Old MODEL RAILROADER magazines

Not if you do some arithmetic with the wages earned back then. One of those Mantua die-cast locomotive kits cost a couple day's pay or more. Not cheap at all. Damned expensive in fact. That's why there was so much scratchbuilding.

Reply to
Wolf
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A friend of mine used to tell me about using something he called latex cement. He said it didn't soak into paper and would not cause warping.

I've used Goo, but it stringy as all get out.

Rubber cement never seems to hold for me.

I wonder with something with minimal moisture might work like a glue stick. There isn't much moisture in them.

Any other suggestions?

dlm

Reply to
Dan Merkel

Dan Merkel spake thus:

That would be chipboard, what most people would call "cardboard", but quite a bit thinner than the chipboard used in note pads, etc. I've used plenty of cereal-box chipboard to build stuff. It's not quite thick enough to make good walls, though. (You can get thick chipboard at any decent printing paper supply house.)

So you're interested in the terms for paper, eh? It's a jungle out there. Let's see; just for a small sample we have:

o Bond, aka writing paper (including the most familiar stuff, "office paper", which is (in the USA) 20 lb. bond). Comes in lots of finishes (smooth, vellum, laid, cambric, lines, etc.) and content (rag, recycled, speckles, etc.). Used mostly for letterhead & envelopes.

o "Offset", aka "book", used for the bodies of books. Can be uncoated, gloss coated or dull coated, smooth or vellum finished.

o Cover stock, which includes most papers thicker than either of the above: comes in various weights, including "double-thick"; again, several finishes, coated or uncoated.

o Kromekote, a specific variety of super-high-quality coated papers in book and cover weights. Instead of being measured in weight (per ream) as other papers, it's measured in "points" of thickness (e.g., 14-point).

o Kraft, the stuff paper bags are made of; there's a line of kraft papers used for printing called Carnival Kraft, comes in lots of colors.

o Tag, the stuff used for manila folders and such.

o Chipboard, as has been discussed. Not used for printing, but for making pads, stuffing boxes, etc.

And this is not to even mention all the exotic art papers available. If you ever get a chance to go to a Flax store, check out their paper stock. They've got everything from metallics to vinyl-coated to handmade stuff to you name it. I've also seen paper made from banana leaves and cocoa fibers (commercial stuff in sheets).

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

Styrene and other plastics also transmit light.

It's a bit of an annoyance to go through the trouble of putting lights inside buildings to create a "night time effect" only to have the light go right through the walls of the buildings.

Reply to
gl4316

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com spake thus:

I'd think that a shot of black paint would solve that problem quickly.

Unless you like that "X-ray" effect ... put some silhouettes inside the building ... couples preparing to get it on ... maybe some of that hootchy-cootchy Prieser stuff they were talking about in the other thread ... so why am I typing like Big John all of a sudden?

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

It does. Most illuminated structures will glow in the dark unless they have a good coat of paint on the interior. They also will leak light at the corners, at any joints, around the eaves. I've seen resin, styrene and wood structures looking like jack o lanterns after dark. You want to make sure the bulbs don't show thru the windows. I use a copper adhesive tape to run juice up to the ceiling. It sticks to the walls and prevents the "ratsnest" look that loose wire will give you.

David Starr

>
Reply to
David Starr

IHC's #7006, Chemical Processing Plant (E L Moore's Molasses factory) and #3512 Old Time Water tank are two.

Reply to
Wolf

I have been designing and building architectural scale models for over

35 years and most of my modeling has benn using paper as opposed to styrene or other plastics as the main structure of buildings, ect.

My main paper (cardboard) was and is Cresent Board. It is about 1/16th thick and has a fininshed white surface with a dark gray/black back.

Cresent Board can be cut and shaped using the common Exacto type blades or other similar cutting utensils.

This product can be purchased at most office supply stores and/or through the internet.

To make the finished product moisture-proof and non warping I painted both sides with a lacquer sanding sealer prior to assembly. This prevents moisture from invading any part of the finished product and the finished product will remain straight and true from that point on.

