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Cheap Modelling Materials Sources

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For building finishes, I use Scalescenes  https://scalescenes.com/ .  Both OO and N gauge covered.

They have a few freebies, so you can have a go without any cost!

I have bought and built a few of the buildings and they are both good value and give very realistic results with minimal input - instructions are good, however it is important to get the card thickness right.  For the heavy card, I get mounting board from the local craft shop (c. €10) for an A1 sheet, however it does go a long way.

I get good use from the "Scratchbuilders yard", as they provide, brick, stone, timber finishes, roof tiles, etc which are good value and you can print off as many times as you like. 

Brief note - use an inkjet printer rather that laser, as the quality of print is generally better.

 

Regards,

Ken

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  • 5 years later...
  • 4 months later...
On 6/9/2023 at 9:54 AM, Murph said:

Dried Spaghetti for downpipes and drainpipes, paint ang glue on

Chinchilla dust bath from pet shops, I used it for the ballast on my layout, cheap and effective

I’ve heard of coarse gritty soil, sieved and washed, being used for ground cover and ballast. Cost: €0.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here’s my contribution to this very useful thread!  Due to impatience, my current project progressed beyond the stage where it was still straightforward to add lighting to the buildings, so I started thinking of alternatives.  I was looking for miniature lights which could be placed individually in rooms and I found a set of 10 tiny key rings on Amazon, for only £7.00:

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So I took off the metal key ring parts and using double sided tape, I fixed the torch parts to the underside of the roofs of my buildings:


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Yes, it’s not as straightforward (or as professional) as flicking a switch to turn all the lights on and off, but it’s considerably cheaper and does not involve complex wiring!  In fact, it doesn’t involve any wiring 😂

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3 minutes ago, skinner75 said:

Brilliant idea! Nice bit of 'thinking outside the box' that.

You could always give them a light wash with a yellow, to tone down the ice white light to a more old-time yellowish glow

I was thinking it gives me an excuse to buy a box of Quality Street then I will have lots of shades to choose from!!!

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3 minutes ago, Patrick Davey said:

I was thinking it gives me an excuse to buy a box of Quality Street then I will have lots of shades to choose from!!!

Or back in the day, a bottle (glass) of Lucozade, with the orange plastic wrapper, that you could take off & look through for an orange-tinted view of the world!

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18 minutes ago, skinner75 said:

Or back in the day, a bottle (glass) of Lucozade, with the orange plastic wrapper, that you could take off & look through for an orange-tinted view of the world!

I found this sticking out of a spoil heap after some work at the Quakers' Bridge level crossing on the Nenagh branch a couple of years ago.

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Remember when we had soft metal toothpaste tubes?  We used to open and flatten the tubes and cut them into thin strips into which we made small indentations to represent bolt heads and used them to represent metal strapping on the bodies of wagons the sides of which were constructed from strips of card. I was reminded of this recently when it occurred to me  that the soft metal seals on wine bottles could be similarly used.

We also used sellotape cut into very narrow strips to represent window muntin bars

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4 minutes ago, Ironroad said:

Remember when we had soft metal toothpaste tubes?  We used to open and flatten the tubes and cut them into thin strips into which we made small indentations to represent bolt heads and used them to represent metal strapping on the bodies of wagons the sides of which were constructed from strips of card. I was reminded of this recently when it occurred to me  that the soft metal seals on wine bottles could be similarly used.

We also used sellotape cut into very narrow strips to represent window muntin bars

Imagination and ingenuity - the best tools any modeller can have! 👍

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On 31/1/2024 at 12:40 PM, Patrick Davey said:

I was thinking it gives me an excuse to buy a box of Quality Street then I will have lots of shades to choose from!!!

Sorry Patrick, all Quality Street are wrapped in paper now🙄

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8 minutes ago, Patrick Davey said:

So it turns out that the new style of paper on the Quality Street sweets works a treat for what I was trying to achieve!  As I had hoped, it helps to dull down the brightness of these lights, and also adds the distinctive sodium glare:

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Sweet!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi All, anyone using liquid poly for joining plasticard, reserve a small amount in a small jar with lid, add plastic scraps and cut up waste pieces and add to liquid poly leave overnight then stir when required, makes liquid plastic to fill any gaps in plastic kits/joints.

TDR

Edited by The Derry Road
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