Baseboards and a name for my project!
Entry posted by wenlock
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I've finished painting and lining my Dean Goods, but it needs a final coat of satin varnish and some number plates before its ready for viewing on the blog. While I've been waiting for the various coats of paint to dry, I've made a start on building the baseboards for my proposed Edwardian, GWR, branch line terminus. As a reminder of what I'm trying to build, here's a picture of my 1/7th scale foam and cardboard mock up.
Mock up
The layout will fit along one wall of my workshop and comprise of four sections, giving a total length including fiddle yard of 5240 millimetres, or 17 feet 2 inches in good old imperial! Originally the layout was going to be 1370mm (4 feet 6 inches) deep, but I've reduced this to 1220mm (4 feet), which is more manageable when trying to reach the back of the layout. I know there is a vogue for building baseboards from foam board, but I've decided to stick with the method that I have used on previous layouts and that I know I can make successfully. I first came across the technique in Barry Norman's excellent "Landscape Modelling" book, which I must have bought at least 20 years ago. The book describes a method for making layout supporting beams, which resist distortion by having one component of the beam in tension, the other in compression and both held apart by softwood blocks. The resultant beams are also considerably lighter than similar size ones made from sawn timber.
The four boards were built as pairs, one pair 1220mm long and one pair 1400mm, giving the required total length of 5240mm. The scenic part of the layout would be made up from both 1220 mm long boards, along with one of the 1400mm boards. The remaining 1400 board will be for the off stage fiddle yard/revolving train turntable.
To make the components needed to build the beams, two sheets of 6mm MDF were cut using a table saw into 98mm wide strips. Lengths of 98mm x 18mm softwood were cut into 98mm squares using a circular chop saw. Obviously it would be possible to cut these pieces using a handsaw, but I'm lucky in having a Father in Law who has a workshop equipped with just about every power tool known to man and it seemed daft not to use them!
MDF being cut into 98mm strips
98mm x 18mm softwood being cut into blocks
Finished beam components, ready for assembly
Construction of the beams began by fixing the softwood blocks to the MDF strip using screws and PVA glue. One of the benefits of making the beams in this manner is that the softwood blocks can be rotated through 90 degrees to each other. This ensures that when the beams are joined together to make the framework, you can always screw into side grain rather than end grain.
Softwood blocks screwed and glued to MDF strip
Once the glue had set, the second MDF strip was glued and screwed in position, and again allowed to dry.
Second MDF strip in position
This process was continued until all the beams had been fabricated.
Completed Beams
In order to ensure that the finished baseboards would align together accurately, I decided to use brass pattern makers dowels. I ordered these from stationroadbaseboards.co.uk along with some hole cutting drill bits. Ive not used this supplier before, but the parts arrived within a couple of days as specified, so I'll be using them again.
The end beams were marked as pairs and the male part of the pattern makers dowels was fitted into one beam by carefully drilling a 25 mm diameter recess, then screwing into position.
Dowel in position
The female part of the pattern makers dowel needed fitting into the other beam in exactly the right position, if the pair of beams was going to align together accurately. With this in mind I had to come up with a way of marking the position of the male dowel on the female dowel carrying beam. I needed something that I could apply to the end of the male dowel, that would transfer across to the female beam and clearly mark the wood when the beams were pressed together. I tried pencil and chalk, but the mark wasn't clear enough to dill accurately, so more pondering took place! In the end inspiration struck in the form of lipstick! Armed with some of Mrs Wenlock's best red lippy, I marked the ends of the dowels and pressed the beams together. Once the beams were pulled apart, a perfect red dot was marked on the opposing beam and drilling could commence. From now on, no modelling box should be deemed to be complete without a stick of said lipstick!
Lipstick on brass dowel
Lipstick marks the spot!
Once the pattern makers dowels had been successfully fitted into the end beams, they were numbered as pairs and their top surface sanded to ensure that once the baseboard tops were fitted, they would be exactly the same height.
The frameworks were then assembled from the beams, ensuring they were square before gluing and screwing them into position. 9mm MDF was used to form the baseboard tops, these once cut to size, were glued and screwed into position
1st completed baseboard
The subsequent boards were assembled in a similar fashion, but plastic bin liner was used as a barrier between the boards to prevent them sticking together.
2nd board under construction
Once the three boards that make up the "visible" portion of the layout were completed, the wallpaper layout plan was put into position to check the dimensions. The front of the layout will be on a gentle convex curve, so after marking out, this was carefully cut using a jigsaw.
3rd board and layout plan
The framework for the off stage part of the layout was then made, but I still need to construct the revolving train turntable.
Board 4, fiddle yard
Off stage board
Legs were made from lengths of 38mm softwood, bolted to the baseboard framework. I'm not sure how high to make the finished layout, the legs may end up being trimmed. At present the baseboard tops are 4 foot 9 inches from the floor, which is fine if you happen to be 6 foot 4 like me, but not ideal if you happen to be 5 foot 2! I'd be interested to hear opinions on what people think is an ideal height for viewing 0 gauge layouts.
Layout on it's legs.
I need a name for this project of mine, I can't just keep calling it "My proposed GWR, Edwardian, branch line terminus" for much longer! I remember Mikkel suggesting using place names from literature, which seems like a good idea. Trollope's Barsetshire has a number of likely sounding place names, I'm quite taken with calling the layout "Uffley" or possibly "Lower Uffley" which I think has a nice ring!
As always I'm interested in your views and comments.
Best wishes
Dave
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