The Cresent board will accept any type of paint and/or adhesives.

As to lighting the interiors the Cresent Board will not allow light to show through.

The interior can be partitioned to allow only certain rooms/areas to be illuminated with individual lights.

Also, the 'paper' concept of model building leaves a more realistic (warmer) appearance to the final product as opposed to any type of plastic which leaves a less realistic (colder) version of the same product.

These observations are the results of my over 35 years of professional architectural scale model building of everything from shopping centers to private homes and condominums, ect. which also includes model railroading from the mid '50s to the present.

Reply to
Jack N

Jack N spake thus:

Yes, commonly referred to as "illustration board" (or "mat board"). Don't ask the art-store clerk for "cardstock". Oh, and the brand is Crescent.

Yep, it's definitely great stuff to work with: yields smooth crisp cuts, plenty strong.

I'll have to try that next time. Makes sense.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

Once I managed to score a big pack of matte board "centers", scrap left over from matting prints, for pennies. Makes fine structures, stiff, flat, takes paint well.

David Starr

Reply to
David Starr

Reply to
curtmchere

Wolf, that sounds like quite an impressive trestle!

I can't help but wonder if the balsa you used was very different in qulaity to the stuff that's currenly available in Australia. I couldn't imagine using the stuff that my local hobby shop has for building trestles - it's far too soft and splintery. Come to that, I can't imagine building aircraft out of it, either...

Cheers,

Mark.

Reply to
Mark Newton

Now that's an interesting idea, and one I hadn't considered. That'll be a method I'll try in the future.

Cheers,

Mark.

Reply to
Mark Newton

David, I've experimented with a number of products to find a suitable sealer. All have worked well enough that I would mention them to others.

I've used shellac, lacquer varnish, Future floor wax*, Derivan** artists medium, Krylon Matte Spray, even Dullcote. They can be applied either before or after assembly. If I'm using a water-based adhesive such as Willhold RC-56, which is a high-grade PVA that seems to be less "wet" than the noraml stuff, I seal after assembly. If I'm using a solvent adhesive such as Bostik, or hot-glue, I seal before assembly.

If I'm building a larger industrial structure, I also find that some internal bracing, in the form of floors and interior walls are helpful, as well as providing baffles for the interior lights.

Cheers,

Mark.

  • Which I think is an acrylic varnish?
** An Australian brand.
Reply to
Mark Newton

Mark Newton wrote: [...]

I often use triangular braces made by cutting corners off scrap bits and pieces. PVA works fine for this.

Reply to
Wolf

Interesting. I haven't bought balsa in years, I have a satch that I;m slowly using up.

The balsa I bought was quite hard, it took a bit of effort to dent it with a finger nail. That made it strong enough to use. I bought it at the local hobby shop. I used 1/8" x 1/8" (posts and sills), 1/8"x3/16" (ties, set on edge), 5/16"x5/16" (caps and footings), 3/8"x3/16" (stringers) and 1/16"x1/8" (guard timbers and braces.) Not exactly prototypical dimensionally, but it looked right. :-) the tallest bent was about 6".

Actually, what makes a trestle strong is all those pieces of wood. They don't have to be very strong individually. BTW, did you know you you use a piece of note paper laid across a gap between two books to support a paperback, if you fold it right? (I'll leave it to to figure it out. :-)) I often used this trick to demonstrate that properly shaped weak materials could be quite strong.

Reply to
Wolf

Balsa is available in several grades of denseness/hardness. Most of what you see from Midwest is aimed at the model airplane folks and weight is a priority with them. You *can* get balsa that is nearly as dense and strong as white pine.

fl@liner

Reply to
fieromike1945

Indeed, some time back there was an article in Model Railroader about someone who had made an entire HO scale bridge - and a quite large one at that - out of uncooked pasta noodles.

Reply to
gl4316

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@69-30-8-154.pxd.easystreet.com:

We did that in "intro to engineering" in high school, but it was more O scale. If the specs were different, we might have built it to about HO scale.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

Reply to
Bruce Favinger

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