Scratchbuilding Advice

[Sumpter250]

I would've used styrene (a better bond with the plastic doors and windows) and much easier to work with than wood. The finished product is a lot more stable, too, and won't fall apart after several years on the layout. However, since you're used to working with wood, you may enjoy it more, if only for the familiarity.
I've built wooden structures in the past and found it not to my liking: too slow, too imprecise, to impermanent, etc., etc.
However, if you're building it in full-HO scale, a good material for window screens is silk screening. It's very easy to cut (knife or scissors), can be coloured with markers (paint doesn't work so well ), and you may be able to get enough scraps from a screen printing shop to do the whole structure for free. The material is very fine...
...and would probably keep out the HO scale bugs if the screen's frame was a better fit. Wayne

I'll not question doctorwayne's model building ability, it is superb.

What I will do, is offer my own personal experiences with both wood, and styrene......sort of a "front yard back yard".
He and I have experienced different "results", for whatever reasons.
Wood: Still one of my favorite materials to work with. Slow?, yes ! But doesn't have to be "tricked into looking like" wood, and for me, produces a better looking model of a wood structure. Imprecise ?, yes, and one of the reasons building with it is slow. Precision in wood has to be coaxed out of the material. Impermanent ?,...."six of one, half dozen of the other". My small freighthouse is 50 years old.( more on that later ).

Styrene : Al Armitage was one of the earliest proponents of styrene, before sheets, and shapes were readily available. I saw, in his articles, a material that had a very wide range of applications. With liquid "solvent" adhesives, a fairly quick, and reliable material for models. I have used, and continue to use styrene in many different applications.
I have even dared to speak of "plastic" on a couple of the "wood ship model" forums, and come away with most of my hide intact.
I have kitbashed, scratchbuilt, rolling stock, diesel and steam loco's, bridges, buildings, ships, boats and much more, in both wood, and styrene, even combining the two in a single model.

( it's later ) On my new modules I have my 50 year old freight house, and some new styrene kit structures. There's a 43 year old, wood, pickle factory , a 37 year old wood coal tower, a 36 year old kitbashed plastic roundhouse .
After two shows, one in Rockford, Il. and Trainfest, in Milwaukee, trips that my old modules made for 20 years without damage, the freight house, the coal tower, and two of the new styrene kit structures suffered fairly extensive, similar, damage. The scratchbuilt wood shed and dock, on the old modules, still "good as new" is 48 years old.
The difference? Because of the larger size ( 30" vice 24" ) of the new modules, I wasn't able to secure them in the trailer as well as I could the old ones......it's a case of, the modules were coming down, as the trailer was coming up.
The impact shock didn't care about wood, or styrene....it broke both, with equal enthusiasm.
What has surprised me, is that the effects of heat, cold, humidity, etc. hasn't been a major factor in the models' longevity.
After all the different environments I've subjected my models to, in all the moves I've made as a result of Military service, they all, wood, and styrene, have survived remarkably well .
The trick with any material, is understanding its advantages and its limitations. Learning how to work with it, and learning what adhesives will hold the longest, in "all" conditions.
A "new" freshly painted wood building can be modeled in styrene, moderately "weathered", and look perfect. An old, rarely maintained barn, might be the better for the imprecise qualities of wood. Broken, or rotted boards are naturally imprecise. Steel, on the other hand is far better modeled in styrene, even bent, twisted, or rusted.
Choosing a material, becomes a matter of "the nature of the thing being modeled", and what condition, new, or ancient, the model represents, and, "the Artistic License", and technique of the modeler/artist, and I haven't even begun to scratch the surface. There's brass, paper, card stock, cereal boxes, aluminum foil, ground foam, plaster, and on, and on.
What you have learned to work with, what you will learn to work with, what you've learned you can't work with, choice, in a hobby like this, there is no wrong one. ( here, again, my "signature" says it all )