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

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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.

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I managed to get down to a train fair this weekend and pick up another Great Wheal Prosper wagon for £8.

I actually got to the fair later than usual, some sellers we're slowly packing up and the gent that usually takes the fee on the door (£2) was not there so I thought I'd go in anyway and catch him on the way out.
He wasn't there when I came out either so I got in (snuck in) free.

Back to the layout....
The main station building is still under way albeit slowly.
I have painted, cut out the window gaps and glued on the L-Cut GWR valancing onto the balsa canopy.
http://www.lcut.co.uk/index.php?product ... R%2000-11c
http://www.lcut.co.uk/index.php?product ... R%2000-12c

Before painting the underside of the canopy, I added the LED's, using a pin to push a hole through the balsa for the LED's legs so as not to damage the balsa wood.
After adding the LED's I then pulled the LED's HALFWAY OUT leaving thier legs in thier holes while I painted round them. This was to keep the holes open and not get filled up with paint, which may possibly damage the paint work after it has dried trying to get the LED's back in.
Plus, I usually paint white behind LED's in ceilings to hopefully bounce the light back somewhat, so needed them out of the way-ish anyway.

Once the paint was dry I pushed the LED's IN more so the paint would not get pulled off if I had pulled them out instead.
I will add a drop of superglue to the back of each LED to hold them in place.

I wracked my brains trying to think of how to channel out grooves in the balsa canopy to run the lighting wires (The balsa canopy is quite thick for this very reason) so the top of the canopy would sit flat to glue the corrugated roofing on (once made), and my uncle came up with the soloution.
Use a ballpoint pen!!
I've tried the idea out on a spare piece of balsa and it seems to work without splitting or going right through the balsa so I think this is the way to proceed.

Both my experiments, of gluing toothpicks side by side onto 2 bits of wood to make a press for corrugated sheeting for the canopy roof, and trying to laminate frosted pieces of soft plastic for the canopy glazing didn't work.

My next experiment for the glazing is to try to laminate small pieces of greaseproof paper.

I have bought both the Wills SSMP216 (Corrugated Iron) and the SSMP219 (Corrugated Asbestos) sheets packs to possibly make the canopy roof with some formed foil using the sheets as a mould of sorts. This, as mentioned recently on the forum, should really be the thicker Turkey Foil rather than run of the mill aluminium foil which I am yet to buy.

My idea is, once I have formed the foil, to spray it with something to try and hold it's form. This could be spray paint or spray glue and more than one layer if needs be. I don't think this can be done with a brush as it would distort the modulations in the formed foil.
I checked out the price of spray adhesive in a couple of shops on Sunday. RIDICULAS prices , so I may be able to get some for free or I will buy it on the net at a fraction of the price.
The formed foil will be glued to a card backing after this as well (another reason for the spray glue), as it will extened beyond the actual balsa canopy, with cut outs in both the foil and the card for the canopy windows.

So a few more things to get hold of or buy before I can actually finish the station building but I can work on the electronics for the lighting in the meantime.
Thanks
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A quick update of where I am on the station building.
Here is the pieces of greaseproof paper for the rooflights laminated, and the ones I have cut out to use lying on the cutting mat.

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A close up of the L-Cut valancing glued in place.

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Here is a view of the top side of the balsa canopy with the channels cut out to take the wiring for the lighting.

I ended up making the grooves with a combination of different shaped files, scapel and small flat bladed screwdriver. The ballpoint pen just made a mess.

I used the canopy as a template to make a cardboard backing from a cereal packet for the corrugated roofing to glue to once I've made it, cutting out the rooflight apertures and then spraying the cardboard with grey undercoat. I didn't realise it was such a light grey so I will need to go over it again in a darker grey too but hopefully this will strengthen the cardboard somewhat with multiple layers of paint.

I am going to add the rooflights I've made inbetween the balsa and cardboard. This way I can glue some left over laminated plastic pieces here and there to keep the roof flat all over.
I am also thinking to add surrounds to the rooflights perhaps made with matches but that will not be until near the end of the build.

Next thing to do is start installing the lighting.
Thanks
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[Mountain]

You have been busy. It looks good so far.

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Slowly plodding along with my station building, I have stuck the windows in and took a few days to think how I could connect and solder the wires together for the lighting.

I ended up doing it by first soldering on the resistors onto the all the positive legs and then went along soldering wires to the LED's negative legs, daisychaining them alltogether with small pieces of wire by wrapping them around each negative leg and and soldering the mess together, starting with the furthest LED from the where the wires come off the canopy.

I glued the wires into the channel with the Gorrilla Glue brush type applicator as I went, making sure nothing poked up above the top of the balsa and waited for the glue to dry each time before moving onto the connections for the next LED. This helped keep everything exactly where I wanted it.

Here's all the wires glued into place.

A close up of the connections.

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All lit and working.

I have ordered the thicker turkey foil I need to make the corrugated roof for the canopy which will be with me sometime this week.
I have made the card former which will be glued underneath the corrugated roof (on top of the canopy) and sprayed it multiple times with paint to try to give it some stiffness.
I am also thinking to give it a couple of coats of hairspray both sides just to try to strengthen it some more then spray paint over it again.
With the windows cutout on the cardboard hopefully this will help when cutting out the window apertures of the foil.
Next thing to do is paint the canopies wiring and wiring channel black.

I will master this station...station master!
Thanks
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I have most of the items I need to finish the canopy but I am still waiting on the 3M 77 spray glue.
I went to buy it off the bay knowing it was £13.99, but just before I bought it I thought I'd just do a quick search rather than jumping to buy the one in my watch list and lo and behold I found a seller who had 1 can left (of 4) at only £7.50 INCLUDING postage!
Happy days.

No projects have moved on of late as life does have a habit of getting in the way but once the 3M 77 arrives I will settle back down to some modelling.

A quick question if anyone can answer. Can you paint over varnish?
The reason I ask is that I want to stiffen cardboard. I've spray painted it a few times and even given it a couple of layers of hairspray after that but it's not quite as sturdy as I'd like.
Thanks
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