A group build....

Dave, clearly it was an observation.

When it was first produced, buy British reigned supreme in the commonwealth. Model railways were in their infancy. It was (acceptable?) practice that Triang would rebadge items for NZ/AUS etc and they would sell as local trains. Very collectable items now but not up to todays expectations. No doubt back then it may have been used for some forced perspective modelling. Since it is nominally 1:76, it is ideal for out the front in a 1:87 environment to achieve this.

As the subject of this thread, the kit has no doubt graced many a model rail around the world over the years. Like this thread this model has no doubt been altered to the different extents show in this thread.

This is not like physics, there is no right or wrong way, there are just different degrees of how to finish it. It's a plastic kit, glue it together and it is perfectly acceptable to some people, to others it needs interiors, others want to paint/weather it, others want to kit bash it. There are various degrees that people want/are able to do with it.

As long has people received enjoyment out of participating then that is fine. Personally I don't have a problem if someone was to start building one now and put their pictures up of the build if that is your thing.

Cheers

John

More Photos...

The hedges are "Green Scouring Pad" cut into strips, and covered with Green "Turf" scatter and some Woodland Scenics"Foilage".

White PVA stays sticky for a long time. UHU sets quicker. I have used both here...

Superquick Paving. (Old stock.)

Airfix Station Fencing (Old pre-used.) With Square Section Evergreen Styrene Posts.

The gates and dividing fence came from a job lot of parts, unknown manufacturer, along with the possibly Ratio detailing pack of chimneys, guttering, down-piopes, etc.

The washing line is Slaters Plastic rod uprights, and thinner "rod" for the line. (Needs some washing next...)

The grass is a mixture of Green "Turf" and a lighter green fibrous scatter.

The Coal Lorry is the Cooper Craft AEC Flatbed kit with Merit/PECO Coal Sacks.

The cars are both Oxford Diecast.

The figure is from the Bachmann Scenecraft "Train Crew" pack.

The base is Cereal Packet, painted with acrylics.

The render is painted with an mix of Acrylics. Black, White, and Yellow Ochre.

















I have been continuing to look around at the various houses I pass, and have decided the roof will be Red Tiles (Basically a Red-Oxide Colour) as these are quite common on houses that seem to be from the same period as this one.

Incidently, there are some Semi-detached houses in Upton that are very much the same as the Metcalfe semi kits.

I very surprised you didn't wall paper the rooms , and add some washing on the line.
Good effort so far.

QUOTE (Makemineadouble @ 8 Apr 2013, 13:56) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I very surprised you didn't wall paper the rooms , and add some washing on the line.
Good effort so far.


Thanks...

The interior is still in work (the windows were only pushed into place in the photos...) wall paper is a possibility.

The washing will come, but I may move the line first. As it is I would get muddy feet putting out and taking in the washing...

Stu...

As I am most certainly a hoarder, and love to buy bags of bits from Train Fairs, etc., I have a fair amount of bits and bobs. Some of it is even organised!

Norm...

The roof has had its first coat of Vermilion mixed with burnt umber acrylic paint.

(Black, White, Green, Burnt Umber acrylic paints available in large(!) tubes from "The Works" the "cheap" book and art shop chain. Also sets of small acrylic tubes, brushes, etc. etc. Woth a look! Also some Railway Books, and one of the Airfix books came from there!)

QUOTE (KGR @ 9 Apr 2013, 12:30) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Is there any easy way to make the guttering?. I know Ratio do a plastic fret of guttering etc, but it seems expensive for a very small amount.

Keith.

I use styrene strip, rod and half-round. Here's a picture, sorry it's not better quality, but it was taken on a camera phone:



For the guttering I take half round and then glue bits of strip round the curved edge for the joints. Once the glue has set I snip off the protruding ends sticking up from the flat side. Brackets to hold the gutter under the roof are made from more strip.

Geoff Taylor of The Gresley beat fame actually says that in 4mm it's not really necessary to use half-round for the gutters. When painted in a dark colour the eye sees what it expects to and it is only from close up the difference is evident.

For downpipes I make joints/brackets by wrapping strip round rods, allowing the solvent effect of the glue to melt the styrene into place. I found that trying to just bend the strip made it fracture. When the strip is completely round the rod I glue the inner faces to make the brackets to go into the walls.

The angles in the pipes can be made, when using 1mm styrene anyway, by dipping the rod into very hot water then curving it into shape. Strangely enough this does work and the rods don't morph back into straights. Just be careful (as I also found when making concasse tomatoes while distracted by a rugby match not to lose attention and dip the fingers into the very hot water to retrieve the next bit to be worked on!

