4mm Terry's Card Buildings Thread

[Terry]

John Wiffen started it! He produced some wonderful downloadable buildings to be constructed from card, under his Scalescenes label. I was quickly hooked. What a joy to use this traditional, versatile medium, free from the worry of continuously breathing in dangerous solvents. It wasn't long before my thoughts turned to scratchbuilding structures from card, utilising the various brick papers produced by Scalescenes. I hope that what follows might inspire others to give this a try. After all, card is cheap to buy and often free. I tend to use mount board as used by picture framers. A polite request might produce enough free card for several buildings. Alternatively, mount board can be bought from art shops and some hobby chains. I also save any interesting odd pieces of card from discarded packaging. Likewise clear acrylic packaging for the windows. My preferable adhesive is a white acrylic glue called 'Cosmic Shimmer'. This is odourless and has a consistency like thick cream. I don't get on too well with the thin, runny card glues that are also available. Cosmic Shimmer is easily controlled, but can be removed from where it is unwanted using a wooden toothpick. It can be removed from window panes in model buildings without leaving any trace.

Various books have been produced over the years on the subject of making buildings from card. I have a selection but my preferred publication is 'Miniature Building Construction' by John H. Ahern, of Madder Valley fame. First published in 1950, I like to make use of my 1969 reprint as it has an extra chapter on lighthouses and harbour lights. Although somewhat dated, the book is full of interesting drawings and tips, many of which can still be put to good use. Some of the following models are based on drawings in this book.

Terry




A Timber-Framed Cottage

On page 149 of Miniature Building Construction by John H. Ahern, there is a very nice drawing of a timber-framed and tiled cottage. This cottage was one of the subjects chosen to publish as larger drawings to 4mm scale and I have said drawing in my possession. Therefore, it was an easy matter to transfer the dimensions to a piece of white 1.5mm mount board. Here are the front and rear of the building...



The corners of the windows and doors were pricked with a scriber before cutting out..



Next, the beams were drawn onto the external faces of the parts..



The beams were then coloured with watercolour pencils, brown and then a dash of black. I decided to include a few areas of exposed brickwork. I simply cut out irregular shapes from a sheet of Scalescenes TX06 Aged Red Brick, and applied the same using Pritt stick. The fact that the exposed brickwork is proud of the walls is not apparent when viewed from the normal viewing distance.



A thin strip of 1mm card was coloured with felt-tip pens. Window sills were cut from this strip as shown..



The window frames were drawn on thin card and consist of an outer and an inner square. The inner square was removed to represent the frame, as shown here..




For the glazing I have decided to resort to my old friends, 'Scene-Setter Glazing Bars' from Freestone Model Accessories.
The photo gives the general idea, although I intend to use the thick edging line on the left as the centre upright frames of the window.



This picture shows the glazing bars fixed in position on the rear of the cottage. Just a bit of touching-up required with white acrylic paint around the glazing on the top window..



The finished windows..

 

[Terry]

The door frames were made in the same fashion as the window frames. Scalescenes curtains were printed off and are being glued around the windows thus:



The doors were simply made by scribing the planks onto some mount board and painting with watercolour paints. Door handles are Peco track pins pushed through holes made with a scriber. A dab of glue on the back secures them before being cropped. On the front door, a couple of small coloured slithers of paper take care of the letter box and door knocker..



Terry

 

[Terry]

Time to assemble the walls. I put in small corner triangles to keep the structure square. Front walls overlap the side walls..




The door hood was quickly made from two triangles of card with a rectangle for the roof, coloured with felt-tip pens..



The roof was made from mount board in one piece. I scored along the centreline with a scalpel and bent to shape. Note the small cut-out for the chimney of what is named on the drawing as the 'bake oven'..




Before fitting, I coloured around the extremities on both sides, and around all edges, with a dark felt-tip pen. This prevents any white edges on the roof and the white undersides of the eaves..




The roof was glued in place.



I trawled through my Scalescenes downloads and came across the roof tiles as used in the farmhouse and barn models. John Wiffen has thoughtfully provided a rectangle of tiles for use in kit-bashing. The tiles were printed off, given a light spray of matt varnish, and glued in place with a Pritt gluestick. Ridge tiles from the same source were added. Apologies for the rather fuzzy photo..

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Nice work, Terry.
I like the mashup of old and new.

Cheers

Jan

 

[Terry]

To make the 'bake oven', I laminated five pieces of 2mm card together..



I soaked all edges in superglue. I added some filler between the stepped edges. When dry, I smoothed all sides. The chimney was similarly laminated..



Scalescenes old red brick was applied and a roof of thin card with similar tiles to those on the cottage roof. The oven and chimney were glued in place at the end of the building...



The chimney top was fabricated from card and was added..



The small chimney was made from laminations of 2mm card, much like the larger chimney described earlier. The lead flashing around both chimneys is from the Scalescenes range - TX00b Roof Flashing..




Next up... time to build the wooden lean-to extension at the other end of the building..



Terry

 

[Terry]

Nice work, Terry.
I like the mashup of old and new.

Cheers

Jan

Thank you Jan. Very kind of you.

