Beginners Guide to Scratch building structures - Model Railroader Magazine

There are some decent guides to scratchbuilding, but they're hard to find. Wayne and Mary Cay Wesolowski produced an excellent book. It was published twice, with slightly different names. Tha TAB books version is called Model Railroad Scratchbuilding. Carstens Publications brought out virtually the same book with the title Model Railroad Structures from A to Z. Neither version is currently in print; but you may be able to find it at a good library. For instance, the central library in Buffalo NY has at least one copy of both titles of this book.

Years ago, Kalmbach had a number of books on scratchbuilding projects. These were compilations of articles that had appeared in Model Railroader. One which springs to mind was called Dollar Model Projects. Tha ads from Kalmbach Books which appeared in Model Railroaders from the 1960's through probably the 1980's will contain titles which were produced which would be useful to get a hold of. Most can be found at libraries, and can also be found at used book dealers if you find that you want to own a copy.

There's also a book published by Wild Swan Publications in England, and available through International Hobbies in the US. It's called Cottage Modelling for Pendon, by Chris Pilton. Although it is emphatically not a beginners guidebook, it can be very imformative, in that it's subject is exactly what you've mentioned, namely using card stock to make beautifully realized miniatures of buildings which can still be seen in some cases, although some of these structures now only exist in 1:76 scale. The card stock which is used is not index card stock, or similar thin material, but a fairly substantial material, similar to scale wood in general thickness. The nearest US material might be Strathmore board or Bristol board, although it's not an exact match, according to the author.

Finally, there's a column which runs in Railroad Model Craftsman each month called Scratchbuilder's Corner, written by Bob Walker. Although it's not a how-to column, it's valuable reading for anyone interested in the subject .

The best thing to do, though, is pick a simple project, and get started. The result will be valuable experience, and might even find a place on your railroad. By the way, I differ with Orsonroy about using wood when scratchbuilding. I've found it to be an easy to use material, in many ways easier than styrene for workability.

If you can find the book by the Wesolowskis, that would be a great start. There are a number of simple projects there, which use a number of basic materials. Between that and the book from Evergreen on working with styrene, you'll have a good basis for a start.

-Ed

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