Cottage industry

[Northern Maiden]

Lovely looking set of buildings ... I especially like the shot of the one that has the front boarded up with corrugated iron.

[shortliner]

When I lived in a terrace in Cambridge, the passage led through to the back and the fence started centrally about 4' back with two gates (if you imagine the fence forming the stem it would look like a capital Y, with the passage feeding in to the apex - I remember it used to be quite difficult getting my motorbike down there

[Captain Kernow]

When I lived in a terrace in Cambridge, the passage led through to the back and the fence started centrally about 4' back with two gates (if you imagine the fence forming the stem it would look like a capital Y, with the passage feeding in to the apex

Thanks Shortliner, that's exactly how Howard Scenics recommend the dividing walls/fences are set up, so I think that this is what I shall do.

[DonB]

My grandparents lived in a terraced property similar to these. The shared passage way (refered to as an [b]Entry[/b] in the Black Country), ended in a couple of gates forming the splayed legs of a Y. There was however no gate at the far end of the yard as it backed onto a similar pair in the next street. Not sure how you go about terminating a fence at the gap in your wall. Problems, problems........

[Captain Kernow]

Nice work Tim, had me trawling through my FoD books and getting itchy fingers to finish my HS cottages too. For the windows its worth looking through the York Modelmaking laser cut range, they're not cheap but I've found that one or two will work with other kits, and I suspect some of their sash windows may work with the HS kits giving that depth the printed ones don't, I'll try some of mine out and report back here if you like.

Thanks Paul. I've seen these laser cut windows and they are nice. Given that I've had to cut out 4 new windows on these cottages, in future I might as well cut the window apertures to suit the frames available!

[Mikkel]

I'm quite taken by the 3D world that those last shots convey. The several different heights and depths involved (track, yard, outhouses, rooftops etc) gives a whole lot of viewing interest in a small space. Of course, reality designed it that way, but your application of it is brilliant. Very inspirational!

[Neal Ball]

Lovely set of houses. I am half way through building a scalescenes shop unit at the moment and wish I had gone for different windows, rather than the printed acetate. - Live and learn!

 

I also have adapated the shops, not to suit a location, but to make them different.

 

http://www.scalescenes.com/products/TO21-Corner-Shops

 

I would certainly recommend Scalescenes, but now I have seen Howard Scenics, I will have a go at them!

 

Thanks for sharing Captain.

[Neal Ball]

 

Since then, ownership has transferred to Freestone Model Accessories,

 

 

Do they have a website?

[Captain Kernow]

Here's a bit more progress:

 

Roof supporting card in place

 

Rear of cottages. Roof at rear cut on slant to fit limited space up against backscene

 

Roof overlays ready to glue onto cottages. These comprise of individual printed slate strips glued to thin card and cut to fit each roof shape

 

One of the back gate and rear wall assemblies

 

Back gate and rear dividing wall assembly temporarily in place

 

 

Guttering and downpipes still to be added

 

[gwrrob]

Here's a bit more progress:

 

Roof supporting card in place

 

Rear of cottages. Roof at rear cut on slant to fit limited space up against backscene

 

Roof overlays ready to glue onto cottages. These comprise of individual printed slate strips glued to thin card and cut to fit each roof shape

 

 

I do like your rooves Tim.How do you get that finish or are they printed like that ? Very nice.

[Taz]

Comming along nicely Tim.

 

I'm sure you will be glad when these are done, but I think the finished product is well worth the effort involved.

 

One question though. If you look at a row of cottages like these today, very often each house will have painted their doors and gates in individual colours. Was this less common in the 1960s?

[Oldddudders]

One question though. If you look at a row of cottages like these today, very often each house will have painted their doors and gates in individual colours. Was this less common in the 1960s?

I suspect that in days of yore, these might well have been rented properties - in an era when that was much more common, by necessity - thus the landlord might have been the repairer and decorator. In recent decades, even former council estates have been handed over to the tenants in many cases, enabling more individual appearances and decorative motifs.

[Coombe Barton]

One of the things I remember from the 1970s when properties of this were bought out of rented ownership that the new owners tried to make them distinctive and stand out from their still-renting neighbours. Remember the garish false-stone cladding? In rented properties there as a uniformity.

[Captain Kernow]

I do like your rooves Tim.How do you get that finish or are they printed like that ? Very nice.

The roof components are as supplied by Howard Scenics - pre-printed strips (which you cut out yourself) on thin card. These are then glued on another piece of pre-printed thin card, which you first cut out to the shape of the roof section.

 

I then weigh the whole lot down overnight for the glue (Pritt-Stick) to harden off, then trim the overhanging slate strips the next day with a sharp scalpel.

 

As regards the discussion on individual colours, I'm definitely coming from the notion that in the ealry 1960s these cottages would be rented out by a single landlord, who would restrict the colours that were used. I normally use a chocolate brown or a dark green.

