Tuesday 20 February 2018

Getting stoned

In the last post on the station building I'd decided to cut out recesses behind all the windows to take the frames to a suitable depth. It took a while, but once complete I assembled the walls around the core of walls and floor.

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The next step - following the small practice pieces - was to start scribing the stonework. For this I simply used a 0.5mm propelling pencil, which gives a suitably fine mortar course. I used some photos of Dartmoor buildings to give an idea of size, shape, and irregularity. Even so I had to concentrate on making the stones look realistic, not like graph paper or the strange "squashed cushions" it is all too easy to end up with. I was given some good advice by Daniel Caso on the NGRM forum - "draw the stones, not the mortar lines" - and by ensuring I drew around every stone I found they looked much better.

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Did I say this took ages? Short bursts in evenings worked best, but it was over 2 weeks until I finished all the walls.

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Next up was the roof - and it turned out to be a tricky shape! I used black plasticard, and made it in one piece with lots of bracing. It will be glued down eventually, but it will need to be removable for a while yet. The dormers were, er, challenging...

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Finally, I've made a start on the painting. I've made a start with a coat of grey acrylic mixed with PVA glue, the aim being to seal the surface and strengthen it, and also ensure no white shows. The plan now is to dry-brush colours over the stones, and possibly lighten the mortar with a light wash, but to be honest I'm making it up as I go along, and hoping it works!

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Saturday 3 February 2018

Panel games

Here's another of my control panels. Not one of my layouts though, but the latest project by the Sussex Downs 009 group - and at about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, the largest I've made.

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The principles are the same as most of my layouts though, DC "cab control" (two controllers) through colour-coded sections, which are mounted along with point switches on a mimic panel. The panel is a sheet of 2mm aluminium onto which is mounted a printout of the diagram, and covered with a sheet of clear plastic - 20 thou sheet in this case due to the size, but thinner packaging plastic does smaller panels. So, now we just need to wire it up.