LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

This is an HO scale model of the Rock Island Railroad's yard office in Topeka, Kansas.
The core is 2mm clear acrylic (Optix from Lowes). The siding is Evergreen scribed styrene (laser-cut). The doors and windows are 3 layers of laser-cut Polybak (aka Lazerboard). The trim is also Polybak. The shingles are laser-cut from self-adhesive Avery shipping labels. The chimneys are laser-cut from basswood.

For those who are not familiar with model train scales, this building is 87.1 times smaller than the real thing. It's almost 8 inches long.

That's amazing!

It could use a paint job though, it's looking pretty weathered.

Great job, love the chipped paint.

I have always wanted to "build" a garage scene for some of my cars. Did you design the building yourself, or find the plans else where?

Really nice work, Jeffrey.

>>The siding is Evergreen scribed styrene (laser-cut).<<

So, you were able to buy sheet of this material that had the wood siding relief already scribed into it and you just laser cut to overall shape?

>>The shingles are laser-cut from self-adhesive Avery shipping labels.<<

Please explain a little more about this process. When I think of Avery, I just have an image of a white sticky address label in my mind

>> The chimneys are laser-cut from basswood.<<

Do you laser engrave the brick pattern into four small pieces that are then assembled to create the chimney?

Josh Creswell wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 I have always wanted to "build" a garage scene for some of my cars. Did you design the building yourself, or find the plans else where?

I designed it myself, based on photos of the real building.

One of those photos is:
This photo was taken when the railroad went bankrupt in 1980. My model represents the appearance in 1952 (hence the red shingles and slightly better paint).

Doug Fisher wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 Really nice work, Jeffrey.

>>The siding is Evergreen scribed styrene (laser-cut).<<

So, you were able to buy sheet of this material that had the wood siding relief already scribed into it and you just laser cut to overall shape?

>>The shingles are laser-cut from self-adhesive Avery shipping labels.<<

Please explain a little more about this process. When I think of Avery, I just have an image of a white sticky address label in my mind

>> The chimneys are laser-cut from basswood.<<

Do you laser engrave the brick pattern into four small pieces that are then assembled to create the chimney?

Thanks!

Yes, Evergreen Styrene makes sheets of 0.040" styrene that represent clapboard siding. I used two different sizes of clapboard for the upper and lower portions of the building (to match the real building). This styrene was cut with the laser. I first did some test cuts to determine the kerf width so I could use the "sew compensation" to get the cut pieces to be the right size.

The shingles are Avery white sticky address labels. In this case, they make some that are big - each label is 1/2 a sheet of paper (Avery 8126). They also make full-sheet (8.5 x 11") labels but they were more expensive. I put the sheet (with the backing) into the laser and I cut out rows of shingles. Real asphalt 3-tab shingles are 12" tall and 36" wide, with two little tabs (6" long) to make it look like 3 shingles instead of one. They overlap each other by 6". My shingles are a scale 12" tall by really-really wide so I end up with a long strip of shingles. Then I peel off the backing paper and stick the row of shingles on the subroof, starting at the eve. The next row overlaps the first row (and is offset to the right or left by 1/2 a shingle). I work my way up to the ridge cap, and then I'm done.

The chimneys were made using a piece of 1/4" square basswood. I lasered the individual bricks (low power so the bricks aren't too deep), then rotated the piece of wood onto the next face and lasered again, etc, for all 4 sides. The important thing is to have a way to precisely align the wood in the laser (which we talked about in another recent thread). Otherwise the rows of brick won't line up at the corners.

So you put the paper labels/bricks down row by row on to the roof. How did you apply the coloring? Did you apply the basic color before you put it down and then apply the wear patterns after it was down?

Doug Fisher wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 So you put the paper labels/bricks down row by row on to the roof. How did you apply the coloring? Did you apply the basic color before you put it down and then apply the wear patterns after it was down?

Shingles, not bricks

I pre-painted the paper labels using a rattle can. The color came out a big garish (too pink). But after lasering, the smoke residue made the color much better.

It turns out that this was a bad method because the edges of the paper were a very light brown. Real shingles should be dark at the edges (at least from the shadows that are cast). So next time I'll shingle the roof and then paint.

After the roof was finished, I applied a dusting of black chalk using a makeup wedge.

By the way, here's a picture of a red-shingled roof from the same railroad yard.

Looks great