[Iarnrod]

I know it's possible to buy things like pipes, Anthony566, but I've had to start thinking about economies!*

The Evergreen stuff isn't cheap, but I thought it would lend itself to all sorts of modelling rather than specifics if I'd bought a set of gutters & downpipes. For example the strips used as brackets & joints here will be used for glazing bars in windows.

I also enjoy the thinking process of how I'm going to achieve something & then the activity of making it. In the case of these pipes I'd worked out how to make the bends (who'd have thought this could be done with warm water & they wouldn't just go straight again) but the brackets had eluded me & the pices sat around in the modelling space for more than a month.

I had tried cutting short pieces & bending them to a shape which fitted the rod & half-rod, but they kept breaking. Eventually while sitting in the car I hit on the idea of using longer pieces of strip covered in cement then wrapping them gently round. These didn't break and can either be snipped off on the flat side for the gutters or with a long-ish tab to hold them to the wall for the downpipes.

*There's also the fact that while I have a Modelzone close-ish there isn't a really handy model shop

 

[Iarnrod]

Had a bit more modelling time recently & also added to my selection of styrene strips, so had a bash at a scratchbuilt Ticket Office/Platform shelter from a design by John Ahern. This was the rough beginning:

Then started to put it together:

Obviously it needs a bit of work in terms of touching in paintwork & so on. Am trying to decide whether to uses some commercial wriggly tin for the roof or stick by my scratchbilt (less textures) plan & use the delaminated dishwasher tablet box in the corner of the top pic, even though it's over scale in a big way.

Finally knocked up a bench to go on the inner wall under the timetable. Obviously it's upside down:

I must be mad! I also gather The Small Controller's Godfather has been coaching him to say, "You need to get out more, Daddy!"

 

[Iarnrod]

Had another clear 30 minutes last night, so got it together with what I've made so far:

Pic quality not great, but rather liked how the light came through the ticket window & pooled on the floor in this one:

This pic is a cheat - there's no roof on it so the light is shining directly in from the open top.

Now for the not-very-fun bit of scratchbuilding the valance to go round the roof. I've tried doing this in card with a scalpel & a pin to get this effect:

This was not a great success, so I'm going to try with plasticard, or alternatively a laminating pocket with nothing laminated into it as the card just got grubby & fell to bits. I'm trying to ignore that someone makes a valance fret as this building is supposed to be completely home made!

 

[Norman Byrne]

Hi Iarnrod,

Love the little controllers "coached" comment - still giggling here LOL !

The ticket office / waiting room looks great, I agree the pool of light pic is excellent. Can't say I envy you the vallance cutting, but just think how good it will look when done eh !

Really nice detail as always, Cheers,

Norm

 

[Iarnrod]

Thanks, Norm. I've enjoyed making this one as I just had a few suggestions about how it might look & then adapted the plan. While I love the card kits it's nice to have something really my own!

I found about about the coaching from The Long Haired Controller, so said to TSC before he commented that I thought it would very rude to repeat what his Godfather had said. "But Daddy, if I don't Alec won't let me play on his iPad!" came the reply. Honestly, learning about bribery from his supposed moral guide

 

[Iarnrod]

Now home from a visit to family in NZ. Have dug out the work board again, and subject to finding some time at the weekend & a suitably chocolately-coloured acrylic paint which will take to my improvised corrugated iron (no sure that enamel or waterproof will go on without trashing the card) hope to get some modelling in at the weekend.

I've also had a pop at the Pendon method of doing brickwork. First the scribing out of the courses (apologies for poor pic taken on phone camera):

Gosh this was difficult! I have about one course which satisfies me & even that's not quite right with a scale brick height of more than 3". I was, however, using a reamer/punch from a copy Swiss Army knife as a scriber and a plastic straight-ish edge, so hope to improve on this.

Then a bit of painting (later on when I had the steel rule available):

How it dried out, & pictured under better light:

To be honest the scribing is the hardest bit, but this is no simple job. The piece shown is a scale 20' x 2.5' (ish) so it's going to be a long, hard learning curve & effort to produce anything more than a garden wall!

 

[Long funnel & tiresome]

QUOTE (Brian Considine @ 11 Jan 2013, 10:51) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>That looks like an excellent choice of prototype - look forward to following what will undoubtably be an awesome work in progress thread.Hint
I've been lucky enough to work close to professional architectural modellers through my career (unlike bodgers such as me).
For such a task of scribing regular courses the would always improvise some simple kind of jig that stepped up the position of the rule a fixed amount for each course. They would never rely merely upon their eye! I reckon you have set yourself an impossible task

LF&T

 

[Iarnrod]

Thanks for the advice! I was considering a jig of some sort, naturally, or just using this technique for larger block work.

