/16") past the bottom edge of the fronts. That way, the weight of the entire building will be placed on the corner struts (square dowels) and not the matteboard fronts. You might think this will cause an unsightly gap (and potential light leak) at the bottom, but we will later see how this can be remedied.
  2. You may want the corner struts to not extend all the way up to the top edges of your fronts, which will create a nice "seat" for your rooftop piece to lay in. The amount you want the struts to be shy of the top edges depends on the distance you want the roof to be recessed into the building. This is best illustrated with some photos. This photo shows how you can recess the framing and diagonal corner braces into the top of the building so that the roof unit ends up a bit lower instead of flush with the top (see photo). That photo also shows some additional framing, painted black, above the structural framing which is only for visual effect.
Once you've determined the length and placement of your strut, you can glue it down to the edge of your front. Be sure to dry-fit first to make sure your measurements and cutting are Ok. Use a glue suitable for working with wood-based products (plain white wood glue, like Elmer's, works very well here). When making final adjustments, use your fingers to ensure that the square dowel is exactly flush with the long edge of the front, and wipe as much of the excess glue away from the edge as possible.

Then just let it dry. Elmer's usually takes about a half hour to dry, and overnight to cure. For this stage, I typically do not use clamps to hold the strut in place while drying, unless the dowel is warped, or you have reason to believe the pieces may be tempted to move.

Repeat this process for the other three fronts. If you have enough space, you can do all of them at once.

NOTE: It is very important that you mount the corner struts on the same side for all four fronts. If you don't do this, you'll have a disaster on your hands when you get to the next step. That's one reason I recommend you mark the tops and bottoms of each front on the back side, so that you can be consistent at each step of the process.

Step 3: Assembling the fronts

At this point you now have four fronts painted and with corner struts mounted on the same side of each one. You're ready to actually glue together the four sides (two at a time, unless you're feeling confident).

Take any two of the fronts, and place them standing up on their "bottom" edge. Place them at a right-angle together with the corner strut of one touching the non-strutted edge of the other front. Boy is this easier to see in the photo than to describe. This is just a dry-fit to see that the two fronts will fit together Ok, and to get you used to manipulating them with only two hands (because frankly a third would come in very handy in this step!).

If everything looks good, you can apply a bead of the same wood glue along the outward-facing side of the corner strut. Smear this glue with your finger to get a nice cover of the glue along the whole surface of the corner strut. If any glue has made its way onto the painted surface of either front, wipe it up immediately with a wet rag.

With the glue spread on the corner strut of the one front, stand both fronts upright again as you did in the dry-fit. Join the two together, letting the glued side of the strut contact the inside of the other front. You'll find that the wet glue tends to make the two fronts stick together and stay upright. Wood glue takes a while to dry, so you have some time here to get things just perfect before walking away to let it set. Examine the outside edge where the two fronts join together and make sure it looks straight and clean. If any glue gets squeezed out during the fitting together, wipe it off carefully with a wet rag. Make sure that the tops of the two fronts are even with each other.

You can use clamps to hold the fronts together. Honestly, I've had mixed results doing this. If either of the fronts is warped, you may not have a choice but to use clamps to hold them together. But if everything looks good, and you've observed them standing together for a few mintues without sliding or peeling apart from each other, then chances are they will be Ok throughout the drying process.

If you do use clamps, be careful when applying the final pressure to the clamp - it can cause the fronts to slide out of position with each other. It can also cause more glue to come out of the corner, so have another clean, wet rag handy to wipe this up. Clamps can be set at the top, bottom, and perhaps a couple more in between by fenagling the clamps through the windows of each front.

NOTE: If using clamps, use the lightest pressure possible to keep the two fronts together. Excessive clamp force will almost always result in damage to the painted front surfaces, movement to the fronts relative to each other, more glue getting squeezed out of the corner, and possible buckling of the matteboard itself. Just clamp it down with barely enough force to keep it in place.

All in all, I would avoid clamping if you can.

If it all looks good, then walk away from it and let it dry for at least a half-hour. Then, repeat this process for the two other fronts. After those two have been assembled, you will have two sets of fronts glued together, and you'll simply glue those two together in much the same way. I recommend only gluing one corner at a time.

Step 4: Mounting the lateral frames

Once Step 3 is completed, you have what looks like an almost-completed building. However, you'll find that at this stage the building is very wobbly. To take care of this requires some additional structural support in the form of more square wooden dowels.

We begin by placing the wobbly building on its side (really doesn't matter which one). I recommend starting with the bottom of the building, so lay the building on a side with the bottom opening facing you.

