Shotgun Tom has been back in touch with a video for the San diego model railroad museum.

(If you missed Shotgun Tom’s post on his own layout, it’s here.)

“Al

We have a new Video about our San Diego Model Railroad Museum in San Diego’s Balboa Park near the World Famous San Diego Zoo.

Take a look, I did the narration.

Again, Thank you for all of your help.

Shotgun Tom”

A big thanks to Tom – I really enjoyed the video.

Some of you may remember Tom’s post, on his layout which is here.

Enjoyed Tom’s narration on the San diego model railroad museum vid.

Now on to John:

“Hi Al.

Just wanted to share a little project that I scratch built today.

This is a 1/4 inch scale (O scale kingpost bridge).

I made this little bridge today 100% from card that I salvaged from soda can boxes.

The card was glued together with Elmers Glue All (a brand of PVA glue).

All the card was stained with Minwax stains to make it look like wood.

There are some small details left to work on.

Here is the thing — I could never have built this little bridge without the skills that I learned while building and kitbashing your wonderful Print-Out kits.

Your Print Out buildings and the videos you sometimes share taught me first about how to make card models look realistic. Then they helped me build skills so that I can build “beyond the box”.

Thank you for your wonderful site AND thank you especially for teaching me about modeling with paper beginning with your amazing Print Out buildings.

Sincerely,

John
Chatsworth CA, USA”

John’s always sending me stuff of his builds – he’s using the print out scenery exactly what it’s best at: scratch building.

Here’s another of his projects:

“Hi Al…

This is a little O scale building that I constructed over the past two or three days.

The inspiration was a challenge by a Facebook friend to build something that would fit on a business card. I love it when I am challenged to build something —

I used my favorite soda can boxes for most of this…They farm the base for the buildings, the base for the walls, and much of the “stripwood” that I also used fr many of the details.

The “glass” in the window came from a food tray — Takeout container.

The clapboard siding was cut from yellow printing card –

To make the siding, 1/8 inch wide strips were cut and shingled to give the appearance of 3 inch clapboards.

The “wood” was stained with felt tip pens that I had lying around.

The roofing came from one of your kits — The blue office building if I remember.

A standard business card is roughly two inches by three and one half inches.

That determined the size of the roof “dripline”.

My shed is roughly 1.5 inches wide (6 scale feet), and three inches long (12 scale feet)

These photos capture the first part of the build.

The fun that I am having now began about five or six years ago with the first “Print Out kit” that I purchased on this site. That was an enginehouse… And since then I just keep working to make every model better than the one before.

Even if you believe that you do not have room for a layout, I would suggest having a go at a few of Alastair’s kits… They are fun to build, you develop your modeling skills, and sooner or later you will build a diorama or a layout to put them on! It is a START!

Sincerely,

John

California USA”

A huge thanks to John.

Of course, he’s right, the big thing in this hobby is to make a start – even if it’s making a model building to get your feet wet.

Over the years, you lot have sent in some fantastic model built from the printable buildings.

Scratch built freight shed

More scratch builds

Even more of your scratch builds

Things you’ve made with the silly sale

More scratch builds

John’s shelf layout

Perhaps the most popular model is the barn – lots of you have enjoyed making it:

Just so you know the barn is bundled free at the moment with the Beginner’s Guide.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get started on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.