ctxmf74

  Anyone have temporary buildings on their layout as place holders for the eventual actual model? I'd like some suggestions for materials and construction method, and painting them for maximum effect at minimal effort. I think simple throw away buildings could be very useful as tools to view and finalize the eventual scene as well as stand-ins for operations. Photos and construction techniques should make an interesting discussion thread.....DaveB

1990.jpg 
Read my blog

Reply 0
Ironhand_13

I second that idea.

Too many 'dead spaces' on my layout that only have structures in my imagination.  I want temp structures too, but how much trouble/expense should a person go through to build them?

-Steve in Iowa City
Reply 0
Steve kleszyk

The dollar store often has

The dollar store often has 1/8" foam board for $1.00 that works well but empty cereal boxes work just as well.  Paper towel tubes and TP tubes work for nice place holders for silos

 

Steve

Reply 0
Pelsea

Just footprints

All I did for temporary buildings was a cardboard cutout of the footprint. They included the immediate surroundings so I could plan out fences and outside detailing. They didn’t really help the illusion of realistic operations, but were great for refining my plans.

pqe

Temporarily inactive due to annoying but non life threatening medical issues.
Reply 0
AzBaja

Proper roof line and pitch as

Proper roof line and pitch as well as final length.D5DC253.jpeg 

AzBaja
---------------------------------------------------------------
I enjoy the smell of melting plastic in the morning.  The Fake Model Railroader, subpar at best.

Reply 0
Tom Edwards edwardstd

I'm using both kits and those fabricated from foam board

Here's a photo of a building that I cobbled together using foam board and a team track ramp/dock made from the same stuff. I have photos and measurements of the actual building, which used to be a water treatment plant in the days of steam but since then has been used for storage. (You can probably tell by the Kato Unitrack that I'm working in N scale.)

dInBldgs.jpg 

Hopefully this winter I'll get around to building the actual one. BTW - the station building in the bottom of the photo is also a stand-in. It's a Heljan kit that is similar to the prototype depot but I'm using the kit because it will be longer before I get around to working on that one.

Tom Edwards

N scale - C&NW/M&StL - Modeling the C&NW's Alco Line

HO scale - Running on the Minnesota Central (Roundhouse Model RR Club, St. James, MN)

12" to the foot - Member of the Osceola & St. Croix Valley crew (Minnesota Transportation Museum)

Blog Index

Reply 0
Neil Erickson NeilEr

1/8” plywood

IMG_1476.JPG 

The sugar mill would be about 36” long so I wanted to see if it looked right here. 

Neil Erickson, Hawai’i 

My Blogs

Reply 0
shortliner

I used Athearn boxes as

I used Athearn boxes as temporary placehoders, They gave an idea of space required for the buildings

Reply 0
Virginian and Lake Erie

I have seen some rather nice

I have seen some rather nice looking stand-ins made from plans printed on paper.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqHQgiAJ9oRLXlHHqJcUATUvI4lAXnKh1

above should be a link to a large ho layout that art did several videos of. They are over a period of time and show progress on the layout and it has several temp buildings on it that look quite good. Videos are fairly long and well done made during op sessions so the video is not just about scenery.

Reply 0
George Sinos gsinos

Foam Blocks/Software Generated Skins

Long ago I knew that buildings would be the last thing added to the layout.   So, I purchased the software from Evan Designs to create skins for blocks of foam that approximate the size of the proposed final structures.

This is a pretty old, clunky, piece of software with lots of idiosyncrasies, but it gets the job done.

The two main buildings on my switching layout will need to be scratch built, and this lets me quickly generate different size of buildings with associated door placements, etc.

gs

Reply 0
fecbill

photo copy

I had a wall section with a loading door, it was painted so I made two photo copies and mounted the 3D wall section and two photo copies on foam board. 

Another building I had begun kitbashing and had a section of a DPM kit also painted, I used the same thing.

Both of these are in locations that will be partial ( I forget the proper term) buildings against the back drop.

 RE Michael Furniture

 

Bill Michael

Florida East Coast Railway fan

Modeling FEC 5th District in 1960 

 

Reply 0
David Husman dave1905

Yes

I use temporary buildings.  I have used heavy cardboard (warps), photocopies of kit walls (warps), blocks of wood (very rough), buildings left over from previous layouts, kits walls taped together (on the inside) and blue foam (mostly bridge piers and abutments).  I find that having the buildings gives the layout "mass' and helps define the viewing angles and sight lines.

Dave Husman

Visit my website :  https://wnbranch.com/

Blog index:  Dave Husman Blog Index

Reply 0
pldvdk

Foam Core

I threw together some basic foam core buildings. Fairly simple and cheap to make. For windows I sometimes cut pieces of electrical tape and stick them on. They sure added a lot when it came to spotting cars during ops. They also give me a chance to experiment with different shapes until I find something eye pleasing that I like. 

Be careful with painting large building walls though. The acrylic paint I used caused some of the foam core walls to warp and I had to rebuild them. I mentioned that to a friend of mine and he suggested painting both sides at the same time to avoid that. I haven't tried it yet, but I think that might work.

Here's a sample picture of one of my mine structures...

