You made THAT out of WHAT? Let's see more!

[fsm1000]

WOW

What more can I say guys. Those are great ideas. Thanks :)

[galaxy]

Swell idea myowngod!

and THANKS for sharing leighant!

Hope to see more!

[leighant]

Can you stand still more?

The "Roman" columns for the bank were made from a rubbery plastic spline used to hold screen wire into the grooves of aluminum do-it-yourself window screen frames.

A soft-plastic kid's western-play-set log cabin bought for 10 cents at a garage sale was cut down, scale windows added and lots of etc. to make a logging camp theme restaurant for the East Texas forest-industry town of "Johnston".

The administration/ headquarters/ admiral's building for the Naval Air Station Tidelands (Lighter-than-air) was made from 3 Model Power "Grandma's Old Farmhouse" kits.

A Japanese 1/700 scale Japanese naval base tower crane became a gravel tipple for J J Stone gravel pit.  ("J J Stone" was the on-air name of a model railroader disc jockey friend.) 

A Danish railway station became a church in a US Southern town. 

N scale lumber 2x4s were cut to the dimensions of specific pieces of Lionel Train equipment as described in a 1954 catalog to build the train sets in Lat Lattimore's barn. 

Now I hardly have room for a layout due to all the junk I am storing for conversion to things for the layout!!!

[leighant]

Some more...

Injection syringer plungers for the drilling pipe stored on the ground.

The plastic replaceable top from a box of raisins became the basis for a farm implement dealer's

tractor unloading platform, based on standard plans for a Santa Fe Rwy heavy equipment platorm.

It may be hard to see.  Inside the farm implement dealer's service shop, the drill press was carved from a removed Arnold Rapido N scale coupler.  (That only leaves me with 459 Rapido couplers for which to find a use.)

Two of those "been-around-forever" three unfinished houses were finished, but finished with slkight differences.  One is the home of Mrs. Neatnick and the other houses the Messy nFamily.  Can you guess which is which?

Hervil Saw Shop in the forest-industry East Texas town of "Johnston" was a place to display Republic Locomotive Works set of scale vintage two-man logging saws which were out-of-period for a transition era scene.  The circular signboard hanging over the storefront is from a jewelry finding.  The store's buzzsaw sign is from a Missouri Pacific buzzsaw herald decal.

[leighant]

I've shown some of these over in a question on another forum not too long ago but here goes.

I got one of those "been-around-forever" house kits, pre-built from a hobby shop junk bin for a buck. 

With modifications, stilts and details, it became a beach house...

Tiny real seashells from a beach 6 blocks from my house,  

...ground up to simulate even tinier N scale seashells inside... 

Sue's seashells.   

  

[myowngod]

Here's one I did just today.  I was thinking of this post the whole time I was working on it.

I made some guard rails. 

Hint... think of your morning coffee...

 

I used the figure 8 coffee stirrers.  I split them down the middle and glued on I-girder styrene to the back.  On this one I did 3 version of paint.  A heavily weathered, rusty section, a newly replaced section. and a lightly rust section.  For the curved end piece I just took some thin styrene and curved it between my nails.  Easy and very cheap.  Now get down to your local coffee shop and snag some of those stirrers.

 

 

[MisterBeasley]

Right now, I'm in the process of putting together Branchline's "Weimer's Mill" kit, an old water-powered gristmill.  As some of you know, I like to add interiors to my structures, so here was an interesting challenge.  The floor piece you see here is part of the kit, as is the back wall, but I've built the business end of the mill out of balsa strips from A.C. Moore.  The oddball item here is the millstones.  They were imported all the way from Italy, holding the wine inside a bottle of Pinot Grigio.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I have about two dozen of these of twenty foot containers. They're made of cardstock folded around wood blocks that I cut from a 2x4. I got the patterns for them here.

This trackside shed is completely scratchbuilt. I built it about ten or eleven years ago for use on my nephew's layout. When he tore the layout down four or five years later he gave the shed back to me along with some things he kitbashed and/or scrathbuilt. It has a complete wood frame made from pieces of craft sticks I cut up with my Dremel tool. The outside is a simple pattern printed on cardstock.

 

[GAPPLEG]

Not a good shot , the water tower in the back is a clear plastic ball they sell for christmas decorations, the girders are left over from a trestle kit.

[rs2mike]

I don't have any pics of it but I made an orbital sander out of a battery powered toothbrush.  I bought an electric one so I didn't need the battery powered one.  I took the removable head off and cut off all the bristles with my dremel tool and smoothed it to a level surface.  Then I cut a circular piece of foam to fit the head and used contact cement to glue it on.  I then took some testors sand paper I had sitting around and cut out circles of various grits and used contact cement to glue the sandpaper to the sponge.  The cost of this project cost me like $4 for extra heads to have a selection of different of grits and the tool to quickly get the heads off.  This thing works great and is a lot easier than trying to get into some spots  by hand.  If you want pics let me know and I will post some.

mike

[chutton01]

The trash bag ties for siding is nothing short of GENIUS!  I'm sure in the coming months we'll be seeing a sheet of 10 ties being sold by Woodland Scenics for $12.95!

Quite possibly, because around these parts the Supermarkets seem to only sell trash bags which either have 'cinch straps' or 'tie flaps' (extensions on the corners of the bag opening for the user to grasp and weave together in a knot) - trash bags with twist ties are fast becoming a hard to find commodity!

[Packers#1]

Soom VERY inventive solutions here. Randall, that snow is amazing. I wouldn't have guessed you used trash bags for it.

