FUN WITH PAPER - Part 6

As parts of my model railroad begin to become semi-finished - basic scenery, finished track, and structures - my expansive plain, sky blue backdrops stand-out more.  From what I've scene on other peoples layouts, photographic backdrops and building flats go a long way towards filling in a scene.  Because of bad layout planing, a good portion of one section of my layout only has about a half an inch of space from the track clearance to the sky backdrop.  So along these lines, I'm trying out a building flat using paper construction techniques.  Speaking of paper modeling, be sure to check out Rick Bickmore's thread on Railroad Line Forums (Link on right) as he has finished some very impressive industrial buildings in paper lately - using an interesting combination of techniques and methods.

The prototype structure

For the subject of this model, I choose the Roebling Steel Wire Mill #2.  This is an interesting looking brick structure that seems to be about the right size - not to big to be a distraction, but enough mass to fill up a goodly portion of the background.   It won't be identified as the Roebling Wire Mill, as there is already plenty of steel related structures on the layout proper and I'd like to use the backdrop to convey a sense of the world just outside the mill.    Since the building will be right on the tracks, I won't model the doors or little shed addition - just windows.  I'm also expanding it a bit by putting four of the roof elements together, instead of the three on the prototype.

Four full sized sections laminated to mat board

The drawing is from the HAER site.  I didn't really scale it exactly to HO, just what looked about right - I'm pretty close to scale, maybe off 1' in 20 - and also what basically filled up an 8.5x11" sheet of paper in the landscape print mode. I laminated the large printout to bristol board using a spray adhesive.

Cutting out sections between pilasters

Next I cut out the mat board between the brick pilasters and sills and headers

Starting to laminate the pilasters

Finally, I began laminating paper brick, from Scale Scenes, onto the pilasters using a UHU glue stick.  Because of the angular pilasters and the sills and headers I am laminating the brick in sections to insure a good wrap around each piece.  I started with the foundation and wrapped that - next the pilasters, one at a time.   - to be continued