Inexpensive (Cheap) Structures

[Jim Krause]

While rummaging through some boxes in my shop (aka storage shed) I came across a long lost book of HO scale, cutout buildings. I don't know if its still available but I will post the title and publisher because there has been some discussion on other threads about how to keep the cost of building a layout down. Additionally I will post info on some computer generated cutout buildings.


Cut and Assemble
A Western Frontier Town and Cut and Assemble an Early New England Village(two separate books)
Edmund V. Gillon, Jr
Dover Publications Inc. New York
10 buildings 12 buildings

Here are some other sources of cutout buildings which require the purchase of
software.
From an ad in Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette.
Evan Designs
www.modeltrainsoftware

From the new products reviews in Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette
Clever Models
www.clevermodels.com

I hope this helps with the scenery budget

 

[Russ Bellinis]

I was watching "I Love Toy Trains" on the RFD network the other day, and they were featuring Entertrainment at the Mall Of America in Minneapolis. An interesting thing the owner/builder of the layout did was to photograph interesting old houses in St. Paul. Since the layout is Lionel O gauge, he sized the photos to be approximately O scale. Then he cut out the houses, and carefully cut out the window glass. He mounted the cutout photos on clear plexi-glass, and backlit them with what appeared to be low output lighting, perhaps 12 volt bulbs runing on 6-9 volts. I've never been there in person, but the houses looked very good on T.V. They were used as building flats on the backdrop by the way.

 

[Jim Krause]

That sounds like a great concept ,Russ, especially when you want historic buildings. In looking at the cutout buildings that I mentioned in this thread, I think some type of stiffening would be on order to keep them from sagging. When I was building models professionally, plexiglas was the standard material. Architect's models, engineering models, even patent models were made from plexiglas. Of course, the average home shop doesn't have the equipment to handle plexiglas and do the machining that is sometimes required.