Michaela’s workbench

[Mountain]

Ooh. You have a "Percy".

[Michaelaface]

Ooh. You have a "Percy".

it was broken and doesnt run, and I've since used it for spare parts

[Mountain]

If the body has its main structure complete it is an ideal candidate to use with a Smallbrook Studio conversion kit. The conversion kit does not need the chimney or cab. It relies on the main body structure. The kit has parts to widen the footplate and provides a new smokebox door, cab, chimney and details. The chassis is a standard Hornby 0-4-0 chassis. An easy conversion into one of these:-

[Michaelaface]

That's a nice conversion, sadly the body on mine was already destroyed by its previous owner

anyway back to my weathering, today's victim was my all time most expensive loco, my TTS Black 5, went for a "clean but worked" look for this one, which meant a gloss finish with light weathering over it, here are the results

[Dublo]

Looking good there Michaela, you are certainly developing an eye for portraying these engines.

[Michaelaface]

right, enough of that weathering lark for a bit, got back on with finishing up the cafe I'd be working on, needs a bit of weathering, but I've earned a break from weathering now I think

[Michaelaface]

lets have another go at this scratch building lark then

[Dad-1]

Go for it !

That already reminds me of Yorkshire - Vague memories
of Bradford, Halifax, Leeds and such where large square
finished stone blocks were used a lot.
Is it really 20+ years since I used to Rep up there ?

Geoff T.

[Michaelaface]

yes that area, plus the ELR, is my main inspiration for buildings, not sure why, just like the look of them, and layouts full of them

here's where I'm up to now, with sore fingers

just a test fit before I finish painting and put all the windows in





not entirely sure why but this one seems to be going a lot better than my previous scratch builds

[Lysander]

Your buildings are really rather good. I like the Black Five finish too, good to see a tender that hasn’t just had its interior sprayed matt back. The rusty in-use effect works well.

Tony

[Michaelaface]

Your buildings are really rather good. I like the Black Five finish too, good to see a tender that hasn’t just had its interior sprayed matt back. The rusty in-use effect works well.

Tony

thank you, I can't remember where I saw it or got the idea

anyways here's where my scratch build is up to, going to go about my next one completely differntly as the speed of my work is slowed dramatically, just got to add doors and work out how I'm going to do the guttering now

[minipix]

I love the flowers in the windows, great detail!

I know you can get plastic guttering kits, but I've always wondered whether you could approximate the downpipes at least with paperclips. I'm nearly at the guttering point on my scratch built terraced houses too, so I'd be interested to know what you do!

[TimberSurf]

Drain pipe should be 1-1.2mm dia, similar half round plastic strip can be had from plastruct/evrgreen/China and for joints see here

[Michaelaface]

I love the flowers in the windows, great detail!

I know you can get plastic guttering kits, but I've always wondered whether you could approximate the downpipes at least with paperclips. I'm nearly at the guttering point on my scratch built terraced houses too, so I'd be interested to know what you do!

aha thanks but they're not my doing, when you buy kits from kibri they often come with a sheet of window interior thingies you can cut out, had a load spare and they fit these windows perfectly, I have some of the wills guttering kits, but I'd rather see if I can make something from scratch ideally without buying anything first

Drain pipe should be 1-1.2mm dia, similar half round plastic strip can be had from plastruct/evrgreen/China and for joints see here

I have some of the rounded strip which was going to use for drains, dont have any half round though, was hoping to find a solution without buying anything though

moving on, while I thought about how I was going to do the drains I thought I'd have a go at a few of the ideas I had building those terraces, here's my work so far

firstly time to clean up and "tidy" the work area



used a helpful machine to scribe my design onto mounting board



still requires a lot of carefully cutting out, but it does make it considerably easier



works on plasticard too





the plan is for this one to have shops on the ground floor, I've loosely based the design for the front off a wills kit



and here's where I'm currently up to, just added in the windows on the back



also I got asked on my instagram how I paint these, so here's a shot showing the stages if anyone is interested here

the paints are dark sand > flat earth > burnt umber > wood grain > smoke > chocolate > black

[Mountain]

Wow. What an impressive works area in regards to your choice of pints. It looks like you went into a model shop and asked for some paint. "Certainly madam... Which colour would you like? I want them all please including the display!"

When I had H0e, I had lots of little waggons I purchased secondhand and they included the origional shop displays. I gave all my H0e collection to a friend as he had started with 009, and by then my attention was swayed towards 0-16.5 as an easier and cheaper option to model in.