getting ready for first scratchbuilt project- advice?

[voldemort]

I want to build about 10 of these buildings



As I wanted to build 10 of them, my first thought was to 3d print them. 

I've tried to learn the programs but can't get further than a couple of shapes stacked together.  What you guys do is amazing.

Building them, there are two 'parts' I need as my rawish material- the walls and the windows.

I can build the walls individually from a flat surface material.  Does anybody know of a place which would sell sheets of wood with a similar texture?  (vertical boards side by side).  Or even a place to buy appropriately sized wooden materials?.  Bonus points if I can get them to ship to Canada.

I have thought about making up a texture piece out of say 1/8" plywood, cutting a surface texture into it with a knife (just dividing it into scaled 6-12" boards), and then somehow do a resin molding from it to make copies of the texture, then cut the cast resin piece into the shapes needed for the building.  I have never done the moulding thing yet, but everything is new sometimes, right?  Just flat sheets of maybe 2-3mm thick casts (texture just on the one side).  I've also thought about getting them somehow laser burned into the wood.  Can that be done with just a photo of the texture?  Do I need some fancy drafting program to do it? 

The other part is the windows.  Which could be made as a very fiddly prototype (windows are just 18" high).  Or a 3d or laser cut print.  I obviously just need the flat frames.

I'm sure I could individually build the internal framing to attach these pieces to. 

Any ideas?

[NtheBasement]

Had an excellent presentation at our NMRA zoom meeting yesterday about building with cardstock.  Examples were outstanding.  Your building would make a good starter project.

My notes:

Cardstock modeling
Jim Gore MMR presentation at NMRA NCR Div 2 mtg 19 Dec 2020

Materials:
    • 65 lb cardstock for N Scale.  Structural.  Bright white.  Pacon?
    • Copic pens or paint for edges – ivory and sienna?
    • CA or Roket Card Glue
    • Chapstick to seal bottom edges so scenery wetting doesn’t smear ink
    • Krylon Matte Finish, or Dullcoat.
    • Gator foam base
    • Pan pastels for weathering (if the print isn’t weathered)
Tools:
    • No 11 blades
    • Printer

Kits: Clever Models.net
Design your own: CAD, textures websites, photoshop or GIMP

Layers: print the wall many times.  1 is wall or even foundation.  2 is corner trim, window/door frames, etc.  3 is any thicker trim.

Spray both sides of paper with matte finish before cutting
Lots of No 11 blades – if 2 passes doesn’t cut thru, new blade
Use drafting templates to cut circles
For inside corners like windows, put a pin prick thru the corners before cutting, then cut from pinhole to pinhole
Feed from back of printer rather than tray so it doesn’t get rolled over.
Photo printer settings

[johnb]

I would use styrene freight car siding and windows are available from Grandt Line and Tichy

[nkalanaga]

Micromark has "ship decking" made from edge-glued boards that might work.  I've never tried it.

For the upper windows, a strip of clear styrene, thick enough to hold its shape, with individual boards for the dividers.  On my screen, they look like single large panes, so no need for fancy commercial windows.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Micromark has "ship decking" made from edge-glued boards that might work.  I've never tried it.

I had just read about this in RMC. It sounds quite handy.

[CRL]

Ok, I have to ask... Why in the world would you want to build 10 of these buildings? Seems 2 or 3 would make an adequate representation of the facility you’re modeling.

[voldemort]

I am modelling Auschwitz

[wazzou]

I'd look for some of the textured paper available. 
I know some UK companies have been at the forefront of this.
Clever Models may be a good source, or you could roll your own to get good colors.

[peteski]

I am modelling Auschwitz

Oświęcim concentration camp? That is an interesting subject to model, and they did use railcars for delivering victims to the camp.  Is it going to be part of a larger layout, or a standalone diorama.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I am modelling Auschwitz

OK, I'm officially out.

[chicken45]

Ok.  Elephant in the room. 


Why are you modeling this?

[wazzou]

Ok.  Elephant in the room. 


Why are you modeling this?

I mean, I get the history of it and the negative connotations surrounding the most horrific genocide in the World’s history.

...but why are we asking this?
I see Dave’s response has been deleted.
We shouldn’t make any negative assumptions on why someone should choose this setting to model.
I’m sure it’s not the first model of the complex and if I recall, it or other similar locations are preserved as teaching museums.
Maybe he’s been commissioned, has a family connection, is a teacher and it’s part of his curriculum or possibly he just has an interest.
Plenty of folks build railroads during the Civil War era and I don’t see anyone pointing out the negative aspects of those choices?

[Dave V]

I mean, I get the history of it and the negative connotations surrounding the most horrific genocide in the World’s history.

...but why are we asking this?
I see Dave’s response has been deleted.
We shouldn’t make any negative assumptions on why someone should choose this setting to model.
I’m sure it’s not the first model of the complex and if I recall, it or other similar locations are preserved as teaching museums.
Maybe he’s been commissioned, has a family connection, is a teacher and it’s part of his curriculum or possibly he just has an interest.
Plenty of folks build railroads during the Civil War era and I don’t see anyone pointing out the negative aspects of those choices?

I deleted my comment myself because it was redundant.  I didn't want to appear to be ganging up on the OP.  My first thought was that if this is part of some kind of family connection--a memorial sort of thing--that it'd be very, very different than just "hey, I'm modeling a death camp for sh!ts and giggles."  But I do know that we have members here with families who lost loved ones during the Holocaust, so the context for this model would probably help put some minds at ease.

[delamaize]

 

[Dave V]

And I think some of the cognitive dissonance here is because many of us model a time and place that we either recall fondly or we wish we could have experienced firsthand.