[wm3798]

This is great... The trash bag ties for siding is nothing short of GENIUS!  I'm sure in the coming months we'll be seeing a sheet of 10 ties being sold by Woodland Scenics for $12.95!

Here's some oldies but goodies...

All of the structures in this picture of a module I built back in the 80's are made from cardboard gleaned from the backs of notepads, shirt boxes, and anything else I could get my hands on.  The windows were photo copied from scale plans in MR and RMC.

Train order stand from scrap rail and some bits and pieces from the scrap box...

Printed roofing made by sampling product images from Owens Corning's shingle website...

Sanding tower from a pen barrel, a piece of coat hanger and a broken Bachmann signal bridge...

Pulpwood piles from hedge clippings...

Another sanding tower... this one is an inverted G scale milk can, some bits of wire and some Plastruct shapes, the ladder is a wire tie...

My favorite, though, lacks a picture in the archive... I took a gumball machine bubble and made a water tower!

Lee 

[galaxy]

At $42.00 for Cody's cardboard barn, you should be able to get at least $35.00 for your wood and corrugated building!

[tomkat-13]

This is a low relief building of the back of a storage shed-pole barn.... I made it with a block of wood with the bottom painted gray for concrete, then glued on green corrugated paper, cardboard painted green for the roof. I weathered it with chalk. The ladder from the parts box. This was an easy one afternoon build.

I made this tower with another block of wood & the left over paper.

[xdford]

Haven't got pictures but for the club, I made a diesel loco depot with walls out of plastic plate bottoms to get the brick like texture. It needed reinforcing but it looked OK. I have also made a trackside hut out of a plastic yoghurt container... to prove it coud be done!  I've made ground signals out of Kadee coupler pockets, and streetlights out of lollypop sticks and sequins. Pictures for this are somewhere on my web pages www.xdford.digitalzones.com under "other projects" and street lights. I've also made concrete bridge piers using the stems of plastic razors.

Hope this is a help  

 

Regards  Trevor   

 

[SteamFreak]

This really is a great thread; I hope the ideas keep coming. Creativity is what it's all about, especially with cost of living increases putting the squeeze on our hobby budgets.

Add me to the list of those who have used motors from disc drives and other electronics for remotoring projects. I've also revived some old open frame motors with rectangular neodymium magnets I salvage from my used Sonicare toothbrush heads.

When I was young and cheap (instead of old and cheap ) I bent pretty credible grab iron from staples.

[galaxy]

Here's a great material to make HO freight car steel roof walks.

WoW! The dishwasher impeller was a neat idea, who'd a thunk?, but old TV parts for roof walks? This may take the cake!

GREAT IDEAS and PICS everyone!!! Keep them coming!!!

[Rotorranch]

  And how about the old pencil eraser barrel?    .

Now that's cool! That's one I wouldn't have thought about.

Rotor

[Grampys Trains]

Hi G: Here's a couple more. I rescued this black plastic "shale" from a discarded lamp, and turned it into a shale outcropping.     And how about the old pencil eraser barrel?    .

[doctorwayne]

Hah!  I wouldn't have noticed had you not mentioned it: it looks good, and certainly would save a lot of "shovelling" when cleaning up.

Wayne 

[Randall_Roberts]

Here's a temporary Christmas layout I threw together in a couple afternoons.  It's Unitrack on plywood, and the structures are MTL's Micro Seasons North Pole Village.  Don't look to close at the "snow", it's kitchen trash bags.

 

[Kenfolk]

Great thread! This one's  bookmarked. Thanks everyone.

[doctorwayne]

I'm really impressed. I have all sorts of junk and never seem to see the use for it that you all have. Great!!

Dave 

Sometimes, the "junk" is just junk, so, might as well treat it as such: 

Torn-down electric motor armatures -

And the wire from the same motors -

 

Scrap Rivarossi metal wheels and axles -

Assorted modelling junk -

More modelling junk, and some parts from disposable lighters -

And more of the same, with some rusted metal from an old car -

Scrap brass rail makes a good gondola load, too -

 

The plastic rolls from office paper can be useful, with a few added bits of detail and some paint, as flatcar and gondola loads -

 

And finally, a load of stakes from Athearn flatcars, after a trip through some HobbyBlack -

Wayne 

[DavidGSmith]

I'm really impressed. I have all sorts of junk and never seem to see the use for it that you all have. Great!!

Dave 

[timbob]

Wow.  I wish I was as resourceful as you guys!!

 -Tim

[doctorwayne]

Steamage

They look great but what is the material? did you have to paint/weather it to get that real rust look?

 

I almost missed it, too, but simply click on the blue link for an explanation:

 

Here's a great material to make HO freight car steel roof walks.

 

Lots of great suggestions here, and it's nice to see that we're still a resourceful bunch in this age of ready-to-run.

Wayne 

[steamage]

Steamage

They look great but what is the material? did you have to paint/weather it to get that real rust look?

No, the steel screening from the old broken TV tube was already well rusted when I found it. Just cut the steel screen into strips and made all the roofwalk I will ever need. Don't want to pay ten bucks for a pair of etched metal roof walk's for box and reefer cars are not the top of the line, but want to make the oldies look better.

[PASMITH]

My sawdust burner is a tea strainer on top of a cardboard Christmas tree. ( The cladding is made from small thin brass rectangles that have been dipped in Blacken-it, glued to the cardboard Christmas tree with contact cement and weathered with Chalks.)

Peter Smith, Memphis