Free Printable Model Railway Card Building Kits 2023: Create Stunning Sceneries for Your Model Railway

Posted on Friday 18 August, 2023

Most printers are used for mundane tasks such as printing reports and school assignments, or keeping hard copy versions of emailed invoices. Over the coming months we'll look at some ways of using your printer for hobby and craft projects.

If you are a military or transport (trains, buses, trams, cars, trucks and so on) modeller, buildings and other structures make your layout or dioramas more interesting and realistic. Downloadable printable kits are an inexpensive and relatively easy way of building them.

Prices vary, but can be as low as a couple of dollars. As a rough guide, expect to pay about half the price of an equivalent plastic or card kit from a hobby shop. What makes printable kits especially affordable is that you can print and assemble the kit as many times as you need, so for example a whole row of terraced houses can be produced from one download, with minimal expenditure on materials.

A range of suppliers (see below for examples) offer a considerable variety of models for different purposes. Commercial outfits usually offer at least one or two free kits so you can check out the quality before buying a more complex structure. If nothing else, you should be able to download a sample sheet showing the various textures (brick, stone, slate, etc) used in the models.

Some people have developed kits for their own use and make the results available to fellow modellers at no charge.

Several of the suppliers also offer texture sheets - bricks, tiles, road surfaces (with markings) and so on - that you can download once and print as many times as you need to complete your own scratchbuilt models and scenery.

Some kits are designed to be printed directly onto heavy paper/thin card (eg, 210gsm or even 300gsm). Weights up to 250gsm are readily available from stationery outlets, but you may need to turn to a craft supplier for heavier stock. Before going down this route, check that your printer is able to handle media of the required weight, because some are only intended for 'ordinary' paper (60–100gsm). If the printer is happy with thin card, it may require you to use the multipurpose tray or the rear feed slot. Do re-read the manual.

Other designers expect you to print the PDF onto normal 80gsm office paper and either laminate it onto card (spray adhesive is usually recommended) before cutting out, or to construct the building around a cardboard core. In these situations, printing onto normal office paper (eg Reflex) gives a finish that looks right when the completed model is used alongside others built from commercial pre-printed card kits. That's also useful if you want to modify a commercial kit with elements taken from a downloadable kit.

Satin or glossy printer photo paper can come in handy when you don't want a matte finish. For example, a printed shop window may look more realistic with a reflective surface. So if you're not modelling the interior of the building, try cutting out the window from the original part, and printing a duplicate part on glossy photo so it can be glued behind the resulting opening.

It helps to use a printer with water-resistant inks to avoid the risk of the ink being partly dissolved by the adhesive you use, leading to smudging. PVA glue is often recommended, and some people say a branded product such as Selley's Aquadhere is worth paying for.

An easy test of smudge resistance is to run a highlighter across a printed document. If the ink doesn't smear, you should be safe.

While laser toner cartridges are water-resistant, its relatively shiny finish makes it unsuitable for most of these models. That's especially the case if there are any white (unprinted) areas, as the contrast between the matte paper and the glossy toner is very obvious at certain angles.

The following list of suppliers focuses on OO/HO/1:72 scale models. If your interest is in another scale – such as O or N railways, or 1:144 aircraft models – Google or your preferred search engine will help you locate suitable downloadable card models.

Find downloadable card models

In some cases it is practical to produce a downloadable kit in a different scale by applying the appropriate scaling factor in the print dialog. For example, printing an OO kit at 87.5% gives the HO equivalent, while printing it at 51.35% gives an N model. But as Model Railway Scenery points out you may need to use different thickness card to build your model. There probably will be some loss of quality if you scale up (eg, from OO to O), so try printing one of the supplier's free samples or test sheets to see if you're happy before paying for a downloadable kit.