what's cardstock?

[FJ and G]

3 Qs

 1. In Dec GRR, cardstock was mentioned in 2 columns and I'm still confused about really what it is. Is it index cards or is it some sort of cardboard like from cardboard boxes?

 2. Said to shellac the cardstock. Was surprised how much shellac now costs. COuld resin be substituted for shellac?

3. Sounds intriguing as a way to form roundish roofs for trains and possibly structure, except don't know how waterproof it would be.

[Anonymous]

I am no expert on this but i do think it is another name for cardboard.

If this is true i think you could use any method you like for stiffening and waterproofing the material that you like and nore modern method may well turn out tobe better than Shellac.

Rgds ian

[cabbage]

Cardstock is the same as fine cardboard. Shellac is so expensive nowadays because people (other than my father!) don't use and make "French Polish" for their wood work. I have used corrugated cardboard (with one later peeled off to reveal the corrugagtions) as corrugated sheet steel for the rooves of a couple of my lokeys. I then treated them with a std exterior grade matte polyureathane varnish. It takes a couple of days to harden but the result is very tough! regards ralph

[John Busby]

Hi FG&J

Are you talking premix shellac or shellac flakes and getting top quality methylated spirits

I don't know what they call card stock but office files the ones that go in filling cabinets and cereal box make ideal modeling material.

The shellac hardens it and makes it more durable given proper painting it should have some degree of weather resistance but I would not leave the models out side.

regards John

[FJ and G]

Some disjointed comments:

John: Premixed shellac in the ubiquitous yellow cans sold in the U.S. I've used the stuff before for refurbishing furniture but was surprised how expensive it has become. As mentioned, I'm thinking resin would work. As a kid I actually built a canoe using fiberglass, resin and fiberglass cloth to join the sections. I've never before seen this technique used in railroads. Body filler would seem another good candidate. I recently purchased a putty-like substance (I think from JB Weld) that when kneeded with your fingers, can fill any gaps and hardens solid in about 5 or 10 minutes. The kneeding mixes together 2 inert substances that become active when in contact.

 So I suppose there are a variety of ways to skin the cat and there are a variety of cardstock materials.

 

I really like the idea given here regarding removing a layer of cardboard to reveal the corrugated matter. I'm using a roller from Michaels to make corrugation but the cardboard would put the ridges closer together to be more realistic. However, I can get away with the corrugater since I'm modeling in 7/8. 

[cacole]

I thought the cardstock referred to in model building was also what is called poster board, and not corrugated cardboard like boxes are made of.  Poster board is more solid and rigid than cardboard, and is usually smoothly finished on one side.  Poster board is what some of the HO scale building kits are made from.  Poster board is also a lot more weatherproof than a cardboard box, though it is not suitable for continual outdoor exposure.

I bought what was touted in the Walthers HO scale catalog as a plowed field, made by a company in Germany.  It turned out to be nothing more than a piece of corrugated cardboard with one side stripped off to expose the corrugations, and sprayed with some type of thick, brown, textured paint.

[Anonymous]

Cardstock has been used for a building material for many years. It was being used when I got into model trains back in the early 1950's, and probably a long time time before that. Modelers had balsa wood as their primary wood source for building back then. Cardstock had to be a lot cheaper and if it was covered up, it acted as a good base material.

I agree with the post about cardstock being a smooth surfaced solid material. The shellac is probably to seal the cardstock and make it impervious to moisture. I think cardstock material was available in several thicknesses and was called strathmore board. A lot Suydam kits were strathmore board and some wood kits used the strathmore board for their roof base and were covered with other materials. 

[FJ and G]

I thought the cardstock referred to in model building was also what is called poster board, and not corrugated cardboard like boxes are made of.  Poster board is more solid and rigid than cardboard, and is usually smoothly finished on one side.  Poster board is what some of the HO scale building kits are made from.  Poster board is also a lot more weatherproof than a cardboard box, though it is not suitable for continual outdoor exposure.

