Does anyone here build their windows for their structures? I am getting ready to start building a station that has some odd shape windows. I can't seem to find any windows that would work well for a couple of them. I remember that Wayne Wesolowski talked about it in "[SIZE=-1]Model Railroad Structures from A to Z", but I no longer have my copy of the book. Any advise or techniques that anyone has to share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! [/SIZE]
Quite honestly, Joe, with the huge assortment in size and type of HO scale windows commercially available these days from companies like Grant Line, Rusty Stumps and others, scratching your own windows, other than to simply say you did them yourself, is rarely necessary and highly labor intensive. Likewise, it's normally easier to modify an existing commercial window to match some really odd configuration that you need than it is to scratch it. I do a fair bit of scratchbuilding of rather complex structures (at a similar level to FSM buildings) and have yet to be stymied finding the necessary windows for a project. NYW&B
Good point. I may be jumping the gun a little bit in assuming that I will need to. My Walther's catalog should be in today, so I can at least see if there are some that I can work with. Personally, I would rather not have to mess with making them if it isn't necessary. I think I was asking more out of dreading the task. Thanks for the sagely advise!
I have used King Mill to make custom laser cut windows along with some building specific roof supports. They offer software to design your own stuff and then they cut it for you. http://www.kingmill.com David
What about drawing the window frames using a CAD program and printing them on acetate? Then if that doesn't give you the detail you want, you can cut small strips of styrene to match and cement them to the acetate. Good luck, Ron
David and Ron, Thank you both for the replies. I had not heard of KingMill before, but I must say that is very intriguing. I am going to have part of a street that has a bunch of "cookie-cutter" houses that this might give me good lead time on. So for, I am doing pretty good at matching up structural details to acceptable parts out of the catalog. I have done the old fashioned approach of drawing out the parts on paper and building them on wax paper over the original. I don't use CAD software much, despite my original major being civil engineering and haven taken my fair share of AutoCad and 3D Studio courses. I am just scared that will get me started on yet another hobby. Thanks again!
