Norwegian Houses

[madharry]

I am currently in the process of building a Norwegian HO exhibition layout. The market for Norwegian models is very small. Point of fact, there are more Americans of Norwegian extraction living in the States than Norwegians living in Norway.

The only company specialising in Norwegian is NMJ and they produce a laser cut for a typical 1930's house which I have built. I planned to have a small street of them but as the house covers a plot of 676 square scale feet I would not have the real estate to fit many in. Here is a link  http://en.nmj.eu/1007245.html

So I have hit on a plan using forced perspective to fit about a dozen houses on the new layout in an area of 2 square foot. I reduced copies of the parts on my photocopier to 93%, 83%, 69% and 47% and I will attempt to scratch build the houses. I will have to probably build the windows myself certainly in the smaller sizes.

I hope to post a few progress reports as I go along.

Cheers

Mike

[ACL1504]

I am currently in the process of building a Norwegian HO exhibition layout. The market for Norwegian models is very small. Point of fact, there are more Americans of Norwegian extraction living in the States than Norwegians living in Norway.

The only company specialising in Norwegian is NMJ and they produce a laser cut for a typical 1930's house which I have built. I planned to have a small street of them but as the house covers a plot of 676 square scale feet I would not have the real estate to fit many in. Here is a link  http://en.nmj.eu/1007245.html

So I have hit on a plan using forced perspective to fit about a dozen houses on the new layout in an area of 2 square foot. I reduced copies of the parts on my photocopier to 93%, 83%, 69% and 47% and I will attempt to scratch build the houses. I will have to probably build the windows myself certainly in the smaller sizes.

I hope to post a few progress reports as I go along.

Cheers

Mike

Mike,

I've always enjoyed following your builds. I'll be watching this one also.


Tom

[Powersteamguy1790]

Have fun with the build Mike.

Stay cool and run steam.......

[Janbouli]

Following along Mike , should be a fairly easy job for you , except maybe the windows , certainly a lot cheaper then the kit price too, wow 58 euro's for a small house.

I bet there must be a few Eastern Canadian Coastal houses that would look the same.

[bparrish]

MIke...

I'm along for the ride.

I'm always interested in European modeling.

thanx
Bob

[madharry]

Thanks for following Tom, Bob, Jan and Bob.

The model kit from NMJ is similar to the models from American Model Builders with slotted walls. The shingles were printed on very thick card (scale thickness 3 inches) and were way oversize (more O scale) so I replaced them with some cedar shingles from RS Laser.

Jan, there are 3 companies involved in the manufacture - NMJ, Skipsmodeller and Noch - hence the price.

It is striking how similar the houses are to the ones in North America bearing in mind that most houses in Norway are of wooden construction. I suppose the settlers arrived in America and thought I need to build a house and used the methods they were used to.

I am currently building two examples at 83% which is interesting with my limited access to materials. These will be houses 5 and 6 in the street viewed from the front of the layout.

I will post some pictures soon...

Cheers

Mike

[S&S RR]

Mike


I just found your thread - I will be following along.

[madharry]

Thanks John.

Here is the completed kit that I will make smaller copies of.

Mike

[madharry]

Here are the copies scratch built at 83%.
Mike

[madharry]

What I want to do is create a street scene with a path rising upwards towards my backscene. here are the houses posed on foam risers to create a forced perspective.

Mike

[madharry]

Onwards and upwards they say. here are the walls for the next house which will be smaller still. This time at 67%. Wish me luck.

As the houses become smaller I have to use more delicate materials to avoid the building looking clunky.

The most noticeable features of the "norwegian" window frame is a upper horizontal supported by the small supports either side of the frame. I am taking my time over the windows to recreate this look.

Mike

[ACL1504]

Mike,

Wonderful job on the houses. Are you doing a "forced perspective" by building them successively smaller?

I think they are very nice scratch builds.

Tom

[madharry]

Thanks Tom.

Yes the idea is that I have about 18 inches of depth from the front of my new show layout to the back scene. I intend leading the viewer into the back scene by having a small street running uphill with houses either side of a path with steps etc. By having the houses getting progressively smaller I can condense the scene more. My aim is for 10 to 12 houses...........

I will post more pictiures as I go along together with the completed scene or module that I hope to use on the layout.

Thanks again for following. I am really enjoying scratch building the little houses....

Besides I am using up a lot of spare cutoffs and other bits that I could not possibly throw away if you know what I mean (drives my wife mad) . 

Mike

[cuse]

Mike,


Great concept. I'm excited to see it develop.


John

[Janbouli]

It will be interesting to see what you do with the backdrop Mike , Maybe N-scale backdrop would work.