Building industrial buildings with Balsa wood

I guess I should have posted in scenery and structures.

I’ve been watching a lot of videos featuring structures all scratch built by Howard Zane. They are being built for a 3 rail layout. All from basswood. But he does use balsa for interior bracing. I’m guessing even though you mentioned industrial buildings. You mean wooden walls such as clapboard siding. The siding can be bought from a few sources. Doors and windows are available from Tichy Train Group.

Check out  Al Pugliese trains on You Tube  to view the videos with Howard Zane. Not really how to’s but a good watch.

As far as tools. A self healing cutting mat and a NWSL Chopper are a good start. X Acto knife, saw and mitre box for cutting. Squares, clamps and weights.  Assortment of different adhesives.

Not sure you can still find them out there. I think the best introduction to scratchbuilding is an old Gloorcraft kit. These are not laser cut kits.  You won’t have to do any planning as they have instructions. But it will teach you all the basics you need to know about construction and assembly.

Dave thank for information I will take a look on youtube.  Is basswood easy to work with than balsa ?

Sheet balsa wood is easy to cut, but I would not use it for model building. It will be very prone to warp, especially if you use water soluble paint, it will not hold up to scribing, and it will show grain when you paint it. Bass wood is denser and stronger; if you find commercial milled clapboard siding it will be basswood.

Basswood also requires care to prevent warping. After I cut pieces and before I glue them, I seal the pieces by painting both sides with hardware store wood stain. This not only prevents warping, but also helps avoid shiny white bits of wood showing through windows, joints, etc. I never build with raw wood...

Basswood I would say any thing less than 3/16 you can you can cut with a chopper. Which works out well if you need to duplicate parts. Cutting basswood sheets for sidings or roofing will cut in a few light passes with knife. The only tedious part is probably cutting out windows and doors.

Balsa is the old school method of building RC Planes. But if you check out how they are built. They are extensively braced. It’s actually pretty strong considering it weighs next to nothing.

Another good You Tube channel to check out. Is Jason Jensen trains. He builds a lot of kits but does change them up by kit bashing them at  times. He will give you some ideas as to how to put things together as far as interior bracing.

These two photos show how I construct scratch-built and craftsman-kit structures from basswood. I don't recommend balsa. First photo shows inside of four assembled walls and internal bracing with 1/4-inch and 3/16-inch square beams. In some places I glue window cutouts to the insides of the walls to increase thickness and strength. The walls are milled clapboard. The horizontal bracing supports floors that are added after all the walls are assembled. Second photo shows completed factory building.

MELGAR

@MELGAR posted:

These two photos show how I construct scratch-built and craftsman-kit structures from basswood...

MELGAR

That's beautiful work you did!

John

Mel, Great looking building.

This is a Borden’s Dairy I built a few years ago. I had purchased the  Ice House kit for a good price at a show. I decided to add a milk receiving building to it. I just made it up in my head after getting some ideas from pictures to fit a specific sized place on the layout. The picture shows the inside bracing. I usually make my roofs removable. You mentioned what’s needed. While it’s not really needed. I do the final wall assembly on a piece of laminated safety glass to insure it sits flat then check it to make sure it’s also square.

@Dave_C posted:

Mel, Great looking building.

This is a Borden’s Dairy I built a few years ago. I had purchased the  Ice House kit for a good price at a show. I decided to add a milk receiving building to it. I just made it up in my head after getting some ideas from pictures to fit a specific sized place on the layout. The picture shows the inside bracing. I usually make my roofs removable. You mentioned what’s needed. While it’s not really needed. I do the final wall assembly on a piece of laminated safety glass to insure it sits flat then check it to make sure it’s also square.

Dave,

I assemble walls the same way as you. I work on a flat board and apply weights to keep the braced walls flat until assembly. When I join two adjacent walls, one wall is laid flat and weighted down, the other is glued, moved into position, checked for squareness, and held in position with masking tape and hardwood blocks until the glue dries.

MELGAR

I use balsa and basswood for interior walls and framing.  Exterior walls are printed on cardstock (matte photo paper).  Multiple layers of cardstock to build up wall thickness.  The balsa is self supporting but I brace it at the top and bottom.  Top is for an inset roof, common on brick buildings.  3rd photo is the printed cardstock walls for the C. D. Pigeon building after being printed but before being cut out.

I have used balsa wood for model airplanes for years.  For buildings one should pick through for hard, dense pieces for strength.  For making buildings for my layout, I mostly use 1/8th inch thick, smooth one side, tempered Masonite.  It is available in both sides smooth and and is very  low coat at about $15 for a1/8"X 4ft X 8ft (that is feet) sheet and HD or Lowes can cut it smaller if needed.  It has worked well for my round house with no warping and good strength and is low cost.  I use the rough surface up, for the roofs to simulate graveled roofs.  The smooth side is used with glued on brick paper for my 1950s style Toy layout.  If the inside of the building is to be finished, Masonite with two smooth sides could be used.  For reference, one sheet of 1/8" x 3" x 36" balsa is about $4 so Masonite is much less costly.

I use a jig/scroll saw an 18 inch Craftsman for years and now a better Delta 24 inch which is much more accurate.  These saws are great for sawing window cut out openings by drilling a pilot hole and insetting the jig saw coping blade in the hole.  One can also use a hand held sabre jig saw.

My scratch built Round House and tunnel hiding building in the rear made with 1/8 inch Masonite and covered with brick paper - Plastic siding or paint could also be used to cover the Masonite

The windows were cut out with jig saw and are made from clear plastic sheeting from boxes lids from toys or other heavier clear plastic.  The windows had panes sections made from black 1/16 inch auto pin striping on the inside.

My Dad made buildings from Masonite, for out childhood layout in the 1950s.

Charlie

Thanks guys for you reply. I like the idea of card stock were do you find the different designs??

https://ogrforum.com/...-and-brick-downloads

This is my most recent building.  It's a low relief building so construction details are slightly different.  The walls are painted and scanned brick sheet.  This is stored as a jpeg file so I import it into my document (I use Microsoft Word) and cropped and resized to fit.  Windows and doors are a set of rectangles resized to create the different sized panes.

I print two copies of each panel (I have several panels to make the building manageable).  I cut out the windows on one panel and laminate the two panels.  This gives me some depth.  All 3 panels are laminated to a piece of foam core.  The cornice is a set of stacked rectangles.  I add brick and cornice material to the ends of the foam core.  The crosses (this is a Catholic school) are from Hobby Lobby.  The completed building is mounted to the wall with double sided foam tape.