Scratch-Building Your Own Structures - Information Needed

1.  Yes, just my preference.

a.  Look for real drawings or drafts.  Often, Historical societies have helped me out.  Most are excited to help.  I'll send them pictures when done as a 'thank you'.  If it is local to you, measure yourself.  

2.  I only do scale stuff.  Modify if necessary to fit space, but try not too.  That is the point of scale to me.

3.  I mostly do plastic.  Some foam or wood depending on need/strength.  Reinforcements are made with whatever, glued to walls, etc.  I use expandable insulation foam from HD, used for filling cracks to reinforce some models if need.  Use this stuff for vacum formed airplane models and like it.  Takes some experience or you'll blow seams on the model.

4.  Wal-Mart baking products, clear top.  You can have a cinnamon roll while building and use the packaging for windows, or blah, blah, blah.  Cheap.  Also used commercially available clear plastic from any modeling source/company.  Wal-Mart is cheap and available.  Use Elmers white glue, dries clear and if you get it on the plastic where you don't want it, water will remove it without damaging the plastic.  If you do damage clear plastic that you can't make from Wally world, e-mail me and I'll tell you  how to fix it.

5.  I buy these from model supply companies, don't have time to make them.

6.  Aluminum foil for metal panels, foam for stone/brick, commercial plastics for different textures, depending on what I am building.  Fine Screen door mesh for platform walkways, fences and other uses.  Brass for piping, plastic for small stuff.  I also use balsa wood for a lot of stuff.  Easy to work with.

Happy modeling!  Once you make a few things, you'll really like it.  I love having items not on someone else's layout.  I am scratch building some scale signals and slowly getting close to having one done.

1) Yes & no.  I can usually get pretty close working from pictures. If it's my design then it's what experience sets out as what the construction practice was then and there.

2) w/o influence?  I find a beer or 3 makes a good influence on creativity.  But again, full scale buildings that the construction practice then and there makes sense.

3) Almost exclusively wood.  I'll put in styrene when it's needed for something that's metal that's visible.

4) Windows from Grandt Line or Tichy or some of the laser-cut ones that are out there now.  Glazing is real glass if I feel it needs it, but I'll use acetate, styrene, or other plastics if they suit.

5) Doors from Grandt Line or Tichy or some of the laser-cut ones that are out there now.  I will make then from wood built up from stripwood.  And, on occasion I'll make hinges....for working doors.

6) Paint is still Floquil, Polly Scale, Model Master, and whatever I find on a shelf that's the "right" color.

Scratchbuilding structures in O scale

I build very large structures that are not commercially available. 

Scratchbuilding structures using 3/16 inch styrofoam board and wood strips

I use inexpensive materials that can be cut with a razor saw or a craft knife.

Attached are a few of my structure projects. The first photo is my adaption of the former NYC Collinwood Coaling Tower.

The other photos show my 4 track diesel engine building that will be used for my collection of CSX diesels. This building will have interior detailing and lighting.

Both structures are built using 3/16 inch styrofoam board and stripwood of various sizes. They are very sturdy.

Note: Both structures can be completely disassembled and stored in cardboard boxes when not in use.  Both structures use hidden wood screws for assembly.

Photo examples to be added here.

For local buildings I've taken my own pictures using a "measuring stick". This is a 5 foot 1 X 2 with black electrical tape demarking every foot. I take pictures of front, sides and back with the stick leaning up against the wall. When I bring the pictures into the photo editing I correct the perspective distortion that may crop up. Then I import the modified picture into a vector drawing program, either Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator or their ilk, and scale the drawing exactly to 1/4"= 1' (O'scale). I do this by putting some guidelines on the drawing exactly 1 inch apart (4 feet scale feet) and enlarge or shrink the imported image until the guidelines and the 4 foot lines on the measuring stick coincide. 

For drawing I scan from magazines (usually HO or smaller), I select one of the dimensions given on the drawing and set guidelines to that dimensions in inches (or MM) and again enlarge or shrink the imported drawing so those lines coincide with the same measured part of the drawing. Once that happens, I'm pretty sure I'm in scale.

You can also take some critical dimensions of known buildings directly off of Google Earth. There's a measuring function in GE that's very convenient. For example, let's say you want to model a small local industry. If you know where to find it, you can zoom into it on Google Earth and use the measuring tool to get pretty accurate length and width dimensions. With that, you can import photos into the drawing program and again size the picture to coincide with the overall length and width dimensions from Google Earth.

I know that was not a simple answer, but it's a really fine way to make some really fine prototype buildings.

For materials, I've used them all and in some cases, all in the same project. I've also made heavy use of the computer to draw plans, and print my own architectural materials such as doors, windows, wall coverings, pictures, brick paper, etc. 

I use Grandt Line and Tichy materials. Plus I've built my own doors and windows by printing the design out in card stock, cut out with a #11 blade and glued up to styrene substrate.

For exteriors, again, I've used commercial siding from Evergreen, textured brick papers from MicroMark, and brick papers printed from various web sites. I'm also working with laying individual bricks using Evergreen #123 strip cut in .180" long little pieces and laying my own bricks.

