Let's talk about cardboard Christmas houses and accessories

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 31, 2024 6:31 am 
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I don't think these quite qualify as classic putz/cardboard Christmas type stuff, but they are the product of bits of paper, cardboard, and scraps from the workshop, so I thought I'd share them here.

I've been wanting to take a crack at the "Vintage Lithograph Station" project over on Paul's Tribute to Tinplate site for awhile now...finally got around to it. It is based on the American Flyer no. 90 station, a version of which was marketed as the Hyde Park. The idea of replicating an embossed tin toy using cardboard has intrigued me, and this simple little structure offered an opportunity to try it. Paul and Howard did a terrific job of production on the "kit", so it doesn't require a tremendous amount of effort to make something pretty nice:

Image

I made a few minor changes to the graphics, primarily a blackening of the windows and the addition of shades; otherwise as designed. I cut out the doors and windows and pasted copies in from the back to give the facade a bit of depth. The later version of the original no. 90 featured an embossed tin roof rather than the "lithographed" version included in the kit. I made a roof for this one using a base of artist's matt board, overlaid with a cut-out using some cardstock to give the illusion of the raised embossing. A coat of dark red satin enamel seemed to produce a good result. The base is a scrap of masonite from the shop, painted a battleship gray satin similar to the original.

The sidekick to the no. 90 was the no. 91 Flyer Town Freight Station. I'm fortunate to have a friend with an extensive collection of prewar tinplate, and I asked him to send me a couple of photos of the front and side graphics. Using these and a few hours on MS Paint, I was able to produce some graphics that would work. The original 90 and 91 stations were the same size, but the graphics on the 91 look quite small by comparison. To make them look a bit better, I expanded the station's footprint by about 25%, which made the station's details approximately similar to the no. 90:

Image

Basically the same construction methods as the no. 90, just slightly larger. The original's graphics included the partially opened door in a printed format...I created an actual partially open door by cutting it out and cementing a duplicate in from behind. Roof technique was the same.

Bonus project :: After completing these, another friend sent me pics of someone's attempt to make a garage to mate with their Lionel 184 Bungalow. It was pretty crude, but an interesting concept, so I thought I'd try to make something.

The 184 came in a number of versions over the years, but the earliest had lithography featuring plants/vines growing up the sides. Paul had produced a kit for the 184 on his Tribute to Tinplate site that included some nicely done graphics similar to the original, so I sampled those to use as the basis for the garage (thanks Paul!). I drew a vintage garage door using the pics my friend sent me as inspiration, then basically just cobbled it together with some cut/paste. Here's a pic...original Lionel tin bungalow on the left, the attempt at a matching garage on the right:

Image

Lionel produced some landscaped plots that they sold for use as scenic items for the train layout, designed to accommodate their tinplate structure series. Rather than put the garage on a plain gray masonite base, I fashioned a mini-plot for it to sit on. A small piece of 1/4-inch thick masonite and some classic green-dyed sawdust gets you something that approximates the original plots.

Anyway, done with these (for now), but thought someone might find them of interest. If you stumble onto some free time, build yourself a station from the Tribute to Tinplate site...I think you'll be pretty pleased with the results one can achieve.


Last edited by healey36 on Wed Sep 04, 2024 9:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 01, 2024 10:34 am 
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These certainty do belong on this site!...old photos of train layouts and trains under the Christmas tree on this site and on PapaTed's show little cardboard putz houses and lithographed tin structures together...

The faux tin pieces you have put together are museum quality...I really had to look twice the first time saw the station and garage photos...OK?...what's next?...I know there is something you're working on...

Howard...

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 01, 2024 11:44 am 
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Thanks Howard...these were fun projects all around. Not difficult to fabricate and they yield some terrific results (well, not sure about the garage, lol).

Right now I've got a lot of irons in the fire. A general clean-up of the basement layout is desperately needed, along with the mountain of repair projects. Most of the repairs will likely get deferred until cold weather sets in (good work for the workbench and a pots of coffee during cold dreary days). Also, I've got to think about storage of so much of this stuff. How do folks store their cardboard creations/collections? They take up a lot of space (especially the way I build them).

Project-wise, if I'm honest, a redux of the tunnel/tree-stand hangs over me; a bit of the black dog when I think about how poorly I designed the first one. I'm going to have to make another to find peace, lol. I've got some family stuff coming up at the end of September, but after that, should be going into hyper-drive heading toward the holidays.

As I used to tell my children, "We'll see...".

Paul R. II


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2024 8:39 am 
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One more "quick" faux-tinplate project, a Lewis Park station modified to include an extended roof and platform:

Image

Incorporated a few minor changes to the graphics (made the doors green, added a train schedule board in place of one window on the trackside of the station, added a door on the platform end of the station in place of one window, and made a station bench from a few bits of matt board). More of a suburban station now, rather than a wayside depot as Flyer originally designed it. A few things I wish I'd done differently, but generally it turned out well.

Now I gotta find a place for it on the layout.


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2024 7:06 pm 
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Okay, one final faux-tinplate project, at least for awhile. I've had the West Side Warehouse on the search list for a long time. It was made by Marx and offered as part of their The Untouchables playset. Approximately O-gauge sized, I figured it would be a terrific addition to the layout. Finding a nice one has been tough, so I decided to just make one to use as a place-holder until a nice original shows up. Here's what I came up with:

Image

Ed Berg posted a few nice scans of the lithography a few years ago, and I used those as the basis for building a paper version. A few modifications to the graphics, and I made the original's plastic components out of bits of cardboard and basswood. Here's Ed's photo montage, along with a bit of history:

https://toyconnect.blogspot.com/2011/10/marx-westside-warehouse.html

Thanks, Ed; this was very helpful.


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