Scratchbuilding a goods shed

[hornbyandbf3fan]

What are the best materials to do so? I'm wanting to have it with bricks to fit in with my other structures. Is Will's brock paper any good and what's better, plasticard or card (not sure of thickness, it's not card like from shoeboxes either)

 

Will

 

[Captain Kernow]

Will, the type of material to use is often a bit of a personal choice. You could use plasticard for the scratchbuilt building, in which case I'd recommend getting some Slaters embossed brick plasticard and strengthening it with plain (white or black) plasticard, minimum thickness 30 thou. You'll need to use MekPak or a similar plastic solvent type glue for that, plus you'll need a scalpel and (minimum) 6" steel ruler to mark out and cut the plasticard.

 

Unless you've already got some scale drawings of a specific goods shed in mind, I'd suggest that you draw your own, on plain or graph paper, in pencil, first. Do it full size and take some photocopies. An easy way to transfer the drawing from the paper plan to the plasticard is to cut out the paper plan to the exact profile for each individual component, and sellotape this to the plasticard. Using your very sharp (preferably new) scalpel and steel rule, you then cut around the outlines of the paper plan, severing the sellotape but not cutting completely through the plasticard at this stage. Remove excess sellotape from the plasticard and continue to cut your pieces out, using several light cuts, rather than one or two heavy ones. Don't go right through the plasticard, when you've got perhaps 1/3 or 1/2 the way through (and this may actually only take a couple of passes with the blade), you should be able to cleanly snap the plasticard apart. Clean the edges (to remove any raised 'lipping') with a piece of wet & dry abrasive paper (be careful if you're doing this on the outer face of embossed plastic bricks). This will help the individual parts laminate and then glue together better, with more accurates joins.

 

Of course, you may prefer to use card, in which case use something that's at least 1mm thick. I use Dalerboard for some of my buildings, this is available in large sheets from art shops for approx £4 per sheet. It's usually coloured on one side, and white on the other. You can then use brick paper to cover it. What you could consider doing is buying brickpaper from Scalescenes on line. Once you've bought the file, you can print as many  sheets off at home as you like, so it doesn't matter, in a way, if your first attempt doesn't go well, just print some more off and have another go! Or, you could try one of the Scalescenes kits - they're very good!

 

Good luck!

[hornbyandbf3fan]

I forgot completely about scalescenes! I've printed off a test print and suprisingly it's come out well so I'm going to get some red brick and some grey roof tiles. Thanks again!

[Madcaravanner]

OK now you're in my region of expertise 

 

I'm skint so I have used whatever I can find free on the web or really inexpensive  

 

To make a card building I use 140gm Card (from Stationery shop around £1 for an A2 sheet)  three layers (inner wall - spacer-outer wall) make a strong sturdy building 

Brick Texture papers from Scalescenes/Railwayscenics/Model Railway Scenery.com all help whether it is pale brickwork or stone  

If you have photo's it is easy to make a simple drawing plan

 

I have lots of photo's of my models on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Gray.the.Madcaravanner/media_set?set=a.10150196103893368.372051.801953367&type=3) 

 

Can't help with using plasticard as I don't use it as quite simply I can't afford to buy enough

[Captain Kernow]

Don't forget, by the way, that Scalescenes do some free downloads, including a free railway goods store - http://scalescenes.com/products/R002

[hornbyandbf3fan]

Funnily enough Madcaravanner, I'm usually skint too!

 

Just downloaded that, it won't open though

[Stubby47]

Scalescenes also do lots of windows in the brick arches pack. This also includes window sized templates.

The windows can be printed on OHP transparency ( Overhead Projector).

 

Stu

[Madcaravanner]

Try downloading again but they are usually zip files so download an zip unpacker 

 

I love scalescenes but now-a-days I tend only to buy texture sheets then I make my own at present making a public house by borrowing parts from a lot of different suppliers 

 

at present looking at Model railway Scenery (dot com) as I know Justin who runs it and I have downloaded his freebies to test out - - - so far they're GOOD 

[hornbyandbf3fan]

Thanks again, I e-mailed them and they've offered me to send me an unzipped folder of their free stores shed. Should save m scratchbuilding one and it'll be good to test with.

[Madcaravanner]

Thanks again, I e-mailed them and they've offered me to send me an unzipped folder of their free stores shed. Should save m scratchbuilding one and it'll be good to test with.

That is one thing they are approachable and their models are very nice too just go slow and follow the instructions especially the coloured pencil on the edges ones they make a big difference

 

I use a watercolour pencil set which I scrape into powder and mix into "dirty" colours which with a dry finger can be shaded on or with the add of a slightly damp sponge after application can be smeared rainwater style

a little like artists use pastels