I want to try my hand at scratchbuilding. My project of choice is a simple railcar unloading shed such as the one that is included with Walther’s Medusa Cement Company. I would purchase the cement plant but my layout would be dwarfed by the plant’s height. Does anyone know where I should start, what tools are recommended, what a typical unloading shed is made out of (siding choices such as wood or clapboard), or any other information? Pictures would also be helpful too.
You start with drawings, done full scale. Sometimes, as in reading old modeling magazines, the drawings are included with the article. Much of the time you make your own. For this you need squared paper, a scale ruler, a pair of dividers, and pencils. also erasers. If you are working from a photograph or a catalog illustration, look for things in the picture whose size you know. For instance people are about 6 feet tall, doorways are eight feet high, freight car wheels are 33 inches. Set the dividers to the size of the known object and then step off the length, height and width of the entire structure. Given the major dimensions, draw them full scale, using the scale ruler. Add doors, windows, platforms, stairs, and so on.
A shed ought to be four walls, a roof, and a floor. You cut these pieces to size out of sheet material, cut the necessary openings and then glue it together. Windows, doors, and other details can be made up from stripwood/strip plastic, or purchased from companies like Grandt Line. Rail Model Craftsman carries ads from many small makers of detail parts. You want to brace the inside corners and stiffen the edges of the sheet material with pieces of square stock
Today you can build from wood, or styrene plastic. You can buy flat sheets, sheets of clapboard, board and batten, shingles, and other materials. They also make strips, angle sections, T sections, I beams, z sections. Northeastern Scale Lumber is the place to look for wood, Evergreen is the styrene maker. Wood cuts with just an Xacto knife and a straight edge. Styrene cuts about the same except that you don’t have to sever the material with the knife, just score it and then bend in in your fingers til it snaps along the scored line.
Wood glues with Duco cement (cellulose cement). Styrene glues with the plastic welding cement, wate
Doors are generally NOT 8 feet tall, but rather 80 inches tall.
John
One good way to start is with a wood kit other than a laser kit. Campbell Scale Models makes some small ones. These are very much like scratch building, but some one else has gotten all the parts together along with directions.
Another approach is to search through the magazine index for articles on scratchbuilding and pick one that appeals to you. A really good article will mention the tools used.
Once you have done a couple of these you’ll have a better understanding of what’s needed so you can work from just a picture or drawing.
Good luck
Paul
Brakeman618:
Congratulations on giving scratch building a try!
I would add a couple of things to the good answers you have received.
First, you don’t have to model an exact replica. I would decide what footprint you want the model to occupy and design your building to fit. Use the prototype information as a guide for such things as train door sizes, windows, height etc but don’t be afraid to make the model smaller (or larger) than the real thing. One mistake I have made (twice now!) was to not check clearances for things like train doors before I started cutting the walls. DUH! That can be easily avoided if you make a mock up out of cardboard sheet first and test it to see how it fits and looks. If you don’t like the way it looks you haven’t wasted any valuable building supplies.
For the Medusa plant it looks like the exterior walls of the shed were corrugated metal. Evergreen Scale Models offers styrene sheets molded to look like corrugated metal. It comes in different sizes - I would suggest .030 or .040 spacing of the ridges for HO scale. There are also companies that offer corrugated aluminum in .002 thick sheets. If you use styrene .040 thick sheets it tends to be self supporting. Some internal bracing to avoid warpage is recommended. If you use aluminum you will need to build something to mount it to. That could range from a simple wood or cardboard box to an exact replica of the internal posts and beams used to make the real thing.
One thing you will need is a means of holding your corners square while the glue sets. I use a small carpenter’s square of the type where the ruler can be removed from the square. The ‘square’ block will stand on it’s own so all you need is a flat surface to work on to get accurate 90 degree corners. Two square metal blocks will also work. Some people use magnets to hold things tight against the steel blocks. You might want to put a sheet of wax paper down first so any glue that seeps out won’t gl
Actually, if you know how to use an Engineer’s Scale (that’s the “engineering” engineer, not a locomotive driver), you don’t need full scale drawings. You create the drawing to the appropriate scale (1/10 is common) and then just measure with a scale (like a ruler), which will translate the drawing units into full size units for you. Easier to do than to describe.
That works. You have to do it that way when the object is too large to draw full scale on reasonably sized paper. It is the way to go when you have decent drawings done in any scale. But, it requires a translation from drawing scale to full scale for each measurement taken from the drawing. Whether you do the translation mathematically or graphically (with a scale rule) you can bungle it, cut a part to the wrong size, and waste time, material and cuss words.
If you are doing the drawings yourself (often necessary) you might as well make them full scale for the model (HO scale for many of us). Use a scale ruler to size the drawing. The full sized drawings will fit onto ordinary 8.5 * 11 inch paper (“A size paper” in draftsman’s lingo) for most stuff, and 17*22 inch paper (“B-size”) for really big stuff likestructures.
With a full sized drawing, you can check parts for proper size by merely laying them on top of the drawing.
In short, you can work from drawing done in any scale. If you are going do the drawing yourself, do yourself a favor and make the drawing full scale for the model.
Yes, scratch building is fun!
Here’s the HowTo for my latest project, a schoolhouse / church for my narrow gauge module Salina.
Wolfgang
For structure ideas, go to www.railroad-line.com; there areseveral sub-sections withy excellent structures you could use for ideas.
My scratch built model of Lisbon NH railroad station. I photographed the real station and drew plans from the photographs. This model is made of wood, with foam core board to give shape to the roof. 
I have yet to ballast the track. Passengers are from an unpainted people collection from MicroMart. Station signs are done in Word for Windows and an HP inkjet printer.
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The rail brown track was done with Floquil Rust and a paint brush.
I so very rarely waste cuss words. They are generally well-spent… [:-,]
John
Hello I would get a scale rule,small files,good hobby knife,clamps or a why to hold things as the dry, good lighting. This site may help with ideas and blueprints and photos.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/habs_haer/
and this site may help with scale conversion http://www.wwmodelclub.org/extra/sd_scalecalc2.htm
There is some really creative folks on this site check out these threads.
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/178751/1961069.aspx#1961069
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/132068/1484413.aspx#1484413
Give it a try and don’t be to upset if it does not work out right the first time keep trying you will get it. Start looking around for stuff you will be surprised what you can make out things. Hope this helps Frank