Just a question, what do you guy’s think about card structures?
Hello,
I find cardboard models first-class
and draw them also self.
Greets
Frank
I think you have to be careful, in the end, that you just don’t build yourself another house of cards…
[(-D]
John
PS. Seriously though, I’ve seen some really nice card-stock structures available that look very good. And I’d say, especially for background / fill-in details, that if constructed well that almost nobody would be the wiser except perhaps upon close inspection. I’ve been mulling over whether I could use some myself, particularly for scenes along the backdrop and such.
I think building them with some “relief” (depth) is the real key to making them look good and feel “right”. If you just print them out on paper / cardstock, you’ll get a nice picture-- and they’ll look good in pictures, but they’ll probably lack that “essential” ingredient that makes them feel “right”. But if you can find ways to add the relief, even if its shallow, it will go a long way toward shaking that “something not quite right” feeling that flat pictures have.
When mixed in with 3-D structures and set in the background, the better commercial card buildings are ok, but the acceptability factor can often range from simply passable, to actually pretty good. In photographs, being that they are 2-D in nature themselves, the use of quality examples of card structures can often be perfectly acceptable as replacements for 3-D structures and can allow for rapid alteration and augmentation of the scene being photographed.
However…to the honest viewer when seeing the layout in person, commercial card structures tend to stand out as obviously inferior to most of today’s excellent commercial 3-D structures. The exception to this situation being those card structures that are either scratchbuilt in a highly detailed fashion, or commercial examples to which significant 3-D detail has been added and which are really little different from any well executed scratchbuilt buildings constructed of any other basic materials like wood, or styrene. Of course, if one goes to the efforts of highly modifying a commercial kit, just what savings in time and expense has been accomplished?
Card buildings were once a staple of the hobby and many were cleverly done, but that was 60 years ago and it’s best to keep that fact in mind.
CNJ831.
Years ago Railroad Model Craftsman sold a soft cover book of cardstock structures. The ones I assembled as a kid looked very bad. The ones I saved for later did not look too bad - no difference in the structures themselves, just a more serious attitude towards careful work (Maybe the biggest difference - as a kid I tried to get more out of a knife blade than was possible; now I discard worn blades all the time and nothing beats a fresh blade for clean crisp work).
I guess I cannot say I am shocked that Carstens no longer offers that book - the drawings were very dated looking even in the 60s frankly. But the variety was nice.
A simple box-like framed support of balsa wood sticks, perhaps held together with pins, can help a card structure avoid (or at least delay) the “wavey bacon” look. I purchased some 1/4" balsa sticks cheaply that are good for this purpose. I figured by pinning rather than gluing I had a better chance of reusing the balsa. You can sink the head of the pin into the wood so it does not bulge out the cardstock glued or cemented or otherwise stuck onto it. And the wood corners are a good view block keeping the mated ends from showing any daylight.
For the modeler facing a significant number of structures to build from scratch or kits, some cardstock structures help make a layout look more finished even if the are only placeholders. They may not be highly realistic, but they’re way more realistic than just writing “put warehouse here” in magic marker on the benchwork top.
Dave Nelson
Many of my wood structures start out as cutouts from card stock. I then glue board by board wood siding to the card stock and fill in the cutout windows and doors with commercial styrene frames. Peter Smith, Memphis 
[:)]
A fine customer testimonial…
(If I were Dover Publishers, I might be tempted to commit Hari Kari! [:-,] )
John
I have a number of cardstock structures that were made in the 60’s and 70’s by a British company (and hence are all British prototypes). Some of the same patterns are still available on the Internet.
Many of the details on these models (roof shingles, window casings. light fixtures, downspouts and gutters, signs, etc.) are all applied separately, so that they have an illusion of depth. Some of the details are plastic castings.
The only real issue I have with them is that they are very fragile. Most of them did not survive 15 years on my cousin’s layout (my temporary home for my train stuff while I was on Active Duty) without some damage. A little white glue and paint and weathering has fixed most of the problems, but not all.
My first introduction to card models was through my sci-fi collection; thanks to avid modellers, there are numerous paper models available that were never produced as plastic kits.
I never had that ‘wavy’ problem, as I printed my designs on a heavy cardstock, usually no less than a 110 lb stock, and used a minimal amount of white glue (carpenter’s glue is the ideal choice.)
Also, thanks to ‘wargame’ modellers, there’s an amazing plethora of free models available on the 'net of sheds, castles, bridges, & other outbuildings. Even places that sell HO-specific models usually have a few ‘freebies’ available for download.
I’ve designed a few trestles, mounting the printed designs onto foam- or plasticore & then cutting them out carefully with a sharp, fresh blade. Plasticore is better, if it’s a large structure, as foamcore can ripple & bend as the glue dries. But I’m amazed at the realism - I’ve been using them for miniature video filming, and the textures, especially the woodgrains & plankings, are very believeable. There are little tricks I’ve learned, like darking the edges with a magic marker, and printing onto coloured cardstock; or doing several printings of a roof & layering the tiles for depth. Then there’s reverse printing a piece like a door so you can prop it open. This week I’m working with some bluescreen shots so I can have a horse walk into the barn…
Dover Books are good quality paper models.
I have seen Dover buildings used very effectively on several different layouts. I have most of their books. Last time I checked they were not “in print”.
Instead of cutting up the books I have scanned the pages and saved them to my computer.
I model N Scale so initially scanned them to so I could print them to that size.
I also use a PhotoShop type program (I use Corel Paint Shop Pro) to modify them or make custom buildings using elements from them.
Note that the Dover Book pages are 9x12. In some cases two scans per page are needed, however most of the page images fit on a Letter Size sheet.
Clever Models are excellent quality paper models. They are sold in electronic (pdf) format in sets on disk or individually via download. They can be built simply without dimensional details but are designed to be built (by layering parts) as beautifully detailed dimensional models. They can also be modified using PhotoShop type programs.
I guess many of you forget that some of us just like to build card models, sort of a hobby inside a hobby. I enjoy many of the colorful models and unusual items that won’t really fit a railroad. While the poster asked “What do you think about card buildings.” a better solution might be to download a free model and see if you enjoy working with card. There is a serious train modeler building the UP Big Boy, scale 1/25, in card. They are hard on ink supplies.
Armchair http://armchairmodeling.blogspot.com