little foamcore Barn

that's awesome, I have some buildings that I made out of

card stock.

That is a very creative building.  You could add a lot of buildings at that rate for very little investment other than your time and imagination.  Nice job.

Art

Very nice.

all the windows are cut out and I am adding a light to the lower part there's floors for the hayloft area and a floor for the lower area.

Oh, I love it.  I'm thinking of copying you, maybe with a faded Mail Pouch advertisement on the side . . . .  that would look superb out in my open countryside!

Nice idea!

for those of you that want to copy it here is the pdf. just print it out select actual size in print options. the floors and roof I didn't print out I made them to fit.

I also made this recently the rool up doors are 1 inch dowel cut in half. there is 6 model power lights inside.

More of the barn by the fence.

hey j hainer.....you say the roof is made of a cut up 12 pack container?

     where was I when the 12 pack was full?  Wanna start some more barns?

Have to say that is ingenious......way to bash some stuff together!

12 pack Pepsi sorry just ruined it for ya. I will say this I couldn't tell you the last time I had a drink. it's never been my thing. like to be in control too much to drink

Thank you.  Much appreciated.

I took the file you posted and grew the barn about 20%.  Then digitally applied a Mail Pouch advertisement as I wanted, built the foamcore shell, etc.  I printed out a galvanized sheet steel roof for it, assembled it, added one or two details, and did a bit of weathering, etc.  Its nice out in the country near my country road. 

It looks really nice.  Thank you for posting the file.

Now that is cool

That is cool. A nice variation from the usual barns used on layouts.

Jim McC

I like! 

I think many of us forget from time to time how well foamcore+printed paper buildings can work out for us.  I know I do and have to be reminded.  They are quick to build,  can look incredibly detailed to the eye - and the method provides incredible flexibility in varying a design.  

The motel below is all foamcore and printed paper and was my first.  I found free brickface and shingle images on the internet, copied and sized them, cut some windows out of images of buildings on a couple model sites, and put together a "one-room" image, then copied that (digitally) several times on one sheet of paper.  Cut out and pasted on foamboard, with a roof 1.25 inches deep and a narrow porch painted concrete and some tiny details like stairs and several "working girls" on the porch and it makes for a wonderful single-story motel that you just can't tell is paper from 3.5 feet away (as close as the eye can get).  

--->The icing on the cake here was the Indian Trails Motel sign, which I found by just google-searching images of 1950's hotels, coped, printed and glued to thin cardboard.  For very little money, but a lot of fun, I got just what I wanted: a seedy motel just outside the town boundaries, to match my tacky trailer park.  There is a diner, just to the left, made the same way, that I don't have a photo of just now. 

The two buildings in the center below are foamcore, too.  You can probably recognize that the T. C. Baker building to the right of center is made from the same images as the motel: an example of the flexibility: I just made the "brick" multistory, copied and moved windows, found an image of a wooden doors, etc.  The building to the left is an image found somewhere on the internet, also foamcore, but more complex.  I cut out the windows and doors, recessed their part of the image slightly, added a foamcore window AC unit, some lights hanging out on the front of the building (paperclips with drops of white glue dried on the ends) andcut a figure in half and have him leaning out an open window. 

here are all the foam core structures I have built I have fun building them.

Wow. Those are nice.  You have the method down.  I particularly like the building in the last two photos. It looks very weathered and 3-D.

The talent shown here is amazing! All of you deserve a big pat on the back for your efforts.

that one is free from modeltrainsoftware here it is

Thank you!  I have downloaded this and plan to print it out and make it next week: it will be a wonderful farmhouse to accompany the barn, I think.

This file is also a wonderful source of  great looking doors and windows, which you can cut out, digitally or paper with scissors, and use on other images.  Fantastic!

I have another I would like to build but it is in HO scale and scaling it up my printer won't print it it's too big. the state of Ill. made a bunch of real buildings in HO scale that were available to download. this is one of them.

J and Lee,

I need a quick tutorial on form board building.  I am very intriqued and have some good equipment to proceed.  My wife is a professional artist and in her studio has a great supply of foam board which she uses as backing on her watercolor pictures.  We have a professional mat cutter which will give me good clean cuts. 

