cardboard as a baseboard!

[Class 108]

In a recent rail model mag I saw an article about building a model scene for less than £100. I think it was OO gauge. Looked great to me. Anyway, was wondering if any one has built a layout with strong cardboard as the baseboard and if so how long did it last for?

 

personally I might have a go with that technique so that I can practice and develop modelling skills at a very nice price. What do you all think?

 

[Silver Sidelines]

If you are absolutely certain that you will not be using any water based, paints, glues etc it might just work. Otherwise you might just be very disappointed.

 

Even a piece of 3mm hardboard would be a better bet.

 

Ray

[Alister_G]

In a recent rail model mag I saw an article about building a model scene for less than £100. I think it was OO gauge. Looked great to me.

 

 

Would it be this one?

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/60731-the-100-project-%E2%80%93-a-complete-layout-build-described-in-9-days/

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

... was wondering if any one has built a layout with strong cardboard as the baseboard and if so how long did it last for?...

The problem you have to overcome is very limited elasticity. What this means is that if the cardboard structure takes too much load it will deform and not spring back. All that said it is cheap to repair. I had a fairly large cardboard section on a long ago layout, built from the packaging of an English Electric Liberator washing machine in the mid 60s. That had strips of tree wood glued to some of the heavy weight cardboard which was what sparked the idea - couldn't salvage the wood so used it with the card attached. I think it would have lasted many more years than the roughly four it did before being broken up on my leaving my parents home.

 

(The washing machine now, that finally retired from use by my parents in 2007 when the last of the stockpiled 'boots' for it went u/s.)

Edited December 18, 2012 by 34theletterbetweenB&D

[thirty2a]

I have experimented with it for a tram layout but it met with an accident which although repairable put me off the whole idea. The idea of using card is good but I have found some difficlties in practice, just my limited opinion. I will probbaly try again but on a micro level in the future.

[Vanders]

As someone else pointed out in the original thread, you may be better off popping along to your local DIY store (one with a wood cutting service) and seeing what they have in the offcuts bin. Another option is foam-core board from a hobby store, which is cheap and can be glued together into a box section with PVA glue (also cheap). It wont take rough handling but it'll be much stronger than cardboard.

[mikeg]

I have used some 3mm thick adveryising board that I was give by a bank manager that has printed sealed surfaces and if you can get some of this I think it will last quite a long time. My use was for scenic areas that were not loadbearing but had a good weight of latice structure and plaster bandage, after about ten years there is still no sag and and the base size was 600x400 and has no supports other than being stapled round the edge to the bottom of the ply baseboard frame.

 

Another type of advertising sign is the corex plastic that comes in 5mm thick and 10mm that is fairly ridgid but I have only seen it used for backscenes as it is light and paper can be stuct to it with any liquid solvent or simalar glues, but I think it could be used for the framework of a baseboard as the 10mm on edge, ie the core vertical and say 100mm deep would be very strong and it can be screwed together by inserting timber in the core.

 

And the advantage of both is that you can find it in a lot of shops and once the promotion is over they through it in the skip, just ask the manager and they will usually give it to you.

 

hope this give you some extra ideas for modelling on a small budget, I thought the £100 layout superb but if starting from scratch it would be a lot more than £100, about £175-200 I would think but still within a lot of peoples budgets I would think.

 

regards

 

mike g

[BlackRat]

Laminated and treated with a suitable waterproofing agent (they still sell Shellac?) it should be robust enough.

[Class 108]

Thanks for the replies. Lots of food for thought.

 

Alastair, thanks for the link to the £100 thread. it was indeed the nov brm mag that I was thinking of. So much more to see in the thread than in the mag. I think micro layouts are definatly the way forward for practicing scenery techniques. After my first experience of creating a layout I have learned from alsorts of mistakes that I have made. The great advantage of using cardboard as a baseboard is the fact that your just recycling unwanted stuff and I wouldn't feel bad about throwing it away.

 

Cheers

Alan

 

[APOLLO]

Take a look at the January issue of The Railway Modeller. Page 12, Black Sheep Lane, an N gauge layout 33" x 22" built with 3mm mounting board. A good set of 8 photos describing the board construction too. He did strengthen the board with "lightweight timber battens around the perimiter". Nice layout as well.

 

Brit15

[Class 108]

I shall take a crafty look next time I go to tesco!

 

[60026to]

I do remember a smallish layout that was built in a cardboard tray, like the ones supermarkets use for the transit of fruit and veg. The card is very thick and robust.

 

I think the layout was built by members of a Hull MRS and was Scottish in flavour and looked very good. It did inspire me to build a similar layout using foamboard.

[Andy Hayter]

Most cardboard packaging is twin wall with a wavy layer separating the two outer faces. It is very strong across the waves but relatively weak in the direction in which the waves lie. In boxes the waves are almost always in the verticle direction so that the boxes can be stored one above another.

 

To get over the weakness in the other direction there are two (maybe more) possibilities:

1. Find a source of industrial tri-wall - outer face, wavy layer, middle face, wavy layer, inner face. The extra wavy layer and face help distortion in the weak direction and will probably give enough strength.

