Using DPM Modular Walls
DPM’s modular walls are a great way to build a relatively custom building for your layout, but most modelers don’t take them any further than what the manufacturer offers. Hopefully I can break down some of those walls you have up, so you can put up some other walls the way you want.
This is not about how to work with the modular walls but is designed to give you simple ways to improve on a wonderful system for use on your layout.
Typical Usage
The modular walls offered by DPM have so much potential in them, and just about every N scale layout with a city on it has at least one structure made from them in one way or another. Typically you see them as back ground buildings that form a rough skyline, and they will be used repetitively with only a different coat of paint on each to add some variety. For this purpose they are great, the only other example that comes close is the is the “Modulars” offered by Walthers Cornerstone brand. I have yet to have used these walls and many great items such as rooftop details and foundations are offered to detail the walls.
Along with being used as background buildings ,the other typical use the walls serve is in a industrial setting, and again a great place for the walls. However, you rarely see them modified in either arena and they are always as DPM intended them to be used. But the walls hold so much more potential than what most can see. So let me show you just a few examples of what can be done with the walls to remove them from the boring background structure to something that will be the draw or focal point of your city or town.
Potential Usage
Steven’s Hotel
For our first example I will use the third building I created with the modular walls, my first being the popular Gold Series, Woods Furniture Company. This building I built about two years ago and named the Steven’s Hotel, it is not based on a specific prototype but is modeled after a style of building common in many cities in the United States. Most of this style were built during the late 1920’s and early 30’s and I used reference examples from Kansas City, Chicago and Los Angeles, but have since discovered a very close design in Ogden, Utah.
For this structure I primarily used Two-Story 12 Window (60122) sections for the two street facing walls. On the bottom floor walls I used Dock Level Freight Door (60105) on the face and then Street/Dock Level Blank Walls (60101) for the left side. The back is not visible so to save money I used sheet styrene. Also on the bottom floor is a pharmacy and the entrance to the hotel that I scratch built from strip styrene. The top floor is where I strayed the most from the norm and broke free. If you look carefully you will notice that the windows are the same windows as the rest of the structure. All I simply did was flip the One-Story Window (60112) walls so the brick pattern is facing the inside of the building. I then added the architectural detailing I wanted using strip styrene. I also extended the detailing down the pilasters on the first two-story wall section.
These simple changes and a few added details such as signs and a fire escape changed the bland modular walls into a interesting hotel, and it wasn’t that much more effort than what is already involved with assembling the walls.
M.S. Butler Farmers Supply
Although this is a far simpler looking structure than the Steven’s Hotel, it required much more care and altering of the walls then before. The Farmers Supply is roughly based on a prototype in Waco, Texas and all I had to go on was the store front of the building. The rest is my own design.
For a simple two-floored box, I used a variety of walls, (60111, 60112, 60103, 60101 & 60104)). First thing you may notice is there are no pilasters dividing each horizontal section and the sections across the front with all of the doors are not a set DPM part. For the front wall entry, I used the Street Level Entry (60104) and I modified the walls by removing the space below the windows so they would become doors. I then cut the walls so they would join up evenly in the middle and did the same on the 2nd floor windows. On the side walls I had to shorten the walls a little as well and I cut the back to match the front width. To join the four walls together I sanded a 45 ° bevel on the back so I would have a clean joint in the corners.
With some clever painting and placement of decals I was able to disguise most of the joints in the brick and some are difficult to see. The cornice on the front is from a Life Like Fire Station, and the decals were made by me as described in the Make Your Own Decals article. The foundation for the structure is plaster that was formed in a custom mold that I had built for this structure.
Plaza Hotel
This example is a “work in progress” that was submitted to N Scale Limited by a reader named Tim Purcell. Tim has been working on his structure for the past few months and was partially inspired by my Steven’s Hotel. What he has done so far is use the same methods that I used, such as flipping the top wall sections and scratch building parts of the base, but he did what I encourage all of our readers to do — make it your own. While the methods are similar in construction, the designs are very different. Tim has primarily worked with balsa wood for his structures and this is his first experience with using strip and sheet styrene. As far as we are concerned, Tim is doing a fantastic job on his structure and we will be showing the finished structure as soon as Tim has it completed.
Tim has a Flickr page that you can also visit and see more examples of his work.
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