Questions:  We have many different thickness foam board.  What thickness do you recommend?

What type of adhesive do you use to adhere the foam board pieces together and to glue the paper siding to the foam board?

What weight paper do you use to print the siding on?  We have loads of matte photo paper in her studio.  Would it make sense to use it?

I have a river running through my layout and I want to build a shanty type Bait, Tackle and Boat Rental structure.  I thought I would use the shed type building that J posted with the porch on it.

Thanks for any advise you can give me,  Jim Lawson 

Visit our forum sponsor's site Evan Designs. They have ideas and construction tips.

I have used 3/16 or whatever is close, I liked Aileen's Fast Grab tacky glue. The photo paper standard weight is typically a heavy enough weight. Regular Aileen's tacky glue was good for the paper. Elmer's was too "wet".

Rabbet the corners and use square wood stock for support. It's going to eat ink, so stock up on some cartridges.

This is how I build something like the barn.

• I use foam core about 1/4 inch thick and a 2" x 2" poplar or ash board (it is actually about 1.5 inches wide and deep of course, and length is not important) at Lowes or Home Depot, and a manila paper folder.    I use and print the color image or normal printer paper.  I use Rubber Cement, Elmers yellow glue, scissors, Gorilla tape, and a X-Acto knife with a new and sharp #11 blade.
• I "build" and manipulation the images I use in MS Office picture editor and in Powerpoint (it's just what I use, I am not necessarily recommending this over whatever you wish to use).  I copy and paste in the files copied from the little barn pdf or off the internet of building fronts, brick face and wood walls,, etc., making graphically or cutting and pasting windows and doors and such.  I size it all right and then print it in B&W here at home to test the size, then print the file on a hi-res color printer at my work - always make two copies just in case.
• On the barn, I first rubber-cement the two end images to the foam core.  I do not trim the image of the building side completely before I do this, but leave a one inch margin all around what will eventually be the building face.  I spread a lot of the cement on its back and let it dry and also cover a similarly oversize piece of foam core at least an inch wider in ever direction than the images size.  
• When the rubber cement is dry on both, I carefully apply the image, sort of rolling it on smoothly and press.  I then use an X-Acto and a metal straight edge on a trimming board and cut the image+foamboard smoothly exactly to size - I do this cut carefully and in several strokes, an initial cut not deep at all, then more, then final.  Leaving that one inch around the margin of the image seems to make these cuts go much smoother than leaving only, say, 1/8 inch to trim away I have found.
• At this point I have the two end pieces of the barn on foamboard and trimmed exactly to size. 
• I now measure and cut and trim with the X-Acto, the two side pieces of foamboard to exactly the size I will need. Since the end pieces are about 1/4 inch thick this means a total of nearly 1/2 inch less in length less than the image that will cover them.  I do not mount the image yet or even cut it out.  I measure that  image , then cut the foam-core pieces of the barn sides with the X-Acto and straightedge to exactly the right height but again to that 1/2 inch (or a bit less if the foamcore is a bit less than 1/4 inch) shorter in length.
• I now assemble the building, which will have the two end pieces with their image and the two sides without.  I cut off four two-inch lengths of that 2x2 board and use these to reinforce the corners and hold a 90 degree angle. I use the Elmers glue and assemble the building with a chunk of the board in each corner: it provides strength and defines exact 90 degree angles and straight up and down walls (in those cases where i do not want 90 deg I use a bandsaw to cut the angles I do want).
• When the Elmers has dried, I cut out the image of one side of the building leaving about 1/4 inch margin around it except on the bottom edge which I trim exactly.  I apply rubber cement to the foamcore building side it will go on, being careful not to get it around the corners onto the images of the ends, and also apply it to the back of that image.  
• When the cement is dry on both, I apply the image to the building side from the bottom up, matching it in place evenly at the bottom, and slowly "rolling" it on and pressing it smoothly, working toward  to the top.  
• I do the sides serially, one after the other, so that when doing the first side, the other side does not yet have glue on it and I can lay the building with that side down on the table too.  I now check the tabletop is clean and glue-free and turn the building over and put the image I just did down and do the remaining side the same way.
• I then trim the slight margin of those side images I had left off flush using scissors and or X-Acto.  
• Finally, the roof.  I used a manila folder on the barn. I just rubber cemented a large (8 x 10 inch) image of roofing I made onto each of the two sides of the folder, cut out to pieces with scissors to about 1/2 inch more than need in each direction.  I overlap at the top by 1/2 inch.  I trial fit and bend the pieces to fit, then taped in from the inside using small bits of Gorilla tape - note: it looks and feels like black duct tape but it has a much more tenacious hold, so be careful, it generally rips stuff apart if you have to remove it once it has gotten a firm grip.  In cases where the fit might be difficult to get just right , I trial fit the roof in place with small pieces of removable blue painters masking tape, then once in place, apply the heavy duty tape.  In my experience gorilla tape never dries out and lets go, but last forever.  fibnally, I use scissors or the X-Acto and trim the roof carefully, allowing it to extend about a scale foot (1.4 inch) over build ends and sides.

