How we used to model (pre plastic)

[MyRule1]

The Colne Valley Railway museum has been given a large donation of model railway items from circa the 1950's. We will be displaying these next year but they do give an example of how modelling took place in the days before injection moulded plastic took over.

 

My first examples are of wagon building

 

 

The components for a wagon

 

 

Grey printing added at least some PO wagons

 

 

or you could go full colour.

 

More from the collection as I photograph and catalogue it.

[Re6/6]

I made several of these (not that successfully as I was only a callow youth back then!) .

 

The big challenge was cutting out the cardboard ERG coaches. Well, that was all that was available for the beginner builder of model railways. I also built wooden CCW and Ratio coaches. All good fun. I still have an ERG coach which I keep for old times sake!

[33C]

I love a Lithograph sheet! Great for budget modelling. Years ago i used a Metropolitan line stock sheet, a few Rovex shorty coaches and a Lima HO 33 chassis to see if i could make owt outta nowt. Yes is the correct answer! Wish i still had it....Still, 4PAN and 6PUL plus a LOT of wagons later i'm still at it. Some CDC sheets of EMU's beckon...

[Nearholmer]

What I call “wood and wallpaper” modelling is alive and well as a niche within the niche which is coarse-scale 0, where genuinely old models mix with modern ones built using old-fashioned methods and materials. There are a few ‘cottage industry’ suppliers dedicated to producing wooden vehicle bodies, lithos, reproduction casting etc, and it is possible to build “all spare parts” copies of things like 1930s Leeds Model Company carriages and wagons.

This one is an original, but all the bits to build it are available new.

 

In 0, the lack of surface relief is a bit obvious, as it is with printed tin, but once things get down to TT and N, my personal view is that printing can actually look better than moulded plastic, where all too often the detailing gets a bit gross. It’s a good technique in terms of sustainability too, so it deserves to be popular in the small scales.

 

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by Nearholmer

[sncf231e]

Old wood and paper kits from Germany and the US, I made a few:

Regards

Fred

[sncf231e]

Are there bodies available for these?

Regards

Fred

[33C]

1 hour ago, sncf231e said:

Are there bodies available for these?

Regards

Fred

What about using the older Hornby mk.1's, the ones that break down into roof, sides and chassis/ends? Lose the sides and replace with the lithos glued onto cereal packet card or thin, sheet balsa, with the windows cut out. The ends could be sanded smooth after carefully cutting off the corridor connections, the litho ends wrapping round the side(doors) and then replace the corridor connections. (I had to jiggle the sides of my EMU coaches to fit the sides of my Triang 9" coach donors, being shorter than the lithos.) You can see I used this sheet for the Pullman in the 6PUL. Keepin' it cheapo!

[Nearholmer]

The bodies shouldn’t be too difficult in wood, even iff the ends are curved, it’s the roofs that will pose a challenge. I know Bruce Palmer sells 0 gauge wooden Pullman bodies and roofs, so maybe try him, otherwise lots of draw-knife and sandpaper work like model boat building.

[CKPR]

Slightly off topic but I try to avoid adding any styrene parts to my scratchbuilt and kitbuilt brass locomotives and rolling stock. For example, I'll always make cab or brake van veranda  floors out of thin ply. IRRC quite a lot of the older rolling stock running at  Pendon is made of card and ply as per Michael Longridge's book "Building 4mm rolling stock" from the late 1940s and which is well worth reading even today.

[PeterStiles]

Golden:

 

 

[Ben B]

I really like this sort of modelling, it feels quite satisfying. I suppose you could look at the modern sorts of kits you see a lot in the garden scales, using laser-cut ply and mdf, as the evolution of these older kits?

[Steamport Southport]

1 hour ago, Ben B said:

I really like this sort of modelling, it feels quite satisfying. I suppose you could look at the modern sorts of kits you see a lot in the garden scales, using laser-cut ply and mdf, as the evolution of these older kits?

 

There is also a new range of laser cut kits for TT:120. Very much like the old school wooden kits.

 

https://www.osbornsmodels.com/arch-laser-1380-c.asp

 

Thread about them here with a couple of builds.

 

 

 

Jason

[33C]

It's not much different from making a Metcalfe/Superquick kit, just different angles and planes. You could put wheels on a SQ police station and run that round....

[Nearholmer]

I progressively gave up plastic about 30 years ago, having rediscovered wood and card as a result of being into US ‘craftsman’ kits for buildings in H0. Going through 16mm/ft and then into old-fashioned style 0 has convinced me that there is something more satisfying about the old materials, so now I don’t use plastics at all except for window ‘glass’, and am not tempted back to it.

[CKPR]

And Superquick originated with KeilKraft who made kits for wooden model aircraft (the flying variety).

[westernviscount]

11 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

I progressively gave up plastic about 30 years ago, having rediscovered wood and card as a result of being into US ‘craftsman’ kits for buildings in H0. Going through 16mm/ft and then into old-fashioned style 0 has convinced me that there is something more satisfying about the old materials, so now I don’t use plastics at all except for window ‘glass’, and am not tempted back to it.

