Scratchbuilding advice needed

[hicountry]

After years of prep work on the tiered xerrascape garden I am finally getting some track and plants in and am looking ahead to structures. Several years ago I built a good sized freight depot and took time and planned and used what I thought were the proper materials to withstand the weather outside here. We live in the Rockies at about 8500 ft elevation 50 miles SW of Denver, summer temps as high as 90 and very low humidity, sun is intense here. Can have long dry periods and long heavy rains, can get considerable snow sometimes and temps down to about 15 below.

The structure I built used cedar 2x2 framing with Bin Primer and the core was Johns Manville "Go-board" which is a resin-urethane glass fiber product made as a tile backer board so it is impervious to water and weather. The core structure held up fine, it was the dinishing materials that could not hack the weather.......

Styrene shingle and clap board material shrunk, twisted warped and started to release itself even though I used several coats of construction grade contact cement to apply it. Trim boards fell off (Attached with Walthers goo). The freight dock kept coming apart. it was made of pine that was stained to provide a weather seal and assembled with Epoxy and still no luck.

Give the price of pre-made buildings, lack of availability and very limited selection, I am open again to scratchbuilding a few select buildings but I need some advice on how to finish structures, specifically the following......

1.....Roofing materials and attachment
2...Trim board materials and attachment
3.....Freight dock construction
4.....How to make durable stone wall structures
5....How to make durable clap board and board and batten type buildings
6.......I want to do some ADOBE structures......tips and advice please ?

Thank you for your consideration and assistance

 

[ARIA31]

Hello for item 4, I might suggest Jigstones that you can find here : Jigstones
In short , this are soft moulds that allows to mold with cement pieces for walls; houses, bridges , .
It looks to work well.
You have videos

 

[Paul M]

At that extremes of temperature, most modelling products will have problems.

 

[GAP]

After years of prep work on the tiered xerrascape garden I am finally getting some track and plants in and am looking ahead to structures. Several years ago I built a good sized freight depot and took time and planned and used what I thought were the proper materials to withstand the weather outside here. We live in the Rockies at about 8500 ft elevation 50 miles SW of Denver, summer temps as high as 90 and very low humidity, sun is intense here. Can have long dry periods and long heavy rains, can get considerable snow sometimes and temps down to about 15 below.

The structure I built used cedar 2x2 framing with Bin Primer and the core was Johns Manville "Go-board" which is a resin-urethane glass fiber product made as a tile backer board so it is impervious to water and weather. The core structure held up fine, it was the dinishing materials that could not hack the weather.......

Styrene shingle and clap board material shrunk, twisted warped and started to release itself even though I used several coats of construction grade contact cement to apply it. Trim boards fell off (Attached with Walthers goo). The freight dock kept coming apart. it was made of pine that was stained to provide a weather seal and assembled with Epoxy and still no luck.

Give the price of pre-made buildings, lack of availability and very limited selection, I am open again to scratchbuilding a few select buildings but I need some advice on how to finish structures, specifically the following......

1.....Roofing materials and attachment
2...Trim board materials and attachment
3.....Freight dock construction
4.....How to make durable stone wall structures
5....How to make durable clap board and board and batten type buildings
6.......I want to do some ADOBE structures......tips and advice please ?

Thank you for your consideration and assistance

For Adobe you may consider the buildings done by this gent using polystyrene covered with cement.

Blog contents page

Welcome on my blog that describes the development of my garden railway (or railroad, just what you prefer) from 2017 until present day. I...

smallgardenrailroad.blogspot.com

For retaining walls I have used fibre cement sheeting covered with a render they could be used as building walls with brickwork patterns or stone walls carved into them.
I also used a polystyrene former covered with the render to make a station platform.

Using House Render to make Cliffs/Cutting Walls

To make simulated cliffs /cutting walls, I used Acrylic House Render coloured with an Oxide which was applied over the rough side of some ...

ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com

For roofing material look at running flattened aluminum cans through a craft paper crimper to give a corrugated iron look.

 

[korm kormsen]

i would try to copy the 1:1 solutions, as far as possible.
whereever possible use screws, nails and pins, but no glue.

1.....Roofing materials and attachment
barbequed beverage tins throug a papercrimper fastened with mini nails or taylor's pins to wood.

2...Trim board materials and attachment
coffee stirrers or veneer fastened with mini nails or pins.

3.....Freight dock construction
cut wood and coffee stirrers nailed with soft shoemaker nails.

4.....How to make durable stone wall structures
old fashioned windowpane putty, or jig stones. (or the real deal: pebble stone and cement)

5....How to make durable clap board and board and batten type buildings
coffee stirrers or veneer fastened with mini nails or pins.

6.......I want to do some ADOBE structures......tips and advice please ?
old fashioned windowpane putty.


don't use pins or nails that are stainless! rust keeps nails from wandering out!
soak your wood either in diesel, (used) motoroil, or polish-repair for furniture.
don't use plywood, only solid wood.
in fine pieces of wood it is easier to drive in nails with a multygrip pliers, than so hammer.

 

[maxi-model]

There is a lot to unpack there. You might perhaps have to consider making your buildings removable for protection from the worst the elements can throw at them. I take a lot of structures indoors over winter to increase life and reduce maintainance. Pay particular attention to the siting of structures, preferably out of full sun. A lot of materials will expand and contract excessively in extremes of cold and heat causing warpage and joint failure due to water ingress and freezing too. Chose carefully these materials and their suitability for prolonged out door use. Wooden structures look nice so do not discount entirely but only put them out sparingly. Foamboard seems to be a popular base material for stuctures, its easy to cut, form, paint and add texture to and is reasonably resiliant.

There is a reason those heavy styrene structures made by Pola and Piko cost. They will withstand most climates and if constructed properly will last for years. A tip that comes up a lot is to reinforce any structure's internal seams with bathroom or exterior UPVC silicon sealant or a two pack car body filler. Exterior finishing - masonary paint, you can get testers at DIY stores to save money. That's about it. Max

 

[dunnyrail]

Thus far and we have had a pretty hot summer in the UK, plastic coated Foamboard is a good choice, scribes well for brick, stone or wood representations. Available in lots of Colours, takes spray paints well, glues well with UHU Power, but I still recommend small wire to give some mechanical help to joints.

 

[Andrew Foster]

This has more to do with larger structures, but may possibly be useful background. For all the wood parts of the GME bridges for garden railways I used well-seasoned western red cedar, mostly assembled with plated steel nails. I used brass escutcheon pins for a while, but they never looked quite right. I've never used any kind of glue, as I think most of them harden and lose adhesion over time outdoors. The screwed joints, where the decks are attached to the metal structures, used stainless steel screws - well worth the small extra cost. The key to a long life is to make sure that the site is well drained with no possibility of standing water. After the cedar has weathered and dried out I'd suggest a dose of wood preservative, but even without, I think you can rely on 8-10 years with good quality wood. (One customer saw an 8 year old outdoor test piece and asked me to build it into his bridge!) The photo shows various deck assembles at ages up to about 8 years when the picture was taken.

 

[AlanL]

I recently re-furbished an old warehouse that was built some years ago. It was a wooden structure, 6 mm plywood sides, treated for protection.
The building was slowly succumbing to the weather and eventually looked like this.


The roof however was constructed using the plywood and covered with beer cans, annealed and crimped using a paper crimper. The whole roof was built to lift off and was in 'perfect condition' , just some slight ageing. When I re-built the building, the roof required no work at all, it was ready to use on the re-build.

The corrugated roof panels were affixed using brown silicone sealer. Silicone sealer although not an adhesive, is sticky and most importantly flexible. Using an adhesive that is not flexible might be a solution to your extremes of temperature. Glues such as contact adhesive, Walthers goo and epoxy are clearly not appropriate for your situation.

I am currently learning to build other structures and have discovered adhesives with ''hybrid polymer'' in their description. I won't mention any particular brand, may not be helpful your side of the Atlantic but these adhesives possess all the qualities for an outdoor model railway situation. They are weatherproof, can be painted, sticks to most surfaces, sticks under water? and most importantly are permanently flexible.

My old warehouse now looks like this with the original roof-


The core of the building is now cement-board, probably an overkill for durability but was readily available. The cladding, doors and windows on the warehouse are all attached using the hybrid polymer adhesive.

Since re-building the warehouse I have been using other materials for structures and can recommend the PVC foam-board (not paper coated foam -board). It is weatherproof, easy to work with and can be cut accurately. The addition of internal bracing may help to stop any warping in your climate.


Alan

 

[hicountry]

I wanted to thank everyone for the suggestions. I will also try the closed cell foam pink board as a base, the Go-board from Johns Manville along with cedar 2x2 worked great for the base of the structures. I have some sheets of clapboard material left but I will stick with small areas for that, the tips on Adobe sound good. I think more Adobe structures are going to be desirable as those structures have less detail than wood type buildings, I may resign myself to cutting up pieces of brass shapes and solder together for things lie freight docks and the like, maybe the same for water or coaling towers too. I have one bridge about 2 ft or so long crossing a waterfall and I beleive I will use brass angle from ACE hardware and put it together with either solder or tiny nuts and bolts. I will keep the brown silicone tip as PAneling cement, goo, epoxy and good contact cement all proved worthless