What do you use for scatchbuilding structures?

[Scott1984]

I just thought I would ask what material folks like to use for scratch building structures. I am curious because I will eventually need to build some miners housing for my Hon30 layout. Do not want to spend a lot of cash on something I might be able to do myself. My structures will need to look like wood. I have seen some people make styrene look like wood but not sure how hard that will be. Any help would be appreciated.

[wazzou]

Scott -
Welcome to TRW.
I generally always prefer to scratch build from Styrene with the exception of say a board & batten siding which I've been unable to source in sizes I feel are appropriate.
The first one below is all scratch built from Styrene with the exception of some doors and windows and the roof shingles.
The large front windows are cut up and re-arranged HO Scale windows.



The barn is all scratch built from wood siding and cut-up windows, with Builders in Scale corrugated roofing.

[Chris333]

Practice with some scrap styrene. I like to use very rough sand paper (like 40 grit) in the direction of the boards. Then rub it in the same direction with a wire brush to get rid of the fuzz.

This was a blank sheet of plain styrene. I scribed the board lines using an Xacto backwards. Then did the sand paper thing.


These buildings were all scratch built then sprayed with Khaki Tan camo paint.


A little bit of paint and they look like this:

[Scott1984]

Thanks Bryan and Chris!!
That is really great info. What thickness styrene do you use? I know there are several different sizes. Chris, Do you make your own hinges or do you get them from somewhere? You guys are great model makers, I appreciate all the help. Scott

[Chris333]

Average styrene is about .040" thick, but there are many choices.
https://evergreenscalemodels.com/
You can get clapboard siding in sheets, all sorts of stuff.

Hinges are Grandt Line 5095

Tichy makes good stuff too:

https://www.tichytraingroup.com/

https://www.northeasternscalelumber.com/products.html

[Scott1984]

Thanks Chris!! I have only scratch built a few things in the past using what I had. I see the prices for kits and it is quite expensive. Thanks for all the info. I will get some styrene and try it out. I noticed you had a post about taking a photo of a structure a formatting it to scale. How do you do that? I find it really interesting for finding the correct sizing on stuff.

[wm3798]

Whatever I have laying around.


The building is Plastruct sheet, mostly, with lots of Evergreen strip, some custom parts (resin cast dormers by DKS, laser cut window frames from Lord Zox, and the rest of the scene includes a highway bridge made from a vertical blind slat, the flood wall is made of 1/8" masonite, the river has a chunk of 1/2" foam board under it, and there's all manner of detritus gleaned from 50 years of accumulated junk boxes.

So the short answer is, EVERYTHING.

Lee

[Scott1984]

Whatever I have laying around.


The building is Plastruct sheet, mostly, with lots of Evergreen strip, some custom parts (resin cast dormers by DKS, laser cut window frames from Lord Zox, and the rest of the scene includes a highway bridge made from a vertical blind slat, the flood wall is made of 1/8" masonite, the river has a chunk of 1/2" foam board under it, and there's all manner of detritus gleaned from 50 years of accumulated junk boxes.

So the short answer is, EVERYTHING.



Lee

Thanks Lee!! That is a great looking scene sir!! I will get some styrene and try it out. I will be a lot less expensive to do it that way. Nice use of what you have available. Very awesome.

[signalmaintainer]

I made this shed/garage from Evergreen styrene sheet and cast windows and doors from Tichy. Styrene is dead easy to work with, Scott.

Making it look like wood: after distressing with sandpaper, razor saw, etc., I apply a base coat of light gray acrylic and let dry, then drybrush grimy black, then railroad tie brown and then more grays and even a smidge of oxide yellow to get the effect I want. If it's painted but weather-worn, I then dry brush the topcoat color.

Less is always better each step of the way. It's easier to add more, hard to remove too much.

Here's a retaining wall that began as the plastic tie strip for a Walthers bridge.



Hope this helps.

[Scott1984]

I made this shed/garage from Evergreen styrene sheet and cast windows and doors from Tichy. Styrene is dead easy to work with, Scott.

Making it look like wood: after distressing with sandpaper, razor saw, etc., I apply a base coat of light gray acrylic and let dry, then drybrush grimy black, then railroad tie brown and then more grays and even a smidge of oxide yellow to get the effect I want. If it's painted but weather-worn, I then dry brush the topcoat color.

Less is always better each step of the way. It's easier to add more, hard to remove too much.






Here's a retaining wall that began as the plastic tie strip for a Walthers bridge.



Hope this helps.

Thanks!! Looks great!! I will get some and go for it. Kits are great but they are a little pricey for me. Also the good thing is that you can custom make a structure that fits in the space available.

[Chris333]

Never tried it, but they say for sale signs at the hardware store are made from styrene. (possibly cheaper)

[Scott1984]

I think you are right. I forgot about that. I use to do model cars and some of those guys used for sale signs for different stuff. Thanks for reminding me of that. I will give it a shot and see what happens. Thanks!!