IMG_3245.JPG 

Paul Krentz

Free-lancing a portion of the N&W Pocahontas "Pokey" District

Read my blog

Reply 0
sunacres

polyhedron nets

One of the key topics in seventh grade math involves the idea of laying the faces of 3D solids onto a single plane. I use a model railroad in the classroom to demonstrate the utility of this concept (among many others!):

20mockup.jpg 

Using printed textures with these polyhedron nets is straightforward:

20mockup.jpg 

We use them everywhere:

Jeff Allen

Jeff Allen

My MRH Blog Index

Reply 0
rickwade

I’ve done temporary

I’ve done temporary buildings.  Please see this link:   https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/foamboard-standin-structure-or-what-to-do-when-times-running-short-12188474

oamboard.jpg 

mboard_2.jpg 

mboard_3.jpg 

mboard_4.jpg 

Rick

img_4768.jpg 

The Richlawn Railroad Website - Featuring the L&N in HO  / MRH Blog  / MRM #123

Mt. 22: 37- 40

Reply 0
Chris Ellis

Temporary Yard Office

Like others I used foam-core to make a stand in for the Yard Office at my Pine Valley Yard in Dillonvale, Ohio. It definetly helped me to plan the benchwork depth and the arrangement of the scene.

IMG_5910.JPG 

Reply 0
pipopak

If you have unassembled...

... plastic kits just photocopy the parts and assemble it as a paper model.

Jose

 

_______________________

Long life to Linux The Great!

Reply 0
Ironhand_13

Wow! Great tips.

I've certainly learned alot here.  I like the simple idea of electrician's tape for windows, for example.

Now my question, apart from the OP's, is how long have these temps been on your layout but you haven't replaced with the final structure???  Some here are certainly good enough for non-"front-of-the-layout" structures!

-Steve in Iowa City
Reply 0
ctxmf74

 "So, I purchased

Quote:

 "So, I purchased the  software from Evan Designs to create skins for blocks of foam that approximate the size of the proposed final structures.

This is a pretty old, clunky, piece of software with lots of idiosyncrasies, but it gets the job done."

Are there newer alternative programs for this purpose? Seems like a great way to simplify the temporary building process. Something that lets one choose building size,shape,color, and texture then print out the parts to glue up would be great. .....DaveB

Reply 0
dehanley

Temporary Buildings

I have used temporary buildings extensively.  I use inexpensive mat board or foam board as the base. I draw the buildings in Auto-cad, print them on standard paper, then glue the paper on to the structure base. The beauty of temporary buildings is that you can building them very quickly. If you don't like the overall appearance there has been very little time and money invested in them and they are easily replaced.  As can be seen in the photos I build larger buildings that give me a good idea on spacial relations between the individual structures and the rolling stock.

DSC_0789.JPG 

DSC_0790.JPG 

DSC_0746.JPG 

 

Don Hanley

Proto-lancing a fictitious Erie branch line.

2%20erie.gif 

Reply 0
ctxmf74

Great tips

  Yeah, some neat results too.  Does anyone have any hand painted buildings with drawn on doors, windows, etc. Sorta like an 3 D basic art approach to preliminary layout study structures? .....DaveB

Reply 0
pipopak

Does anyone have any hand painted buildings with drawn on doors

Look for downloadable paper models.

Jose.

_______________________

Long life to Linux The Great!

Reply 0
railandsail

Lost references

I had some interesting references 'bookmarked'. or something to that effect,...but I can't remember where they are or how I saved them? The mind is a wonderful thing, particularly as we get older and/or less computer literate.

I seem to recall there was one British company that made a lot of these 'paper printed fascia' that could be adhered onto foamboard. And they really looked good.

Reply 0
TomO

Temp buildings

When I started the layout in 2014, of the 9 businesses I had on the layout 6 were foamcore stand ins and 1 was leftover plywood scraps. 4 years later the plywood and 1 foamcore building still stand. Like many have stated previously, stand ins allow you to see how they fit the scene. So much easier to change a dollar store structure then a built up whatever brand. I was cutting out windows and doors until I read about the electricians black tape idea a couple years ago. If you paint the stand ins I also found you have to do both sides of the foamcore.

TomO

Reply 0
fmilhaupt

Too much site prep, not enough build time...

I'd been hoping to have the Peru Freight House and its loading platform ready in time to load up the layout for Kansas City, but time just didn't allow. It took a lot longer to raise the surrounding grade so that I could run the tracks through the dirt lot than I'd planned, so I was able to finish that and build the platform before it came down to crunch time.

Since I'd already drawn up wall plans in CorelDRAW, I printed them out and mounted them to a foam core box. I laid out two halves of the roof in Evan Designs Model Builder to take advantage of one of their their shingle patterns, printed them, then glued them to a piece of cardboard cut from a mailer. After folding the cardboard down its length, I used another strip of the same printed shingles to cap the halves at the peak of the roof. Since I finished it too late to be installed before we packed the trailers, I packed it all up in a box and installed it during set-up at the Convention.
 

I've all the door and window castings on hand, plus the styrene siding material, so once I take care of a few commitments this Fall, I'll build the "proper" freight house. I'm hoping to finish it soon enough that it won't end up becoming my traditional Christmas-New Year project.

Fritz Milhaupt - DCC Wrangler and Webmaster, Operations Road Show
https://www.operationsroadshow.com
Reply 0
Reply