I bought what was touted in the Walthers HO scale catalog as a plowed field, made by a company in Germany.  It turned out to be nothing more than a piece of corrugated cardboard with one side stripped off to expose the corrugations, and sprayed with some type of thick, brown, textured paint.

 

Poster board, used for making posters, election and for sale signs, has a thin plastic coating on it that I would guess might not take shellac too well. Just a hunch. 

[Anonymous]

I don't think anyone was implying cardstock was corrugated more just citing an exampleof what they had done.

I really don't know if i would leave it outside or not, this would depend on where you live i think!

Rgds Ian

[Anonymous]

In the 'olden days', the 'financially impaired' modelers would build their structures out of shirt cardboard, Wheaties boxes, whatever was cheaply obtainable.  But the best card stock back then, and probably even today, is what's called Bristol board and is available, at a price, at artists supply stores (in the USA, Michaels stocks it). 

If you go on Yahoo or Google and enter 'artists supplies Bristol board', you'll get a lot of hits.  It comes in large sheets, and at some places you can obtain different sizes and weights (thicknesses). 

Art

 

[verheyen]

I only occasionally read here being into H0 and Z, and German railroads in particular, but I do quite a bit of modeling using various cardstocks. It's something that actually comes quite naturally given my background in bookbinding and book conservation.

Cardstock is pretty much any cardboard: posterboard, matboard, chip board, ... Wheaties boxes work well too and are actually 20pt (or so) chipboard. File folders are 10pt cardstock.  I recommend matboard which framers use. It's not cheap, but very easy to work with and stable. You may also be able to get scraps from framers.

While my trains are all indoors, I can see the usefulness of weatherproofing card models if they're going to be placed outdoors. Just make sure to seal all areas (outside, inside, and any exposed edges) as moisture will very quickly find a way to be absorbed. Consequences are mold, warping, and delamination. If the structure is only going to be used indoors, I would forgo any sealing treatment as I (personally) would find the sheen distracting. I would seal/protect the surface with a mat varnish/fixative (preferably with UV inhibitors to resist fading - sunlight is brutal and ages paper products very quickly). Also helps to keep inkjet printed surfaces from smudging while your working on the model.

Financially impaired, or not, I find cardstock a great material to work with and one that doesn't need to hiden in the background. I was first introduced to card kits (as heavyweight paper) when I was a kid and still have many models from that time (still available and built anew) on my current layout for nostalgic reason. In recent years I began to get more serious about the modeling aspects of my layouts and began modifying kits and scratchbuilding. Much of the latter uses photographic images of structures as the basis of the model. I have a number of projects online at http://www.philobiblon.com/eisenbahn/plattenbau.shtml. The Modelling Structures in Card page also links to some interesting articles, including one from Fine Scale Railroader.

All in all, you can make some really great models from card, but I would be cautious about having them outdoors. In many respects plastics and card can be used interchangeably, and the latter would last longer.

I hope this helps,

Peter 

[Anonymous]

A very informative post, Peter; I had forgotten about mat board.  A long time ago, I built some HO kits and was not familiar with the art of framing pictures; looking back I suspect that the kits used mat board.  They turned out very nicely but have been stored now for some time.

Always have been suspicious of plastics.  I don't smoke but the inside glass surfaces of my automobiles sure looked like I did.  They would get fogged from the solvents leaking out from the plastic components of the car.  The 1939 Nash my brother sold me in 1949 had plastic knobs on choke, heater, etc., and one by one they disintegrated into chunks of plastic and dust.

Art

[Capt Bob Johnson]

Go down to your local Staples or Office Depot and sniff around in the specialty stuff.  The stuff you use in your computer printer is probably around 20 pound paper, whilst card stock is usually 110 pound or so.   I'd suspect it got it's name from being the material that things like business cards, those old tags with strings that mom would write your name and address on when you went on a distant trip and tie on your buttonhole when you were little, and the like.

I'd say that resin or anything you could use to seal it from moisture should work.   How bout rattle can clear lacquer???