422 Modelmaking Coal Office (7mm)

[Richard08]

The last remaining building required for the layout, bar the ones I haven't thought of yet, is the coal office. There was one which was exactly what I wanted listed on eBay, a 3D printed kit, but it never reappeared and I hadn't saved the seller. That one had a somewhat higher window to wall ratio than other offerings, a sort of post war pre-fab thing. So I've gone for a 422 kit instead, which was second favourite, but fits in the reserved footprint nicely.

This is it...

And this is what's in the box...

The moldings/printings/plastic bits are good, but the edges require a fair bit of timping to get good fits. While doing said timping I got thinking about the chimney, size of fireplace, room left in shed and so on. Like the signal box kit with it's (removed) massive chimney it didn't seem 'right' so to speak, although it's probably fine really. So I turned the stack round on the wall and added an external, er, thing. I don't know how 'real' that would be but I like it.

[Mountain]

422 kits (As far as I am aware) are made from casting resin and are done the good old fashioned way rather than the 3D printed way just like how Smallbrook Studio kits are made. I find resin easier to work with. Any bubbles or mistakes and one can fill with DAS modelling clay, or one can take a scrap piece of resin and rub it on an abrasive surface to create powder or fine filings and put this in the desired area and a small drop of superglue and it creates an instant fill. Then just sand down as needed. Resin is lovely stuff to work with. Runny superglue is used to bond resin parts together and it sucks itself into the joins.

[Richard08]

Though gutters are supplied with the kit, the definition isn't all that precise. I had some 3D printed ones knocking about that I'd bought before discovering how easy they are to make, which happened to be exactly the right length. So in using up stuff mode they got used. The down pipe (supplied) is a length of (I presume) some sort of aluminium rod, to which nothing sticks. After abortive attempts with palisticard and brass strips, good old split pins came to the rescue. Pinching with pliers they grip the rod tightly and also hold well pushed into ever-so slightly undersize holes in the building - no glue required! The other side is going to require some creative plumbing to get round the chimney.

The inevitable soft white LED has been installed, meaning I'm going to have to create some sort of representation of the interior. While going full monty with things such as Severn Models working filing cabinets would be nice, it would be easy to end up with a £150 shed! My bank manager has thoughts on that sort of thing, so some plasticard is the order of the day.

https://severnmodels.com/epages/eshop11 ... oducts/O13

[Richard08]

And here's the dodgy plumbing. All to avoid trying to find another bit of rod for a second down pipe.

[Richard08]

And so it is done, finished on late 70s/early 80s semi-derelict chic. When placed you cannot see inside to any great extent, so no interior. A little 'ground' preparation (where people walk and so on) and then it gets planted. After the usual lengthy discourse with the printer, it decided to do 6pt text nicely.