Cardstock Vehicles

James Schultz

New Member
I was reading the thread the other day having to do with useful web sites and the one for cardstock buildings caught my attention. As I was looking it over I noticed there were a few printouts also for vehicles. I'm wondering if any has tried to size them to scale and use them on their layout. I'm sure they can be used in the back ground or even on a backdrop, but would they look alright to use closer up. With the cost of some of scale vehicles and the budget that I have, anywhere that I can save some dough would be great. Anyone have any input on this?

Thanks

Jim
 

Herc Driver

Active Member
Don't quite know if this will help but...

Another N-scaler friend of mine gave me some paper buildings he didn't need - all completed - depicting some of more popular buildings in Montreal. He couldn't use them. They look great - and he did a superior job putting them together - but I couldn't use them either. When you put them near other N scale things like trees/vehicles/plastic buildings they just don't look right (IMHO). So if you're thinking about vehicles...consider how they would look near something you already have - it may not look too realistic.
 

2slim

Member
Hi guys,
Just got back from vacation. I visited a gentleman's N scale empire which boasted a 150 car stack train! There were cars from every manufacturer and each was loaded with containers which had weathering, as did the cars. I commented that there was a good deal of time and money on display in that train, what with the price of cars and containers these days. He promptly snatched a pair of containers and handed them to me and what I thought were Walthers, Deluxe or ConCor containers were nothing more than cardstock!! I asked how in the world he got them so realistic and he said they were created on his PC!! Then he printed them on cardstock, added a bit of weight so the air conditioner wouldn't play havoc with them and that was it! I couldn't believe how realistic they looked. I made the mistake of leaving my digital camera at home so I can't impress you with some photos. They sure had me fooled!!

2slim
 

Will_annand

Active Member

belg

Member
Jim instead of cardstock have you tried a technique using aluminum foil, you can do this for junk cars as well as somebackground cars, not that great for up close. You basically get a couple of cars you would like to duplicate like mini metals and take some foil place it over the top and burnish everything into place. There is a website somewhere explaning it in more detail but I can't find it right now ithought it was the Gotham division tips page but its not there he may have taken it off. Pat
 
I like whimsical cardstock vehicles when I make a tinplate layout that features early O gauge trains. But don't discount it for realistic vehicles. Cardstock will surprise you, but detailed models in smaller scales (and yes, HO is my idea of a small scale) might be tedious. You can do an awful, awful lot with paper.
 

Will_annand

Active Member
Pat, if I remember correctly, Fred, the modeler formerly known as Dash, had that tip on his website.

Is my memory Correct Fred ol' buddy?
 

Sunburn

New Member
Links...

At several times in the past couple of years I have located, forgot and re-located card and paper models. Some are QUITE good. Buses seem to be the most popular. But I have found quite a few trains as well. See my LRV post in this forum.

http://peterfray2582.fotopic.net/

http://www.brusselspapertrams.be/start.html

http://www.geocities.com/bombush77/

http://www.geocities.com/tpaperbus/

http://www.cardmodels.net/phpbb2/portal.php

http://www.trainweb.org/tgvpages/papermodels.html

Just a taste of the links within links...... :wave:
 
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