Next take a square dowel and measure and cut it to the distance between the two corner struts which are laying on the table. This is another thing that is much easier to see in the photo than to describe. That photo shows the lateral square dowel (pointed out in red). You may want to cut the dowel intentionally long, and then just trim its length a little at a time until it fits snugly between the two struts, When fitting this piece, make sure that the dowel edge is flush with the bottom edge of the building front.

Glue this piece using the same glue and techniques in Step 3. Let it dry completely.

When dry, pick up the whole building and rotate it to the next side and lay it back down. Repeat the same process to install the lateral brace between these two struts. Repeat two more times until you have the whole bottom of the building framed out.

Then, flip the whole building completely around and do the same thing to frame out the top end of the building.

NOTE: if you had mounted the corner struts to be a little bit lower than the top of the building fronts, then when you mount the lateral framing for the top end of the building you'll want to make sure the lateral pieces line-up with the tops of the struts. Again, see the photo. By doing this, you preserve the intended level at which the roof will be seated.

At this point, the building will still be rather wobbly. We will fix that in step 6 by installing diagonal corner braces. In the meantime, throughout step 5, use care when manipulating your building, as the only thing really holding it together right now are the corner struts. And these are not strong enough by themselves to prevent the building from caving in if too much pressure is applied when picking it up.

Step 5: Installing the plexiglas

I've listed this step before the corner braces because it's just easier to get the plexiglas pieces into the insides of the building without the corner braces installed.

Now you'll want to measure, cut, and install the plexiglas onto the insides of the building. This serves two purposes: 1) It makes the building much stronger and prevents the matteboard fronts from warping, and 2) Serves as window material.

Start by laying the building down on one side. Carefully measure the width of the inside of the front which is now laying down on the table. You want to measure the distance between the corner struts in order to determine how wide the plexiglas sheet should be. I usually take two measurements: one at the top and one at tha bottom of the building, as they may be slightly off from each other at this point.

Take the smaller of the two measurements, and subtract a little bit from it - say about 1/8". By subtracting 1/8" or so from the width, you'll end up with a plexiglas piece that will fit in easily. Just make sure the plexiglas piece is wide enough to completely cover the rows of windows, or else you'll end up with an unsightly gap in the windows on the outside.

Measure the height for your plexiglas piece in the same way - the distance between the top and bottom lateral framing, minus 1/8" or so.

If the plexiglas (or other clear sheet plastic you used) has protective masking on it, peel one side of it and leave the other side on. Measure and mark the width and height onto the plexiglas using a Sharpie (permanent marker). Mark this using small marks on the very edge so they will not appear in the windows after mounting.

Plexiglas and other clear sheet plastics can be cut a variety of ways, but I have found that for what we're doing here, the simple "score and snap" method suffices, and is also quick and easy. Using a box-cutter or hobby knife and a metal straight-edge, score a line for one of the two cuts. Then place the plastic sheet flat on the table, with the score-line just a tad over the table edge. Then, with a quick motion, push down on the part of the sheet plastic that is extending over the edge of the table. This should cause the plexiglas to snap right along the score line.

You should get a reasonably clean break. Repeat this for your other measurement to get the final plexiglas piece.

Dry-fit this piece to make sure it will work by placing it right into the building, with the side that you un-masked facing downward onto the back of the building side which is laying on the table.

If you measured and cut correctly, it should drop in nicely and almost completely cover the inside of that one side of the building.

Remove the plexiglas piece and remove the masking from the other side. Then set it aside.

Next we need to apply a bead of adhesive to the back of the building side which is laying down on the table. We need to place a small grid of adhesive pretty much everywhere that isn't a window. Try to center the bead along distances between the window cut-outs of the front. If the adhesive gets too close to an opening, then it will leak out onto the surface of the plexiglas which covers the window and will ruin the appearance of the window when it dries. It also might affix the building itself to the table surface.

This is unquestionably the hardest and riskiest part of making these kinds of buildings. And here might be a good time to talk a little about adhesives.

I've had good luck using Walther's Goo (tm) for this particular task of affixing the plexiglas to the insides of the matteboard fronts. Goo is great for gluing porous and non-porous materials together, and is a very strong adhesive. Also, when Goo cures, it retains a certain malleability, which enables the two joined materials to expand and contract without causing fissures, buckling, or outright cracking and separation. I have had these kinds of things happen to buildings I have made years after completing construction (using other adhesives). It is difficult at best (and probably impossible really) to repair if the plexiglas becomes partially separated from the matteboard, and it's frustrating to say the least. Another good adhesive to use for this is Formula 560 "Canopy Glue". This is a water-based glue that dries crystal clear, which would serve well if any of the adhesive extended into the window pane area.

Goo is terrific for this purpose. It's rubber-based, and doesn't spread as much as other types of multi-purpose adhesives. Over time - after several seasons of humidity, temperature, and pressure fluctuations - the matteboard fronts may tend to warp. This depends a great deal on exactly what kind of paint you used on the outer surfaces. By applying the Goo around every single window and the outer edges, you will help guarantee that this warping or peeling will not occur over time.

