One for scratch builders

If you make your own buildings and walls this is a resource you’ll love.

Textures.com contains tens of thousands of high resolution photos of hundreds of building and natural materials – stone, rock, brick, wood and metal – in different construction techniques.

Although registration is required, it’s free and then allows up to 15 high resolution images to be downloaded per day. You can then use these as references from which to make and paint your own version or print them out and use them as the actual walls, floors and roofs on your models – just as you would with brick paper card.

What I really like is the structure of the menus allowing the huge library of textures to be easily navigated and photos of the material required found quickly,

Give it a go, I’d love to hear what you make with it.

> A final, personal, note: I spend a huge amount of time testing, photographing, writing and researching techniques for these articles and pay for all the running costs of MRE out of my own pocket. If you found this article useful you can support me by making a donation on my fund-raising page. Thanks and happy modelling, Andy.
 

Andy Leaning

Andy is a lifelong modeler, writer, and founder of modelrailwayengineer.com. He has been building model railways, dioramas, and miniatures for over 20 years. His passion for model making and railways began when he was a child, building his first layout at the age of seven.
Andy’s particular passion is making scenery and structures in 4mm scale, which he sells commercially. He is particularly interested in modelling the railways of South West England during the late Victorian/early Edwardian era, although he also enjoys making sci-fi and fantasy figures and dioramas. His website has won several awards, and he is a member of MERG (Model Railway Electronics Group) and the 009 Society.
When not making models, Andy lives in Surrey with his wife and teenage son. Other interests include history, science fiction, photography, and programming. Read more about Andy.