As per an email converstaion I had with Dave M., I am a newbie to cardstock (as someone else posted - NOT paper) modeling. I started with some cardstock at a big box store (Office Depot), then I bought common bulk cardstock from the same supplier. With that I built plant #2 (pics on the blog). I then had to expand another freebie downloaded kit from a competitor and had it printed on 11x17 cardstock on the same store's printer. That cardstock had one side that was shiny. I then experimented with gloss photo paper for my canon printer, since the comparison (detail and vividness of colors) between the common cardstock and photo paper was phenominal. So great in fact that I reconsidered re-buidling Plant #2.

CM has shipped me the First Street disk in O. They will ventually ship me it S, but since I model in S, if I reduce from O to S, there is (IMHO) a 44% paper size wastage in the reduction. So I guess I am looking for suggestions from you much better modelers as to what cardstock you use. Thanks.

David

Perhaps not exactly related but I use Foxit(a pdf reader) to scale up or down. Nifty tool and it is free.

Hi David, I meant to get back to you, but somehow got distracted. The paper that we use here at Clever comes from a chain called Xpeds. You may have heard of them. They are national. You can reach them at www.xpedx.com The brand that they sell us is Cougar #2986 for 80# and 2985 for 65#. It comes in 250 sheet packages. It is very smooth and very white. You can order from Xpedx on line, but you must first set up an account. Doesn't cost anything, but it does require a phone call. There are directions on their website. It is the best cardstock that we have found so far and not very expensive.
Hope this helps.
Dave

I use Strathmore 300 series Bristol smooth. It comes in 20 sheet pads from Michael's (it frequently goes on sale). It is 100 Lb and I figure it scales to 3/4" in O. The sheet size is 9"X12" so it has to be trimmed for some printers. I also use Strathmore Windpower Bristol Smooth. It is 100 Lb but comes in 15 sheet pads that are 14" X 17" in size. The large size can be really handy.

Stay away from Staples 100 Lb card-stock as it is actually about 60LB. Unless of course you need 60LB.

Best Regards
Jim

John,

Thanks for the tip about Foxit, but I can already scale printing through my printer's print driver. I don't have a really good image program like photoshop, that would process PDF files and allow me to reduce individual building components from S to O, and then move them around to fit more building components (doors, windows, walls, roofs, etc.) onto a sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 cardstock. I greatly appreciate the effort that it entails, and I realize fully that O and HO and possibly N are way more popular than S is. Maybe I should shoot myself in the foot and start over in OO or even TT, to make things even more diffiilcult.

It's just that I love my old Flyer trains.

David,

Foxit is really a PDF reader that allows to rescale a image in pdf format. So it would be possible to scale a HO scale model upward to a S scale model.

As for S scale, I wish I had chosen S scale for the current layout that I am building. Fading eyesight and trembling hands. errrggg But I am committed due to the fact that I have purchased most material needed to complete layout.

For all, regarding card stock I generally order direct from HP. Mostly because of consistency in product quality. One needs to search the web site to get what you are after in terms of weight. As an example if you are looking for 45 or 60 lb look under brosure, greeting card supplies. They also offer weights from 24 to 100 lb but it takes a litle searching to find the products. And if you need leagle size card stock they do have it. You just need to search around a little. As a bonus, if you add a ink cartridge or two HP will ship Fed Exp at no charge. Go to their web sit and check it out. WWW.HP.com

Now to re-inforce large structures I use a product from Taskboard, Buffalo NY. They ship in a large size 20X30 at about $4.80 per sheet with a min qty of 4 sheets. And they will only ship by FED EX. Now this same material can be ordered from Bull Street Station, Savanna, GA. Bull Street will cut down this martial to 8X10 sheets and ship by UPS.

The Taskboard can be sanded, painted and shaped. Also it is easy to cut using a #5 or #11 Exacto blade.

Well, enough said for now.

John

Well I just can't seem to leave well enough alone. I took Jim Goodridge's advice and went out and bought some Strathmore Bristol Smooth - 100#. On a further note: as per Dave M.'s recommendation I checked out XPEDX. There is a local XPEDX store just a mile away, but they are a warehouse and shipping center and DO NOT sell retail. I do want to try their cardstock as recommended by Dave M. but don't want to invest in a 250 sheet package. Dave - if you could mail me a few sheets I would make a couple of web page "donations to the cause". Anyway, so that we can all compare apples to apples, let's use the building side of Central Camera that has the big Kodak sign next to the window. I printed that page out on the Canon Photo paper and the Strathmore board, all using my Canon printer BEST quality setting. Again, the photo paper cleaned house. For example, on the bottom left of the wall is an access hatch/doorway. On the Strathmore board you can hardly make out what it is. On the photo paper, you can cleanly see the door hinges, the padlock, and the individual boards of the door. On the place where it says "YOUR ADVERTISING HERE!", you can actually make out the faded lettering "Mission Ice Cream" underneath... On the Strathmore board .....hardly anything.

So far, what I have concluded (until I learn from my betters), is that for the big walls and the details, photo paper. For lesser detailed items such as door and window frames, roof beams, etc, Strathmore board, and for items such as internal stiffeners, the common run-of-the-mill cardstock that I got at a big box store.

I sure would like for other folks to experiment with the same building side that I described, and let me know your results. I would take photos, but with my little camera, I am not sure the differences would show up as a posted photo.

Thanks all.

David

Also, from looking at the photo paper printout, where it says: "YOUR ADVERTISING HERE!", on the lower right, it very clearly says:

"Clever Brothers Sign Co."

THAT is very cute guys ...very cute. Can I advertise MY company there? Stonebrook Manor Insurance? What are the advertising rates?

hehehe

<Very BIG Grin>

Hello All:

Instead of starting a new topic I thought I would resurrect this one that has been the driving force of paper selection since I bought my first disk.

My background is in the photo/printing industry and the thought of starting with something less than satisfactory was too much for me to leave alone without at least testing first.

Several of the posts below started me thinking about the selection of material out there and I have been experimenting with, and have come to the same conclusion as David Marrow, the photo papers do print (much) more clearly than the Strathmore or Cougar papers. Beside the local art store Strathmore selection and the Cougar Paper selection I was turned on to a site called Red River Paper that has a nice selection of Matte photo papers that I thought I'd try. Below is the link to the sample-ordering page.

http://www.redrivercatalog.com/samples/index.html

One concern that Dave mentions in regards to the photo papers is the "foldability" or lack there of. Generally speaking I did find the thicker photo paper "tore" more then the non-photo papers at the fold lines, but the lighter weight photo papers 47, 50 and 60 folded just fine with far superior printed results.

I can go a lot deeper into what testing I did but I’ll leave that for further discussion if anyone is interested.

Of course, maybe none of this really matters as I have not actually built my first structure yet and I very well may find that the photo papers have additional drawbacks that I have not yet encountered.

All in all, I think I can now start on my first project with confidence. If I don’t like the end result it will not be because of the printing or paper selection or the great content provided by Dave and Thom… it will be due to my modeling (in)abilities.

Charlie