Do you guys know of any Ho model structures that look like the ones on Main street?

I assume you are meaning plastic or laser-cut wooden models. I looked very seriously at this back in 1999 and 2000 and occasionally since and I have found very little. Walthers catalog has a lot of buildings http://www.walthers.com/. If you wanted a German Main Street you would have more luck as modeling seems to be more popular over there. Otherwise there is a building here or there that may give you some of the look of Disneyland's mainstreet but not a lot that is close to what is actually there. I gave up on trying to find models that I could kitbash to look like Main Street myself.

If you want buildings that look like those on Disneyland's Main Street, then I would go with "paper models." You can make these more durable based on the "papers" (card stock or heavy weight papers) and by spray coating them in plastic. The Disney Experience is a great place to start http://www.disneyexperience.com/lvdlabs.html. They have links to their models (many of which are free and they also sell CDs with models on them). If you are handy with computer graphics software (I use Photoshop), you can scale these models to HO scale. Their Castle and Main Street station are pretty details and reasonably accurate (I compare the castle and MSS to blueprints). There is also an incredibly good Haunted Mainson model available at Haunted Dimensions (there is a link to it on Disney Dimensions). There was someone that sold some lesser quality paper models (not as accurate and simplier/more flat) on Ebay from time to time that he called "Theme Park Models" but were obviously of Disneyland's Main Street.

My hope is to build a "paper model" of Main Street based on some photos I composited together back in 1999-2000. I also kitbashed two train station models to build a MSS back in 1998. You can see some of the things I have done at http://www.fototime.com/inv/643F78A06325765

Anyway, if you let everyone know a little more about what you want to do then maybe they can be of more specific help.

Also, if you have photoshop, you can scale up or scale down the paper model to the size you want, I scaled mine down to S scale (but never built it!)

Do you guys know how they made the main street building models at MGM studios in the walt Disney's story attraction?

Built them from scratch. Disney builds all their models from scratch.`

Card stock models can be very accurate, Bob Olszewski builds card stock models for size and space reference before he begins carving.

You can take stock buildings and add cornice detail, awnings, and other detail work that will let you have the look and feel but scratch building or paper model will be the only way to get accurate models. That's why I scratch built my city hall but kit bashed the fire station.

I have built some building kits with the addition of the window and cornice detail that look like they could be on Main street but they aren't.

I have three buildings that look like like mainstreet buildings bashed from other kits. The Menomonee falls station with two atlas platform kits can build the a reasonable Mainstreet station. The Bachmann or courthouse square community hall can be kit bashed into the fire station. The too short Plastiville theater can be bashed into the theater, sort of.



I have used the Walthers Merchant rows I & II for kit bashing other building fo my Main street, they have the right look and feel but they is no similar building.

Jazzfan4,

I really like Jazzfan4’s buildings and love the lighting. It does a very good job of evoking the feel of the buildings that are there. For example the theater and the fire station are different in a number of respects from the ones at DL, yet if you didn’t have the pictures to compare to and were working from memory, it would be tough to know what is different.

I started out thinking I could kitbash and use parts to build a Main Street but it was becoming a daunting task, so more and more I am favoring the card-model (also known as paper model) route. My enthusiasm for modeling DL was re-invigorated by building the Disney Experience’s Castle and Haunted Dimensions DL Haunted Mansion (their HM model is just exceptional). With my computer library of photos, I can get some very accurate models.

Having considering the pro’s and con’s for years, I personally now prefer the paper/card model route as it fits my likes and personal goals better (this is just a comment on my personal preferences and not to be critical in any way of someone going a different direction). For one, I love building, but am not into painting (I wish I could paint well, but know I will never be any good at it). I love the detail and accuracy you can get by manipulating computer pictures. Paper/card can be pretty durable particularly if you coat it with a clear acrylic (and look how long the 1954 Disneyland model has held up). The down side of card modeling can be certain details that are spherical, but overall with some thought, you can get a lot of 3-D out of 2-D paper with some folding. And if you screw something up, you can have new parts on the printer in less than a minute. Also a lot of interesting things like stained glass and detailed railings can be done by printing on transparency plastic coated for ink-jets.

After all, DL’s Main Street buildings are facades themselves.

That's why I stress look and feel rather than perfect detail. When these have all been put together I want the viewer to have the feeling that they've seen this town but don't know just where. Since it is not a perfect Disneyland, I'm lableing everything Yensid Valley, just don't have all the signs finished.

I'm always trying to think of names the have a Disney ring with out being too blatent. The restraunt will be Tony' Pizza and Pasta Palace. I also have the Timekeeper clock shop, Belle's Books and Ferdinands Fine China. I'm open to suggestions because there will be alot of signs to do.

One of the ideas I had for the paper model was to use it as a kind of templete. First I would put the model together, then go back and add styrene strips, sheets, tubes, etc; on to in to make it better.