Scratchbuilding of assorted structures

[Lofty]

Get the card and have a go - the only way you improve is by making something.

That is so right Geoff, you cannot buy experience.

Going back to the shed door, this is a good example of modelling what you see and not what you think you know.

[hornbyandbf3fan]

Thanks dad-1 I might have to steal that idea a bit lol! The new cattle dick looks superb and is about the thing I was hoping to make, if I a bit bigger Thanks for the help again, now to ore deer some materials!

[bike2steam]

I can fully recommend this book, why - because he does it very similar to the way I've been doing it for the last 30+ years .
http://www.gtbuildingsmodels.co.uk/page19book1.html

[Dad-1]

Hi lofty,

Yes, this is where best practice & theory differ from what is. We have three 8 x 6 sheds none has diagonal brace
in the manner shown by Bushy Troughs.



We should model as is, warts and all including leaning chimneys, bowed walls.

Yep bike2steam, a good book is always full of ideas & tips. Trouble is we want to start and get doing something before
we know what we're doing !!

Geoff T.

[hornbyandbf3fan]

One quick question, what size plastic are do you use for the cattle dock dad-1 ie 10/1000 20/1000 etc. I'd like to know which size is best

[Dad-1]

Hi Will,

Very flexible about 35 thou, or as will probably be sold as metric 0.70 - 0.80 mm. you could go for 1.0 mm
If you get Slaters embossed it simply comes as is, which I looked at and seems to be 0.60 mm
As you want a fair sized set of pens I would be tempted to go for the thicker, yes harder to cut, but stiffer
over a larger area.

Geoff T.

[b308]

Regarding the door, we must always remember the adage "There is a prototype for everything!"...

[Dad-1]

Hi b308,

You made no mention of you doing scaled drawings ?
I presume you must have done, to try & work out exactly how large a footprint you would have.

Having been to the Czech republic on many occasions I like your slant on a suitable Eastern
European station. Have you any more pre plastic cutting information to share ?

If you can't find a prototype - build one yourself ?

Geoff T.

[b308]

You made no mention of you doing scaled drawings ?
I presume you must have done, to try & work out exactly how large a footprint you would have.

Having been to the Czech republic on many occasions I like your slant on a suitable Eastern
European station. Have you any more pre plastic cutting information to share ?

If you can't find a prototype - build one yourself ?

Err, no, I do it a bit ar*e about face... In the case of South Bohemia I already had a baseboard built and decided the backscene should have a number of typical village buildings along it. I then looked for suitable prototypes on the estate agents websites and amongst my photos. I knew the rough sizes of windows and doors and then worked out from the photos the distances between them, that gave me the length of the building. When I had a few which worked out right to fit the space i built them... Not a drawing in sight, windows and doors put straight onto the plasticard, hence the pencil marks... I may just be very lucky but it did work out ok!

The Grain Store was a little different as it's based on a real building and I did have some dimensions. The main issue there was to make it close enough to the prototype but not to dominate the layout, It's pretty close to scale, though i also put it at the back and a hillside with trees next to it to "soften" the size. Again it came out ok...

The station building is the only kit amongst the buildings and is a Czech "scratch-aid" kit of a typical local station. You get the four walls with pre-cut windows and door and the windows and doors to fit, the cladding, roof etc., you have to make up yourself. The door and window sizes allowed me to make the measurements used in the houses as again things are fairly standard over there...

With regard to suitable prototypes i just cast around the estate agents websites 'til I find one that looks about the right size and then scale it to fit...

Not very professional, but it gives a very original layout when it comes to buildings as they are nothing like anything else, not a Metcalfe or Skaledale in sight! TBH I wish more people would do it rather than just buy kits or ready made as the buildings are what add the individually to a layout rather than the railway and rolling stock... There are far too many MetDale layouts around these days... They may be nice models but after a while they get boring and one layout fades into the next...

[Dad-1]

Brave man b308 ........ You must also have a very 'good eye'.
This is where having at least a couple of us doing things we are able to represent different approaches and as modellers there are many different
ways to produce the same end game, or buildings in our case.

I feel the need to work to plans, that way I should have thought through & worked out any possible glitches. As an example here are a couple of my
plans with all required cutting dimensions shown. I found a started building in the bag of plans, this means we can progress through it's construction
reasonably quickly.



Here you can see the laminated front/rear wall. All windows & doors have been cut from the plain plasticard, embossed card is then stuck over the entire
piece leaving at leat 2 mm spare to overlap the ends only. Then using the cut-outs a scalpel is used to trim around thereby matching the original door &
window locations.





There is no overlap left on the embossed plasticard of the end pieces. These will now fit tight against the sides into the corner between the plain core
& extended embossed card of the front/backs. This allows easy, no step alignment of all the joints. When fully dried, I tend to leave overnight, the
excess can be easily trimmed away. If you want you can reinstate some mortar lines along the edge joint. I will admit I rarely do as the plain 0.60 mm
edge is not easily seen.

It's too cold to work in my garage on the layout so will go & do a little more on this.


Geoff T.

[b308]

I love reading the "plans" books but when it comes to layouts I've always gone with the "in my mind's eye" approach. I know roughly what I want and I know the space available, it tends to develop from there... As you say it's just a different approach and I'd encourage people to experiment and then choose what approach suits them the best.

If you look at artists there are those who paint a scene "as it is" sometimes even using things like pinhole cameras or camera obscura to ensure that everything is right... And then there's the ones who just paint what they want, mixing and matching as it pleases them...

One thing I do do, though, is ensure that everything is appropriate for the area I model, so I wouldn't use, for instance, Dutch buildings in the Czech or Hungarian layouts, as although they are nice they look out of place...

RESEARCH is the key, with the WWW it's dead easy these days, once you have chosen an area it's really easy to research it and ensure that you don't make any glaring errors... That's not to say i don't have exceptions, but they tend to be locos where I just happen to like a prototype and so run it... My Russian Tu2 is an example...

[Dad-1]

Ahh, Like you b308 I never use a track plan ...... ever. I know the space I have & what I want to put in, also work to the less is more principal
never try cram too much into available space.

Done slightly more on the cottage. I don't use a square, but set the building as square as needed by using the cutting mat markings.



Here we see the extended embossed laminate giving the required overlap on the corners. Followed by a trimmed corner where at this
magnification there is no unsightly join, it should when painted be almost invisible.





A tight fitting floor has now been added and that will keep the building square as the glue gradually dries out completely.
One thing I dislike is looking at a model building through a bedroom window you can see out through the ground floor windows.



Back to cut chimny parts & start the bit I don't like much, that is making window frames !!

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

One final update for the weekend ....
My Grandaughter gets married tomorrow so I'm having to give this a rest.
In addition I use Wills tiles and find all I have left in the box are smaller offcuts, I'll now have to replace
some of my stock. One small piece resting in place to get the overall impression.
At least you start getting the feel of my country farmhouse type cottage. The lean-to was already made
& laying in a spares box, it fits on here quite well.




Geoff T.

[hornbyandbf3fan]

That house looks fantastic, I doubt I'll ever make something that good!

[b308]

At 14 I couldn't either! But if you keep practicing you will, don't become discouraged if things don't work out like ours at first! Only way you'll do it is by having a go!