2. Glue two twin layer cards together. This can be done to give all the wavy sections in the same direction - like the tri-wall above. However I would recommend that you glue them so that the wavy layers are at right angles to one another to maximise the strength in all directions. Triwalls are specially constructed and usually the pitch of the 2 wavy layers is very different so that you minimise weakness along the waves. Doing the same at home will be a lot more hit and miss.

 

Shellac - available dry on ebay (cheaply) and should be dissolved in meths (expensive) or if you know someone nipping over to France on a booze cruise, get then to go to the hypermarket and buy 5l alcool à brulé (much cheaper)

[Campaman]

I shall take a crafty look next time I go to tesco!

 

Please don't, please just buy it and get out of the magazine isle, it drives me mad when trying to pick up the weekly TV guide trying to get past everyone using the magazine isle as a library.

[Class 108]

Yes it is annoying when you have to share the shop with someone else! Last week I was nearly knocked over by somebody in a rush to pick up a TV mag! Very funny campaman, me thinks Victor Meldrew lives on in us all. Ha Ha

 

[Sturminster_Newton]

I am looking for a way to make the base for a split level section on my O-gauge project.

 

I watched an item on building a cardboard baseboard.

 

My thoughts would be to laminate multiple thicknesses of Corrugated card board to make a beam.

 

Using this as the foundation for the elevated section

 

I have sourced but not purchased a roll of Corrugated Card. (75m x 150mm).

 

The rise I need is 150mm so this looks the way forward as the layout and elevated section are only 1200mm wide.

 

Am I looking through the right end of the muddlers telescope for this as a solution?

 

Your thoughts please

[locomad]

Working on this at the moment several layers of cardboard from thick cereal or cat food boxes, laminated with water proof glue, lots of success making a reproduction RAF ww2 target drone 5 feet wing span out of same stuff. Very much like sundeala but lots cheaper. Started off looking for bases for super quick and Metcalfe building, thick strong light and little bending takes pins and self tapping screws very well.

[rue_d_etropal]

I do remember a smallish layout that was built in a cardboard tray, like the ones supermarkets use for the transit of fruit and veg. The card is very thick and robust.

 

I think the layout was built by members of a Hull MRS and was Scottish in flavour and looked very good. It did inspire me to build a similar layout using foamboard.

I have built a few small layouts and dioramas basedon these fruit/veg trays. You do have to sort through them to find one that has a flat bottom!

Nothing wrong with building a base from cardboard, as long as you plan to display it on a flat table. Having gone through several ideas using boxifle, both in the box and on the lid, and now experimenting with lever arch files, I can say that you do have to be careful with water based materials, and have actually created trackpanels with thin card undrneath which can then be ballasted in the normal(wet) way. To fix scenery down(grass etc) just use a water based glue(undiluted). Again any areas which require full wet treatment,then do these separate and add to base when dry.

[GDR]

On 18/12/2012 at 14:34, mikeg said:

I have used some 3mm thick adveryising board that I was give by a bank manager that has printed sealed surfaces and if you can get some of this I think it will last quite a long time. My use was for scenic areas that were not loadbearing but had a good weight of latice structure and plaster bandage, after about ten years there is still no sag and and the base size was 600x400 and has no supports other than being stapled round the edge to the bottom of the ply baseboard frame.

 

Another type of advertising sign is the corex plastic that comes in 5mm thick and 10mm that is fairly ridgid but I have only seen it used for backscenes as it is light and paper can be stuct to it with any liquid solvent or simalar glues, but I think it could be used for the framework of a baseboard as the 10mm on edge, ie the core vertical and say 100mm deep would be very strong and it can be screwed together by inserting timber in the core.

 

And the advantage of both is that you can find it in a lot of shops and once the promotion is over they through it in the skip, just ask the manager and they will usually give it to you.

 

hope this give you some extra ideas for modelling on a small budget, I thought the £100 layout superb but if starting from scratch it would be a lot more than £100, about £175-200 I would think but still within a lot of peoples budgets I would think.

 

regards

 

mike g

Corrox [aka estate agent signs] is easy to collect, cuts & glues well. V.handy for scenics. 

[RobinofLoxley]

It could be done. Humble cardboard comes in a range of compositions and some of them are very sturdy indeed. The trouble is that these types arent easily obtained in sheet form. Also, it won't really take any nails or screws so everything has to be glued. But as a material it can be used for scenery, I would say thats the best use.

[doilum]

Recently I helped my brother in law assemble a large steel shed. The panels came in two large cardboard boxes measuring approximately 5'x3'.  We used the lid of one as a workbench across the top of two Wheely bins. Despite constant showers it survived the two days it took to decipher the instructions and erect said shed. With an internal structure of cross bracing and the top glued to the base this would have made a very rigid and durable platform.

Many years ago my first 7mm layout was constructed from reclaimed hardboard using a hot glue gun. After two or three shows it was put aside in the cellar. Eight years on it was resurected for one more show and then gifted to another modeller. Modern hardboard is not quite what it was, but a full sheet of 3mm MDF is £15 at B&Q.........

Edited January 30, 2021 by doilum