I printed these on card stock. They were light and very easy to assemble. Once on the board they look like the real thing.
By Thom Swift, Lee, Pittsfield, MA, USA
Downloading the buildings gave me the ability to easily kitbash the models to fit the space on my layout. I will fit interior and exterior lighting.
By John Sharp, Levin, New Zealand
Your Model Buildings are just what the doctor ordered! They’re really quite easy to cut out and assemble, and look positively wonderful upon completion. Thanks.
By Jim Mays, Burlington, WA, USA
The color and the graphics are fantastic. The prints are marked clearly, so you know where to scribe or to cut. I used 140 LB cardstock.
By Robert C,
I really like the weathered look the structures have. Saves time and money for painting. These buildings are used on the N Scale Inglenook shunting layout.
By John Reitz, Fort Wayne, IN, USA
These were my first attempts at constructing your buildings and I’m very pleased with how they turned out.
By David W, Canning Vale, WA, Australia
I mentioned I would send a few pictures, these are first shots before getting finishing the layout, I still have some more details to do, but thought you might like to see these.
By Richard
The buildings were awesome and easy to build. It just takes a little patience. The cool thing is you can add whatever woodworks on the outside and the combinations are endless.
By Mike Racine
I am quite taken with how the model looks! I did some weathering etc. It was a fun build and I am very satisfied with my purchase!
Fruitland, USA
These PDF plans are easy to download, and you’ll find the structures inexpensive to build, very strong when constructed, and wonderfully realistic. When assembled, position the model buildings on your N scale, OO gauge, or HO scale railroad, or use them to add character and authenticity to a diorama scene.
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“Amazingly Realistic” Model Railroad Houses, Structures & HO Scale Buildings, OO Gauge, or N Scale Buildings!
Ready To Download, Print, and Build!
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These printable kits will add amazing realism to a diorama or railroading scene, and yet they are very inexpensive and easy to construct. You simply choose a PDF plan from the wide selection for sale on this modelbuildings.org website, download it to your computer, then print it out (on A4 paper), glue it onto some cardstock (old cereal boxes are perfect), fold and glue it together.
Corflute is ideal for structures set against backdrops. It is very sturdy and inexpensive to buy from a DIY, discount, or hobby supply store.
Construction is fun and easy (no painting required) – you could construct a whole miniature railway town scene for less than the cost of a couple of plastic kits!
The free video tutorials on this website show you how… even if you have never downloaded, printed, and built your own railroad structures before!
If you work in HO scale then select the OO gauge option when adding an item (or pack deal) to the Shopping Cart. After downloading the plan(s) you can choose to print and assemble each PDF to the same size, or if you require the structures a little smaller, you simply adjust your printer settings to reduce the printed size.
Many railroaders print the plans same size but, for absolute accuracy HO is 87% of OO gauge, so you just adjust your printer settings accordingly. For S scale simply change your printer settings to 119% of OO.
You can also buy these downloadable railroad plans in N scale. If your require Z scale, just change your printer settings to reduce the N scale model buildings to 73%.
These designs are quick and easy to download. They are fun to build and incredibly realistic when constructed using card or corflute, and balsa for balconies or posts.
If you want to add extra strength, it is easy to glue some extra cardstock or corflute inside each building after construction. That is optional. Also, you can cut out a door or window to show it partly open, or you can glue another door or window behind the cut out section to provide an added 3D effect. Again that is entirely optional, and shows how you can easily adapt these plans to add your own personal touches. No painting or weathering is required,unless you want to touch up some edges.
After purchase you will be immediately directed to a download page, so there is no waiting, or shipping to pay. You can save the plans directly to your computer for future use. Download once and you can print out as many copies as you want for your own personal private use.
The comprehensive range of paper models on this website can be downloaded, printed, and constructed from card or corflute as N scale, OO scale, or HO scale designs. Each full color paper template is convincingly life-like. There’s a range of tall rail yard factories and facilities which are perfect background structures for alongside, or behind, your rail line. Also have a look at some of the designs for clever “extendable” rail yard warehouses to position behind your layout train track. Or, complete your background town or city scene with terraced residential houses / apartments, or miniature replicas of retail stores, each with loads of character.
If you are recreating scenery from US history, then you can make a scaled down, authentically detailed old wild west town. Add cowboys and you have a faithfully replicated western or old mining town scene. Construct a mine chute, sheriffs office and jail, school house, church, miners cabins, blacksmiths, general store, wild west railway station, crossing shanty, stagecoach depot, telegraph office, and saloon to mention some of the available downloadable “old wild west” templates.
If you are into something more modern, then look at the 40 highly detailed “unique” intermodal shipping container designs. Stack ’em alongside train your tracks or directly on the flatcars of your trains.
Corflute is ideal for structures set against backdrops. It is very sturdy and inexpensive to buy from a DIY, discount, or hobby supply store.
