When we moved to Texas we brought the 6' X 12' layout with us that I had in Colorado. It's attached to the around-the-wall-shelf layout and operates. It sort of represents going from west central Texas to Colorado. Some friends of ours here--both neighbors and attendees of the same church--are the Tanners. They used to own the local grocery store. The husband died of cancer in February of this year. He was one of the greatest people I've ever met. It seemed appropriate to have a grocery and dry goods store on the layout someplace and name it Tanners. There just isn't room on the Texas part of the layout, so I put it in the small town in Colorado. The grocery store and the two adjacent cabins are all paper buildings. If you build them properly and put them a little ways back from the edge of the layout, nobody will know that they aren't styrene or wood kits. And they were free!!! If you've got any questions regarding paper structures, let me know.
Speaking as a cardstock modeler, the buildings look nifty. Also, good to remember friends no longer with us.
Finally completed the grocery store and added gas pumps. That was pretty common with small, rural stores. Kenny Tanner loved to fish and had a fishing boat, so I put a little boat next to the grocery store. Also designed, printed and built a one car garage out of paper. There was a nice stone wall texture I found online ages ago and saved it for a future use. First I had to make the stone wall the correct dimensions for all of the garage walls. We don't have a color printer (my neighbor printed the other buildings in trade for something I did for him) so I upped the contrast and brightness in photoshop and printed it on cardstock black and white. After coloring it with art pens it doesn't look too bad. The doors are Tichy doors and have glazed windows in them. The area above the car door is clapboard and the roof is just painted styrene. My total cost on all three buildings is about $15 including the gas pumps, doors, misc styrene, etc.
OK...to gmorider and sidney (and anyone else who builds paper structures)...what kinds of tricks are there to making them look more realistic? Basically, I support the insides with popsicle sticks to keep them straight and prevent warpage. If there is a porch, I use scale wood instead of paper for the posts. Maybe add some details, but that's all I do. What do you do to make them look more realistic?
My Dad used cardstock and some balsa wood for framing and details, when he built my layout back in the 70s. I watched him quite often, very intently, studying how he did it. For simulating brick, shingles, siding, etc., he scored or indented the cardstock with the side of a very small metal crochet needle tip (Mom volunteered one). Sometimes he spent hours carefully preparing outside walls, roofing, and other parts. Then he painted it all by hand, sometimes with a fine brush to simulate mortar. He was in a "bubble" of sorts, concentrating on the job in his hands. I know now what he felt, how he felt, when doing modeling work. And the satisfaction of the end result. Some of those cardstock buildings were amazing. At least for a young lad like me.
i think you just got to be careful and make bends ect in card stock and use very little glue as to not saturate the paper (just had that happen on some roofing i was working on ) and be precise on cuts. then touch up corners with colored pens. somebody here was teaching how to make the bend ect with a sharp edge like a knife egde(straight knife blade ) something like that. I have a knife blade out of a paper cutter of some sort its short like 10 inch blade. i have no idea where it came from i just found it in my bin of junk.....
Thank you. I carefully score the backside of any bend so the bend will be precise and, as you said, touch up the outside edge with a colored marker afterwards. For most glue joints I use contact cement. It doesn't saturate the paper at all and holds well. Any tips are appreciated. The paper building thing is something I'm pursuing, especially for buildings that aren't near the front of the layout (close to where people stand). When structures are closer to the background, you often can't even tell they are paper unless someone points it out.
Unfortunately, no. The last time I saw them was over 40 years ago. The only records I have of them are photos of my 2nd layout from the late 1970s (taken by my Dad). I have to get ready for work now so I'll leave a note by my computer to dig them up, if you wish (fortunately, I scanned the entire family slide collection, all 5300+ of them, after my Dad passed 16 years ago). I have to try my hand at making one. Summer vacation time is coming up!
A few of the better photos: Coaling tower, hybrid cardstock/balsa construction (railings on platforms are spare picket fence sections. Ya gotta improvise!) I still have the little 0-4-0 too. A.R. Sennic, division of Widowmaker Chemicals. Mesh in upper structure is actual metal mosquito netting: (blurred in foreground is P. Pottler's Potholes) My first engine - still have that and runs like new - at the engine house Warbonnet at the cardstock station: (I think Dad caught a ladybug in flight at the bottom of the frame ) And a school of sharks with a line of three cardstock industries (behind the stock car and caboose, the tall green one in the middle) in the background: (I was bugging Dad about having an A-B-A set of sharks in the Warbonnet scheme...kids... ya gotta love'em...) Going through these, I noticed that my Dad removed some of the buildings to photograph others at a better angle. This layout was chock full of everything - tracks, buildings, scenery. And white picket fences... I could spend hours playing with this. Dang, I was one happy kid!
Thanks for sharing!!! My brother and I had a Santa Fe E unit just like the one in your photo. Our dad let us have one side of the garage for a layout. It was a flat plywood layout, 4' X 12'.
My Dad built a 4'x8' layout in my bedroom in 1974. It was pretty basic, but had all the stuff that made a train-obsessed boy happy. We moved, with smaller quarters, and Dad completely rebuilt the layout to the one you see here (photos from February 1977). About 4'x6'6", but packed with possibilities for action. We moved again, and I had a larger bedroom again, and it ended up there. There were two things that kept me entertained for hours on end - Lego, and trains! I built the one I have now starting in 2017, after getting back in the hobby. It's about double the area of the last one, at 6'x8'. I had as much fun building it as I am running trains now. Bonus prize is knowing what my Dad felt when he built the ones from the 1970s. Best darn feeling in the world, and Dad had the bonus of seeing his son happy and smiling.
What did you print the cardstock with? I was using an HP color laser. For 'design' I used MS Paint. We will be getting another color printer but it could be a while. Any suggestions?
Wish I could help with suggestions on a printer, but my paper structures were printed by my next door neighbor. We don't currently have a color printer. I have no idea which color printer he has. One suggestion, though. If you use a color laser printer, you will need to overspray everything with a clear dull coat. This may well be stuff you already know, so just ignore it if it's old hat to you. Laser printer toner has a very noticeable gloss sheen on the paper after printing. What I did was mask off the windows to leave some gloss on them and dull coat the entire structure. I just used a rattle can of dull coat and sprayed small, thin coats so as not to soak the paper / cardstock. It worked pretty well. I also heavily brace the inside of the paper walls, roof panels, etc., with popsicle sticks. Again, so the paper doesn't warp, I glue everything with contact cement instead of elmers or carpenter's glue. The contact cement works well and isn't very wet.
@Skyraider Thanks! That information is very helpful! I will be doing a wide variety of structrues ranging from small shacks to 'sky scrapers'.
Cool!!! Can't wait to see them!! Here are a couple of shots of the scene with paper structures on my layout. The main difference from the earlier photos is the Texaco sign which I finally built.
