HO paper models that I made :)

M

mikebalcos

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Aug 9, 2006
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Quezon City, the Philippines
balcos.blogsite.org
Hi everyone. I've made some HO paper models of a mid-size freight house and a small passenger station. Both are meant for 1950's era layouts. And I believe they can at least pass as mockups. Please tell me what you think about them. And if you got suggestions, please let me know. :) Btw, the passenger station's roof was based on PC Whistlestop's roof(http://www.thortrains.net/pcwhroof.exe). As for the freight house, I used some 1:100 architecture model roofing. You can also make a roof easily out of the roofs from PC Whistlestop.

Btw,I don't know if I should have placed stairs instead of ramps to the platform of the freight house. The prototype drawings had stairs. Should I have not used ramps?

The PDFs are free of charge. :)

Here's the pics and PDFs:
 

Attachments

I used Inkscape, a vector graphics editor similar to Coreldraw. The big difference is that Inkscape is free. :) The freight house is based on a prototype drawing and a picture of another freight house, both of which can be found in Model Railroader's How To Build Realistic Layouts (Industries you can model). As for the passenger station, I started to work on it last year. I only got to finish it now to my satisfaction. It's a heavily reduced version of a prototype drawing from MRR, but I already misplaced the issue.
 
Architectural models have been made out of paper for quite some time. I would even guess that it is probably what started the Card Modeling revolution. I used to make them in school. That said..

There is a whole ton of things you can do with the models these days that would have took hours upon hours of work prior.

1 - Weathering and Aging. Archi-models are usually done to show a client what they will get when the design is completed us MR' people are usually wanting to see the design as it's been used. So you can add Weathering effects in the design.

1ex - Noise in the right places will give you paint chipping and so on. Used sparingly though.

2 - You can change the building materials (Wood-Brick-Vinyl-Stone) to any other material quick and easy.

3 - This kind of design will also let you add 'real' fixture aswell. Detailed doors and windows can be added to give the model dimension. These while an addon can be had pretty cheaply or picked up from a kitbash of other models.

4 - As it's a vector drawing you can resize as needed. You can use that for a forced perspective this could be pretty cool as you just sequestered to use N or dare I say Z scale models.. If you have a very big layout ;)

Very Very cool models. Very professional looking. I would stack them up against any model you could buy.. A few addons and you would never know the difference..

Keep up the great work..

http://www.inkscape.org/
Inkscape..
 
Very interesting - another resource for you might be Google Sketchup. There are two versions, and one is free. But it has pre-made patterns and fixtures for creating buildings (siding, bricks, windows, etc.) which might provide some more options too.

- Dan
 
Mike:
Great work!!! I would never have guessed those were paper models! :thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:
BTW, if you ever want to get rid of that table they're sitting on...

Evans Design has a building design CD available that has many different siding, roofing, windows, etc, that you can print out on your printer in whatever size you need. I purchased a copy some time ago, and though I have yet to actually finish the project I purchased it for, it is still kinda fun to see all the different textures, etc. they have.
 
Thank you, everyone, for the encouraging words. :) Furthermore, the resources you've all mentioned are great. I couldn't have found them without you guys.

Yes, sgtcarl, I'm going to get rid of that table. I plan to chop it up and use it in a Christmas bonefire. That table will consider it a favor since I'm putting it out of its misery. :mrgreen:
 
what kind of paper did you print them on?
i am curious because i am not creative enough or skilled enough to build my own...would you mind if i borrowed your steel building?
I do not need a lot of buildings on my layout but one or two of those would fit in nicely in thespace near the largest street light on my layout
thanks
 
Oh, I'm sorry, sgtcarl. I thought you meant that you didn't like the table and that's why you want me to get rid of it. If you notice in the picture, it's not flat. So I thought you didn't like it. Again, I'm very sorry. :oops:

Hi stuart_canada. I just used board paper (I think it's called card stock there). I checked one of the boards I have, and it's 216 gsm. I think any board a little higher than that gsm can also do. Furthermore, I used popsicle sticks to give it a frame. Once the paper is glued up, I placed the popsicle sticks hidden inside.
 
sgtcarl said:
Evans Design has a building design CD available that has many different siding, roofing, windows, etc, that you can print out on your printer in whatever size you need. I purchased a copy some time ago, and though I have yet to actually finish the project I purchased it for, it is still kinda fun to see all the different textures, etc. they have.
Click to expand...

Yeah - I got that program too (Model Builder). Design tool is not too bad, but the save/load file routines are pretty bad - program does not properly remember where objects were located and what was on top of what in layers - so it often is easier to start over from scratch when you want to go back, load a saved design, change it and reprint.

I made the building behind those two reefers using foamcore with regular sheets of evans printouts glued to it.

Not as neat as Mike's building, but it will do for now:

commutator.jpg


Next project is this one:
ih.jpg


I'll try heavier paper, like Mike used, and see how it turns out.

Smile,
Stein
 
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