Iarnrod those downpipes look very effective.

While I was building my market square I did quite a lot of looking for gutters and drainpipes. I got a set of the Dornaplas ones as I didn't like the half round down pipe from Wills. I ended up using the Wills gutters and the Dornaplas downpipes. Picture here nicked from the gaugemaster site.



They are about the same price as Wills and Ratio

I can confirm that it doesn't really need to be proper half round tube for the gutters as I built a jig so that I could scrape out the inside of the Wills gutter to make it half round. You have to look very very closely to see it.

The final answer Keith is the only cheap way is to make you own from plastic strip. Try filing a small flat on the edge of some half round rod and gluing it to some rectangular section. The brackets don't really show so are not needed but could be represented with a line of darker paint if you want to.

Stu

Thanks, StuB, I'm fairly happy with the effect. I like your suggestion for the mounting of the gutters. I had used small bits of strip coming down from under the edges of the roof and glued the half-round to that, but it was very delicate as I discovered when I ripped them off my signal box by accident recently!

Just to clarify I use Evergreen half-round pieced which are D shaped in section. I don't try to dig out a channel in them, obviously I have let standards slip

All good idea's, thanks very much.

Regards, Keith.

More photos.

The first floor is progressing well, with the bathroom. master bedroom, and two small bedrooms allocated.

The master bedroom now has a fireplace, with a clock on the mantlepiece, and a (now thought to be dangerous, so do not do this at home...) mirror. The flowery wallpaper shows that Mrs. has some say over the decorating!











The ground floor is still awaiting work. The front door will have to be re-hung to open the other way, towards the outside wall.



The outside.

I have added cills over the back door, and the garage door. (Rain Strips?)

TV aerial and waste pipes stil to be sorted.

The roof tiles. I have been looking very hard at houses, and noticed that some have shaped tiles on the roof "corners", with ridge tiles on the ridges (!). Some have ridge tiles over the "corner" joins, and some have half round over these joints.

The roof as supplied only has ridge tiles on the ridges, so mine therefore has the shaped tiles on the "corners".

The bathroom window has the lower panes "obscured"...

QUOTE (sarah @ 15 Apr 2013, 10:29) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The master bedroom now has a fireplace, with a clock on the mantlepiece, and a (now thought to be dangerous, so do not do this at home...) mirror. The flowery wallpaper shows that Mrs. has some say over the decorating!

The ground floor is still awaiting work. The front door will have to be re-hung to open the other way, towards the outside wall.

The roof tiles. I have been looking very hard at houses, and noticed that some have shaped tiles on the roof "corners", with ridge tiles on the ridges (!). Some have ridge tiles over the "corner" joins, and some have half round over these joints.



Progressing well - a couple of observations/questions.

Why are mirrors now thought to be dangerous? I doubt if they got much sleep with that wallpaper!

I have seen roofs with exactly what you described so I wouldn't worry too much. Front doors opening outwards are unlikely but probably not unknown.

I notice you have a dropped kerb for garage access, this certainly wasn't common (in London suburbs at least) until 1970s/80s but perhaps was elsewhere?

One final comment for all builders - I assume this house is coal fired but have seen no bunkers or coal cellar access? but perhaps they have all moved over to GCH?

Hugh

QUOTE (conmaira @ 15 Apr 2013, 14:28) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Progressing well - a couple of observations/questions.

Why are mirrors now thought to be dangerous? I doubt if they got much sleep with that wallpaper!

I have seen roofs with exactly what you described so I wouldn't worry too much. Front doors opening outwards are unlikely but probably not unknown.

I notice you have a dropped kerb for garage access, this certainly wasn't common (in London suburbs at least) until 1970s/80s but perhaps was elsewhere?

One final comment for all builders - I assume this house is coal fired but have seen no bunkers or coal cellar access? but perhaps they have all moved over to GCH?

Hugh

Hi Hugh.

Thanks for the observations.

It was thought more recently I believe that having a mirror over the fireplace encouraged people to stand in front of the fire, potentially catching alight!

The front door won't open outwards, just towards the right hand wall, rather than to the left.

Hmm. As the Garage was built in, I thought the builders would have arranged the roadworks? (The Garage door is also to be added, based on one I saw in Bedford.)

Good point. The coal bunker will come, along with the Dustbin(s), possibly a shed for the lawn mower, and several other details up my sleeves (it is a bit uncomfortable! )

The period I am aiming at with this house is the 1950s, the same as with Ffrwd Locks. (Where you will find a coal bunker in the yard of Railway Cottages.)

This build has certainly made me look more closely at houses lately!