I'm in the process of building a small town terminus station in N gauge with my son and for the station building chosen to scratch build the thing using plasticard.
I've built the main structure and clad the walls in thin embossed plasticard, and it looks good even if I say so myself. However I now need to do the windows and doors and this is where I need some advice. What is the simple easy way to build / make windows (as a newbie). I was thinking of printing the doors and windows and then mounting them behind the aperture, does anyone know of a site that has suitable images that can be scaled down and printed off.
As you've got this far with plasticard and DIY, might as well carry on and make it all yourself....
As you've a computer, you could draw them in a painting/drawing package and print onto overhead transparency film. That way they come the size, shape and colour you require. Only colour which is really hard to print is white (unless you've a very special and hard to get printer with white ink). So, for white, paint it in by hand using the method below. (But many station buildings don't have white woodwork, so you should be fine with the printer.)
Window/door holes. After cutting them, use a knife to mark the brickwork around the corner of the opening. Fit windowsills from fat-ish microstrip (say 40thoux20thou). If you practice, you can nick the corner out of a length of microstrip so that the windowsill extends beyond the width of the aperture (like the real ones on most buildings) and this improves the appearance no end.
If you use your own prints, or the stuff below, bear in mind that many glues/solvents will craze the surface of clear plastics. Often better to fix things with varnish or similar from behind, or if you can, arrange slots (from layers of plasticard) into which the clear material can slide.
Other ways to do doors and windows:
I find it easier to build most door and window components off the building, then attach from behind. The exception being the frame, which I slot in from bits of microstrip.
Windows: Easiest is to lightly scrape the glazing bar lines onto clear plastic, then run paint (or ink) into the scratches. The excess is wiped off before it sets. If fatter glazing bars are needed, fix thin microstrip over the clear material. I make complex frames from lots of bits of microstrip of different sections. But, its overkill for most buildings, something with just one piece per edge often looks the part.
Doors: Panelled types. Make these from multiple layers; the back being a solid piece (or solid except the windows). Then lay the front panels on from bits of plasticard. Because its off the model, the side bits can be over-wide and trimmed before fitting. Plain planked doors. Single piece of plasticard, scribed to represent the planking.
Metcalf models offer their glazing sheets separately if that is any help (they do 00 and N card buildings in thick card, rather good and not expensive)
Here is another option that might be worth considering. Probably depends on the position of your building, in relation to how closely people will be looking at it. This done in 00, but should work in N, just a bit fiddlier.
Produce the windows in your computer by drawing to scale to suit your windows. Whatever you use draw the "glass" as black, and leave the frame uncoloured. To understand what you are drawing you might need to complete the outside frame, but far wider than the real frame - most of it will be stuck behind the wall. If most windows are the same size you just cut and paste the one you have drawn as many times as needed. I suppose you could also change the size by reducing/enlarging on a photocopier.
(I think I used AutoSketch, a basic version of Autocad, but I don't know if it is still available. I'm pretty sure there are Cad packages to download free or to trial. Or a drawing package will do I'm sure, but I'm not familiar with them. Or, I think you can even draw boxes/grids in Word).
Print on white paper, or possibly thin card. The gaps between the black areas of "glass" are now the white window frames. I have also printed on coloured card/paper for painted frames, other than white, but not as good.
To make it look something like glass laminate the sheet, preferrably with a fairly stiff sheet, ie. you don't want a thin flimsy sheet. The lamination gives some reflectivity.
Cut out individual windows, and stick behind the openings in your building. Depending on window spacings you can usually have a fair surface area to stick to the wall above or at the side of the window. Obviously paint the stone/brick work before putting in your windows.
Or Peco or Ratio might have packs of plastic doors/windows from their building kits? Certainly Peco do in 00.
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