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Printed Buildings

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  • Member since
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Printed Buildings
Posted by ss122 on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 1:18 PM

Awhile back, could be years, someone posted on this forum pictures of buildings that could be enlarged, printed, and used for background structures. Much like the "More Signs" series also on this forum. Does anyone know what tags I should use to try to search for them? I tried printed buildings and came up with scads of new product reviews on anything but. TIA, Ken 

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Posted by modelmaker51 on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 1:27 PM

TRry googling "paper buildings"

Jay 

C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1 

Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums 

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Posted by jrbernier on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 1:28 PM

  The same guy was also doing the building flats.  MR had to remove the post as the vendor that sold the software to do this complained.

  There used to be a web site with free paper buildings of historic Illinois buildings, but it was not there when I just checked it.

Jim

Modeling BNSF  and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin

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Posted by BATMAN on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 1:40 PM

When my daughter was five years old she came into my office and saw a piece of paper with a printed building on it and asked what it was. I told her it was a building that you can cut out and put together. I said she could put it together if she wanted. She just said OK and left leaving the printout on the desk. The next day I came home from work and she handed it to me completed.

It is the grey building in the background, it will always be on the layout somewhere.

This year she and two others had to build a rather large diorama for school. I reminded her of the paper building and they built their whole town from paper printouts and got top marks. I will try and find the website and will ask her when she gets home from school. They have/had the coolest church with a steeple that she used along with some other great stuff.

Brent

"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."

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Posted by reklein on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 1:57 PM

Try Evans Design, for Buildings, Clever Models for buildings and Fiddlers Green for Airplanes buildings ad a lot of other stuff, ED and Clever have lots of textures to print out too. BILL

In Lewiston Idaho,where they filmed Breakheart pass.
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Posted by DSchmitt on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 2:55 PM

http://papermau.blogspot.com/  has links to lots of free buildings.  Quality varies from poor to excellent.  Only a few are north American, however many European, South American, SIFI/Fantasy and even a some of the Japanese are usable or can be modified to  suit.

Just checked Illinous Main Steet is still available - 

  http://www.illinois.gov/ihpa/Preserve/Pages/construct_tinsley.aspx

 

This site of British buildings is worth a look

http://www.wordsworthmodelrailway.co.uk/railside.html

A Google search for "paper models"  will find a lot of sites that have free models.  Most are European or Japanes and quality varies greatly.

There are also a number of sales sites that offer a few free samples.

There are lots of free building on Evans Model Builder site, but you need to buy the software.

CGTextures  http://www.cgtextures.com/  is a great site.  Photos of buildings suitable for backgrounds and lots of textures.   Requires "Membership"  but it is free.

 

 

I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.

I don't have a leg to stand on.

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Posted by bigpianoguy on Friday, May 1, 2015 1:40 PM

Scalescenes has quite a collection of downloadable models and textures for sale plus usually one or two free ones. All models can be resized to whatever scale and they provide printing instructions on how to make it so.

http://www.scalescenes.com/

 

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Posted by UPinCT on Friday, May 1, 2015 3:38 PM

ss122

Awhile back, could be years, someone posted on this forum pictures of buildings that could be enlarged, printed, and used for background structures. Much like the "More Signs" series also on this forum. Does anyone know what tags I should use to try to search for them? I tried printed buildings and came up with scads of new product reviews on anything but. TIA, Ken 

 

Hi Ken,

To answer your specific question,  that thread you are thinking of has been removed.   Some buildings posted in that thread were copywrited and not for public domain. 

You'll have to rely on some of the other posters excellent suggestions. 

Derek 

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Posted by rgengineoiler on Saturday, May 2, 2015 8:03 AM

I use Evans Designs Model Builder software and besides having fun designing buildings and making them out of paper, the more skilled I get at it, the more realistic they look on the layout.  If you want to do this type of thing which helps you design structures that will fit into your desired spot I recommend them highly.

I print them up on my Canon photo printer on a heavy matte paper.  I went to a show last Feb. and many layouts had some of ED's type buildings.  Well worth a look.   Doug

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Posted by ss122 on Saturday, May 2, 2015 9:25 AM

Thank you all for the suggestions. It never ceases to amaze me what a friendly forum this is and what depth of knowledge its members have and so willingly share. Gotta go, my scissors and I have some work to do. Ken

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Posted by LensCapOn on Sunday, May 3, 2015 8:31 AM

I hope you are joking about the scissors, as a fresh x-acto #5 should be used along with a good straightedge. That is what I had to use on paper containers.

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/p/245741/2746235.aspx#2746235

I also have used Evans Design(aka Model Builder) for flat models. They are not near as good as Clever Models. 

http://www.clevermodels.net/

At last years trainfest I spent time trying to pick out the paper from the solid buildings. It was hard in most cases and I must have been wrong on some. There was one display layout that was all Clever Models. Their reality was beyond belief.

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Posted by rgengineoiler on Monday, May 4, 2015 8:26 AM

Yes, Clever also has some great looking models but the advantage of Model Builder is in designing a structure to fit exactly to the area you want your model to fit.

The printing is important also as I use all preferences on my photo printer to really get the colors the way I want them and then weather them also.  The bottom line for me is I really enjoy designing and building them and after the software the cost is just paper some ink.   I have a photo printer for photography anyway so that is not cost for me.   Doug

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Posted by DSchmitt on Monday, May 4, 2015 3:23 PM

rgengineoiler
Yes, Clever also has some great looking models but the advantage of Model Builder is in designing a structure to fit exactly to the area you want your model to fit.

Clever buildings can easily be modified using photoshop type programs. I use Corel Paint Shop Pro.  There is also GIMP -a very powerful free program.

I scratch built the two "N" Scale buildings in these photos using Paint Shop Pro, Clever textures, and modified elements from various Clever kits. It is based on a building (also a paper model) by Earl Smallshaw from November 1952 Model Railroader. My skills are limited so far so they are not representive of the detail, that several modelers put into a model even in this small scale.  

 

 

I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.

I don't have a leg to stand on.

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    April 2011
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Posted by LensCapOn on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 8:11 AM

DSchmitt

 

 
 

 

Clever buildings can easily be modified using photoshop type programs. I use Corel Paint Shop Pro.  There is also GIMP -a very powerful free program.

I scratch built the two "N" Scale buildings in these photos using Paint Shop Pro, Clever textures, and modified elements from various Clever kits. It is based on a building (also a paper model) by Earl Smallshaw from November 1952 Model Railroader. 

 

 

Has anyone from MR contacted you yet for an article on that? There should be a large enough group of modelers who would be interested.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now excuse me while I start looking up GIMP how-to's........
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Posted by JimValle on Friday, May 8, 2015 3:28 PM
Years ago Dover Publishing Co. came up with a series of buildings in 8 X 10 booklets. They were HO scale on various themes such as Old West and Old Time Farm structures. They were printed on cardstock with tabs and instructions. I found one at a flea market for 50 cents and a member of my club made them into a really neat farm diorama for a project we were doing for a local museum.

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