I'd like to make a N scale model of the B&M station in my hometown. It's still standing although the tracks have been ripped up. I need to head over at some point and ask the current occupants if it is OK for me to take detailed photos and measurements, since I haven't found any blueprints (the B&MRRHS and the local library don't have any, unfortunately). https://el-camino-real.smugmug.com/Railroad-Depots/New-England-Depots/i-bSPLwG5/A However, I've never scratchbuilt a building before. Are there any beginner's guide books or sites on teh Intertubez that you folks can recommend?
YouTube is full of scratch building videos and here is one. Whether you build in wood or stryene that techniques are basically the same. The only thing with wood though is you need to stain or paint before gluing. A good N scale rule and a small right angle plus a small drill are the basic tools. You are already taking the right approach in photographing and measuring. I have been scratch building for over 50 years now.
Oh that's a difficult one... I would start with simple project. Wooty's Tavern was an easy build... I would recommend looking in the resources for plans to learn from
An easy way to start is mocking the building up in foam core. You can see how it fits and easily make changes. From there, you can draw on the foam core, identifying where doors and windows go. Then you have all your measurements in place when you start the styrene version. I recommend getting 1-2-3 blocks or some other method of holding the walls square while the glue dries. Have fun and find what works for you.
If you are scratch building an existing structure then I highly recommend making some "story sticks". They will save you a lot of time. These are two pieces of one inch wide thin (1/4 inch?)lattice strips. One is four feet long and the other two feet long. Cover both in white tape lengthwise. Then use a contrasting color tape (I use red) to create alternating sections. I divide the boards length wise and create a sort of checkerboard pattern. The four foot stick is divided into 1 foot sections. The top might be red/white/red/white while the bottom alternates as white/red/white/red. The two foot stick is covered with the white tape and also divided in half lengthwise with alternating checkerboard colors of red and white. One half of the board ( one foot) has alternating checkerboard sections of red and white while the other half is divided into a six inch section with red/white on top and white/red on the bottom. The last section divided into alternating sections of red, white that are only one inch wide. Just be sure to alternate the colors between sections. Using them is simple. Just place them against the building or whatever that you are taking a photo of and you have a built in measurement scale in the photo itself. Be sure that the sticks are perpendicular to avoid any skewing of the measurements. Later using a pair of dividers you can determine the size of anything in that photo by comparing it to your built in measuring scale. Easy, peasy and saves time in the field as well as at the workbench.
Thank you all for the advice! I'll need to watch that video when I have time. The foam core mock-up and story stick tips are also pretty interesting. I'll stop by the station once the snow has melted and hopefully the occupants will let me take detailed measurements.
Sharky - The Spookshow.net website is a very easily accessible and entertaining resource for a blow-by-blow description of N-scale scratchbuilding. See his layout blog on building the city of Hope, MN. Other recent resources for N-Scale scratchbuiliding projects are Railroad Model Craftsman magazine for January 2019 and N-Scale Magazine January/February 2019. N-Scale scratch building is challenging because the dimensions are so small. So, it is good idea to start with kit-bashing some existing kits, Spookshow also covers this. - Tonkphiilip
Click on the "Resources" tab, then click on "Structure plans". Then click on the desired structure. You will then get a group of sketches with directions on how to build that structure, including printable PDF's of plans (in N scale). I would suggest you start with a simple one like this https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?resources/small-signal-shed.78/ Just follow the directions.
with a PDF in N scale, you do NOT need dimensions. They are already included in the PDF. Just print the PDF, rubber cement it to your material and cut out the parts. So much easier than measuring and drawing.
Also, learn to use Google Earth. You can measure darn near anything there now, particularly key issues of length and width of a building. If it is still standing, or even if the foundation is still there. And once you get that dimension, you can resize a scanned or digital square-on photograph to one of those key dimensions just by repeatedly frutzing with photos and inserting them in a word processor like Word, resizing them and checking with a scale ruler when you print it out. Just keep tweaking it until you get it to match up with a measured dimension. You can also use Photoshop to 'de-keystone' an angled shot, square it back up, and then refit it to a known dimension of length or height. I've done probably.... 50 or 60 structures now that way over the years. Most of them are the entire street scene of Flagstaff as it looked in 1972. Street view is fantastic too, if you have a streetside building or even the back of it, capture an image, resize it , print it either as a drawing guide or backdrop photos. Back in the dark ages in the 70's I used an entire roll of photos of the Flagstaff, AZ station, hand-drew up drawings, used Trig to figure out the weird roof angles and dimensions. relied on 'standard door height' as a ruler standard. About 3 years ago the drawings finally came out in the ATSF Historical Society magazine. That's the building in my signature photo. I was amazed how close I came without ever actually taking any dimensions or having any drawings. Now I just snap a key dimension out of Google Earth, resize photos to N scale, and measure the resized photo. Far easier today. I usually draw my stuff out on Strathmore or poster cardboard to do a taped-up mockup, make sure it fits, photograph it, then start laminating materials right to the Strathmore, or redraw it on styrene depending on what material is suitable. One thing I will say is that you can never put too much reinforcement in there, be it Strathmore or styrene, things want to warp over time, go twice the cross-section of bracing you think you need. This one was redrawn on Evergreen siding after historic photos were resized using two known dimensions; door height and standard spacing on the battens. You could figure out the length of the entire structure just knowing that. Finished PRR station structure on the module as it looked in 1920. House on the right is still standing, picked it up on Google Earth and streetview. Church in the back is a shot I took and resized it as a backdrop shot knowing the width from Google Earth. If I had the space, that would be my drawing for a model. I have a lot more to do on that module, but I have enough old photos and Google Earth dimensions to pull it off. Half the battle on yours is finding suitable brick material. H&R used to have embossed brick sheets in N, that's what I used for Flagstaff. I've seen some spectacularly good results with simple color photo printing laminated on other material. To figure out the roof, get the walls first. Then see if you can figure out the height at the peak, or even guess at it. Put a centered vertical 'wall' up at that height where the ridge is, then dimension your roof panels by actually measuring it on the model. Rough it out, tape it up, take a hard look at it. If it looks 'wrong', then lather, rinse, repeat. That's how that hipped roof was done on my depot, there's a frame under there and I measured the roof panels to fit after I laid out the hip roof frame to the right height. Nobody in their right mind can calculate and measure free-standing roof panels on a complicated structure just from drawings. I knew what the roof pitch should be from end photos, knew the overhang, the height was unknown so I backed into it. Ground views will always distort roof height. So I photograph the mockups and compare them to historic photos as soon as I can to check it.
If there are swap meets in your area, look for back issues of RailModel Journal. Bob, the editor, ran a series of articles of scratchbuilding in styrene. some in HO others in N, but techniques are the same.
Mike Pagano shows how to scratch build a nice little station in the current issue of N Scale Railroading. It’s a very nice read.
I have been going through some things from my recent move, and came across something you might be interested in. Don't know where you would find it, but I suggest swap meets. It is a handout from Bob Hundman from a clinic he gave somewhere sometime, likely at Naperville. The title is scratchbuilding with Stryene. The handout is 5 letter sized pages. It isn't an any way for dummies, though. It is of reduced use without the clinic, as he doesn't make his language totally clear, and the accompanying photos are reproduced quite small, most no larger than one of the wider postage stamps. I'm in no position to make copies for everyone, and I don't have a current copy of acrobat, but I will see if I can scan and make a pdf available. Don't get too excited though, as I don't have a lot of time for this, and I move slowly anyway.
not really scratchbuilding, but they offer plans only : https://www.scalemodelplans.com/smp/pgs/catalog.html
