I read some tima ago that a good bench with tress, grass, bulidings etc cost a round $50.00 per Sq foot. Have the more adavnced molders found that to be ture?
For the heck of it I have started a list of what I am spending on the new K-10 mining section I am adding to my current bench. On the lumber I am real cheap there, I pick up scrap's from bulding sites (after I ask) and few stores closed in the strip mall I work and got around 100 feet of 2 X 4's for free. Plus the plywood I listed has not been touched yet.
This PIC is where I am today.
My list.
Lumber
Plywood $12.00
2 X 4's $16.00
1 X 3's $ 5.00
Hardware
Screws $9.00
Lag Bolts $16.20
Latex $5.64
Track
Flex Track 5 $13.75
Road Bed 5 $4.75
4 x 36 cork $3.00
Turnouts
Atlas $9.95
Peco
Foam 1 $22.00
Wiring
Tools
Level $10.00
Plaster
Water
Bridges $15.00
Paint
Buildings
Trees
Ground Cover
Total $132.29
5 X 8 = 40 feet = $3.30 per foot
Boy that total will go up faster than the 2.5% grade! I will list what I got of E-bay and Local stores and LHS as well.
Bulilding Ken Posting Again.
I hate Rust
I think you and Jeff need to have a bar-b-que together some time...you're both masters at frugality.
If memory serves, it was Chip who worked it out and offered it in a post about a year back, maybe more. I felt, and still do, that it was a reasonable approximation of the true cost for most of us who tend to buy rtr, not make our own whatever....ground foam, turnouts, locomotives...., and who are generally green in terms of planning and building what will stand the test for about five years.
Someone like Fred, Ray, Chuck, and about a dozen other regulars here probably could get their next one (?) down to a few dollars now that they know what they're doing and have already accumulated a lot of what George Carlin calls "stuff". That includes bench materials, unused bags of ground foam, recycled rails and turnouts, and all the moving items.
Percentage wise and on the average, I think it was Joe F who posed that the benchwork and track are about 20% of the total cost. It is what you put on top where the most cost comes in.
But, all said, you've done good.
Regards,
Tom
$3.30 per square foot actually sounds about right. My last layout was a 350 sq ft triple decker, depicting mainline running through the flatlands. About half of the layout was nothing more than a mainline and corn. In those areas the cost per square foot was actully only about $2. Of course, yards and major industrial areas blew away that frugal cost at around $40 per square.
But $3.30 per square DOES show that you don't have to spend a whole lot to build a successful layout.
Ray Breyer
Modeling the NKP's Peoria Division, circa 1943
If Jeff and I where to hook up for a BBQ bet we should look at the dates on the meat.
I will make as many of the tress as I can stand! They are fun to make to a point, 60 was the point, now they are no longer fun.
$2.00 100 Skewers 40 left
$11.85 3 fliters and still can make 15 more
$15.00 Static Grass two colors and can make 150 more trees
$5.00 Cheap paint can make 50 more
$4.00 Hair Spray 3 cans used and can make may be 6 more.
$4.00 Hot Glue can make around 40 more
$41.85 = $.69 each so far.
At my current cost remember it is far drom being done and that $ will start shootintg up. I invision 2 main lines above the lower one I have posted PIC of. I still have plenty of lumber, 2 untouched 2X4 8' long are still at K-10 trains. Plus the moutain section in the back ground has lumber stacked 10" high.
Will up date PIC when I get more work done or when I buy more stuff for it.
Cheap again Cuda Ken