At-Home Architectural Model Making for Train Layouts

Building expansive model railroad scenes can become an expensive endeavor when you factor in the costs of all components. From buildings and locomotives to rolling stock and landscape elements, if you’re not careful the expenses of model railroading can put a hurting on your wallet.

To save themselves a bit of cash, most expert modelers utilize rubber molds to recreate building scene components that they know they’ll need a lot of. A wide range of commercial molds for things such as windows, walls and doors are available at craft and hobby stores or, if you don’t mind getting a little messy, you can create your own. Architectural mold making kits can also be found in stores, and once you get a hang of the technique, the process of casting your own molds can actually be quite fun. In this lesson, we walk you through the step-by-step procedure for architectural mold making that you can use to recreate any of your favorite scene elements.

Methods for proper architectural mold making

To help you perfect the correct technique required to cast molds for your model railroad layout that can be used again and again, George Sebastian-Coleman demonstrates the entire process of architectural mold making. He teaches you how to use a kit of resins and rubbers that, when mixed, form a soft but sturdy mold that can be utilized over and over. You’ll learn how to prepare your scene components for the architectural mold making method, then combine the appropriate chemicals to create an RTV (Room-Temperature Vulcanizing) silicone solution that forms your mold when mixed and settled over a model component.

Timeliness and efficiency are highly important in the architectural mold making procedure, so be sure to follow each of George’s instructions, including his expert tip for properly pouring the RTV solution so as to avoid air bubbles. Use George’s simple step-by-step method for time- and money-saving architectural mold making, and you can remove some of the stress from building your next model railroad layout!