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 Posted - November 16 2022 : 2:44:44 PM
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Just wondering on this, has anybody really been scratch building a whole lot of models with similar to what was in use back in the 50s and 60s? Looking through older issues of MRR, you can find articles on how to build steam locomotives from wood and card, interurbans and motors built from tin and wood, and an article on how to build a TOFC 85 ft flatcar out of tin from 1968.
It seems today that everyone has sort of "moved on" from these materials and have started to use materials like styrene and other options like 3d printing.
Just wondering about any current use of these materials (if used at all) as I have looked into this as an option, however, I believe that it would be a very tedious and time consuming process to take part in if I do decide to pursue this.
Thanks
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Posted - November 16 2022 : 3:48:49 PM
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I've made several boxcars, flats and tank cars from cardboard and strip wood. The latest was this wood vinegar tank car made from a creamsicle box. Although most of my collection is conventional plastic models, I do enjoy the look of these made-from-scratch models.
Cardboard is an interesting and easy material to work with. The main thing is to use fresh brand new Xacto blades. I like the thought process of figuring out all the pieces that I need to make things like angle braces and such. And I do seal the cardboard with acrylic varnish before I paint it.
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Posted - November 16 2022 : 4:06:02 PM
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| Very impressive models I must say. I'm currently looking into doing traction models using stripwood and cardboard, so hopefully that goes well. Thanks for the tips too!
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Posted - November 17 2022 : 08:01:11 AM
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I work extensively with wood. My entire layout is handlaid track on pine lumber cut ti fit. The ties are made from matchsticks cut and stained.Yes it is tedious, but it holds up well. I also have several wood kits to build.
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Posted - November 17 2022 : 08:42:26 AM
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| Looks great, glad to hear that your hard work has paid off.
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Posted - November 17 2022 : 10:22:10 AM
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| Question, what did you end up using for the actual bands on the wood tank for that vinegar car?
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Posted - November 17 2022 : 12:33:25 PM
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I've used some old-school materials and techniques. Mostly that means wood and cardboard. I haven't experimented with tin plated steel.
In this shot the brick factory building is a plastic kit, but the shed with the loading dock and the coal silo are a scratch builds. On the shed with the loading dock, the wall is sheet balsa embossed with the siding texture. The concrete parts are the cardboard backing from a pad of paper. Roof vents are air gun pellets. The stone wall below the loading dock is embossed Styrofoam from a meat tray. That's not an old-school material, but it's definitely old-school thinking.
The coal silo is a cardboard tube wrapped in cardboard with the staves embossed in it. The bands are file folder cardboard. The head house siding is cardboard embossed to look like planks. The corrugated roofing is heavy paper embossed on the corrugated roof of a plastic model (attribute the idea to E.L. Moore).
Here's a little pump house for unloading tank cars. It's a cardboard structure sided and roofed with corrugated siding embossed in paper. The tray in front is pop can aluminum painted to look rusty. It's meant to serve as a drip pan in the tracks when the tank is being unloaded.
I wanted a feed mill on the layout and it needed to fit a small space. In Chadwick, IL, there's a mill the right size, and I built something a lot like it out of cardboard backing from note pads. It's natural color forms the concrete foundation. A layer of file folder cardboard embossed like planks and painted to match the grain elevator forms the siding. The roof is more of my corrugated paper. The ventilator on top is a leftover one from the Walthers grain elevator kit and the stove pipe is probably a plastic sucker stick or something similar. Windows are clear plastic with paper frames and muntins glued on.
This is my rebellion against checkbook modeling.  Right after I read a layout article in which everything was some brand name of glue or sidewalk sections or whatever that left me wondering what brand of air the author was breathing, I went to build a coal shed at my bulk fuel plant. I set myself the goal of making it all out of scraps and junk. Accessories like the conveyer and the truck are store-bought but the building is all old cardboard and paper. Only the paint and glue were not scraps. The coal was even pulverized from a lump I found in a river that erodes through a coal seam. Seriously, if someone has fun modeling with a whole catalog of brand names and specialties, more power to him, but I have other ideas for myself.
The gondola in front of the coal shed is an MDC/Roundhouse diecast boxcar floor with a body built around it out of 1/32 inch sheet balsa cut into planks.
Ashes from the locomotives are loaded into small, low gondola cars with this old diecast conveyor, but the hand cart that moves the ashes from the pile to the conveyor is partially scratch built. The wheels are some that I found at a swap meet, but the rest is built up of file folder cardboard and bits of wire. The ash is ash from a locomotive sifted for scale-sized cinders. The scoop shovel is shaped from a thin sheet of copper soldered to a wire handle and painted in genuine shovel colors.
Don't overlook the simple builds. This tool rack is a match stick across two toothpicks with wire hooks stuck in it. The tools are made of copper wire and thin sheets of copper.
Long ago, I had some big packages of 1/4" square and 1/16" square balsa strips and used them to build wood trestles.
Those old-school modeling techniques you've been reading about are still a great source of modeling fun, today.
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - November 17 2022 : 2:24:20 PM
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| Very nice, thanks for sharing! Some great builds, they look great!
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Bamos
Big Six
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Posted - November 17 2022 : 6:50:22 PM
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I usually use styrene as it's the easiest to source for me.
I finally finished up a maintenance of way tool car that's styrene, bits of old ethernet cable wire and some home made decal.
My next project to finish.
Bill
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Posted - November 18 2022 : 08:12:28 AM
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| scsshaggy and Bamos, you've got some nifty scratch-built items. I think it goes to prove that with imagination and creativity, the results can be stunning.
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Posted - November 19 2022 : 08:06:21 AM
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quote:scsshaggy and Bamos, you've got some nifty scratch-built items. I think it goes to prove that with imagination and creativity, the results can be stunning.
Originally posted by Brian4321Â -Â November 18 2022Â :Â 08:12:28 AM
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Thanks. The thing you have to do is dive in and learn from each project.
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - November 20 2022 : 10:54:38 AM
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there is a old coal shed similar to the one you did about a block south of me
I think once there was a track there
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Posted - November 20 2022 : 1:51:09 PM
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Scratch builders command my respect. My efforts usually end up
as caca.
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Posted - November 21 2022 : 09:58:59 AM
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quote:Scratch builders command my respect. My efforts usually end up
as caca.
Originally posted by Chops124Â -Â November 20 2022Â :Â 1:51:09 PM
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Don't be discouraged. Take your time and you'll learn the necessary skills. Don't be afraid to do it over if it doesn't turn out good enough for you. Kits and kitbashing are a good way to get your feet wet before you start building from the ground up. You belong to a model railroad club so you have access to people who know how to build things. Don't ever hesitate to ask their advice on anything you are unfamiliar with. I learned my layout and track building skills from my dad and grandpap who had modeled back in the days when you had to scratchbuild everything. I couldn't and wouldn't have built what I have now if I hadn't learned from them. Even now, I have a good friend who rebuilds brass locomotives and paints them, and I am always going to him and his wife for advice on how to build something. In return, they come to me for perspective and information on the real railroads, given that I've spent most of my life trackside.
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NLRR
Switcher
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Posted - November 21 2022 : 12:07:54 PM
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quote:Scratch builders command my respect. My efforts usually end up
as caca.
Originally posted by Chops124Â -Â November 20 2022Â :Â 1:51:09 PM
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Welcome to the Club ! 
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