Garden Railway Forum

How would I build a house or something, in 16mm?

I would try looking in the scenary section on the forum for a start. There are also some books on making various buildings. You could also look at one of the many kits avaliable to get you started quicker.

I've just started working with foamboard and have found that some form of plan or drawing makes it easier to give you a handle on what looks right dimensions wise. 4mm drawings x4 give a good guide.

A sharp knife, a steel ruler and you're in business.

if you aren't too confident start with a little hut or shed, always handy beside the line somewhere.

Have a look at Pendle Valley works, they have bought the old Lineside Delights range; including houses of various types.
Have a look on their website!

I use plywood because I live in a very dry part of the country - with suitable weather protection it seems to last ok. Look at a picture of a building you want - make a plan and the cut them out of ply wood with a jigsaw. If you are keen then burn the edges and surface with a blow torch then soak in white waterproof PVA glue - they'll last for ages then. With some internal bracing glue (waterproof) and nail the buildings together. Then its time for the enjoyable job of detailing. Find some odds and ends - for shop fronts I've used picture frames quite a bit for detail parts. Bits of wood glued on to represent doors, lintels, window ledges etc. Then paint with exterior paint with a little fine sand mixed in for a rough texture. I use glass from photo frames I buy in charity shops for windows - painted in a dark colour on the inside. Bodge up some window frames from a plastic fruit crate or some long matchsticks or some meshing and pretty soon you'll have a pretty good building. Just give it a go!

Mr. Bond of the DVLR:98241 wrote:If you are keen then burn the edges and surface with a blow torch then soak in white waterproof PVA glue - they'll last for ages then.

That's interesting - I wonder if this would help tose people who use plywood as "outdoor baseboards" to lay track on??

It might well do, it certainly slows down the de-lamination at the edges

MDLR:98247 wrote:

Mr. Bond of the DVLR:98241 wrote:If you are keen then burn the edges and surface with a blow torch then soak in white waterproof PVA glue - they'll last for ages then.

That's interesting - I wonder if this would help tose people who use plywood as "outdoor baseboards" to lay track on??

I've not heard of this before..... what advantage is there in burning the edges? Waterproof PVA is brilliant stuff and should seal the edges, but the board laminates are still porous so would allow water to penetrate between them, wouldn't they?

I don't really know the full explanation only that Peter Jones used this trick in all his plywood buildings and they've lasted a very long time indeed in very wet weather.

Charring has been used as a means of preservative treatment in the past. The Great Central Railway (for one) used to char the buried portion of it's mileposts to stop them rotting. I'm sure I've seen referrence to its use as a means of preserving fence posts in general construction too.

Thanks guys, but what measurements do you use to make it 16mm scale? Do you just do it on what looks right?




Thanks

16mm = 1 foot
This is what I used to build my station 'Awchit'... which reminds me.. I need to update the build thread now that its actually completed...

http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/proj ... t7648.html

mr bond is right burning the edges will help and stop the ply delaminating. iv made 2 buildings using the peter jones type method and it works very well I also sealed all the inside edges with mastic .I used a figure as a bit of a guide of how big to make the building doors windows etc and also used glass from picture frames etc for windows as mentioned by mr bond its well worth getting one of peter jones books as there very good and give you lots of ideas of how to make buildings etc

Sorry Jim, somehow (and this is very unusual as I read every post here checking for spam) I've managed to miss that whole thread! Some very inspiring modelling there for you to look at Woodfields...

Woodfields Light Railway:98271 wrote:Thanks guys, but what measurements do you use to make it 16mm scale? Do you just do it on what looks right?




Thanks

Whatever you do, don't start by doing it to just "look right" because its odds on that it simply won't. The trick of just looking right only comes from enough experience that your brain can subconciously measure it without thinking.

If its your first scratchbuilt building make it simple - go and measure the garden shed, do a sketch with all the real measurements on, convert each one to 16mm scale and then build it. If something doesn't work you can nip out and measure again. If you end up with something that youare happy with you can easily find a place for it . If not you haven't lost much and you've gained experience for the next attempt.
Oh and keep us posted as you go along!

philipy:98284 wrote:

Woodfields Light Railway:98271 wrote:Thanks guys, but what measurements do you use to make it 16mm scale? Do you just do it on what looks right?




Thanks

Whatever you do, don't start by doing it to just "look right" because its odds on that it simply won't. The trick of just looking right only comes from enough experience that your brain can subconciously measure it without thinking

Why not? That's what I did! I only measured the door height and windows so they'd all be the same but even then it's 100% freelance

I would imagine that the object of the exercise is to produce a layer of carbon which is less susceptible to water penetration and rot - also the local bug population does not appreciate the burnt toast flavour. They do the same to the inside of Bourbon barrels. Curiously, charring American oak produces some of the sweeter notes in the Whiskey, and the bourbon barrels are recycled and exported to Scotland where they are used to produce some special edition single malt whiskies.

I char any wood that has to go into the ground on my model railway. This is done in the kitchen with the windows open and the wife out shopping. It seems to have the effect of more than doubling the life of wood so treated. With the edges of plywood the desired effect is to stop water penetration delaminating the plys. Lightly toasting the edges will do this.

It is old tech - it has been done since at least Neolithic times.

Peter in AZ

Woodfields Light Railway:98271 wrote:Thanks guys, but what measurements do you use to make it 16mm scale? Do you just do it on what looks right?
Thanks

16mm/ft works out at 1:19 scale (a dimension on the real thing is 19 times bigger than that dimension on the model)which is as close as damn it to 1:20.3 which the north americans call F scale and there are F scale rulers available from some suppliers.
Much simpler than that is to mark out some basic model size dimensions such as height of the sort of doors you want and then work out the rest from there.
If you try to get too correct you will probably be surprised how large your buildings will be.

In an idle moment I worked out how large the station building at Castletown would be in 15mm and it came out to something like 30" long, and about 12" deep, and this is by no means a big building.  It consists of Booking Office/Hall, open fronted waiting area, Ladies' Waiting Room, and the Gent's.  The original building at Peel worked out shorter, but deeper.  This kind of reinforces the point about structures being on the large side, and I have found that in practice I find it useful to reduce the foot print of some buildings by about 10%.

The average British doorway is 6'6" by 2'6" which is 97.5mm by 37.5mm in 15mm and 104mm by 40mm in 16mm, and ceiling height is typically 7' to 8' - 105/112mm to 120/128mm.  5'8" - the average height of an British male - is 85mm/91mm, though you'll find that a lot of the commercially available figures from outside of the UK are scaled to 1:22.2 (a metre = 45mm) so we have to plan accordingly.

Peter in AZ