[ian]

Also the choice of colours available was far more restricted. If you have a flick through one of the colour albums showing bus or streets of the 50s or 60s look at the buildings in the background - they are very different to today.

[shortliner]

Tim, AFAIR ( and I'm looking back half a century! ) you need a gatepost against the wall of the house, and there was a clothes line running from that post, to the wall of the outhouse by the back door, where it ran through a pulley, and then back to the gatepost nearest the outhouse at the rear gate.A clothes prop was used on the longer one. At least one, with a longer back yard, had a wooden shed with a wriggly tin roof, and was fitted out with a bath. Another had a wooden pigeon loft at the end against the back fence. You could add rabbit hutches too (Preiser do a set in HO with a man, a little girl and half a dozen cages with rabbits). How about a "dolly tub"? You might also need a galvanised coal bunker. You could spend a long time "dressing" those back yards. Your models are excellent

[Captain Kernow]

Tim, AFAIR ( and I'm looking back half a century! ) you need a gatepost against the wall of the house, and there was a clothes line running from that post, to the wall of the outhouse by the back door, where it ran through a pulley, and then back to the gatepost nearest the outhouse at the rear gate.A clothes prop was used on the longer one. At least one, with a longer back yard, had a wooden shed with a wriggly tin roof, and was fitted out with a bath. Another had a wooden pigeon loft at the end against the back fence. You could add rabbit hutches too (Preiser do a set in HO with a man, a little girl and half a dozen cages with rabbits). How about a "dolly tub"? You might also need a galvanised coal bunker. You could spend a long time "dressing" those back yards. Your models are excellent

Thanks Jack, lots of good ideas for detailing there!

 

I did have a bag of assorted whitemetal castings of bins and other ephemera from Langley, which I obtained at a show a few years ago - but can I find it now, just when I need 'em? Can I eckkerslike!

[Bruciethefish]

A truly excellent bit of modelling, which is already starting to ooze atmosphere.. Regarding the space above the passages, the layout would often be asymetric, the back/front bedrooms of each pair often being provided with a walk-in closet extending to half the depth of the building. In modern times, these would often be absorbed into the room itself, or converted into an inside, if narrow, bathroom or toilet, with attendant external pipework..

[Captain Kernow]

one of the ledge & braced gates appears to be built the wrong way round....

 

the diagonal brace should go upwards from the hinged side of the door....

Yeah, well, I had a shed door built like that.....

[Coombe Barton]

I really hate to nit-pick so badly on such a fine model.......but.....

 

one of the ledge & braced gates appears to be built the wrong way round....

 

the diagonal brace should go upwards from the hinged side of the door....

Or the landlord has done some repair and used the wrong handed gate because he had one on hand

[shortliner]

Tim - Preiser 28009 "Feeding the Rabbits"- Gaugemaster - in stock

[Captain Kernow]

:icon_cool: Cheers Jack - will take a look at that!

[Paglesham]

Oh this is a wonderful thread...exactly why I joined this forum. I absolutely love this kind of vernacular suburban/urban architecture and the HS and Scalescenes people seem to do it so well.

Hating kits (plastic, that is) made me a scratchbuilder and later a professional modelmaker, but I always LOVED a card kit. From Superquick onwards!

Having just tried a Scalescenes freebie in 4mm and been delighted with it, I'm tempted to do some more. But in 7mm scale, my preference. Pity we can't inspect the available Howards Scenics on the net.

 

Captain Kernow, you've given me a part afternoon of delightful browsing of some superb work. Many thanks for that. I am literally waiting for paint to dry in a stinked out workshop, so this came up really timely!

I'm off to see how I can work this little 4mm low-relief into a larger set-piece to show off a customer's Quarry Hunslet. Then it's in search of something 2mm scale to display the same customer's W&U tram loco and finally, 7mm to show off something 0-9. Guess the customer? Ah, not telling just yet!

[Captain Kernow]

Captain Kernow, you've given me a part afternoon of delightful browsing of some superb work. Many thanks for that.

You are most welcome and thanks for the kind comments (there are some photos of another row of cottage fronts - Howard Scenics again - in the old forum). I've spent part of this evening grappling with brass downpipes. These, plus some lead flashing on the roofs, are just about all that's left to do, apart from adding odds and sods in the back yards themselves.

[Paglesham]

And I bet that's the part that will take the longest and seem to be never finished!

But I'm sure it'll give you the most satisfaction.

May I suggest that a tin bath is a necessity somewhere in that little environment.

If you do decide to do one, they can be done with litho plate so easily, being all single curvature panels, either welded or rivetted together.

If you need any litho plate, please ask as I have sheets of the stuff from Scotland's biggest book printer where my son worked for a while!

I'll knock one up today and see how it comes out. I take it your cottages are 4mm scale?