Wood coffee (drink) stirrers are inexpensive and an easy building material for children. They can be cut and glued (use white glue as it washes off easily) to make park benches, picnic tables and even small shacks for train layouts or school dioramas.
The first step is to determine the scale you want to work with. HO (Half O) scale is the most popular size at 1:87, but I prefer O scale as it is a bit bigger at 1:48 – which means 1/4 inch on the model equals 1 foot on the real thing.
It is double the size and easy for a child to handle and place trains on the track, so a 50-foot-long box car model would be 6.8 inches in HO scale or 12.5 in O. Okay, how did we get that? First, take the real length, multiply it by 12 (as we want the answer in inches not feet) and then divide by 87 for HO or 48 for O.
Now math is not as much fun as running trains, so you can buy a scale ruler for around $10 or simply go online, look up the scale you like, and print it out. Tape the paper to a stick or even over a real ruler and you are good to go – just cut your wood stirrers into scale length and begin building.
Starting with a park bench, I made the length 6 scale feet long in O that would be 1.5 inches long. I made the seat area as well as the back of the bench two stirrers wide. I added four legs and presto a bench, a little wood stain – and the bench looked used.
Next, make a few picnic tables with benches and even a few small buildings. The stirrers can be cut and glued into ladders, buildings, and even stacked into piles of lumber – the possibilities are limitless.
Nothing brings a bench or ladder to life like a person using it. I tried making people from clay. That did not work so well so I went online and ordered some scale model people. For under $15 plus postage, you can get about 100 painted figures either standing or sitting.
PS: You can even order animal figures so your people on the bench can pet a dog or even feed some birds.
Hope to see you again soon Around the Tracks.
