"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.

Campbell Scale Models' Through Truss Bridge -- Wood Kit - 1:87 scale

I built this for a branch line at the model railroad club. It is pine(?) and basswood stained with Hunterline's Dark Brown weathering stain. I also used Tichy nut-bolt-washer (NBW) castings (the kit-provided castings looked too small), steel wire, and Atlas Code 100 rail. Build time: about 25 hours. It's a nice kit, reasonably priced, and with a little effort and patience, it makes a fine-looking bridge.

Scratch-Building Dexter's Dead End in Paper & Card -- part 3

 At this point, I've gone "off the route." The third building in FSM's Dexter's Dead End is a small garage. I decided to do something different. I scratch-built the little hubcap shop from Bar Mills' "Raglan Road" kit. I based my model on photos of the one built by Vilius Biliesis. The wood siding is from Clever Models, the corrugated metal and rolled roofing are from Paper Creek. Doors and windows are from photos of Vilius' model. Roof details are from my scrap box. Hubcaps came from a photo on the Web. The ladder is scratch-built. The model is about 3½" x 1¾" and it was fun to build.