• At this point the building is basically done.  Some "fancy stuff" you might want to consider:
• cut out and remove each window and door from the image, cleanly, with the X-Acto, using the straight metal edge to get a straight cut and holding the blade so the cut is vertical through the foamcore.  Then insert the window or door piece back in and push in in until it is recessed about 1/16 to 1/8 inch.  You can cover it from the inside with tape if you are worried it might come loose.  if you plan to do this, think ahead to the color of the foamcore: you may have to paint it but often you can find a foam enough of the color (white foam matches white painted window frames, etc.).
• I like to apply small "3-D" things to add just a bit of dimension: on the barn it is window sills and a triangular hoist arm up high over the front doors as on many barns, on other buildings its exterior lights, a window AC unit on a window, etc., a small porch, etc.   These add a touch more realism. 

Thanks much for the barn pdf. Another project I'll enjoy.

Regarding the Tinsley building in HO. I used Adobe Photoshop on the pdf and increased size to 150%. I don't know if it's exactly to scale or not, but holding the printed copy next to a Clever model (O), the height was extremely close. Haven't built it yet, but I will eventually. So many projects, so little time.

George (G3)

Lee,

What an excellent write up of instructions!!! I can't wait to get started.

Thanks so very much!!!

Jim Lawson

Another "foamcore" board project.

Wow!  Thant is big and complicated: some serious planning went into that!

Very nice!

Another "foamcore" board project - coal tipple

very nice

"Foamcore" board diesel service buildings

That is very nice.  What did you use for the "structure" inside that I see, along the inside of the walls?  

The structure is framed with Poplar strip wood obtained at Lowes in various sizes. This is needed to support the foamcore.  I also paint all sides of the foam core to seal the paper surfaces.

Note:  This structure is assembled using wood screws which allow me to "breakdown" the sides for storage purposes.  This structure is designed as two nearly identical sections which can be placed end to end. The two center openings allow for "through" tracks. The outer stalls are stub ended.

This structure is modelled after the former New York Central coaling tower that was part of the Collinwood yard outside of Cleveland, Ohio.

Do a search on OGR for "Collinwood" for more information.

I thought I recognized that.  Bought a lot of that myself.  Great stuff for structural strength. 

Nice idea about breaking down the building for storage.

Note: The roof on the diesel service building is removable and is also framed with wood strips to simulate cross bracing.  The wood strips also provide strength to the foam core and prevent warping. I have found that it is necessary to also paint all surfaces of foam core to prevent warping. I use several coats of flat Latex paint.

I don't paint mine and so far none have warped, but none I have done are as big as the ones you have made - mine are small enough, I think, that warping is not a serious issue. (I hope). 

Next project:

My next project is a large multitrack car building to hold engines and cars for my O scale model of a "CSX/B&O/C&O/Chessie Railroad Transportation Museum". Since I operate mostly CSX diesels and modern rolling stock all my vintage diesels and rail cars (and a few steam engines) will be displayed in the "Museum".