Has anyone here used cardstock structures? ( I have )
Done properly with some simple upgrades, they look good, and are light in weight which makes them good for modular layouts.
Instead of $30.00/$40.00 and up for plastic, cardstocks run from $10.00/$25.00, depending on complexity and are much quicker and easier to build than wood or plastic kits
With better printing, etching and such. They are making a comeback. Especially in Europe.
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
I have also glued the printings to 1/16 balsa too, then assembled them. The printings do not have the plastically looks the plastic kits have.
I've seen some excellent card stock structures at Train Fest, in Milwaukee. These were right up front on the layout, and they looked great.
Mike.
My You Tube
mbinsewi I've seen some excellent card stock structures at Train Fest, in Milwaukee. These were right up front on the layout, and they looked great. Mike.
Mike is likely referring to John Kosma's "Gypsy Trolley Lines" layout which makes wonderful use of cardstock/paper structures, and since John has been showing this layout at Trainfest and elsewhere for years and years, obviously they hold up well if properly constructed and stored. They also photograph very well.
It was featured in May 2013 Model Railroader.
Dave Nelson
DonRicardoHas anyone here used cardstock structures?
Cardstock structure kits are incredible, and the photograph amazingly well. They look better in photographs than they do in person.
The only downside is that the really high-quality kits I have seen all look very European.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
If you doll them up a bit, they look amazing.
I bought a rotary cutter online for $18.00, and use it to cut fascia boards, window and door trim and corner boards.
. That pops the kits away from the "flat" look. I use those round Dunkin Donuts coffee stirrers for down spouts, and if I can find them, the proper size stirring straws for roof vents, all free from our local restaurants!
There are stirrers that are fluted, and those make excellent gurdrails for country roads...in the right scale, of course.
The card staoks are also easy to modify to fit your layout, length, width and height just the way you want it.
For someone just entering this expensive hobby, there are a lot of ways to reduce the costs and still have an exciting layout. I don't think we pay enough attention to this when trying to get new entrants to the hobby. My experience has been that children LOVE trains.
My first HO layout, in the mid-'50s had quite a few cardstock structures, with balsa or basswood strip material for the framework. Many of the structures were available in booklets, and could be cut-out with an X-Acto knife, but I also had a meat packing plant made from heavy-duty cardstock (about 1/8" thick), which included cellophane windows with black lines delineating the panes.
Some of the cardstock structures available nowadays are extremely well-done, many with three-dimesional features, too.
DonRicardoThe printings do not have the plastically looks the plastic kits have.
That's certainly true, but most plastic kits should be painted anyways, just to get rid of that sheen.
Wayne
Can someone post a link or links to "cardstock" vendors that have sample photos, please.
I am curious.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
www.ScaleModelPlans.com
Thank you Don, very helpful!
DonRicardo www.ScaleModelPlans.com
Jack Work wrote articles in Model Railroader in the 1950s about scratchbuilding different structures ... and most of them were made from Strathmore board ... a paper product. The buildings looked great. I made a several based on his articles in the 50s, then more in the 70s. I still have a freight station that was made from Strathmore, and even though it's almost fifty years old, it still passes muster.
I was a fan of KingMill cardstock structures, based on photos of real ones, and a friend and I bought quite a few of them. Unfortuntely, they went out of business rather quickly, although we did manage to get a few of the left-over ones.
They appear to be photos of real buildings, and while the images are on good quality cardstock, I cut-out mine, then used gelled contact cement to glue them to sheets of .060" thick styrene...in many cases as three-dimensional structures and sometimes only as backdrop flats.Here are a few examples...
...a low-relief brick backdrop structure...
...two more low-relief structures, with Cockshutt in the centre distance, and another to the right...
...and this one, in a coved-corner of the upper level of my layout, with a cut-out alley-way to allow automobile access to the nearby roundhouse...
This is one of the last ones that I managed to get, shown here in a temporary location...
I'm uncertain why the company folded, as their offerings were a great way to add depth to layout views, and were very reasonably-priced, too.