I’m sure I’m not the first to think of this but I’ve searched around and not found much on it. Has (or is) anyone had or having any luck taking (or copying) a photo then using your computer and scaling it to N scale then printing it onto cardstock or paper or any other media and make a scaled replica of the building on their layout? I’m trying this on a passenger car side, but not near finished to see how it will come out, but it seems this to be quite easy once one has the photo’s needed to print the sides, etc. Seems actual buildings could be made properly scaled to go on the layout. Feedback needed please. Rick
I don't think photo buildings necessarily make good foreground structures. The eye expects some large degree of 3-D there. You might be able to succeed with large corner pillars or something beyond just pasting a flat photo on a surface. First off, you ultimately need a "clean" photo of a building. At least, of the part of a building that's visible to your audience. No cast shadows on the building, and the shadows made by the building should match those of other buildings around it. When you shoot the photo, the building will probably be distorted by perspective. Junk, trees, even parked cars out of your intended time frame may ruin an otherwise useful building photo. Much has been made of using Photoshop; there have been a few articles in the model RR magazines. You can un-distort the perspective to dead-on flat. You can eliminate junk using clone stamping (for example); replacing/covering sections including junk by other "clean" sections. Resizing is flexible for forced perspective, if needed. There is a learning curve to the program, which ain't cheap.
Hello Rick, if you can read little german? Her in this forum is many of cardboard buildings and so on. Kartonmodellbau - Seite 1 - Forum Amerikanische Eisenbahnen Greets Frank
I have been using Model Builder for the warehouses in the west Bottoms. Very easy to use. You can get a lot of 3D effects with more effort. For me, I wanted a plain building look to focus more on the roofs and street level. You can import pictures, graphics, etc. into the program and then scale to the appropriate size. You could layout the building out then stretch your photo over it to get the proper scale. Might be worth a try. Just a thought.
I've done it for years, using Photoshop to straighten out any perspective problems. Shadows are really not a problem, and actually add depth to the structures. See my blog or albums for examples.
We found a company in Colorado that sells paper building software. ( ... careful about mentioning retailers ... ) Shawn and Sally Harrison - modeling 1850s B&O
You want cardboard building? I give you cardboard building for your printer. Front and sides Interior seen through end door How to put it together How looks when completed
Years ago I was part of an H.O. club for a couple years and there was a guy who made his own buildings from paper and cardboard. He would make the building with a removable roof and he would detail the inside. Everything was either paper or cardboard. I was shocked at the detail he put into his models, They looked nicer than any plastic model I have put together I'll tell you that. It is amazing what you can do with the stuff if you take your time. BTW, from what I was told , this guy was very poor so he didn't have the resources to spend on trains. But he did what he could with what he had. He was a real "Modeler". Sorry for going a bit off topic. Craig
Check out Clever Models. They make models out of real buildings in the Chiwaulee area. They sold kits in the past and now offer CDs.
While not strictly 'cardboard' everything you see in this shot is built over at least a cardboard core. If you look at the Monte Vista, the left side in perspective is a photoshopped photo glued on cardboad. The front wall is a flat, built up with stripwood, with all the face wall materials epoxied on - layers of plastic brick on cardboard. All the prototype buildings across the front - the entire block - is cardboard-core, stripwood reinforced, with various finish materials applied - plastics, stripwood, styrene details. Many of the signs are printed on heavy paper from photoshopped photos of the actual signs. These are all the actual buildings in Flagstaff, AZ. "Joes" is now about 15 years old, so this stuff does hold up over time.
For buildings I wanted to scratch build, I've drawn them first with Autocad LT in real scale and plotted them out at 1/160 to use as the templates for cutting stryrene sheet. Along the way I hatch and fill the drawing to add detail and color, and glue the color plots to foam core to use as a mockup until the scratch built is complete. The mockup is also a real help in placing the structure in the scene. An image of the drawing and of the built model is added.
The buildings in the center are cardstock models that have been around at least ten years now. They are some of my favorites.
Use of creative materials to make buildings Pete and guys, First, Happy New Year! I haven't had the opportunity to make an N structures out of card stock, simply because over the years, there has been a dearth of structures either I bought, built or was given to me, and I have a surplus of really neat 50ish buildings. Plus, whenever there is a show or swap meet, I am the guy who buys the junk boxes, and to date have an incredible inventory of scrap building materials, sides, windows, door, garage doors etc, and with a little Plastruct I feel I have the world at my N scale fingers. But I also have a semi-large Z scale layout I am working on. Exactly the opposite of N, in terms of availability. I got a donated layout with a decent trackplan but no landscaping or structures, and a friend gave me some structures, but not my usual inventory. I tend to gravitiate to freight buildings, industrial and rail service structures, instead of commercial structures. So on a stored Z layout now inactive, I started to take balsa shapes, then cut cardstock to glue to it, and using markers, watercolors, etc, I made a general store and a freight depot. Now I am gettin' fancy. My wife has a color copier at home, and I gave her some printed brick and masonry, then added my doors and windows, a roof of any one of a lot of products and viola!!!! Z is a little more forgiving, but I am going for outright realism. By next week, I will have software installed to accommodate my digital camera photos and will be posting pix. I hope I hope. Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
While not N-scale, this is a model I built in college for a design project. It is a 5 storey apartment, modeled at 1:100. 100% laser cut cardstock. The previous year, we did a car dealership at 1:200. Surprisingly, they turned out equally impressive. I will need to see if I can dig up some photos of that one too. While this is laser cut cardstock, approximately 1/16" thick, slightly thinner cardstock is very easy to cut with a sharp blade. A little CA held this together quite nicely, like any scratchbuild, it is all about how much detail you want to put into it.
Some kind of old plastic tubing from my junk box. Spray-painted with splotchy black and gray from rattle-cans.
