Where the heck do i begin

[woodenhead]

I want to begin building my own structures - platforms, buildings etc - I've already bodged a platform for my station but when it comes to painting I can see that a solid red brick platform side looks well awful.

 

So firstly admitting to myself that I don't know how to paint and bodging isn't ideal is a good start, then admitting to the wider community I need to learn how to do this is the next logical step.

 

Can anyone suggest any books that are a good starting point for scratchbuilding structures (plasticard) and painting thereof?

[Pete the Elaner]

Not books. I look at the real thing & try to work out how it is built.

I struggle with platforms too. There are some good commercially available ones but they don't provide the look I am after.

I cut some coping stones from plastikard for my last layout but these were not consistent enough so this was something I got stuck on. I ended up aborting that layout anyway.

I have tried a couple of methods on my current layout:

 

I first tried laser cutting the entire surface, including coping stones. I had several issues. Anything less than 2mm acrylic distorts from the laser cutter's heat. 2mm bends slightly & it difficult to pull flat. My laser cutter also does a maximum of 300mm, so the join between sections looks awful.

Just last week, I tried cutting coping stones with the laser. I thought these would be perfectly consistent in size, but there seems to be more variation than I expected.

As for buildings, I found that it was difficult getting the window frames correct. A friend suggested I buy Peco or Wills ones then create the building around these. Another friend showed me his method for cutting windows from plastruct. I found this extremely tedious but need to do it this way to get my building right. I got about 1/4 of the way around the building & have not touched it for months. 

Maybe you could start by looking around for some windowless structures. Retaining walls, small electrical buildings etc?

[Campaman]

A good trawl through this section of the forum and the card structure section would be a good start.

 

Even though you say you want to use plasticard, there are some good construction methods in the card structure section that you can attach plasticard to.

[Hound Dog]

As a relatively rookie I started with the Metcalfe Stone platform Kit and although my first attempt was reasonable, it need trimming as I didn’t quite get the template accurate enough and this spoilt the appearance ....... I then saw Railway magazine article where the person topped their platform with 2mm mount board and so I reclaimed my structurally sound Metcalfe Kit with a new top surface which covered up my rookie errors...... never going to win Modeller of the Year, but perfectly acceptable at my level and most importantly very forgiving.

 

Hope this helps - good luck

Edited February 15, 2019 by Hound Dog
Spelling errors

[jonny777]

For straight platforms, I use small Lego bricks on the inside in order to get a rigid framework with right angles and superglue the brick/stonework to that. It doesn't matter about the colour of the bricks, and so I purchase them in packs of 100 or so quite cheaply via Ebay.