There is something to be said for this approach. You could go for a full purge by using microscope slides for windows. Real glass!! 

Edited August 17, 2023 by westernviscount

[Nearholmer]

My current ‘modelling style dateline’ is c1950, and Perspex was being used for model windows by then, but if I backdated to pre-war, yes.

 

[Re6/6]

The first effort of a callow youth! ERG cardboard, pretty awful really but I was proud of it at the time as it was a 'proper' coach that wasn't Hornby Dublo or Rovex! I remember cutting the window apertures with a razor blade held in the fingers. I didn't know the existence of Exacto knives. It was treated with shellac for a suitable surface on which to apply paint, made by dissolving decorators shellac slivers in meths!

 

Things got better when aluminium Westdale wrappers appeared. They could be made into half decent models. I still have a few to build.

 

Does anybody remember Kenline wagon parts?

 

Then etched brass kits appeared. Manna from Heaven!

 

[MartinRS]

On 12/08/2023 at 08:16, Nearholmer said:

In 0, the lack of surface relief is a bit obvious, as it is with printed tin, but once things get down to TT and N, my personal view is that printing can actually look better than moulded plastic

I'm certainly going to have a go at making some scratchbuilt TT:120 wagons using Osbourn model's buffers and wheels just as soon as I can find the time. (I have my late Mother's estate to deal with and a very frail father to look after which means I spend more time at his house than I do at home).

 

I have been pondering how to get relief on wagon sides. (Cue Jimi Hendrix!). Just as soon as I can pick-up a new colour print cartridge I'm going to print two copies of wagon sides and construct the model. Then I'll print out another copy and cut out the corner bracing, hinges etc., and glue these details over the existing body. (On second thoughts it might make more sense to glue the relief details before I put the body together. I will also save on printer ink if I print the overlay separately, minus the other body-shell details). Insane as it might sound I am also going to experiment with gluing grains of sand over the body-shell rivets before I add the relief overlay. They will be positioned over the rivets. Hopefully the application of gentle pressure when I glue the overlay in place with add further texture. 

 

Has anyone else experimented with paper overlays like this and do you have any advice other than colouring the edges of the overlay before fixing it in place?
 

[CKPR]

I would suggest very gently embossing the rivets from the reverse with an engineers scriber rather than glueing anything onto the overlap - this is fiddly enough in 4mm using styrene ! The use of a second  printed side to make strapping and corner plates is also a return to old school modelling of the 1940s & 50s. Another name to look for in old magazines is Derek Sackett who wrote a few articles on card modelling in the 1960 & 70s.

[Martino]

On 17/08/2023 at 07:19, westernviscount said:

There is something to be said for this approach. You could go for a full purge by using microscope slides for windows. Real glass!! 

I model 15mm/ft for outside in the garden.  The last railway, which although British was located in Florida, had resin buildings that suffered from acute fogging of the plastic ‘glass’ in the windows.  I replaced them all with microscope slides and no further problems.  ….however once you’ve cut the slides to fit they become incredibly sharp.  Don’t ask how I found out ;-)

[MartinRS]

On 18/08/2023 at 23:28, CKPR said:

I would suggest very gently embossing the rivets from the reverse with an engineers scriber rather than glueing anything onto the overlap - this is fiddly enough in 4mm using styrene ! The use of a second  printed side to make strapping and corner plates is also a return to old school modelling of the 1940s & 50s. Another name to look for in old magazines is Derek Sackett who wrote a few articles on card modelling in the 1960 & 70s.

 

Thanks for the information. I did a web search but didn't find anthing with his name. I did follow this link https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/Category:ERG_Precision_Models which mentions a book, Cardboard Rolling Stock and How To Build It. A search on that term led me back to RmWeb and a link to a pdf version. This has been published on RmWeb before in the Collectable/Vintage forum (ERG models). I have no idea who is hosting the link, reproduced below.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jyq9EUivUXDdpO-RP4lFDcJ5qYwlevu_/view

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by MartinRS
Typo

[Nearholmer]

He recommends making river heads using ting blobs of glue on a pin, which works with pva as well as with the long defunct brand he suggests.

[PeterStiles]

9 hours ago, MartinRS said:

Rolling Stock and How To Build It.

I found the tryptyc I photo'd above on eBay for a tenner all in . Much nicer than pdfs, they smell so much better:)

 

I looked for them after reading a review in the RM digital archives. It's worth reading through the 1950s issues for a plethora of timeless hints and tips, and also to realise how -good- we have it these days.

Edited August 20, 2023 by PeterStiles
Para about why I bought them

[hayfield]

One of my favourites was the articles which appeared in the very old Railway Modellers, Model Railway Constructors and Model Railway news showing scratch building articles, sometimes using materials from household items (often waste items) eco recycling long before it became popular. Or from balsa or other strip and sheet wood. Locos built from baked bean cans, buildings from cereal boxes.

 

I have just ordered a narrow gauge plan book from the 0-16.5 society, but I doubt if any recycled products will be used