Construction is fun and easy (no painting required) – you could construct a whole miniature railway town scene for less than the cost of a couple of plastic kits!
he downloadable PDF templates on this website are particularly popular with railroading enthusiasts. Apart from being considerably cheaper than plastic kits (that can cost over $100 each), the printable paper models are already colored with incredibly photo-realistic weathered textures such as wood, concrete, brickwork, tiles, iron, stucco etc. The designs even feature authentic looking cracks, water stains, rust, peeling paintwork etc., that would be common on most real life-sized architecture. Each of the templates can be downloaded once and then printed out multiple times if desired. The only restriction is that they can only be used for personal private use and not on-sold commercially.
This website has more than 200 designs of printable model buildings to download, and to make things easy they are grouped into categories. If you look further up this page you will see various categories including: residential, town / city / shops, railroad structures, industrial, farm buildings, intermodal shipping containers, old wild west and mining town designs, as well as walls / tunnel portals / bridges. There is also a category where all the background structures are grouped together, and another category featuring the range of 3D buildings. So, finding your way around this website should be easy. A FREE catalog is also available to download for future reference.
Assuming you are constructing a train layout, you will need to think about the scene you want to create and how to choose your model railroad buildings. This hobby is an art and if the desire is to recreate a real life scene then attention to detailing and correct scaling is the key. These printable templates can be downloaded in OO gauge size and easily scaled to 87% on a home printer to adjust the sizing to HO scale. There is also the option to download the printable plans in N scale for those creating smaller railroads or dioramas.
What qualifies as a structure in the railroading world can be many and varied. Architecture could be model buildings, a bridge, truss, railroad crossing, or even streetlights. Basically anything that is not natural scenery can be considered as objects to build. For the railroading enthusiast, designing and constructing other scenery features can also be a lot of fun. Scenic features such as hills, mountains, fields and streams can further enhance to realism of making printable paper houses, industries, and shops out of corflute or cardstock. Add to this people, animals, and vehicles and the scenery suddenly comes to life.
There are thousands of plastic kits available on the market today. How do you know which ones to choose? This is an important decision in respect to how realistic and impressive your miniature train setup will be when you are finished. Many people only use scratch built objects that they make themselves, while others are comfortable with the more expensive plastic kits.
Regardless of which way you choose to do it, remember that your train trackside structures are the heart of your layout. Your houses, shops, walls, bridges, and factories tell the story that your scenery laid the groundwork for. Your structures are representative of who you are and what matters to you in your miniature railroad scene.
All of your scale model buildings need to come from the same time era. A modern day street light in a 1960’s era setting will destroy the effect you are attempting to create. A grain elevator in a 2019 city will be just as out of place. You will need to consider doing a little research in respect to the time era your trains will operate in to ensure every aspect of the train layout is historically and geographically correct.
It does not matter if you like city scenes or rolling hills or fields of grain. Whatever your vision is for your train universe you can create it with the right miniature scale buildings. You can paint your objects and architecture to be realistic in an historical sense, or you can paint them to your own whimsical fantasy. It does not matter as long as it fits together to make the world you are imagining… and as long as you are enjoying the journey in your hobby.
Another thing you have to consider in choosing your model buildings is the scale of your train layout. Are your trains HO scale, N scale, or possibly OO gauge? Do you have a lot of space for a large train layout or do you have a very small space? Do you have a lot of track or just enough for a small railway layout? The answers to all of these questions will impact how you choose the elements, objects, trains, and accessories used in your setup. For instance, the size of your train layout should dictate whether you have more than one railroad station.
What is important is that your structures be to scale and be as authentic to your vision as possible. If this means making them yourself that is fine. If you want to buy plastic kits and use them as is or modify them that is fine. There is certainly much to choose from in the off-the-shelf plastic kits, but some of them can be really expensive and they still need to be painted and weathered if you want them to look genuinely authentic. By comparison, the downloadable printable model buildings on this website already include photo realistic textures that have fine detailing and weathering already done for you. And, if you want to build an extra building you just print out the PDF plan a second or third time. This is particularly handy if you want to extend a backdrop scene.
Before you begin you need to decide not only if you are replicating a city, town or countryside, but also what kind of buildings do you want in your scene. Will there be a main street with small stores or a residential area with many houses? Will there be farms or silos and grain elevators? Will you recreate an old wild western or mining town?Decide how much detail you want and are capable of adding. Do you have the experience to do detail work such as lights inside your model railroad buildings? Make sure you either choose weathered houses, warehouses, stations etc., or you can create the weathered look yourself as it is an important aspect of any realistic looking train layout that your structures do not look brand new (unless that is what you want).
If you just follow some basic guidelines and you will choose the best model buildings for you and your HO scale, OO gauge, or N scale train layout. This website is an excellent starting point with such a variety of high quality, highly detailed railroad buildings to download and construct. Enjoy your railway hobby or diorama projects, and remember to download the FREE catalog showing the current range of printable plans in the wide range available on this website.
