Castle Aching

[ChrisN]

Sandpaper.  I thought of that, or wet and dry paper but someone said that if you did, and I think they had tried it, you sanded your hand every time you went near the platform.  I was not convinced and thought that perhaps varnishing would stop that but in the end as I will have children also using it I used the rough side of cork tiles..  Texture is, I think, fine it is just painting it to get the right effect.

[BlueLightning]

I used to use fine sandpaper to represent gravel on platforms however some members at club have recently showed me a technique using chinchilla dust that looks really good doesn't sand your hand and there is no visible join.

 

You paint the surface with black gloss paint and then cover with chinchilla dust and hover off once dry. It looks really good and will be how I make the platform surfaces on Oak Hill

 

Gary

[BG John]

Sandpaper.  I thought of that, or wet and dry paper but someone said that if you did, and I think they had tried it, you sanded your hand every time you went near the platform.  I was not convinced and thought that perhaps varnishing would stop that but in the end as I will have children also using it I used the rough side of cork tiles..  Texture is, I think, fine it is just painting it to get the right effect.

I've used it on Small, Broad and Totally Pointless, because it's what I had available at the time. No damaged hands yet! I think it was 80 grit, that's probably a bit course for 4mm scale. Worn sandpaper might be better, as it will be finer, and with a more uneven surface. I've saved a worn out belt from my belt sander to try.

[ChrisN]

I used to use fine sandpaper to represent gravel on platforms however some members at club have recently showed me a technique using chinchilla dust that looks really good doesn't sand your hand and there is no visible join.

 

You paint the surface with black gloss paint and then cover with chinchilla dust and hover off once dry. It looks really good and will be how I make the platform surfaces on Oak Hill

 

Gary

 

This may be a technique I try although I am committed to have cork on my platforms for height reasons.  I would have thought black was too dark but I will experiment.

 

I've used it on Small, Broad and Totally Pointless, because it's what I had available at the time. No damaged hands yet! I think it was 80 grit, that's probably a bit course for 4mm scale. Worn sandpaper might be better, as it will be finer, and with a more uneven surface. I've saved a worn out belt from my belt sander to try.

 

It was Larry Coachman who pointed me towards using cork but I had thought of the other options of worn sandpaper.  The texture of cork seems about fine but I need to work on the colour.

[Edwardian]

It might, of course, simply be the result of my present irascible state, but I cannot see what business any modeller has in blithely waving his hand across platforms at a proximity to their surface sufficient to put him at risk of chafing.  

 

It strikes me as the height of irresponsibility.  What business has the fellow in behaving so recklessly? 

 

Never mind his wounded appendage; what of the platform fencing, seats, running in boards, barrows, passengers and staff?  Are they to be Swept to Oblivion by Mr Careless Hand-Chafer?!?

 

Honestly.

 

Sandpaper seems to me to have the advantage of being free (have some lying around somewhere) and simple to use, so I am tending in that direction, despite Health & Safety Guidelines to the contrary!  

[BlueLightning]

You make a very good point about how often are we really that close to the platform and to be honest sandpaper being free seems like the best argument for what to use if you ask me

 

Gary

[The Stationmaster]

Fingers still stinging from rapping by K, here are some fascinating brick links for you's al:

1

An indexed brick history

2

More particularly Staffordshire patterned paviors

Interesting that this is the Ketley brick company of Brierley Hill (formerly in Worcestershire but not Staffordshire).

 

This, K will note, is a semi legit excuse to go OT:

2a

So obviously Staffs blues come from the Black country (not as I'd always vaguely assumed the Potteries). That's why they feature everywhere on Black country canals and get ordered in bulk by the GWR as well as LNW and Midland.

2b

Ketley is the famous Shropshire Ironworks (now under Telford's housing) that, under William Reynolds, built the Coabrookdale locomotive of 1802/3.

When I worked in Salop CC, Tom Rolt conducted us around the pioneering sites of Ketley, finishing up with the sectional cast iron viaduct built for Telford at Longdon on Tern. This led to Telford's great cast iron Pont Cysyllte aqueduct on the Shropshire Union.

How, I wonder has the Ketley brick company migrated down the road to Brierley Hill?  It looks to be a big automated plant on the Pensnett industrial estate, serviced by road.

 

dh

 

Ketley is now a fairly widespread concern as far as brick making is concerned and one of their more useful services is that they will supply bricks by mail order (actually they are delivered by a carrier and not Parcel Force in my experience but the same basic idea).  Or as the delivery bloke said 'cor this is heavy anyone would think it's full of bricks like it says on the box'  - 'yes, I hope it is'  (and it was).  Main reason for going that way is that only wanting a small number of blue bull nose bricks it was the easiest way to get them as many merchants no longer carry bullnose as stock items.

[ianLMS]

I have used sandpaper (in a roll from a DIY store) for my roads, painted it with mixtures of dark and light greys and dusted it with weathering powders, ash from the fireplace etc to give different effects. I didn't use it for the platform tops though. Instead, I coated the platforms with Anita Décor Tree Bark (slightly gritty, gooey substance). When dried, I sanded it down a tad then again, dusted it with various powders. I did have a giggle at the H&S issues concerning sandpaper chaffing. You just need to complete a comprehensive Risk Assessment before using it to keep the HSE happy! Wearing a Hi-Viz jacket might help - seems mandatory these days for anything more dangerous than having a shower!!!

