Adding gutters give a sense of realism but since that's almost the last step in structure building, i always lose patience and skip it. However, i was trying to find a easier and quicker way to add this detail and wanted to share this method.
I used plastic-coated stem wire that i got from the fake flower section at Michael's (or any other craft store). It seems to be slightly thicker than a commercial HO scale downspout but it does the work.
I used black contruction paper as the gutter. I folded the card and cut a small strip along the fold, like a V channel. I just eye-balled the width but it came to 6" real scale.
I applied glue on the inside of the roof edge and then stuck the gutter on one side of its V.
I then cut the plastic stem wire (using pliers) and glued it onto two small rectangles of constrcution paper and also glued the top, where the gutter meets the downspout. The two small rectanles gives the impression that brackets are holding the downspout.
This is a quick and simple method to add some detail to an otherwise "flat"
structure. The only disadvantage of this wire method is that its tough to get the wire to be a perfect straight line. I could get mine to be almost straight but not quite, however a litte imperfection gives it that real-life feel!
Let me know, if there are any other ways to improve this technique..
Thanks
Don
I used plastic-coated stem wire that i got from the fake flower section at Michael's (or any other craft store). It seems to be slightly thicker than a commercial HO scale downspout but it does the work.
I used black contruction paper as the gutter. I folded the card and cut a small strip along the fold, like a V channel. I just eye-balled the width but it came to 6" real scale.
I applied glue on the inside of the roof edge and then stuck the gutter on one side of its V.
I then cut the plastic stem wire (using pliers) and glued it onto two small rectangles of constrcution paper and also glued the top, where the gutter meets the downspout. The two small rectanles gives the impression that brackets are holding the downspout.
This is a quick and simple method to add some detail to an otherwise "flat"
structure. The only disadvantage of this wire method is that its tough to get the wire to be a perfect straight line. I could get mine to be almost straight but not quite, however a litte imperfection gives it that real-life feel!
Let me know, if there are any other ways to improve this technique..
Thanks
Don
