I am modeling a lumber yard in N-scale and I have purchased a LOT of lumber stacks and they look good in themselves, but if you look at prototype lumberyards, generally stacks of dimensional lumber are not left out in the weather, because the wood will warp when wet so the stacks are shipped in plastic wrappers that cover the whole (pretty much anyway) stack of lumber. So most of the lumber outside at a lumberyard is wrapped. I have taken pictures of some wrappers, but I was wondering if there were some commercially available lumber wrap templates out there or anyone with templates available for download so that they can be printed out. I know I can do this myself using decent photo editing software, but since I don't have any, I was hoping not to have to go out any buy some, if possible.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Jim L
Possibly you could purchase one of the HO scale lumber load kits and reduce the supplied wrapper papers on a copier?
You don't need "decent photo editing software". Just about anything will allow you to resize. For example, if you're using Windows, "Paint" will do what you want. And although I haven't checked, I'm sure there are freeware/shareware image editors available.
HTH, Steve
If you want something better than Windows Paint, Goggle "PhotoFiltre" the freeware version is good, it supports lots of formats and editing tools (even has a stich function).
Co-owner of the proposed CT River Valley RR (HO scale) http://home.comcast.net/~docinct/CTRiverValleyRR/
You can resize it with paint, but good luck printing it out with a regular inkjet. Probably just look like a blob of ink. The printer always seems to be the limiting factor.
At one time NScale printed lumber wraps were available from somebody but I will admit I don't recall having seen this company's advertisement in the NScale publications in quite awhile. Off-hand I don't recall the company name but if memory serves me they were headquartered in Nevada someplace--not that that's going to do you much good.
Perhaps one of the pubs did a product review of these either for N-Scale or Horribly Oversized-Scale in which case you might find it in the index.
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
Perhaps bread, or garbage bag, twist-ties, painted or magic marker to the proper color.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
Shucks,make up your own brands and use the fancy fonts on the computer and print your own wraps. Or just write out Weyerhauser,or Bennett,or whatever. BILL
R. T. POTEETAt one time NScale printed lumber wraps were available from somebody but I will admit I don't recall having seen this company's advertisement in the NScale publications in quite awhile. Off-hand I don't recall the company name but if memory serves me they were headquartered in Nevada someplace--not that that's going to do you much good. Perhaps one of the pubs did a product review of these either for N-Scale or Horribly Oversized-Scale in which case you might find it in the index.
That was N Scale of Nevada. Unfortunately its founder John Coots passed away last year.
http://www.nsn-2.com/home.html
Brooklyn Locomotive Works lists some of the NSN lumber loads on their website.
http://www.blwnscale.com/NSN%20Lumber%20Loads.htm
N Scale Supply has some wrapped loads
http://www.nscalesupply.com/CTM/CTM-72015.html
You could also check with Hay Brothers Garage
Well, thank you for your ideas, they have been helpful. What I ended up doing was downloading some free photo editing software (Picasa 3, pretty good, by the way) and cropping and straightening the photos of lumber wraps that I had taken. I got the dimensions of the lumber stacks that I had and set up a table in MS Word to accept the photos and get them in the right locations when the wraps are wrapped around the stacks everything is in the right spots. The process took some time, but I can now crank out pages of them when I need them. I attached the wraps with regular Super glue that I got from a craft store. It's cheap, fast and doesn't seem to attack the inkjet ink. I printed them out on relatively lightweight paper on an Epson Inkjet and they came out really well, even the smallest of the lettering seems readable.
Thanks for all the suggestions! If nothing else it helped me get going and do something.
You might want to try sealing the ink jet some clear or dulcote to be on the safe side.
I took a famous logo Domtar - mucked about with it on excel ( cut/paste - cut/paste etc ) - printed it on label paper. Then merely wrap your wood - Worked great ! Here's a quick example of this technique.
I have also seen plastic grocery bags used to wrap wood.
Now that is a good idea, hadn't thought of that. Thanks.
Here is how some of them turned out.