Model Railroad Layouts and Scenery

Had loads more comments through on the ‘this cheat sheet‘.

Thanks to everyone. I update it as often as I can.

It’s here.

This is just one of the printable model railroad buildings.

You just print out, stick to card, and stick together.

There are lots of different buildings to make.

They are really easy to make – fun too.

My friend John enjoys making the print out buildings – he’s done quite a few youtubes on them now:

And here he is putting together the house:

The scenery is all made from downloads – you just print them out, stick them to card, and stick them together.

The best thing about them is you can make as many as you like once you the print. You can print out a whole street if you like. And of course, you can ‘kit bash’ with them – and make longer houses, or taller houses, whatever you fancy really.

It’s a bit fiddly at first, but a lot of fun. Once you get the hang of them they look fantasic, as John shows.

There’s quite range too, have a look here for the listing.

All the models are made to HO scale, so:

HO is 100% – you don’t need to do anything.
N scale – reduce by 50%
O scale – increase by 185%
OO scale – increase by 4%

But here’s the thing. You can reduce / increase the print size to suit your layout.

Some folk model in HO, but reduce the print size to 70%, just so the houses look like they are in the distant landscape – just as perspective shows in real life.

The easiest thing to do is just print some, cut them out, and play around with them. You’ll soon know if you want to increase or decrease the print sizes.

Have a look at the full listing, scroll down the page and you’ll see there is quite a lot there – even a printable church.

But there’s also factories, broken down shacks, lots of houses. And again, once you’ve download the print, you can make as many as you want.

Here’s another video that shows off the full range:

Common mistakes when making the buildings:

1. Card is too thin, or too thick. It’s best to go thin, you’ll soon get a feel of the right weight of card for you. When it’s too thick, your buildings will have a lego like appearance. Not good. Too think and they bend, and look like inflatable buildings, which is even worse.

2. Too much glue, or not enough. Use too much glue and your print will just bubble, and tear too easily. Not enough and the buildings will soon start to peel. A think layer of elmers glue does the trick.

I know some folk use the spray on paper glue. But that’s not cheap.

3. Not using a sharp knife. To get crisp lines, always use a very sharp knife. You’ll know when you need to change the blade, the paper will start to rip.

4. Not doing a quick and rough ‘dummy run’. Don’t forget, you can print out as many as you like. Knocking one up quickly (doesn’t matter how badly) let’s you see where the joins are, or where you need to add one, where the cracks are, stuff like that…

5. Rushing! Take your time and enjoy the building. Once you have the hang of making them it’s a great feeling. Very satisfying indeed.

6. Not adding relief. Relief is the bumps and different placing of things like window frames and rendering. You’ll see exactly what I mean when you print one out and make a quick one. You’ll see it’s too flat and has a doll like appearance. But: if you print out a number of sheets, you can cut the window frame / doorways out on one, and then stick it to the second. Instantly it looks a lot better. And you can carry on doing this. John does this a lot – he makes the buildings from lots of layers.

7. Not adding weathering. Here’s the really fun bit. Getting busy with a brush that has some very dry green paint on it, and dabbing on some moss really transforms a lot of buildings. You can do the same with brown paint. Have a go, it’s a lot of fun and makes the buildings look great too.

Why not download one right now and it give it a whirl?

Paul responded to the previous to posts with this! It’s genius.

“While this appears to be a panacea to wheel cleaning it also scratches the wheels and that leads to future build up of more gunk. Using a Q-tip with isoproply alcohol is best.”

Nice one Paul!