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Need ideas "how to" for building interior details

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  • Member since
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Need ideas "how to" for building interior details
Posted by vsmith on Friday, September 12, 2014 8:03 PM

Namely "how to" make drapes, store displays, interior stuff, etc. Sources suppliers ??

My current HO micro layout buildings (several Woodland Scenics metal kits) will have interior lights and partial interiors, but either I'm getting to old and have forgotten how to do this or I've just been too spoiled in G scale using dollhouse parts. 

All advice is appreciated, thanks

   Have fun with your trains

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Posted by xdford on Friday, September 12, 2014 8:24 PM

Not trying to answer all your questions but check out my Hints and Tips website

http://xdford.digitalzones.com/hintsandtips.htm or check out the rest of them on yourmodelrailway.net

I have been a long time in updating these so expect something extra in a few days! It should roughly double the current number of the Hints and Tips. Type in the words "interior" and "lighting" after pressing the "Control and F keys for finding stuff.

Let us know if you need more information...

Regards

Trevor

 

 

 

 

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Posted by mlehman on Friday, September 12, 2014 8:35 PM

You can pull all kinds of printable stuff off the internet. I've found flooring, rugs, paintings - nothing but fine art for the local bar, wallpaper. Use Google, input your search terms, then specify your want Images.

If you have leftovers from laser structure kits, you'll often find that painting the thin plywood fret material and the pieces that were punch-outs for windows and doors works great to build office furniture like desks and bookshelves. Sometimes you can even work the peel and stick features into your hacking to make things even easier.

Small blocks of wood make file cabinets, boxes, and other furniture.

Sometimes just a picture of what the interior is supposed to look like will work well if there's not a real close or direct view inside. Bars and restaurants, as well as grocery stores can work well. You can find these with Google, too.

Sometimes a simple window shade is all you need -- and nothing is needed behind it except light. The bit of light that shines through suggests lots of life inside. The different color Post-it notes are a good source and self sticking in many cases, otherwise use a dab of canopy glue.

Mike Lehman

Urbana, IL

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Posted by zstripe on Saturday, September 13, 2014 4:32 PM

Vsmith,

I use similar what Mike does. Look up on Google for factory and any industrial Mfg company's but type in Images. When I find a interior that suites my needs I use my HP printer to scale it to the size I want and put it on some interior walls of the buildings and add some things and figures in front of the printed Images. Like a forklift truck, pallets crates, what ever is manufactured there some have to be scratched, not really all that hard to do.

For some specialty details....Look at Preiser offerings, like bathroom,kitchen and bedroom furniture: 590-10632, 590-10631, 590-10646.

Also look into JL Innovation details. Here is one for Gas station details:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/361-498

You can also use that same link to check out the Preiser offerings, which there are many.

Take Care!

Frank

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Posted by CTValleyRR on Saturday, September 13, 2014 5:25 PM

I'm going to change "building" to "representing".

Most of my so-called interiors are a picture glued to a piece of foam core and mounted about an inch inside the window.  During daylight hours, you really can't see the inside of a building anyway, and you only have to worry about details seen through open doors.

If you do want to painstakingly model interiors, Bollinger Edgerly Scale Trains (www.besttrains.com) does nice white metal castings, and they're really nice folks, too.

Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Saturday, September 13, 2014 9:49 PM

I like to think of it as creating the illusion of an interior.  I also like to download images to use as floors and backgrounds.  CG Textures (www.cgtextures.com) is worth bookmarking, but you can also google things like "wood floors" or "cinderblocks" and find pictures that way.  I used images of store shelves for my market, both to paste on the back walls and to make stand-up shelves by printing them on cardstock, cutting and folding.

I took care to position the figures near the door and the large windows so they would be seen.  The light (large and overkill, I know) is not directly visible, something I take care with when figuring out the interior layout.  Once the roof is on and the house lights go down, this scene takes on a life of its own.

The City Classics diner is another good candidate for an interior, because it's also got big windows.  I printed the floor and wall patterns on the computer, along with the tablecloths.  All the "furniture" is simply cut from styrene or foamboard and glued in place.  The stools are carpet tacks with the heads painted red.

 

The Brass Rat is a bar and pool hall down by the docks.  I used some tables and chairs from Faller, and a pool table from Scale Structures.

I built this from DPM modular section, so I naturally chose big windows.

The Shamrock Hotel is the old DPM M.T. Arms Hotel kit.  This is the building from the back.  Here, I've built rudimentary floors and walls from foamboard to separate the rooms so that I could have some lit and some not.  I printed stuff for the walls and floors, and used Aileen's Tacky Glue to glue the printouts to the foamboard.

Ths shows one of the light bulbs in a room  Yes, I do get carried away sometimes.  The picture on the wall is "Dogs Playing Poker," and there's a Velvet Elvis on the other wall.  This picture also shows Venetian Blinds.  City Classics makes sheets of Venetian Blinds, pull down window shades and curtains.