I have probably made 30 or more of these building sides using Goo in this manner, and to date none of them has warped, buckled, or peeled. Some of these buildings are many years old.

Since Goo is such a strong adhesive, I recommend erring on the side of using too little. If you use too much, then when you place the plexiglas down it may spread out onto what will become the surface of your building windows, and maybe even glue it down to your table. If you use nothing or too little, then there is a risk that the matteboard will buckle or warp. Examine the photos and try to make your "grid" of glue lines look like these. You may even want to practice a little on some scrap wood or cardboard before trying it on your building.

Optional: If you look at a real building at night, not all of the windows are actually lit. In fact, most of them are dark. Usually, whole floors at a time are lit or dark. If you want some windows to be dark when you illuminate your building internally, then you can block off some of the windows by either painting the inside of the plexiglas over the windows you want to be dark, or taping a piece of black construction paper over them. I've also used black electrical tape on some buildings to accomplish this. If you use paint, be sure to put at least two coats down to ensure it is opaque.

Repeat this process for the other three building sides. Your glass is installed!

Step 6: Installing the corner braces

Even with the plexiglas sheets installed, your building will still be wobbly and structurally weak. The way to alleviate this is by installing corner braces into each corner of the top and bottom lateral framing. See this photo, where I've circled one of the diagonal braces in red.

The diagonal braces themselves are made from the same square wooden dowel we used for the struts and framing. The exact length of each one is not important, but should be at least 2.5". Cut each end of the brace at a 45-degree angle using a mitre saw or mitre box. The ends should be at opposing 45-degree angles with each other, so as to form a sort of wedge. The photo clearly depicts how these braces should fit into the corners.

Glue using the same wood glue. I have found that I can easily glue two at a time, but be sure to wait a full 24 hours before flipping the building to do the other two corners.

NOTE: If this is a single, stand-alone building, then the above process works fine. If this building is to serve as the bottom half of a taller building, then it becomes very important that the angles of all corners be as true to 90-degrees as possible. You can accomplish this using metal "L" brackets (available inexpensively at most home improvement stores) and clamps, as shown in this photo, this photo and this photo. If the profile of your building is not perfectly square, then when you build the second building to place on top of this one, they will not line up seamlessly and it will look bad. (Ask me how I know...)

Once all four corners of the bottom have been braced, do the same thing for all four corners of the top.

Once these diagonal braces have completely cured, your building should be rigid and structurally sound. I wouldn't test this by dropping it, but it should suffice for routine (but careful) handling.

You could stop here and simply use this building as-is if you like. But below are some extras that can make your building look more realistic.

Optional Extras:

Step 7: Making a roof

You could simply cut a square piece of matteboard, plastic, or plywood to the right dimensions and drop it right on top of the building. For exceptionally tall buildings, there's a good chance no one (not even you) will be able to see any part of the roof.

For a more detailed roof, I cut a piece of tempered masonite to the right size. Tempered masonite is ideal because it will not warp over time.

I almost always paint my roofs black, and I find it easier to handle if I install at least a couple of roof-top contraptions to grab onto when I need to lift the roof out of place. Peruse this site to see a variety of roofs ranging from the very simple, to the very complex. Here are some examples to give you some ideas:

LeVitreNoir

Cousin Suites

The Berliner

Truth Plaza

Union Station (West Wing)

Most buildings have some combination of elevator room, machine room, boiler, water tanks, air-conditioning compressors, or vents on the roof. You may want to see how things were done during the period you are modeling.

For most of my taller buildings, I installed marker lights. Your hobby store (or www.plastruct.com) should carry plastic styrene tubing. I have a couple varieties of this in 1/8" and 3/16" diameters. I cut two lengths of this tubing and paint them black. I then get two mini-incandescent red light bulbs and force the wire leads into the tubes, and pull them out through the other side. The red bulb then rests nicely on top of the tube.

I drill two holes in the top of the roof piece, and glue the black tubes into the holes. The wires to the bulbs, now dangling from the roof on the inside of the building, can then be wired together and to the electrical wiring of the rest of the building and presto - I've got marker lights.

As a rule, never permanently glue anything that doesn't need to be. The roof of your building is one example - you'll want to remove the roof to replace bulbs, make repairs or even enhancements to your building in the future, or perhaps if you move the building (it will make it a little lighter).

Step 8: Making a base/sidewalk

While a roof might be unnecessary (especially for very tall buildings), some sort of base and/or sidewalk is something most modelers insist on for their buildings.