Terry

 

[Terry]

The lean-to extension was drawn on mount board, scribed and cut out..



The three sides were assembled thus..



Thin card was used to cover the corners and the door frame and door were added. The structure was painted using watercolours. As before, a Peco track pin was used as a door handle..



The window made use of the Scenesetters glazing bars mentioned earlier in this thread..




The structure was glued in place at the end of the cottage..




The lean-to roof was cut out and covered with the same tiles as the cottage roof, before being fixed in place. A strip of flashing was added. Barge boards were cut from mount board and coloured with felt-tipped pens..



Gutters were made from half-round 2mm Evergreen strip and downpipes from plastic rod. The brackets which in real life secure the downpipes to the walls, were made from paper. The water butt is a commercial product..



The finished cottage. Weathering of the roof and walls required.





I hope that you enjoyed this build. Thanks for viewing.

Terry

 

[Pencarrow]

Hi Terry, always good to see others making buildings - it can be a bit lonely on loco-centric forums!

I work mostly in plasticard now but started off using card and paper many years ago. A question for you about the printed papers you use... I often see buildings using these at shows with the inks having faded, do you do anything to prevent this?

 

[adrian]

Various books have been produced over the years on the subject of making buildings from card. I have a selection but my preferred publication is 'Miniature Building Construction' by John H. Ahern, of Madder Valley fame.

Fanatastic book - my Dad had a copy and as a teenager I spent hours pouring over the book making all sorts of buildings at the time for my 00 Dublo trainset.

 

[daifly]

If you pour over a book, the pages will stick together. Better to pore over it and be enlightened!

 

[76043]

Inkjet technology has changed from dye based to pigment based over the years. Older dye based inks are basically watercolours and will fade if constantly expose to light. So the trick is firstly make sure you use pigment inks, then spray with artists fix (to protect the surface, doesn't do anything for fading) and finally keep in a darkened room if you can.

Alternatively use a laser printer.

I have used both approaches on my Dublingham layout and as the layout is in a cameo cabinet I keep a cover on the layout when not in use. So far no fading, some of the buildings are four years old.

Tony

 

[Allen M]

I still have my copies of the 3 books in the series. Buildings, as here, then Locos and 3rd Landscape. They are dated 1970 or 71 reprint.
What I liked was the writing stile which inspired an 'I can do that' and made it possible for me to have a go.
I accept that the finish is overview rather than super detail but it worked and I am still doing a bit.

Regards
Allen

 

[John57sharp]

That is lovely work Terry and a delightful building.

Do you have a current source fro Scenesetters at all? My searches have all been dead ends.

thanks
John

 

[76043]

Scalescenes – The home of quality downloadable model railway kits since 2005

scalescenes.com

Tony

 

[Pencarrow]

@Terry, have you bought any of the glazing bar sheets recently? I've had a look at the website which seems to have been in the process of being replaced for 2-3 years and doesn't appear to list them, and stockists, who are out of stock.

 

[Terry]

Hi Terry, always good to see others making buildings - it can be a bit lonely on loco-centric forums!

I work mostly in plasticard now but started off using card and paper many years ago. A question for you about the printed papers you use... I often see buildings using these at shows with the inks having faded, do you do anything to prevent this?

I think Tony has hit the nail on the head in his post above. I always give my brickpapers a coat of Testors Dullcote matt varnish, but any matt varnish would probably do. I do this to protect the ink from moisture. I don't allow sunlight to fall on my buildings, to prevent fading.

@Terry, have you bought any of the glazing bar sheets recently? I've had a look at the website which seems to have been in the process of being replaced for 2-3 years and doesn't appear to list them, and stockists, who are out of stock.

I have found the same. I am wondering if the company has ceased to trade. Scalescenes @ www.Scalescenes.com produce screen printed windows for their buildings which could be pressed into use for other projects. York Model Rail @ www.YorkModelRail.com also produce a useful range of windows and doors. No doubt there are other sources. In my next build I will be making use of self-adhesive labels to make the windows.

I still have my copies of the 3 books in the series. Buildings, as here, then Locos and 3rd Landscape. They are dated 1970 or 71 reprint.
What I liked was the writing stile which inspired an 'I can do that' and made it possible for me to have a go.
I accept that the finish is overview rather than super detail but it worked and I am still doing a bit.

Regards
Allen

I too bought all three books. Good to hear that you are still having a go Allen.

That is lovely work Terry and a delightful building.

Do you have a current source fro Scenesetters at all? My searches have all been dead ends.

thanks
John

Thanks John. Please see my reply to Pencarrow above.

Thank you to everyone who made comments and to the 67 who 'liked' the Timber-Framed Cottage build. Much appreciated.

Terry

 

[Terry]

A Village General Shop
There is a very nice drawing of this building in the appendix to Miniature Building Construction on Page 150 of the 1969 reprint and on Page 145 of the 1950 reprint. These are the two copies in my possession but no doubt it has appeared in other editions of the book. I have John H. Ahern's 4mm scale drawing of the structure and worked from this.

For this build, I once again used 1.5mm thick mount board. Contrary to what you see in the following photos, all pencil lines and cut edges are straight and lines have been drawn using a square. I began by drawing the ends..




