City on a shelf?

[spade450]

Here's what I am thinking: I've gotten hooked on the city theme but lack space to build much with any depth to it. In my earlier days of model railroading, one solution was a shelf layout -- trains go back and forth instead of around. I do have room for a fairly long shelf or a shelf on a set of bookcases. Using a 32 stud deep baseplate, I could rebuild Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, etc., as 8 stud deep facades, use another 8 studs for the sidewalk area, and have 16 studs left for a two lane roadway. I was wondering if anyone had done something like this and, if so, could point me to some pics. I would like to get an idea of what it might look like before spending too much time on it. I tried searching EB, BS, and MOC Pages with no luck.

Thanks!

[Bob]

I did something like this before I had gotten the ideas of using a real table...

I however have no pictures, because well...the city sucked. Using a shelf is a great idea for lack of space, just make sure you have enough bricks to build a big city. My city was big, grey, and mostly made of roads. I think I remember someone else making a city on a shelf. If you look a couple of topics back, maybe even pages, you might be able to find it.

[SlyOwl]

Teddy did a city on a window sill here. It's deeper, though.

It's a nice idea (make sure the shelf is attached properly, though! ), something which I may consider doing with my pirate stuff (although I haven't really got enough to spare for a display). You could probably split the bricks from each of the modular buildings into 2 smaller facades each.

Personally I would go with an 8-stud wide toad, so you can have more building in there. Unless you've got a serious traffic-jam, most of the road will be empty, so the space could be put to better use on deeper buildings.

You could also put in 1 brick-deep mini skyscrapers e.t.c. behind the facades, to give a skyline.

[Eilif]

I did this when I first returned from my dark ages. I built 16x16 buildings on a shelf that was around 24 or 28 studs deep. I included a 4 deep sidewalk and the rest for road. My building ability has progressed quite a bit since then, but all things considered, it was a good looking town.

My preference is always for larger buildings, so I would recomend making the buildings deeper than 8 studs. This allows for more interesting rooflines, and you can introduce more effective alleyways and even side streets. Also, 4-6 studs is more than enough space for a sidewalk. On my current layout (40"x120") I use 2 stud wide sidewalks!

As to the size of the road, it all depends on how many vehicles you plan on building. At the time of my shelf town, I was building very few vehicles, so a one lane road was more than adequate. If I had less space, I would have dispensed with the road all together.

Best of luck with the project!

[spade450]

Thanks, all, for the input.

I guess the real issue for me is whether to include a road and vehicles. Over the past few years, TLC has been turning out some nice vehicles and I have quite a few of them. The downside to including them in the shelf city is that space is taken up for a road and the vehicles tend to block the view of what is happening on the sidewalk and ground floor of the buildings. Now that I have dabbled a bit with LDD, I do think that 8 studs is not deep enough for interesting buildings. I may go with 16 studs for the buildings, 16 studs for the sidewalks (very wide, I know, but could lead to interesting pedestrian scenes, public art, fountains, flowers. etc.) and limit the vehicles to perpendicular side streets.

I'll post some pictures on down the road.

[L-space]

Thanks, all, for the input.

I guess the real issue for me is whether to include a road and vehicles. Over the past few years, TLC has been turning out some nice vehicles and I have quite a few of them. The downside to including them in the shelf city is that space is taken up for a road and the vehicles tend to block the view of what is happening on the sidewalk and ground floor of the buildings. Now that I have dabbled a bit with LDD, I do think that 8 studs is not deep enough for interesting buildings. I may go with 16 studs for the buildings, 16 studs for the sidewalks (very wide, I know, but could lead to interesting pedestrian scenes, public art, fountains, flowers. etc.) and limit the vehicles to perpendicular side streets.

I'll post some pictures on down the road.

You may want to change the width of the sidewalk and road on some places. Like the road is getter closer to the buildings at a certain point. That way you can still have a dillivery van stand in front of the postoffice and still make room for larger sidewalk scenes with a consession stand for instance.

And as aresult the total layout will look more varied for your viewing pleasure.

Good luck.

[spade450]

You may want to change the width of the sidewalk and road on some places. Like the road is getter closer to the buildings at a certain point. That way you can still have a dillivery van stand in front of the postoffice and still make room for larger sidewalk scenes with a consession stand for instance.

And as aresult the total layout will look more varied for your viewing pleasure.

Good luck.

That's a good idea and I might try it with some smaller vehicles. The postal van is a good example. I am afraid that some of the newer vehicles are just too big for the overall effect that I am looking for. I want to focus more on pedestrians and sidewalk scenes but feel guilty leaving all those cool vehicles in boxes or on a separate unrelated shelf.