Scratch building cheap and easy window frames - the sticky label technique for model window frames

welcome to chandwell my name is michael and in this video i'm going to show you how i used a sticky label the plastic window from a kid's birthday cake box some tweezers a ruler and a scalpel to produce these stunning and delicate windows for chandwell station building these frame elements are only a third of a millimeter wide i wasn't planning on making this video but i found the technique so easy and exciting that i felt i just had to share it i'd dimly heard of the sticky label technique for window frames before but it was a few pictures i saw on facebook by tim fairweather which made me take notice he created some wonderful n-scale cottages with fine window frames that he claimed were easy to make so with tim's encouragement i agreed to try the technique out it's actually surprisingly easy [Music] as with all my scratch builds i started out in inkscape you don't need a computer for this as the technique will work just as well with frames you've drawn yourself i made the windows one and a half millimeters shorter than the openings this allows some of the white frame to show i added the frame elements just using white lines in this case i was basing them on those at chester station and i made them 0.3 millimeters wide so i arranged these windows along the top of an a4 sheet and i print it onto an a4 sticky label you don't need to fill the sheet you just cut straight across the label right through with a scalpel you can then reuse what's left just by putting it through your printer again and it's a great way of printing small elements without wasting most of a sheet of paper or in this case label and i use this technique all the time it's clear to see how tiny these are cut them out individually or in pairs and then stick them to some clear acetate i'm using the old packaging of a children's birthday cake here which i must have torn off and kept five years ago smooth them on and then simply cut along the lines with a sharp scalpel use light strokes because you don't want to go through the acetate you can hear and feel when the knife is through the paper [Music] don't worry about the holes for the glass just go in straight lines crisscross the whole thing the magic happens later once you've done the whole thing just use the tip of your scalpel to gently tweeze out the holes the peel away easily for the most part but use tweezers to help if necessary it's incredibly satisfying feeling peeling away these minuscule pieces of paper and leaving an even more minuscule piece of paper behind you can see here just how thin these bits of frames are they are somewhere between a third and half a millimeter i'm surprised that the blade even cuts like this i took the technique a bit further and i tried to make curved frames too i just used the scalpel free hand and i tried to cut around the curve of this frame without a magnifying lens this was a bit hit and miss and i had to try and get through the paper in one cut to avoid going over the curve again and that i couldn't really see with only a third of a millimeter between each cut this was a bit tricky on this one i had more of the black than the white but mounting the window backwards soon sorted that problem out [Music] this technique is dead easy if you've got decent eyesight or a good magnifying lens and as long as you have steady hands i was really surprised by how good the end result was thin and fine and with a subtle 3d effect they look much much better than i ever thought they would [Music] so a few tips that i learned after following tim's advice and doing my own experimentation use really cheap labels i bought 25 a4 labels for three pound 75 and i included postage from ebay i first tried this technique with expensive photo labels and the adhesive was just too strong and i couldn't peel them off properly stick the windows to the acetate one or two at a time the longer you leave the label stuck to the plastic the more difficult it is to peel off again i originally stuck about eight or nine to the paper and i left it overnight and i struggled to peel it off so once i started using one or two at a time much better use very very light strokes with the blade with a new blade especially it's easy to slice straight through the acetate in one go especially if you're using the thin acetate that i was using here won't be so much of a problem if you use something a little bit thicker [Music] stick the completed window to the building with normal pva glue and just slide it into place you'll have plenty of time before the glue sets so thank you tim if it wasn't for your encouragement i would never have tried this i'm really pleased with how these windows have worked out my station's going to look fantastic especially once i start the other side with all its curved windows down the front if you found this video useful please give it a thumbs up by pressing the button below it really encourages me to continue making channel videos if you have any questions please put them in the comments below and i will answer them my next video will show the completion of this part of the station so until then thank you for watching stay safe and i will see you next time

Channel: Chandwell

Views: 9,012

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Id: _pU0WqGSH3Y

Length: 5min 54sec (354 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 01 2021