St. Blazey's - My first layout - Stage 3 Building

[TimberSurf]

Interesting query!

Opaque - not able to be seen through; not transparent.

Translucent - allowing light, but not detailed shapes, to pass through; semi-transparent.

Dictionary makes it more confusing! The technical term in the glass industry is:-

Obscured - keep from being seen; conceal.

Obscuration glass is too difficult to say, so Window companies call it Privacy glass

Grandma calls it frosted!

As mentioned, paper, tracing paper and even tissue (great for net curtain simulation) will work, but be warned, they all turn yellow after some years!

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Grandma calls it frosted!

Me too.
Thanks
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I'm almost ready to start adding the windows. I have a large cut up milk bottle for the frosted windows and have had an idea but not sure it will work.

I have an idea to place some clear acetate like plastic over the milk bottle peice I will use, to make it seem glass-like / shiny on the outside.
What I'm not sure of is what glue to use to stick the plastic together and to the plaster (now painted) inside wall.
I have UHU and gorrila super glue (which sets quite quickly giving little time for repositioning). Are any of these ok to use?
I don't want to stick the plastic together if I can help it so it doesn't show.
I'd rather glue both plastics at the edge gluing to the wall at the same time.
Thanks
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[Pete]

Grandma calls it frosted!

Not just Grandma, you just need to look in the right technical dictionary

"Frosting

The process of giving a glass surface a matt finish, thus reducing transparency. Frosting may be by means of acid treatment (pouring hydrofluoric acid onto the glass), sandblasting, special glue application and subsequent removal, or mechanical etching with a grinding wheel."

I'm going to labour the tracing paper point, I buy cheap pads in the Works or similar discount stationars, it's quite stiff, but you could stick it to a plastic backing too (I use UHU). I've never known it go yellow... but who knows after time.

You can see where I've used it on this little stopping point (N Gauge):



Of course you could achieve a true frosted look by sanding your clear plastic, a bit of fine wet and dry would do the trick.



Pete

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I managed to pick up another Gorilla glue "Brush and nozzle" tube at the weekend which I've used to stick the windows in.
Using the brush is so much easier to get the glue where you want it. Although in my station building some of the "rooms" are so small I managed to get some glue on the windows.

I haven't fitted all the windows yet but as they were drying I started on the lighting rig so I could do 2 jobs at the same time.
Now the lighting rig is complete with 6 LED's and lampshades, ceiling painted and fits snugly inside.
I'll add some pictures once I've taken some.
Thanks
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Here is where I am upto now.
Platform side - Lit

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Road side - Lit

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The lighting rig is made out of balsa wood and here it is in position.

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The lighting rig pulled out so you can see the underneath

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I always try to make my lighting rigs removeable just in case something goes wrong or I wish to change anything.
This lighting rig can simply be lifted out including the wiring that feeds it.
More to follow.....

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Just a couple more showing how the wires go through the building.
I added the card upright so the wires cannot be seen through the windows and fed the wiring down and out through a hole in the bottom of the station.

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The lights may look a little dim but they are only running off a 9v battery in the pictures. They will eventually be connected to my 12v lighting bus so hopefully will run a little brighter.

Once all the windows have been fitted I can then move onto decorating the inside with furniture, people and notices/artwork.
Thanks
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I changed my mind on the floor and ceiling colour last night.
The darker grey of the floor was changed to a lighter grey and the cream of the ceiling was painted over white.
Hopefully this will help bounce the light around slightly more.

Book(ing hall) em Danno!
Thanks
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After working out how to paint the door panels on the station I had the idea to go back and do the same with my improved waiting room.
I also painted over the LED's a few times with some varnish. Although this did take the brightness level down somewhat it still was not enough so I added a 1KOhm resistor to the incoming positive wire (that splits in 2 to feed the 2 LED's) and now that's a lot better.
I also finished my Intercity lit coaches - viewtopic.php?f=49&t=51555&p=655276#p655276

I still need wood to build the legs and supports of the layout and will need to take it outside to put it together before taking it apart once again to rebuild it in the layout room proper.
I'll definatly need help so I need to get in touch with a friend who might be able to help plus he's good at woodwork too. A skill I am serverely lacking in.

Next projects to finish are the station and the HST power and dummy car.
With the station, I should have taken into consideration the height that the balsa floor would add to the internal dimensions, pushing the floor up (as it's glued internally to the walls not underneath the building) meaning people (even HO) seem too tall.
I may just have to push the feet into the balsa floor of the standing people and file off some of the legs / rear ends of the sitting people.
I still need to buy the extrnal valancing for the outer roof and I'm not sure what I will make the roof with yet and if/what to use as roof lights. (The transparent roof window kind, not ACTUAL lights).

One day I'll have a layout I can put all this on.
Thanks
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I finally found the bespoke signs I bought a while back to use on the station and had another idea.
I fished out the Wills SS66 Public Toilets Kit that I built ages ago as there's specific panels for the Gentlemen and Ladies signs.

Looking at what I had already done to the kit (painted, badly weathered and some greenery added) I decided to paint over the wooden panels, vents and roof vents with my usual "Biscuit Crunch" I use for GWR cream, before adding the signs.
As this has "lifted" decoratively speaking, part of the building I want to make the rest of it look better.
I now need to repaint the guttering, make the roof tiles look better and I am considering, although it will be hard, to paint in the mortar courses on the brick walled sides and perhaps weathering the red-ness of the bricks down somewhat. Possibly with dry brushed greys.
I am not sure where this toilets model will be placed. Either on platform 2 or away from the station as public toilets.

I also decided to add a couple of posters to my platform shelter. I stuck one on each end with pva, then realised, they are self adhesive.
Still lots to do on the actual station but it seems I always have multiple projects on the go at once.

Another new item of rolling stock bought this weekend. A Dapol limited edition GPV GWR improvised gunpowder van from the Gaugemaster show.

Thanks
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I decided to take the plunge and change the colour of the brick walls after all, using small brushes to get into all the nooks and crannies and around the greenery I added originally.
I have started, as usual, using a wash all over to fill in the morter courses.

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I am going to drybrush different shades of grey on and perhaps pick out a few single bricks to colour differently and need to do the same with the roof after a wash of black.
I didn't glue the wood panelled wall in picture 2 on quite straight when I first built the kit so I will add a sloping floor between it and the brick wall to straighten it up somewhat.
It does look a bit of a mess at the moment though.
Thanks
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[Hymirl]

I think its almost always worth painting moulded bricks, as its pretty easy to get a good finish and makes the detail stand out.

That looks good in a stone finish. It was almost toylike before. A bit of drybrushing should finish it off nicely.

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Yes I think it's definitely going to look much better than it's raw state.
As this was one of the first kits I made I didn't have the painting know how to do any more beyond actually building it.
Although now with quite a few buildings made, I have a way of painting that seems to work using different applications of washes, dry brushing or full paint depending on the circumstances.
If I was to build this kit again from scratch I would start by spraying all the sprues with an undercoat. Usually dark grey then build up the paint layers on top.
Hopefully I should have some more done by this evening and be able to update my progress.
Thanks
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And the end results...

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Much better.
Thanks
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[TimberSurf]

That looks jolly good E2E, well worth the effort to redo.