Temporary structures

nkp174

Active Member
Whenever working on a layout, we generally have certain steps we complete: benchwork, trackwork, wiring, scenery base, buildings & trees. and then superdetailing.

Buildings can cost some serious $$$ and time. Generally, very few of us rely on pre-assembled buildings...and kits take time. Scratch built buildings take even longer. So the trains get to run through rural towns and serve imaginary industries.

The great John Allen used to place card board boxes all over his layout as place holders for future buildings. So why not take cereal board and other free materials to construct space holders that resemble the future buildings. This can be as simple as printing out a picture of a building and gluing it to some cereal board, or building a building and painting it. I've been saving card stock boxes just for this sort of thing...
 

nkp174

Active Member
I'll post some once I get there. I just got back from my LHS, so I've got a nice new pile of styrene to turn into passenger car windows...so It'll be a while until I build any buildings. (I also only have 8' of unsceniced modules right now...my old 14'x15' is getting dismantled).
 

MCL_RDG

Member
I usta make photo copies...

...of kit walls- trimmed them, color penciled, and taped the ends together. I'd back bigger buildings with chipboard. Oh, and I still do it.

Mark
 

Gary S.

Senior Member
When I was "designing in place", I used painted 2x4s and 1x4s with windows and such colored in with magic marker to mimick the structures. It was fast, easy, and effective for getting a feel of what would work.
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
If you do a really good job with your "cerealboard mock-ups" they might just stick around...!

Check out Robin at his Best for lots of examples, simple and complex.

As for me, I have done the photocopies on cardstock, and the "right sized box" tricks.

Andrew
 
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