Igniting the paper debate

Kashirigi, you do great work! Who could argue about the buildings. I think that paper structures are a way to save money and try out ideas before you go foward and build a kit and spend $10-$50 or more on the kit. And you are not just using an empty cheerio's box as a building - the look of the facades is very nice indeed.  So keep up the paper work and I for one will be snooping around looking for ideas.

Gene 

Kashirigi

Very impressive indeed, thank you for sharing with us - what are the Diorama's dimensions?

I notice you mention paper specifically.  Do you mean 'Paper' paper, or card?  I ask this because different terms have different meanings in different parts of the world, and the material you call 'paper' I might know by another name.

Realising that the Japanese use paper in a wide variety of applications, and in ways largely unknown to the West, if in fact you are using 'paper' paper, could you give us an idea of the weight  and sheet-size you use, the type of paper (Printer, Airmail, Note, Writing, Photocopy etc, etc), if you laminate it for strength, and how you brace it - or is it a self-supporting structure (using the balcony as an example)?

As you might be introducing us to another medium for our modelling, anything you can tell us would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

Komata

"TVR - serving the Northern Taranaki . . ."

Kashirigi

Thanks for the reply and the clarification - what you use is what I know as File or Business Card, which I have used, but only in certain cases, as I find Matt-Board (aka Picture Framing board)  more suited to what I do.

Like you, I use Toilet Paper if the model demands it - it makes great tarpaulins (which were extensively used to cover open wagons here in New Zealand), takes tube-type acrylic paint very well, and can be folded down into surprisingly small sizes (it's even better than kitchen tissue!!)  Incidently, pre-coloured wallpaper also makes great laundry (and saves you having to apply paint. . .)

Again, thanks for the clarification - and for showing us other ways to use the ordinary - paper certainly has many advantages which plastic will never have (and it's (usually) free. . .LOL)

Komata

"TVR - serving the Northern Taranaki . . ."

The information on the fencing is buried in the middle of the article in a non-obvious place. Just so you don't need to hunt for it . . . 

The fencing is made of tulle ribbon. It's already cut to the right height, and then i weathered it by drybushing it. You should be able to find it at one of those hobby stores that caters to florists, etc. It comes in a wide variety of sizes and colours -- mine was sort of off-white, which looked like weathered zinc coated chain-link. The fenceposts are made of stainless steel wire lashed together with thread and superglue. In the future, I will be soldering brass wire and painting it instead, because my original plan was to solder the fence togeher, and I couldn't do it in stainless steel.

 As for the dimensions of the whole thing, it's now on my desk at work, but it's about 15cm by 10cm by 15cm high. It's just one Kato 11" (I think) curved unitrack section.

You can put cardstock in a colour printer and print it without difficulty, unless you have a convoluted paper path in your printer. There's one caveat -- many printer inks are water soluble, so spraying with Dullcote is necessary to fix the colours in place.

 Printing on high-gloss photo paper also works well, but is significantly more expensive than using regular cardstock, and you still need Dullcote to make it insoluble in water. I've also found that printing at super-high resolution on photo paper tends to llok a little odd, simpy because you can't paint to the same resolution, so mixing with other buildings looks odd.

 If you're concerned with structural strength, gluing it to foamcore or matteboard with 3M spray glue will make it very strong indeed.

Once it's been sprayed, you can paint it, although washes aren't really recommended because they tend to damage the paper. Using pastels to weather works extremely well, though.

Not unless you also take out an advert so you can sell them. Magazines these days don't want articles about making things with products not advertised. 

Long live the paper! Way to go, Kashirigi!

I'm always making buildings out of paper now, especially after figuring out how to use Photoshop to print off great textures. I use bits of styrene and other misc. stuff laying around to decorate it. Here's a house I'm currently working on.

Thanks, Kashirigi

I'm a contractor, and this is similar to the design of the house I'd like to build for my family someday. I had the rough dimensions in my head so I just drew it out on cardstock with a scale ruler.

The roof is fine grit sandpaper, and the brick is downloaded free from cgtextures.com

I'll post some more pics once it's done and put on the layout.  

Very nice, a bit crowded, but then, I'm not modeling Japan

You mentioned tulle _ribbon_. In the US, tulle (bridal veil) is a diamond shaped fabric with openings that are about right for HO cyclone fencing, looks OK for N except in closeups.

That ribbon looks ultrafine. Fencing is about 2"x2" openings, or about 0.3mm. Your's looks like silk screen fabric, I can't detect any openings at all.

I am not being negative. I have pored through various ribbons at sewing emporiums (typically not considered to be manly), and the ones that I've found to be near scale were square rather than diamond, or they were not regular. Either wavy lines or irregular spacing.

So my quest for a scale N cyclone fence is still in limbo.

But a Nscale screen door material is also _good_.

Bob in IDaho, so many concepts, so few actualizations.

Hey Kashirigi, Where did you get that bus?

PS I forgot to compliment your great work. I'm not a rivet counter, but I do very much appreciate attention to detail and having a unique model. (I'll never see my buildings on someone else's layout or on the pages of MR!)

GREAT WORK, REALLY GOOD LOOKING, I'LL CERTAINLY TRY TO USE YOUR IDEA. By the way I remember seeing in the gallery section, a very good looking bridge with fantastic weathering, made with card-stock... or was it an aqueduct? maybe someone remembers.