I used both blinds and shades in the hotel, and had some rooms lit and some not.  A few figures and rudimentary furniture complete the scene.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by chutton01 on Sunday, September 14, 2014 7:42 PM

Mister Beasley, everytime I see that overhead image of your model market interior, it makes me ask - where's the checkout counter? Same with the diner (even worse, because you did NOT model a bowl of complementary mints - best part of a diner meal!)

I note the OP wants to light the interior - just make sure you do overhead lights hidden from direct view. I'm tempted to say that modeling an interior with some 3-D details in front and a photo/image etc in back is the current state of the art (I see a lot mention  in the modeling press - often when modeling a small interiopr rail loading dock diorama within a building), but that's probably been around since the days of John Allen - except maybe they used drawings (I still recall from the early 1980s those horribly drawn shop windows for Heljan commercial buildings - and plenty of CinZano signs of course.

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Sunday, September 14, 2014 8:09 PM

I do believe that the only cash register in town is at Baldy's Barber Shop:

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by vsmith on Sunday, September 14, 2014 10:26 PM
Those are terrific, I've used a lot of printed materials in G, I'll be examining those links. I'm currently limited in my printing ability as my desktop XP is on its death bed and I have to install a new wireless printer.

Lights will be hidden above up out of site. Also looking to add some grain of wheat streetlights.

   Have fun with your trains

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Posted by chutton01 on Sunday, September 14, 2014 10:40 PM

MisterBeasley

I do believe that the only cash register in town is at Baldy's Barber Shop:

 

Wow, a true Utopia cashless society you have, like Roddenberry's Star Trek TOS. So Utopian in fact, that men go to Barber shops which sell women's hair products (Wella)!
That mirror arrangement looks interesting though, and might be relevent to Vsmiths question - the mirror itself looks like a printed image - are the barber's implements and lotions in front of it all printed too, or 3-d details, or a mix of the two - the mix of print&real could be interesting, although come to think of it I recall people doing something like that with the once ubiquitious Instant Horizons backdrops in the 1980s, so we'd probably find out John Allen did it originally as well...

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Monday, September 15, 2014 6:45 AM

Baldy's Barber Shop was an old Model Power kit.  It's a 3-story building, and they provided the interior scene pictured for the first floor, along with a ceiling-mounted light.  I think the mirror was printed on the wall, but the frame and drawers were on the sprue.

The chairs and customers were provided, too, but Baldy himself came from another figure set.  Poor guy.  I didn't shave his head - I used sandpaper.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by Medina1128 on Monday, September 15, 2014 7:19 AM

I found that printing images for interiors, they come out better if you print them on glossy photo paper. Once the ink is completely dry, spray with DullCote. The images don't have the fuzzy edges like those printed on common printer/copier paper.

 

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Posted by WarrenCapp on Sunday, September 15, 2019 3:05 AM

Where did you by the Barbar shop interior?

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Monday, September 16, 2019 10:58 AM

WarrenCapp

Where did you by the Barbar shop interior?

It came with the kit.  I think I built the counter, and added the barber figure from another set.

Remember, even though I look for large windows when doing interiors, they are still only small portals to look through.  I have done some interiors that were basically a waste of time, because they are next to impossible to see.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by crossthedog on Friday, February 16, 2024 7:05 PM

Resurrecting this old thread. I picked up the Baldy's kit for $5 at the Puyallup swap meet a few weeks ago. My question is, what kind of glue will bind the slick paper interior to the styrene wall? If memory serves, Elmer's won't stick to the styrene. Will crazy glue or liquid styrene cement wreck the paper?

-Matt

Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Friday, February 16, 2024 9:46 PM

I use Aiĺeen's Tacky Glue for fastening printed material to both styrene and the poster board I use to create interior walls and floors.  It doesn’t bleed through the printed image and ruin it.  Aileen's is a cheap craft store product with a long shelf life.  It gives a long working time to slide the image around if necessary.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by crossthedog on Saturday, February 17, 2024 12:06 AM

Thanks Beas! I've never heard of Aileen's but I'll look into it.

Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Saturday, February 17, 2024 11:04 AM

Aileen's is a craft store product.  I got mine at Michael's.  It also works well for fastening figures to either printed flooring, sidewalks or pavement.   It doesn't really harden so you can still carefully remove the figures without damaging their little feet.  You just have to support the figure while the glue dries.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by crossthedog on Saturday, February 17, 2024 11:58 AM

Hey Mr. B, I'm glad you popped up, since you built Baldy's, too. (Anyone else feel free to chime in as well.) I'm having trouble figuring out where some of the detail pieces go, and even whether they belong to Baldy's.

The box was open and the kit is old. Aside from a couple pieces of glazing, everything I need to build the kit seems to be here (and then some), but the single front & back instruction sheet does not show or say where or how to affix most of these things, or even what they are.

All the pieces are shown in a parts illustration and numbered so you can find them on the sprues, but the instructions for assembly are basically an exploded view of the building with a few notes about the windows, etc. The parts seem to include a large set of wall shelves, and what looks like a low table and some stools.

If it weren't for your photo, I wouldn't have any idea how to begin to paint the interior pieces. So my question is, do you (or does anyone reading this) have any more photos of your Baldy's interior?

Thanks,

-Matt   

Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.

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