In other words, everything and anything goes as long as it looks good.

Mike,

Here are my answers to your questions:

Q 1. Do you model after real-life structures?

A.  Yes, mostly.  In many cases, I am looking at photographs of the prototype and selecting buildings that I like.  I may not put them in exact order or position, but I tend to model buildings that exist (or existed) in the timeframe.

Q 1a. If so, how do you figure out the dimensions of the targeted building or do you just take a shot in the dark?

A.  If the building is easily reached, then I might take measurements or estimate using known objects.  If the building is something like a steel mill structure, there's no way I can get onto the grounds to take measurements.  At that point I either use my own knowledge (regardless of building width, crane bays in Weirton Steel mills tended to be a standard 50' across; how many bays were in this mill?) or I try to keep proportions accurate.  I don't have the real estate available on the layout to accurately portray an Open Hearth or Blooming Mill or other very large structure, but I try to keep the correct proportions of height, width, and length.  For example, the photo might tell you that an opening was used to bring in freight cars.  You estimate the opening dimensions and then try to keep the approximate ratio with the rest of the building.

Q 2. If you model without influence, how do you determine your width, height, and depth?

A. If I'm modeling a building that existed, but I have no photographs of, then I let layout space dictate its dimensions (to a degree).  I've got a sleazy hotel that existed in Steubenville in the 1950s.  It's gone.  I have no photos, but I have a spot on the wrong side of the tracks for it.  I don't have a lot of space, but I have enough to model a partial cross-section and convey the flavor (questionable ).  That's enough.

Q 3. Wood, I can work with.  Styrene and Plastruct, never attempted anything with.  When using the latter, how do you reinforce the structure?

A. With larger structures, I have reinforced them with a wooden skeleton (framework) covered by foamcore and then applied the Plastruct or Evergreen sheets. In the photo below, you can see the foamcore on the building to the left.  But if you look closely, you can also see the wooden framing. 

Q 4. What do you use for windows?

    4a. If you buy them, where from?

    4b. If you make them, what do you use (for the frames and "glass")?

A. Windows are available from a number of sources - check the Source List locked at the top of the Scenery sub-forum.  I use Grandt Line and Tichy.  I don't make my own.

Q 5. What do you use for doors?

    5a. If you buy them, where?

    5b. If you make them, what do you use?

    5c. Do you make them functional?

A. I handle doors the same way as windows.  I don't make them functional.

Q 6. What about exterior surfaces?    

    6a. If you print, where from?

    6b. Use something else?  What?

A.  I am using Plastruct and Evergreen sheets for building exteriors.  I also have some Micro-Mark brick paper that I'm planning to use on another large structure, but haven't done that yet and have no experience with it.

Hope this helps,

George

I sometimes build historical structures that no longer exist.  Often, I only have one photograph to work with. My goal is to capture the "look and feel" of the structure, not to produce a parametrically precise miniature.  To size features, I usually use Photoshop to "orthogonalize" the image (i.e., to distort it such that the front surface is rectangular and parallel to the line of sight). I then pick some feature to establish a scale (usually the height of a doorway, assuming it is 7' or so). I then use Photoshop grids to establish other dimensions.   Then I build a paper mockup and adjust until it looks right. Finally, I use the paper mockups as guides for cutting walls and trim. The latter is usually made from bristol board or other light cardstock.

Here is one example:

Thanks everyone, that will definitely help.  There are some really good ideas here.  I'm looking forward to venturing down this path and this information will definitely be useful.  

I know this response is short, but with all of the information above, it'd be kind of hard to respond to everything!  

Mike

Over the last two winters I have been making buildings for my future layout.

I decided to build all my structures from scratch and to keep the cost down I have built them a little different from what most people have shown on here.

All my building structures are built out of 1/8 inch paneling. 

I print off photos of sidings and roofs from the internet and glue the printed paper onto the outside of the structures.

The doors and windows are from Grandtline.

A few of my buildings are modeled after existing buildings but most of them are just freelance design.

If you click on the J&C Studio link  below you can see my buildings and some step by step photos of them in construction.

Ray,

Actually..... I was going to mention your name in my original post.  Believe me, I've seen your work and I dont even have words to express how amazing it is.  Thank you for posting on here, because I will be using some of your buildings as a guide to help me along

Thank you Mike.  I appreciate that.

My buildings are not anywhere near as detailed and weathered as a lot of modelers here make their buildings and  they don't all have finished interiors.

My main reasons for building like I do is:

#1 .. cost.   I can build these for just a few dollars each.   

#2 .. design.   I don't want the same store bought buildings that are available to everyone.

#3  overall look.   I want the same consistency thru out the layout.   The finish on one building is not a lot better than the finish on the building next to it.

Scaling prototype photos

My model of a very large coaling station is a close copy of the prototype Collinwood coaling station that was used by the NYC for coaling operations. I scaled my model from various photographs of the prototype.

Notice the O scale figure in the photograph of the model structure.

Overall model dimensions are 64 scale feet by 116 scale feet by 131 scale feet.