I make my base out of 1/4" tempered masonite (the tempered variety will not warp), or 1/4" tempered MDF. I make the base approximately 2"-3" wider than the building itself (in both dimensions...). I use a jig-saw (reciprocating saw) to round off the corners. You can trace a perfect circular arc for each corner using a drinking cup or a small can of paint.

After cutting, I paint the edges and a little bit of the top of the base with a light-gray or cement color. I then paint the rounded corners a yellow. See this photo for an example.

After this dries, I place the building on top of the base, and center and align it with the edges of the base. Then I cut and mount small strips of basswood (3/16" x 3/16" square) around the base of the building. I make sure to not mount the strips right up against the building, but a little bit out to give the building some wiggle room. For a nice appearance, mitre the corners where the strips meet. When all four sides of the stripping have been glued down, I paint them with some gray or cement color. Note that at this point, you can be fairly sloppy with the paint, as we're about to cover it up.

This wood stripping creates a kind of "seat" for the building to sit in, and this helps to cover up any gaps or light leaks which might come from the bottom of the building. Here is another example photo.

Next comes the hard part. I cut pieces of matteboard, and I measure and score sidewalk lines into it with a hobby knife and straight edge. To make these lines, you don't need to cut all the way through the matteboard - just two or three medium-force cuts with the knife along the straight-edge will do. Here's another example photo, showing the scored sidewalk lines.

It's pretty challenging to cut the perfect shapes out to fit the regions of the baseboard. The corners are especially difficult because of the rounded edges. I use a quality pair of scissors for this - making sure to cut too wide first, and then paring it down little at a time until it looks about right.

Once I have the piece dry-fitting to my satisfaction, I paint it a slate gray color. When dried, I mount it to the base board with plain white glue.

Some of the photos show storm drains. To do this, when you cut your base board with the jig-saw to get rounded corners, cut a single notch out of each side. Then cut, paint, and glue down little rectangular pieces of matteboard over the notches. When laying down the sidewalk, you have to carefully measure and cut around these rectangles. Using a different color for the drain covers makes then stand out.

That's about it for a basic base/sidewalk. The sky's the limit with what else you can add to this to make it more realistic or interesting. I've added small trees in little planters, fire-hydrants, pay-phones, newspaper stands, lamp-posts, benches, and lots of other things to my sidewalks to add character. I've seen some guys add little newspapers, bird-droppings, and debris to their sidewalks. Some modelers also give the final sidewalk a very light coat of tan or brown (by holding the spray can way up high and doing broad strokes) to add a kind of dirty or dusty appearance. The results can be very realistic.

And don't forget the most important part: add people!

Step 9: Internal lighting

This is a topic almost deserving its own book. Lighting in general, and internal illumination specifically, can be done dozens of ways.

For all of my buildings to date, I have used a simple (round) dowel, which I cut to a little shorter than the height of the building. I drill a hole into the center of the building base, and mount this dowel into the hole. I then mount mini-incandescent light bulbs in pairs onto the dowel. Usually, for an eight-story building, two pairs of these lights - one pair mounted approximately 1/3 of the way up the dowel, and the other pair mounted about 2/3 of the way up - will provide a nice, soft glow which illuminates all the (non-blocked) windows with a plausible appearance. The use of white Mylar sheeting, mounted to the back of the plexiglas inside, can provide a "fog" or frosted-glass which helps distribute the light more evenly across all windows, and also prevents anyone from being able to see directly into the unfinished interior of the building. I prefer this method because it's cheap and easy, and gives a stylized and somewhat uniform glow to all the buildings in my city. And it keeps me out of the very time-consuming and difficult task of modeling the interiors of every floor of my buildings - a project that I think would truly take the rest of my life to accomplish.

There are lots of other ways to do this. Miller Engineering offers a line of mini-flourescent tube lighting which may look more appropriate for some styles of buildings. You could also simply purchase a small, inexpensive lamp base, toss the shade, and plug it in. I would try the lowest possible wattage bulb first though, and you may still have to install a dimmer of some sort to get the brightness down.

For multi-part buildings (i.e., one stacked on top of the other), I have illuminated the top part by installing a dowel into the underside of the roof, and affixing the light pairs to this dowel. When the top building is placed on the bottom one, the hanging dowel from the top unit almost touches the top of the dowel mounted in the floor of the bottom building. Using simple male-female crimp-plugs, I make connecting and disconnecting the two sections very easy.

Step 10: External lighting

This is another topic almost deserving its own book. There are lots of ways to make every variety of building look fantastic at night. Just take a look at some night-time photos of real cities to get some inspiration for how your model buildings could be enhanced with exterior accent lighting. The upper section of my West Park Tower building has accent lights in the central, recessed panels of all four sides:

West Park Tower

Here's a fancy palladian-type window motif with some accent lighting: The Berliner

Again, your imagination is the only real limitation!