Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Of course it is helpful if the church is only approx 3 inches long x 4 inches tall
    I purchased this paper cardstock kit of 4 buildings in 1:160 scale, I am told this is correct size for N scale model train layout. I just wanted to see if I could get a simple paper model to turn out decent before building my paper steam engine kit.(practice)

  The generator came with my D100e kit and the universal mount does not fit the old D12 base well, but good enough to power a single LED bulb. The bulb is very orange color, so I tried a white bulb and that is really bright! So much so that it starts to shine right thru the paper walls. I could have fixed this problem during the build if I knew ahead of time, but at $5 for a 4 building set, it's served its purpose well.
  The house I built first, only then did I think to cut out the windows for lighting, so I gave it a go on the church.
  Over all it was a pleasant day playing with steam engines + genny

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I want to get a nice generator some day, perhaps I should make up a wood base for mine for ease of use on different engines.

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Bic lighter is for size reference.

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Entrance side:

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It came up that a paper model could be destroyed by kids spilling juice....I have only sprayed the buildings with clear Matt art spray that protects from dirty finger prints and humidity....but for fun I wanted to test a bit more durable product, so I made up a paper boat (same manufacturer as buildings) and Varnished inside and out, I now have a floating paper boat, just a fun tip on the slim chance someone wanted to have a go at paper model, but requires more durable result. The Varnish does darken the ink, and it's a good Idea to test first to see if Varnish makes your ink bleed.

Paper boat in water:

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Thanks Bruce!
   When I was young, I thought the accessories sold by Wilesco was pretty much "all" you could power with a model engine, Now that I have spent some time on the forum I see the possibility's are nearly endless, and having a generator opens up a bunch of new things that can be done

You did a nice job on these paper kits.

I think you are ready to build the Steam Engine and I can’t wait to see the results.

The floating paper boat is really neat.

How long did it take you to build each of the models (Church, House and Boat)?

Thanks for the kind words, I am not a fast builder, I enjoy building and don't really look at the time, but I can estimate:
  The stock build house was by far the easiest, I would say under 2 hours, the church building built stock would have been only a little longer but all the window cut outs and doors and clock and vents have all been what paper modelers call layered. You basically make a photo copy and use it to cut out extra parts to give the model a more 3D effect, the door and clock where sunk in, and the masonry around door and windows was made to stick out, all these tiny improvements can easily double the build time!
  I would say the boat would be about 2.5 hrs but the Varnish waterproofing adds drying time, I put about a teaspoon of Varnish inside the hull and tipped the boat in all directions to spread this around the inside, and let dry, at this stage the boat looked terrible as the Varnish soaks in at different rates in different areas, but after I Varnished the exterior of the hull, the Varnish has completely saturated the paper and the ink artwork once again looks good and even. You can handle the Varnished boat after 12 hrs but I found it continues to cure and after 3 days it now feels like a plastic boat! It's hard to put a build time on the boat as it must be done in stages to account for waterproofing. The German company that makes the kits I have been building actually have some larger boats like a Titanic that modelers put 2 coats of Varnish on inside and out and the waterproofing is so effective that they make the boat radio controlled. The big Titanic is well over 4 feet long but there is more sizes and scales of paper model kits than you can shake a stick at.
  I have been using sewing needles to scribe the folds and those small metal office clips that look like clips to seal a potato chip bag as sort of a sheetmetal brake tool to get crisp folds. I do a little bit of sheetmetal work in my real life trade and have always enjoyed how folding flat sheets can make an impressive stiff 3D structure.
  Needless to say, I enjoy building these low costs kits very much.