How Do You Build HO Scale Billboard Signs From Scratch?
Another touch of realism can be added to your HO train layout though scale-model billboards. These homemade billboards can be placed along your rail lines or model highways. You can “kit bash” billboards from spare model building parts, balsa wood, or other scraps. Draw a shape on a piece of cardboard in the correct size of your billboard according to HO standards. In HO scale, one real life foot equals 3.5 mm. If you want a correctly sized billboard that is, for example, a billboard 20 by 10 feet will be 70 mm long and 35 mm tall in HO terms. Craft a billboard frame using square extruded plastic “steel” parts from modeling kits, or square balsa wood. Make the outer frame members to the proper length for the top and bottom rails of the frame. Make numerous inner frame members. Glue these members together; pin them with straight pins for extra strength: snip off the pin heads, flush with the wood, with jeweler’s wire cutters. Cut a sheet of cardboard, balsa wood, or scrap plastic to fit
