Some of you will already have seen some of these models but because I am so keen on using card as a modelling medium and think that it a much under rated material I like to spread the word among as many people as possible. Especially the young who may not have so much cash to spend and who would like to see what can be done with very little effort and cost. If any interest is shown then I will continue with various models but if not then that is perfectly understandable and the subject will just fade away.
Enough of the blurb and here is the start of a diesel locomotive washing facility. I am not a scale modeller of prototype material as I like designing my own models once I get a general idea of what's needed.
This first photograph shows that model is going to have two tracks, a layby outside the facility, for interior cleaning, and the main track inside. Here you can see that the card platforms are installed and work has started on the support girders. The short length of track is just there for measurement purposes.
Hi Jeff, I have always used white PVA glue for all my card work. I have a glass work surface (from an old coffee table) and if I want plenty of time to mess with the glued joints then I use the glue straight from the tube, if I want a more or less instant joint then I squeeze some of the PVA onto the glass surface and leave it for a few minutes to dry out a little before using it. Any mess on the glass surface is easily removed, when the glue has dried out, using the end of my steel ruler as a push scraper. The glass surface is also an excellent place to get things square as it is perfectly flat. As for sticking detail, if the detail is light then I find the PVA fine regardless of the material being used. Any other cases, i.e. plastic windows to card then I find UHU as good as anything else. Brick paper to card in small pieces, PVA spread with the finger is fine but anything larger than a couple of square inches I find an office or school type liquid gum is best.
Highlighting is easily achieved by running a thin dark paint over the scribed brickwork and then wiping it off quickly. I use exactly the same technique, as do many others, on my scribed plaster work for walls etc.
Hope this helps.
Things are now starting to come together and you can get a better idea of what I am about with this next photograph. The girders have been painted and the high pressure water pipes installed. As you can see the Class66 is still hanging around.
Hi Jeff, if you are condsidering scribing ready printed card, as in the Metcalfe kits, then one of the best tools I have found is an old biro, empty of course. There are various sizes and sharpness of balls on these pens so if you are having a go then practice on a piece of scrap from the kit, the last thing you want to do is break through the paper surface. There are always bits and pieces left from the kits for you to try scribing on. Also most important is to make sure that the ink reservoir is indeed empty. The pens I use I first strip down, pull off the plastic reservoir and then make sure the roller end is perfectly clean. Let me know how you get on if you do decide to press on with it.
As for your other idea I may well have a go at that when I find the time.
For me Dennis this is what model railways are all about. I don't have the talent to be an artist or a musician, much to my regret, so this is the next best thing as far as I am concerned. The beauty of these models is that they are well within the capabilities of most modellers and that is why I put them on the internet hoping that more people will have a go and so get even more out of this great hobby of ours.
I bet your efforts had to be exact to scale though Dennis, no such restrictions on me fortunately.
Water colour, acrylic and enamels Jeff, depends a lot on the effect I want as they all look different on card as they soak into the material as opposed to sitting on it's surface.
Once you have the design finished and the materials to hand then the actual cutting and assembly is about 5 hours work, plus drying times for glue and paint. As for cost, somewhere between 60p and a pound, depending on where you get your materials. I can enlarge on this if needed.
Roof finished and in position with drain pipes attached. Class 20 sat in the valeting siding waiting attention. The track isn't permanently laid yet and much is waiting to be done.
Time and patience eh? The twin pillars of railway modelling in my opinion but only needed if you are into DIY, otherwise today you can buy everything you need.
Here is the last photograph of the model looking from the front. I say the last because it was moved from it's present position to make way for a diesel refuelling point. New trackwork has been laid on Barchester to allow the two facilities to sit opposite each other for greater efficiency.
With regard to the possibility of damp affecting card. All my models are built with the long term in view, some being over 50 years old, and to this end I have always used shellac on all surfaces where I consider a future problem may exist. I use shellac flakes but they are no so easy to come by today but a ready mixed shellac is button polish, used to cover knots in wood before painting.
As far as operation goes, although Barchester is a freelance layout in every sense of the word, it's very first priority is it's running abilities, both in the interest of it's operation, in this case to a very strict operating timetable, and that every item of stock must perform faultlessly over every inch of track from a walking pace to the fastest scale speeds that are required. With todays excellent models running qualities are not a problem.
The next project was a refuelling point for diesel locomotives to match up with the washing unit. These two units are to be in the same complex. This first picture shows the platforms, two bare fuel tanks, one completed cross track gantry to carry fuel pipes and the bits for a second gantry.
Below is a quote from Dennis in an earlier post and I forgot to respond to it.
"Besides building models he's thinking of his model as he would a real railroad albeit with some compromises of course. "
You are quite right Dennis for me Barchester really lives, it has a life of it's own and is in fact Barchester Mk II. The first Barchester was in my loft in the UK and had to stay behind when the house was sold when we moved to Spain, less rolling stock, which is a story on it's own, and this Barchester takes over where the other one left off. The only difference in layout is the length, MkII being much shorter, but the history carries on from the first layout. Whatever happens on Barchester has to be accounted for in real life, costings, planning permission, commercial interests etc. Everything has a valid reason for what it does. All this probably sounds daft and way over the top to most people but I took my initial inspiration from Peter Denny's Buckingham Branch line and have never looked back.
The trellis work is made from post cards, the blank ones you buy from the Post Office or Smiths, very cheap and cover a lot of modelling. The frames are cut out as you can see and then glued back to back to give the cross effect.
Oh dear the "Beer Beano", that wouldn't be my beloved Railway Modeller would it? I've been taking that magazine for over half a century and nearly everything I've learned about model railways has come from it's pages at one time or another. Still, not to everyones taste and there is quite a choice out there.
After the last photograph was taken I realised that the refuelling unit was in the wrong position, both for efficient operation and for a visually appealing object, so it has changed places with the wash unit. Neither model caused problems during the move.
Here is the refuelling unit in it's new place on Barchester and the second lattice crossover has been added and track laid loosely so that you can see how it will finish up.
The unit now has it's fuel storage tanks in position plus the fuel flow monitoring cabinets. The cabinets are there only for the time being as their place will be taken up by the hand fuelling pumps and the cabinets moved up against the trellis girders where they really belong. All the pipe work has to go in yet and that is the next stage on the model.
The red discs show where the lighting will be fitted for night time operations.
Here we see the bulk of the assembled fuel delivery pipework. At the moment it is just leaning against the lattice work so that it is all visible.
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