Building for a budget

 Great job there is all ways to save in the hobby.

Great work on that one!!!

I downloaded a number of building kits from Clever Models. I figured they'd be 'filler' models until I could build replacements......but found if you take your time paper kits are great primary models..... 

This is Clever small house kit...not free but under $10 and I can build a 100 of them if I want....and it comes in many colors and levels of distress. 

Rustytrail

Looks great.  Will the printed colors on matte photo paper fade over time?  I have experienced fading with ink jet prints.

Charlie

That is a great building. Here are two that I put together and usually no one can tell they are card stock buildings. I also had an outhouse made from card stock, but I cannot find it anymore on-line.

Not Rusty....I print on a high end laser printer and so far colors last years....even if you do not own one.....at fifty cents a page or so at a copy shop worth it. 

High end lasers use a good grade iron-oxide based ink that is very stable. 

Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Rustytrail

Looks great.  Will the printed colors on matte photo paper fade over time?  I have experienced fading with ink jet prints.

Charlie

Krylon makes a UV spray that I've used for years on photo enlargement printed from an ink jet printer.    I haven't noticed any fading and some pictures are in direct sunlight a few hrs each day.  Maybe in time they'll fade but they've been there for at least 6 yrs.   Most craft stores carry it.

purchased the program modelbuilder,the price wasn't too bad and started doing some practice buildings to fill in some spots on my layout.  most of the ones in the pictures are just printed on 1/4 inch foam board from the dollar store with a few added lights . I am now making some of the brick buildings and adding windows and doors  and interior lighting. I'll post some pics when I get one completed. these pics are just printed out paper buildings.

TOYMAKER they look super.

these are a few quick shots of the latest building the third floor isn't finished yet and the fire escape was left off. This is my practice detail project. The windows are tichy train group 

Nice work everyone!

Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Rustytrail

Looks great.  Will the printed colors on matte photo paper fade over time?  I have experienced fading with ink jet prints.

Charlie

Charlie, I've not experienced any fading over time but I only use Epson premium professional grade photo paper. I use this paper not for the fade factor but rather for the print quality.

What Intrigue's me about the photo paper building's is the fact that ten people here on the forum could print and build the same building and each one will end up looking completely different. A good example is in this thread. The building Ranger Rick posted in the bottom picture of his post is the same building I posted in the top of this thread but they look completely different so you have to really look to spot all the changes. Great job Rick! Great job on all who posted here!

I will add that my buildings were just printed on card stock purchased from Staples. I have not noticed any fading in the 6-7 years from when they were printed. I just cut them out, score slightly at the seams, fold and glue. I do add the extra strip wood to the outside to give them a bit of three dimensional look. You can add all of the extras you want to give each building a unique look. They are fun, though a tad tedious, but the results can't be beat as you can see by everyone's work. The price can't be beat either. Here are a few more pictures including the outhouse and a program disk I bought that produces luggage and containers...talking about tedious!!!!!

Rick

Excellent work everyone.  Card stock structures are a hobby in its self.

Since this seems to be a popular building selection I thought I'd share a photo of my version.  How many remember Sam Druker and Arnold? 

You all have done an amazing job with the printed buildings! And thanks for the tip about using the UV clear coat. 

Do any of the sources have modern era buildings?

ACL Fred posted:

Since this seems to be a popular building selection I thought I'd share a photo of my version.  How many remember Sam Druker and Arnold? 

Green Acres!!!!! I have a Mr Haney truck to go with it....just wrong scale. 

ACL Fred posted:

Since this seems to be a popular building selection I thought I'd share a photo of my version.  How many remember Sam Druker and Arnold? 

I see them every day!  Antenna TV.

Here are a few places to go where you can get free paper models:

http://www.ss42.com/pt-buildings.html

https://www2.illinois.gov/ihpa...ruct_mainstreet.aspx

http://gtp.de/kartonmodellbau/

These are not free:

http://clevermodels.squarespace.com/

http://scalescenes.com/

A lot of the structures on this layout use parts from the sources I listed.

The station and covered platform in the foreground are my own design (based on the royal waiting room at Hua Hin) but the tall building in the background is a Scalescenes kit that I built with full interiors.

For card models I've found 65lb card stock to be the best.  It's flexible enough that with care you can curve it without creasing.  I just finished this 1:48 scale Atlas and all that piping is the same card as the rest of the model.

65 lb card also holds the glue very well.  (I use Aleen's Tacky Glue applied with a sharp bamboo skewer for most applications.)  Don't confuse 65lb card stock with 67lb cover stock.  I've found that it's hard to bend and hard to glue.  I'm not fond of matte photo paper either because some brands can produce a bit of a shiny finish which you don't generally want for a model, at least not the average structure.

Fading happens, but your biggest enemy with ink jet printed models is moisture.  Any tiny insignificant bit of it will cause the toner to run when you're printing on card stock.  In my opinion the best way around that shortcoming is to plan to rebuild the model sooner or later.  Sometimes that's easy, sometimes...

..well I've been working on this 1:48 LEM for about a year now on and off and I wouldn't want to have to make a new one very soon.  Here's where it came from:  http://uhu02.way-nifty.com/die...der_minerva/041.html.  If you want to build one of these, hurry because the designer only leaves his models up for free download for a short time because of the size of the files (some pages are 20 or 30 meg).

So I needed 7 water towers for our 20x40 ON30 layout.  I used Evan Designs Model Builder to print the tank wrapper on legal size colored paper.  The tank is 4 inch PVC pipe.  I have also added a link to my write up for building one of these.  Much cheaper than the $89 models available.  Good thread, I like cheap!  Russ

Water Tank Tutorial