I didn't try & do it all by eye, though. If you look at the pictures you should be able to see faint pencil markings along the left & right sides which give the course height & at the top where to do the ends of the bricks.

My problem with this kind of work is that I then find it quite hard to scribe or cut along these guidelines as the hair-tearing experience of trying to hand-produce a GWR (sorry) style canopy valance has proven.

I think it might be a case of "more haste, less speed", "measure twice, cut once" and "practice makes perfect", all aphorisms from my Father and woodwork master which I sometimes forget in my enthusiasm to crack on to a finished object!

 

[Oz the Dog]

I have had a go at Pendon style brickwork over the Christmas holidays. This is my latest effort:

Its nothing like the standard achieved by the people at Pendon but I quite like the effect. Only problem is the amount of time it takes.

I have come to the conclusion that if the main street part of my townscape is ever going to be finished its going to have to be made with Plasticard.

Cheers

 

[Iarnrod]

I think we're cross-posting on each others' threads, Keith. It was your excellent work which inspired me to have a go at this in the first place!

 

[Oz the Dog]

You are right - just seen your post on RMweb.

What I really like about using card in this way is the colours that watercolour paint produces. Much better than acrylics or enamels.

Might re-visit the technique in the future but as I said - back to Plasticard for a while.

 

[Long funnel & tiresome]

QUOTE (Iarnrod @ 11 Jan 2013, 13:49) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I think it might be a case of "more haste, less speed", "measure twice, cut once" and "practice makes perfect", all aphorisms from my Father and woodwork master which I sometimes forget in my enthusiasm to crack on to a finished object!the one we all remember was being hit over the head with the bit of wood we'd just butchered while being shouted at:
"so you think wood just grows on trees do you lad?"

LF&T

 

[Iarnrod]

While my experiments with pinking shears, a scriber & a pin produced a vaguely acceptable valance it was still way over scale. Furthermore as the blades of the shears closed the size of the undulations closed. I did paint the result up, but it wasn't quite right:

I then remembered the carpentry tools & hit upon this:

Bingo! In the ned I just hand-cut the pieces of styrene strip, but this got me started...

 

[Iarnrod]

I was then reminded by my Father about a fabulous book. He was a Western Region Civil Engineer as mentioned above & had bought this as he knew some of the people who put it together as well as for general interest. His tale of the archivist was a good one!

All sorts of good stuff inside:

Simply can't believe I forgot about this resource which I read avidly as a boy! As well as stations it covers everything from bridges to cattle docks to signal boxes via eheds and company residences. There are even appendices about lamp standards, seats, ornamentation and all sorts...

 

[Iarnrod]

Anyway, here's the ticket office/platform shelter a la John Ahern complete, less putting some signs on & obscured glass on the bottom half of the front window. Not a masterpiece, but I'm pleased with it:

The first one I've built completely from scratch - the only things bought were the styrene strip, the paint, the clapboard paper & the timetable. The rest improvised from bits round the house.

 

[Norman Byrne]

Hi Iarnrod,

Thats a really very very nice little model - great stuff, I can even sense your pride / sense of achievement over the web LOL !!!!!

However, lets now get you back down to earth - thats an even better book. Many many hours of reading / picture gazing in there methinks.

So whats next on the "to build list" ?

Cheers,

Norm

 

[ste]

Very nice ticket office/platform shelter...great bit of modelling that.

 

[Iarnrod]

Thanks, chaps. Having pulled my finger out & done some measuring up I'm now about to order some replacements for some very old & battered points & bits of track and then dive into re-laying the lot with Gaugemaster ballasted underlay & a bucket of PVA. I can then start fixing down all the stuff I've built!

To be honest there isn't much space for more buildings, but I am adding a spur to put an engine shed on, putting in a stream, have a plan for a couple of walls (rather boring & repetitive work, but will provide a sensible break point at the edges of the baseboard) and will probably end up making a sort of village square for the end of the branch line.

My original concept was to put a tunnel in place with a townscape on top to provide another way to break the roundy-roundy look of the layout. This isn't looking feasible now, but I have another idea to fill some board space.

Anyway, The Small Controller has been driving it all weekend. He loved the Hornby Christmas 2012 wagon I bought him along with the other bits I bodged up to make a seasonal train. This was built up from a Railroad pack which had a funny little GWR 0-4-0 shunter in it. Not only is he pleased to have his own first locomotive as opposed to one of my old ones the thing runs beautifully on all the old track. I'm now wondering whether it's all my old engines that need work rather than replacing the steel track with nickel silver!

 

[Iarnrod]

Right, bullet bitten. Fairly large sum of money sent to a place in Liverpool & bits should be with me by the weekend. Now will I have time to get the railway out & start work bearing in mind I have a Rugby match to go to...

 

[David Todd]

QUOTE the Pendon method of doing brickwork

Is Pedon a prison then.............?