Fine Scale Modeler "Ship Modeler's Handbook" 2025

 The Handbook will hit the stands early March, and it includes my article on paper ship models. The Handbook's editors titled my article as, "Chart a different course." The article first appeared in the Nautical Research Journal published by the Nautical Research Guild (NRG). The Handbook was produced in conjunction with NRG. To my knowledge, this is the first time the Handbook has included information about paper ships. We're spreading the word about paper scale models.

Snowshed / Rockshed Scratchbuilt -- 1:87 Scale

The club wanted a snowshed / rockshed for its mountain district. I found several plans in old Model Railroader magazines and used bits and pieces to draw a full-size plan.

I used that full-size drawing to build a jig for the frames. I built the jig on matte board and cut holes in the jig where the pieces of the frame were joined, so the glued joints wouldn't stick to the jig.

I test-built one frame and checked its fit on the layout. It needed only minor adjustments. The frames are basswood scale lumber from various sources, stained with Hunterline Weathering Mix, Dark Brown. The roof is 2-mm card with textures applied top and bottom. The ceiling is a texture sheet I made from a photo I took of a nearby barn, rescaled and recolored in Photoshop. The ceiling would be blackened with soot and oil from locomotives, so I added soot in Photoshop. I also applied Hunterline Black to the beams directly above the track.

The roof is a texture sheet from Scalescenes. I scaled it to 8-foot panel length, cut it into strips,  cut individual panels based on LAR,* and glued them one by one to the roof.

I used a drawing compass to fit the roof of the shed into the contours of the cliff and overlapped the steel panels onto the rock face and tunnel portal. I added nut-bolt-washer castings from Tichy Train Group where they are visible when the shed is in place. 

Finally, I dumped a few more rocks trackside.

The shed is easily removable for access to the tunnel, and the model is quite sturdy. I'm sure it could survive a few scale rocks bouncing off its "lid" into the river below.

*  Looks About Right

"How to Build Photo-Realistic Structures for Model Railroads"

 I wrote, designed, and printed this tri-fold flyer for model RR shows. Feel free to copy it and share it. I've uploaded it as a jpeg. The blog won't upload PDFs.

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My Bismarck Moves to a New Berth

In ten months over 2013-14, I built GPM's 1:200-scale DKM Bismarck paper model. Since late 2014, it has been on display in the reading room at my local public library. This year, the library will undergo extensive remodeling, and the shelf where my ship sat will be removed. So, in a very nice letter, the new library director expressed appreciation of my craftsmanship and my generosity in lending the model to the library, and asked me to remove it. After spending a couple of weeks trying to figure where to put it, my wife Christal and I finally found a practical and prominent (and temporary?) place for it in our living room, where it can stay indefinitely. If I can find another library or museum that would like to display it, it might move again. In the meantime, it's nice to have it at home where we and visitors can enjoy it.

"Which Plastic Kit is That?" -- (Gotcha! It's Paper!)

In mid-July, I went to Madison, WI for the IPMS 2024 National Meet. In a display-only room, we had six tables of paper models, and a lot of plastic modelers came to see them. A lot of them said, "I was told I HAD to see this."

The photos are my build of Yoav's 1/32-scale Israeli F-15 paper model kit. I included it in the display at Madison. Over four days, I was asked at least a dozen times, "Is that the Tamiya or Revell kit?" (Gotcha!) I had fun explaining that even the pilot is made out of paper.

Clever Models Steel Utility Shed kit - 1:87 scale

Clever Models'  kit calls for assembling the cardstock walls with corner tabs and cardstock formers. I laminated the 65# cardstock walls to 0.5mm card (cereal box), cut off the tabs, and braced the walls inside with stripwood for a sturdier structure. I used two pieces of stripwood for the door guide. The card just wasn't stiff enough. The finished building measures about 3"x4". Build time was about 3 hours.

Atlas Crossing Tower kit -- 1:87 scale

The Ripon Model Railroad Club is set in modern times -- no need for crossing towers. But I had this old Atlas kit in my stash. So I decided to build an abandoned crossing tower. Why the RR hasn't knocked it down yet is anyone's guess, but there it is. I built it straight out of the box, weathered it with craft acrylics, and added cardstock weathered tarpaper roof and corrugated metal panels from Paper Creek. It's no contest model, to be sure, but it was a fun 2-evening project.