The starting point.

Last time I have made the final design for my row of cottages.

Now I had to build the frame of the cottages using Scalescenes kit 022 Small Cottages.

In an article which compares the living circumstances in working class cottages in the 1950’s and the 1970’s is the following description about a working class house in the 1950’s:

“Along with the strong imposition of categories and relationships in a working-class house, there is strong insulation of rooms from each other. Doors are kept shut most of the time, particularly the par lour door, cupboards and the staircase frequently isolate the parlour even more firmly from the back room. It is not even possible to see into the interior of the front room of the street.”

“In a ‘traditional’ working-class house the interior of the house is usually concealed from the street by net curtains, which remain closed even at midday.”

So the interiors won’t be visible, but I liked to create the right atmosphere for them. The used wallpapers for the living rooms are from Model-Railway-Scenery.

For the bedrooms I used the textures from Scalescenes kit. For the floors I selected the textures that fitted the best for the bed and living rooms. Bedroom floors were covered with lino or oilcloth. Linoleum (lino) and oil cloth were made by different processes but they both looked the same. In the living rooms there was planking with rugs. Also lino was possible used there. I couldn't find more information about this subject.

After finishing the frame of the building I noticed that there is some difference with the try-out I built. I have to make a new plan for the front of the building to make it fit the frame. Because it won’t be visible I used scrap card to build it. So it is not so well fitting as I usually try to do.

More about that in a next entry.

Or if anyone has useful information, comments or suggestions please let me know.

Kind regards,

Job