Scratchbuilding of assorted structures

[ParkeNd]

Are your plastic 'Corner squares' home made ParkeNd They look a bit more efficient than Geoff's cloths peg.

I need all the help I can get so these are York Mini Squares which have another piece inside the joint (you can see it on the far corner of the building) attracted by very strong magnets. Two pairs cost £12 from memory. They come in a bigger size called York Mini Mates for OO buildings. I absolutely swear by them.

[Lofty]

Thanks for that, I had not heard of York Modelmaking before, they have some interesting stuff on their site.

[Dad-1]

Lofty (Back in Red hey ho),

The clothes pegs were simply to prop in place, not glued yet.
Strange, but then I'm the son of good Yorkshire parentage, I simply square up my buildings on a cutting mat.
No expense spared here you know. I also have some 10A blades, but prefer the more sloping No.11

Perhaps I have a good 'eye', but that's being tested by adding curved lintel lines by free-hand carving



This will be square enough for a foamboard floor to slide in from top or bottom, When I finish those curved
tops on the rear wall. Oh my just remembered that the toilets are in a block attached at the back & that
will be 2 more doors & a couple of windows.
This will be a seedy back street pub, I shall need some 'certain' ladies next time I go people shopping !!

Geoff T.

[ParkeNd]

I bet they are special clothes peg though Geoff.

[Dad-1]

Been away for a few days ...... again, never here for a full week !!
Still I took this building & did a few little bits & pieces.

First a floor was fitted, I must be getting good at this because the initial cut oblong
fitted so exactly that when sealed & stuck with liquid polly it's watertight around the
entire floor. I didn't use foamboard as that was in the loft & I couldn't be bothered to
fetch it.



In the last posting it was easy to see the overlop at corners, here the overlap is
being cut away.



After some fettling using fine wet 'n' dry paper the corners have liquid poly brushed over
to return to a sealed plastic finish - Can you see the join line ?



My corner fill is now in place, but still need fettling before painting a pale cream as
opposed to boring white as the original corner - see prototype buildings.



Now I'm needing to make window frames - ouch

Geoff T.

[Bufferstop]

You're working for pleasure from here on Geoff. It's QED as far as demonstrating that the surface is just a simple curve of a flat sheet, but it's a damned good excuse for making a building for which you don't, as yet, have a home. I still haven't found a home for the art deco station building which I built last year, to mark the 60th anniversary of the one my father created for me.

[Dad-1]

Hi John,

Daft, but apart from making what seems 100's of windows I thoroughly enjoy the drawing & making of random buildings.
Random is as much as no such building (to my knowledge) exists, but I can incorporate what elements for me make an
interesting building.
This is where I draw on information from the many prototype buildings I see & in some cases photograph.

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

While I was away we had some rather heavy weather, the sea looked like this :-



So what do you do when the holiday home has been stripped of all model making kit except some paper
& plasticard ....
O.K I know I don't have an immediate need to a pair of semidetached 3 bed houses. Drawing them was fun,
my complicated drawing with one layer over another to show elevations and floor plan. I did manage to cut
plastic which is now ready for skinning ...... Only I'm running out of embossed brick plasticard !!





I also decided to make an outside toilet block for the cutaway corner pub. These are gradually vanishing, but
in my day there were many more rough & ready outside loos than you can find today. Two door, Ladies & Gents.
I recall the shy Englishmans shock in Ghent when the Gent's urinals were against a piece of painted wall. Ladies
had to walk behind you to reach the cubicles that were shared ....... Ahh Belgium 1963 !!



Geoff T

[Bufferstop]

There's decidedly a pleasure to be derived from modelling buildings, which is completely different to that which comes from locos and rolling stock. I have a folder full of sketches and scraps of plans of buildings I'd one day like to build. Just got to get out of the self imposed need for an excuse.

[Dad-1]

With Madmack having asked about buildings I noted that I've neglected this thread.
My excuse is that I'll just start a new building on a whim, hence older non-finished items
seeming to take forever. Include working on 2 or 3, perhaps even 4 layouts I simply run
out of time & forget sometimes what I've already started.

So here is one (still only almost finished) The Fishermans Arms public house from my
Autumn diorama.
Note the worn white paintwork, obtained by lightly sanding after painting.



The current in construction is a small station building to fit onto my current build "Thomas"
layout. Somehow it's becoming a GWR station ?



This layout will also have my random public house build now named as the Lord Nelson, seen
here with other buildings.



Geoff T.

[SouthernBoy]

Hello Dad-1,

Apologies as I don't comment often here (although have on other forums)...

I really liked the inside-curve on the corner of the building in picture below - it's one of those characteristics of a building, the reason for which is sometimes inexplicable and lost in time (?) - but adds real character to a structure / layout ...




Either way - keep the posts coming

[b308]

That pub is really nice!

[ParkeNd]

Time to support Geoff T's thread on scratch building.

My preference (and everyone has a preference) is for Daler board from HobbyCraft at £5 for an A1 sheet which will make loads of buildings, surfaced with Slaters Plastikard. Slaters card has random depth surfaces on stonework and picks up dry brushing better than a regular depth product - the brush hits some and misses others.

Here is a step by step sequence of photos which started with a simple sketch with key dimensions. It is followed by a few buildings built exactly the same way.








































The following buildings were all made exactly the same way.





And this one



And this one





And this one - which is several small buildings joined together - so still simple







Here is how the hipped roofs were developed using a compass and a ruler



And with fire escape and little bike in place against a pillar by the door



And then on the layout

[David Bigcheeseplant]

I have access to a laser cutter so now draw everything up on CAD and let the machine do the hard work, it does mean you can make a kit and make as many as you like. Above is one of the waiting rooms I have built for a model of Aylesbury station.

The material I use is Rowmark which is a plastic although you can cut MDF, Perspex or paper.

David

[bike2steam]

My god there's some good stuff on this thread !! So to bring it down a bit - here's the latest addition, with guttering, down pipes, and internal fittings still to do. 'Cannons Lane No.2' signal box, based on a SSR design, and as many of them, having replacement LNWR window in their latter years.