The front and rear of the building were drawn also..




All corners of the windows and doors were pricked with a scriber before being cut out..




The two chimney stacks were made next by gluing four more pieces of mount board to each chimney on the ends of the building. This gave the required thickness. Although not used on this build, nowadays I would apply superglue to the laminated card. Once dry, I would use a file or Emery Boards to smooth all sides of the chimneys. Packs of Emery Boards can be found with beauty products in the chain stores.




Terry

 

[Terry]

Scalescenes' red brick was applied to the rear of the building and stucco to the front and sides, using a glue stick. Note the 'wings' protruding from the ends, to cover the edges of the front and rear walls. This will be trimmed give a neat join at the corners, once the building is assembled.
The stucco paper has also been carried around the chimneys.

Exterior faces..




Interior faces. Note how brick and stucco papers have been carried around edges of windows and doors and stuck down..




Before adding the windows, brown watercolour paint was painted on the bottom of the front wall. This is part of the colour scheme for the front of the shop whereby the downstairs window, shop window, shop door and lower wall are all painted brown. All other paintwork is white. As I may have mentioned elsewhere, I usually cover the various brick papers with matt varnish before assembly begins. This allows me to subsequently paint over the building outer surfaces with watercolour paints, without the inkjet ink being affected..





The lintels were added next. Some of the Scalescenes' stucco paper was glued to postcard. The lintels were cut out and the edges coloured with a felt-tipped pen, before being glued in place above the windows. Stucco paper was also glued to thicker card and narrow strips were cut to make the sills. The front wall was placed onto postcard and a pencil run around each window opening to give the dimensions for each window frame. The card was cut just inside each pencil line to give the width of the frame. The lintels, sills and window frames can be seen in this photo. One frame has been glued behind its window..




I had a second attempt at fitting the downstairs window frame as it looked a bit narrow when held behind the window aperture. Here is the replacement having been given a wash of brown watercolour paint before fitting in place..




I used clear plastic from discarded packaging for the glazing. A self-adhesive label was stuck onto the clear plastic and the glazing bars were drawn. In this photo the window panes are in the process of being cut out. It is not necessary to cut around each window pane as shown in this example. I subsequently discovered that it is possible to cut all vertical and horizontal lines from one edge of the window to the other edge. The small squares thus created at each junction of lines will stay in place by virtue of the adhesive backing on the label. This method is much quicker than cutting around each individual window pane.




Next, each pane was removed by digging at a corner of each pane with a cocktail stick until sufficient had been raised to grip with a pair of tweezers. Some adhesive from the label remained on each pane so I gently rubbed each pane with a cotton bud moistened with methylated spirit to remove it.




Each set of glazing bars/panes were cut out with a wide border all around before being glued behind each window frame..






This is the front, downstairs window, photographed against white paper. This was also produced using the adhesive label method, as shown above. The window measures only 15 millimetres square. Each pane is only 3 millimetres wide!



Terry

 

[Terry]

All windows, apart from the shop window, were completed in a similar fashion. I glued the walls together and carefully trimmed the overlapping paper at the corners. On looking at the building it was quite apparent that the end walls were curving inwards at the top. A central wall was installed to sort out that problem. It then dawned on me that I hadn't fitted curtains to the windows, so that job was undertaken. I would normally fit the curtains before assembly of the building. Curtains were sourced from the Scalescenes' Small Terraced Houses kit, but of course, any coloured paper could be used..





I decided to make the shop window next. Whilst viewing the rather cruel enlarged photos, please bear in mind the length over the windows is only 35 mm. All edges are straight but are distorted by the camera in the following pictures. Three pieces of clear plastic packaging were cut to size..





The window frames were built up with strips of self-adhesive label..




The ends were glued behind the front..




Card was used to build up the facia and the foot of the window..





A wash of brown watercolour..





The shop window was fixed in place, but what to do about dressing it? The plan by John Ahern contains a small drawing showing jars and boxes, which can be copied and painted. I photocopied, painted and fixed it in place. However, it looked rather flat and had a 'Toy Town' look about it. Acceptable in the 1940's but not to our more discerning 21st century eyes. I ripped (literally) it out and sat down for a rethink. I decided to make a window display from small rectangles of card. They were arranged and glued onto a false floor and a shelf, before being painted with watercolours. The whole scene was then pushed into place from the rear of the window opening and secured with glue. Here is a picture of the rather weather-beaten window..



Terry

 

[Terry]

The shop doors were cut from a piece of thin card. The lower panels were scribed and the upper panels were cut out. The door frame was built up with more thin card..




The whole structure was then glued to clear acetic sheet to form the windows, and to give the doors some strength. A wash of brown watercolour followed and the door knob was added, this being the head of a Peco track pin. (Make a hole with a scriber, push the pin through, add glue to the rear. When dry, snip off the pin behind the door.) A slither of thin card was added for the letterbox and a dab of watercolour finished it off. The front doorstep, a rectangle of card, was painted and glued in place. This is how the shop frontage looks at present..



At this stage I gave the inside of the building a wash of dark watercolour as I had no plans to add interior detail.

Terry