[Adams442T]

I used to use fine sandpaper to represent gravel on platforms however some members at club have recently showed me a technique using chinchilla dust that looks really good doesn't sand your hand and there is no visible join.

 

You paint the surface with black gloss paint and then cover with chinchilla dust and hover off once dry. It looks really good and will be how I make the platform surfaces on Oak Hill

 

Gary

 

Chinchilla Dust?  I thought you were 'aving a larf', but no........ I discovered that it really does exist!   Though I don't know that I would want to go to all the expense of buying a chinchilla, just to collect the dust afterwards.............

 

[BG John]

Surely all that fine dust is far more of an H&S issue than sandpaper. Not only hi-viz stuff needed, but masks, filters and hi-tech extraction systems too!

[Edwardian]

Chinchilla Dust?  I thought you were 'aving a larf', but no........ I discovered that it really does exist!   Though I don't know that I would want to go to all the expense of buying a chinchilla, just to collect the dust afterwards.............

 

 

Apart from the ethical concerns, I imagine that it is quite a laborious, potential hazardous and messy process grinding a chinchilla into dust.

[uax6]

Not if you burn it first...

[ianLMS]

And with the explosive properties of dust, a fully protected electrical system would be required, along with special signage, an explosive safety arc of at least 50 meters from the room and definitely no soldering irons!!! I'd stick to sandpaper if I were you!!

[runs as required]

Well, I do Declare!

Where will this thread transport us to next.....?

   dh

[Edwardian]

Fascinating video, glad I watched it as it laid to rest my visions of a Chinchilla in one-hand and a large cheese-grater in the other.

 

With much less effort than it takes to fill a small boat with sand, you can achieve much the same effect with a Labrador and a patch of fox sh1t.

 

Mind you, not so good for useful modelling by-products .... 

[BG John]

Well, I do Declare!

Where will this thread transport us to next.....?

   dh

Castle Aching will need a workhouse for all the families who become impoverished when their husbands are made ill by the dust, and almshouses for the widows of those who die from it!

[Edwardian]

Well, I do Declare!

Where will this thread transport us to next.....?

   dh

 

I shudder to think now that we have the, somewhat onanistically named, Mr Careless Hand-Chafer on the scene. 

[ianLMS]

I have just been contacted by the RSPCA and any activities involving the burning, grinding and use of chinchilla's for heinous activities such as Railway Modelling is strictly forbidden as Chinchillas are protected! So, back to sandpaper!

[Donw]

It might, of course, simply be the result of my present irascible state, but I cannot see what business any modeller has in blithely waving his hand across platforms at a proximity to their surface sufficient to put him at risk of chafing.  

 

It strikes me as the height of irresponsibility.  What business has the fellow in behaving so recklessly? 

 

Never mind his wounded appendage; what of the platform fencing, seats, running in boards, barrows, passengers and staff?  Are they to be Swept to Oblivion by Mr Careless Hand-Chafer?!?

 

Honestly.

 

Sandpaper seems to me to have the advantage of being free (have some lying around somewhere) and simple to use, so I am tending in that direction, despite Health & Safety Guidelines to the contrary!  

 

Having been tripped over by the terrier getting under my feet and needing to hold onto their leads due to the traffic I can assume you that a tarmac path can be quite abrasive and using your knuckles  as an interface to the surface is not recommended. Scaled up sandpaper to a 4mm Person would be disastrous perhaps it is just as well that they don't move about much.

 

I seem to remember that Barry Norman in his video used Talc on wet black paint. I have also heard or read of the grey powder used for grouting floor tiles being used. I think it matters little which you use. I would suggest however the use of a powder would allow some variation in texture. For unmetalled roads common in country areas garden soil through a tea strainer may be the right colour.

 

Don

 

 

edit how did unmetalled become up mettaled?

Edited May 18, 2016 by Donw

[Edwardian]

Castle Aching will need a workhouse for all the families who become impoverished when their husbands are made ill by the dust, and almshouses for the widows of those who die from it!

 

I have yet to plan any Poor Relief (such as that experienced by Mr Careless Hand-Chafer, perhaps) for Castle Aching, though Mereport boasts  The Countess of Thorney's Orphanage for the Children of the Culpably Indigent.    

 

For Castle Aching, perhaps some almshouses?

Edited May 18, 2016 by Edwardian

[Donw]

Having recently demolished a lath and plaster ceiling from underneath I know just how that Chinchilla feels.

 

Don

[runs as required]

 ... Mereport boasts  The Countess of Thorney's Orphanage for the Children of the Culpably Indigent.    

OMG !

Countless thousands of Thorney's coypus chinchillas look to have been burned and ground to dust by the ruthless Contessa merely to create that aged brick patina.

dh

[Edwardian]

 

edit how did unmetalled become up mettaled?

 

I should think about the time they turned deep purple, in about 1968.

Edited May 18, 2016 by Edwardian

[Stubby47]

I used chinchilla dust on Treamble. By it's nature it tends to absorb moisture, leaving the 'ballast' very brittle and prone to cracking & breaking.

 

Some 120 grit sheets of wet & dry paper might be better, provided your surface is flat.

[Edwardian]

OMG !

Countless thousands of Thorney's coypus chinchillas look to have been burned and ground to dust by the ruthless Contessa merely to create that aged brick patina.

dh

 

No, that picture is of Castle Aching's Home for Distressed Gentlefolk. 

 

This is Mereport's Orphanage for the Children of the Culpably Indigent: