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A few months ago someone posted about the possibility of manufacturing cardboard buildings based on the old prewar type.  Well, I thought that would be a pretty nice little project, and so began to look for and suitable candidates.  Marx, without a doubt, offers the most options with regard to using artwork from prewar toys, but there are a variety of other manufacturer's toys that also provide some great starting points.  Here are a few photos that show my efforts so far.  Hope you like them. 

Toy Buildings 044

First we have my version of a Fandor Station.  I have plenty of stations, so I labeled it "City Hall."

 

Toy Buildings 035

Next is a Ives 200 Power House.  The smoke stack is not yet attached in the photo, but you can see the unassembled smoke box to the left of the model.

 

Toy Buildings 048

Next we have a suburban station to which I have added a "Roland Park" station sign.  Roland Park is a old Baltimore neighborhood.  The station is based on an

Issamyer (sp) original.

 

Toy Buildings 046

Finally, a set of 2 commercial buildings based on old candy tins.  Lyon's was a drug store in the town I grew up in.

 

All the buildings were laser printed on 100lb card stock at the FedEx store.  I have mounted some of the walls on foam core, some not.

 

This has proved to be a very enjoyable project.  Maintaining the toy like appearance is essential to getting the right feel.  It is far to easy to get lost in the photorealism

which todays digital media allows.

 

My next projects involve tunnel portals and bridge abutments. 

 

Dave.

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Images (4)
  • Toy Buildings 035: Ives Powerhouse
  • Toy Buildings 044: Fandor Station
  • Toy Buildings 046
  • Toy Buildings 048
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Very good Dave.

Skyline made a bunch of cardboard/wood kits. Kusan had signs, signal towers, water towers etc, Bilt-Rite had a good selection of structures. McLoughlin Bros did the Pretty Villiage books of cardboard structures (http://pastispresent.org/2011/...-new-pretty-village/ ). These can be found reproduced by Dover Publications from the 1980's. Other Dover books contain cardboard trains and buildings

 

Steve

That is some very fine work, Dave.  Could you be persuaded to post a how-to, detailing how you accomplished it?  I presume the original images were scanned from tinplate structures, then modified and printed.  Did you print directly on the cardboard, or is it paper fastened to the cardboard surface with adhesive?  What kind of cardboard is it?

 

Very innovative.

Hi Fellas.

 

Sorry for the delay in responding.  Thanks for all the positive comments. 

 

Haven't given too much thought to going "commercial" with these.  My real job keeps me pretty busy with the "real" world.

 

Printing was done by FedEx.  I just told them what I wanted.  I was sure to specify laser printing however, the finish is different than a inkjet.  It's a lot more durable with the handling it takes to assemble the structures too.

 

Howard, I've been a fan of you sites for quite a while...I'll have to repeat what has already been said here: so many projects...so little time.

 

So details..I do not own any of the original structures.  All of the artwork was downloaded off the internet from various sources.  I use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to both clean up the artwork, and to manufacture new parts.  Finding artwork of the appropriate size is 99% of the battle.  The other 1% involves a wallpaper knife and patience.

 

I use a water based paper glue from Staples to mount the cardstock on foamcore.

Once the glue is applied, I have a piece of safety glass which I use to apply even pressure.  I'm not even sure if mounting the card stock is necessary if you don't intend to handle the structures very often.

 

The "Big Indoor Trains" website has some great tinplate structures to get your feet wet with.  I would recommend trying some of the projects on that site.  You'll be surprised how much you'll learn, and how much fun it is.

 

Maybe sometime in the future (in my spare time between midnight and dawn), I'll see if I could produce these kind of things for sale.  HAHA 

 

Dave

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