Metcalfe Manor Farm House - a paper kit

[NEMMRRC]

Craftsman kits come in all shapes, sizes and mediums. We are all familiar with the wood and plaster and resin kind. But are there craftsman kits made out of paper?


Well, the answer is "yes".


I stumbled upon a line of paper kits made in the UK, Metcalfe models. These folks have a large collection of cost conscious kits. They make them in different scales. What is interesting is that the HO Scale ones are suitable for HO and OO Scale. What is OO Scale you ask. OO is 1:76.2 or 4mm to the foot. It is slightly larger than HO Scale at 1:87 or 3.5 mm to the foot. Metcalfe markets these kits as HO/OO but I think they are closer to OO than HO.


Anyway, this is the kit I bought.





It comes in a bright green envelope about the size of a manila envelope used for interoffice mail.


This is what the built up kit looks like.





You get two buildings so it is a fair deal for 8.75 GBP which is roughly 11.41 USD on 1/16/2020.


This is what you get when you open the kit.





Perhaps the most clever bit in these kits is how there is a guide to help you cutt out the parts from the card sheets.





See those blue arrows. That is where you start the cut with the hobby knife and you gently drag the blade in the direction of the blue arrow and inside the score/trough already cut into the card sheet. It makes it a breeze to cut out the parts.


The card sheets are a fibrous 1 mm thick stiff paper. It gives the model a rigidity I was not expecting from a paper kit.


The card sheets fold out to reveal all of the walls attached to each other and scored at the corner joints. It makes it a snap to keep it all together.





The instructions are very thorough and easy to follow.





So I am off on a paper craftsman kit adventure.


Why am I building a paper kit of a British farm house? ? I liked the look of it and was intrigued by the paper part and I need something to work on while stuff dries on my other projects or I'll get distracted and bored and not finish anything.


More as it develops.


Jaime

[deemery]

From styrene to paper...  I think Jaime is going backwards in time :-)


dave

[Janbouli]

These look real good when completed .

[NEMMRRC]

Paper is nothing more than rearranged wood fibers ...


Jaime

[NEMMRRC]

There is a lot to like about this kit. For example, it comes with a thick sheet of plain cardstock already scored for the inner floors in the buildings. It allows the modeler the ability to shore up the structures and perhaps detail the interiors readily.





In the same sheet are bits to laminate to make formers for the chimneys in the buildings.





Time to start gluing stuff together.








Notice the detail in the corners of the building. Since all of the walls are one large piece one scores and folds, there is no worry about misaligning the walls.





The chimney formers are glued to the insides of the chimneys.











I used white glue for the task.


The door fits inside the building and is glued to tabs that fold into the building.








I decided to place the door on my work surface and lower the building on top of the door so I could align it properly.


More as it develops.


Jaime

[carl b]

Interesting kit Jamie...nice work so far...thanks for sharing.

[Janbouli]

Jaime , I used artists markers to give the edges the color needed , so they wouldn't be white . I also used the markers to fade the brick , just very light grays . I hope you can see the difference in the following 2 photo's .

[NEMMRRC]

Jan,


I have used Prismaclor markers in the past to hide the white edges of card kits.


That is perhaps one of the drawbacks I ket noticing about these kits. Because the walls are all connected from the factory and folded flat, there is a slight "trough" at the very corner joint. This is easily hidden when gluing two separate walls. Not so much on these kits.


I gather your models are N Scale so the "trough" is not as pronounced as in the HO/OO kits.


Thanks for the tip and your models look way cool.


Jaime

[NEMMRRC]

Moving on to the windows.


The kit comes with printed windows on a clear acetate/plastic/styrene medium. The "mullions" are printed on the clear sheet of glazing and the walls have knockouts for the window openings.





Everything is clearly labeled so the modeler doesn't get confused. All one needs to do is cut out each window along its outline on the clear glazing sheet.


The instructions say to use "the matt side" facing the outside. Well, to me both sides were shiny. Perhaps "matt" means something totally different in British English.


Let me show you.


First the printed side facing out.





Second, the printed side facing in.





I could not tell which side was "matt".


However, it dawned on me. The mullions should be in the front and the "glass" in the back. So, I chose to glue the windows with the printed side facing out.


I used white glue to fasten the windows to the openings.





And the window assemblies to the inside of the wall.





Again like the door, I placed the window flat on my work surface and then lowered the wall on top to align it all correctly.





Here is a look at how it turns out.








You can begin to appreciate the scale of HO/OO. It is really OO. That little guy needs a step stool to reach the door handle :-)


More as it develops.


Jaime

[Jerry]

Jaime


Very interesting kit. 


Your doing a fine job.


Thanks for the nice tutorial as you go through putting it together.


Jerry

[deemery]

What are you using for glue?


dave

[Timbob60]

Jaime,

We all know wooden structures can warp over time. I wonder what these paper/cardboard ones will do. Have you given any thought to adding wood bracing to the building before assembling it? Would it help prevent future warping? Just a thought.

Geo2rge aka timbob60

[NEMMRRC]

What are you using for glue?


dave

Elmer's white glue.


Jaime

[NEMMRRC]

Jaime,

We all know wooden structures can warp over time. I wonder what these paper/cardboard ones will do. Have you given any thought to adding wood bracing to the building before assembling it? Would it help prevent future warping? Just a thought.

Geo2rge aka timbob60

I'm building it like the instructions call for. Some areas on the walls have "double thickness". Some areas on the walls as you will see shortly are shored up by inner reinforcements.


I have wondered if the built up would withstand humidity once a modeler begins to work upon the scenery around it.


Jaime

[NEMMRRC]

Time to glue the walls together.


Included with the kit is a substantial sheet of unprinted cardstock. This is used to add "double thickness" to some areas of the kit as well as it includes the chimney formers and the inner floors which give the structures some rigidity. It also helps to add a floor to the second story if one decides to add an interior.





Here is how the instructions direct the modeler to use the inner floors.





Basically one lines up the inner floor (as well as the inner ceiling) and the walls wrap around it to form the structure.








Now it is starting to look like a building.





It is not very big, relatively.


There is still more window glazing to add. However, this glazing is glued directly to the inner wall as it comes with no "window".





This next part was the first bit that I was not too happy about. The roof fits under the chimney walls but it is not quite wide enough to span the gap. Thus, one chimney had to be tilted back a tad to close up the gap.








It is not terribly noticeable but it is visible to me and well, it bothered me a bit.


There is a front entrance that attaches to the main building. Its construction is very similar to the main building.








AD 1679. There are not many stone farm houses built in 1679 here in the USA. It is going to be a tough sell to put this one in the foreground of a layout.


More as it develops.


Jaime