Scratch Building

[Earl Bathurst]

Hi

I want to have a go at scratch building a station for what will eventually go on my layout of the S&D but not sure how to make a start or how to get the building th right size. I got plain 40thou platicard and stone plasticard for outside of the building. Can anyone help me?

Thanks

[Guest jim s-w]

Hi Earl

 

First thing is you need to draw it. Or find a drawing. Is there a prototype you want to follow?

 

Cheers

 

Jim

[Earl Bathurst]

Well i am in 2 minds which station to choose its eithur binegar or warmly station. SO need to try and find lots of pictures of the stations then? What is the best way to make a start then after that?

Scott

[craigwelsh]

Scale the pictures off a door or something, we've had discussions on here before about standard sizes of those.

 

Be careful laminating plasticard of different thicknesses as it tends to distort compared to identical thickness pieces.

[darren01]

HI

 

If you have never had a go at scratch building, you may want to have a look at a book done by Ian rice; Plastic Structure kits.

 

Don’t let the title put you off, as this is the book I used to learn from , and then went on to make all my buildings on my layout “Torrington†a very good book.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Darren

 

 

 

 

[2ManySpams]

Hi

 

The first few pages of our Diesels in the Duchy thread have discussion and photos on scratch building. My link

 

Hope this helps

 

Chris

[45157]

Hi Earl

 

Although there are material exceptions, the general rule with laminating is odd numbers, two layers of plasticard (basic structure and stone overlay) will want to warp.

 

regards

Stewart

[Siberian Snooper]

Hi

 

Another useful read is Scratch-Built Buildings from British Railway Modelling book No 4, There's lots of useful stuff in there especially on the detailing side.

 

Cheers SS

[Jason T]

What I have found helps me is, when you have the dimensions and measurements sorted out, use Excel to store the information. To elaborate:

 

• Change the dimensions of the rows and columns so that the grids are square (e.g. row height = 2, column width = 2).
• For the measurements, treat each cell as 1mm x 1mm.
• Use the Border function to draw the outline of the walls, windows, etc, meaning that you have a representation of the building.
• When you come to cutting the plasticard, use the measurements in Excel.

 

Tip on this: If you start at the edge of the drawing in Excel, hold down Shift and use the direction keys until you reach where you want to cut, the number of cells (e.g. the millimetres as 1 = 1) is displayed in the top left corner, e.g. 1R x 7C. By doing that, it means that you don't have to measure paper drawings all the time, and you can add notes, etc. to the spreadsheet as well.

 

I'm constructing a particularly tricky station building at the moment and it's helped me immeasurably.

 

[Colin_McLeod]

I agree about the convenience of using Excel, but Excel seems to use different dimensions for rows and columns. A row height of 2 and column width of 2 will not give a square.

 

I would suggest row height of 12 and column width of 2.

 

Best of luck

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

For platforms it would be hard to better the Metcalfe kit. Buildings can be scratch built or sometimes modified from RTR or other kits.

 

The only caveat to card is that use outdoors is probably a no-no.

[Colin]

I f you're not entirely confident about trying scratchbuilding straightaway, why not have a go at one of the simpler Wills structure kits - it's probably the nearest thing to scratchbuilding except you're provided with 1) all the parts you need plus a few spares and 2) a basic scale drawing which might be useful for dimensions such as door apertures when you build your own structures. The Wills building sheets have their critics (a bit pricey, sheets can work out too small for larger buildings and some of the detail is definitely overscale; if you relied on counting brick courses you might end up with a very odd looking building) but one big advantage is that in my experience if cut nice and square with good strong corner joins, they don't need loads of bracing.

[Jason T]

I agree about the convenience of using Excel, but Excel seems to use different dimensions for rows and columns. A row height of 2 and column width of 2 will not give a square.

 

I would suggest row height of 12 and column width of 2.

 

Best of luck

 

 

You're right as well - the above example is set up to 20 pixels x 20 pixels. I'd forgotten that.

 

 

[The Fatadder]

Hi Earl

 

Although there are material exceptions, the general rule with laminating is odd numbers, two layers of plasticard (basic structure and stone overlay) will want to warp.

 

regards

Stewart

 

Interesting, I hadnt herd that one before. Typically I have always used an 80thou core and laminated with brick/metal plastic (and have had major warping problems before.)

Will try the 3 layers next time.

[zarniwhoop]

Apart from all the excellent advice above, may I also recommend starting small - just pick one of the buildings and use it to find where *you* are going to have problems. You might also wish to experiment with different methods of construction / different brands of moulded stone or bricks : they all present different advantages and problems! Be prepared to throw away the first couple of attempts, unless you are lucky.

 

Also, as the discussions on the 'Bluebell' station buildings have noted, real station buildings are *big* and some commercial buildings / kits are a bit smaller than real life. You may wish to produce something a bit smaller, either by reducing the sizes, or by omitting certain features. Draw, see if you think it looks ok, repeat until satisfactory.

 

I know nothing about your prototype, but it may be a good idea to source appropriate door / window / other parts before going too far. If you have the skills to build all these parts yourself, no problem, but otherwise you might need to adapt your design to suit the most-appropriate doors or windows. For example, you might find a distinctive door or window which looks spot on, but is smaller or larger than your ideal design. Loads of fun doing it all, but you might find it takes a long time before you have anything to show for it. Enjoy the process

 

ĸen

[2ManySpams]

Agreed. I started by scratch building a small plate layer's hut. And moved on from there.

[chrisf]

It is often a good idea to make a mock-up first to see what your proposed structure looks like in 3D. As good a way as any to do this is to cut up an old cornflake packet and sellotape the parts together.

 

Chris