making buildings current ideas?

[MJI]

I have plans to make 6 or 7 structures in 4mm.

 

Buildings used to be cars and brick paper.

 

What is the current ideas over this?

 

Some are quite basic but some are rather ornate.

 

Different colour bricks.

[ikcdab]

Well,  they also used to be made of plastic or plywood.

Basically, everything is out there, it depends it depends on what you want. Personally, I love the scalescenes range, others prefer plastic kits. 

You just need to look around and see what's what and what suits your skill level or motivation.

But I would say, that whatever you do, use the same style (card, plastic or whatever) for all the buildings. That way they look like a coherent set.

Ian

[MJI]

I will use card, used it before, on simpler buildings.

 

I thought about self print but inks fade.

 

Scribing but 0.1mm deep.

 

Heard that plastic card is not square.

 

 

[devondynosoar118]

Engineering plastic sheets are very much square, plus you will be cutting any sheet you use anyway, hopefully using a decent straight edge and a square.

Some of the tea turned sheets like Slaters are not always square, but one cut usually fixes that.

I have self printed buildings that are nearly 8 years old that kept their colour, I use fixative spray and a light coat of varnish before glazing to help and don’t leave them in direct sunlight, anything fades under too much sun! Another vote for Scalescenes, their stuff is superb.

[MJI]

That said will be for two different small layouts so can use different techniques.

 

Where do I get engineering ones from?

 

Seen plenty of really crude stuff.

 

Scalescenes looks interesting, but multi buy on downloadables?

[ikcdab]

8 minutes ago, MJI said:

 

Scalescenes looks interesting, but multi buy on downloadables?

I'm not sure what you mean here. You pay once (most are less than a fiver) and then print as many as you want. All you need to buy is the card to stick them to.

The great thing is that if you go wrong, just print off another page and have a other go!

Ian

 

[brossard]

Another vote for Scalescenes, amazing design and quality.  Downloads (PDF) are not expensive IMO, and infinite prints can be done.  There are a couple of free downloads so zero risk.  These can be challenging.  I'm building in 7mm so that's another level of complexity.

 

The cost comes in with the card, I use high quality stuff from my art supply store.  Ink of course comes into it too.  You will need paper too.  For sticking paper prints to the card I use Pritt glue sticks.

 

I also apply varnish to my prints.

 

Another kit supplier that I can recommend is Finescale Buildings:  http://shop.finescalebuildings.com/?main_page=index

 

There is a free kit available too.

 

I have built a number of Lcut kits, in 7mm in my case but they are available in 4mm too:

 

http://lcut.co.uk/index.php?page=pages/main&title=Main

 

They are quite good OOB but will benefit from the builders embellishments.

 

John

 

Edited September 18, 2020 by brossard

[MJI]

Thanks all

 

I am going to try Scalescenes if they have the right bond for lot 1, and for lot 2 it will have to be decent embossed plastic card if I can find any.

 

Rest is traditional card work.

 

 

[brossard]

Martin there's a ton of interesting stuff here:

 

http://lcut.co.uk/index.php?page=pages/main&title=Main

 

John

[MJI]

Lcut looks rather interesting.

 

Why did I chose an ornate station for one of my mini projects? Try out of EM. Ex MR 1950s

 

The other will be slightly bigger and 00, using RTR locos, ex GWR 1960.

[brossard]

Lcut is a great asset to structure modelling.  You will have noticed the plethora of doors and windows available.

 

I like to have the same style of building on my layout.  When using Lcut buildings I face the walls with Scalescenes brick paper.  I don't think the depth of mortar line on the Lcut is deep enough and I'm not at all certain that I can execute a convincing brick finish.  I also use the Scalescenes method when making roofs.

 

You can see the buildings I have made in the layout link below.

 

John

[ed7]

Scalescenes multibuy - you cam purchase all the Scalescenes texture papers in one lot at a discounted price.  

 

If you are interested in kits have a look at Petite Properties - laser cut mdf but they need covering with embossed plastic brick/stone sheets or printed papers like Scalescenes.  

 

For construction of building shells, apart from card and styrene sheet there is foamboard and foamed pvc.   Stonework can be scribed on these materials.