Wenlock's Blog

Looking very crisp, Dave. I agree with you about plastikard, if I was doing mine now that would be the preferred medium.

 

My old edition of the Karau book - not the combined volume - has the plans to 4mm scale on fold-out sheets, very useful. Flicking through it the other night it occurred to me that it would be fantastic to have an entire book of such plans, of all sorts of structures.

Like you, i also have a fondness of William Clarke's buildings (the station buildings themselves rather than goods sheds, etc). Whether it is the ornate chimeys or not I don't know, they just somehow "look right".

 

it would be fantastic to have an entire book of such plans, of all sorts of structures.

 

Sounds like the old Eric Plans that used to be marketed by Peco I think :-)

 

Ian

I must admit to liking plasticard, although 'down ere' its getting hard to find, especially the embossed!

 

I now tend to keep a supply (or shop as Mrs BR calls it!) as you never know when you will need something!

 

I recently bought a litre of Butanone of the web for about

Like you, i also have a fondness of William Clarke's buildings (the station buildings themselves rather than goods sheds, etc).

Yes, agree his station buildings are his best work. I quite like his goods shed at Fencote though, it has similar quoins around the windows as his station buildings. If anyone's got a picture of of Fencote shed in Edwardian days or a plan I'd love to see it. The picture I've got is in British Railways journel and shows what looks like two large windows in the roof. It's a rear view so I've no idea what the platform elevation was like.

 

Dave

Are you going to inlay the window surrounds?

 

Hi Blackrat, I'm undecided about the window surrounds! I might just try some 10 thou or thinner plasticard cut to shape and glued on top of the brick. If I bevel the edges slightly and blend it into the brickwork it might save me hours of cutting out! I think some experimenting is called for tonight.

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

I think you could easily get away with that "dodge", Dave.

Hi Blackrat, I'm undecided about the window surrounds! I might just try some 10 thou or thinner plasticard cut to shape and glued on top of the brick. If I bevel the edges slightly and blend it into the brickwork it might save me hours of cutting out! I think some experimenting is called for tonight.

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

Dave,

 

I wouldn't go any thinner than 0.010", I've tried something similar in the past and found that 0.005" effectively disolved into the brick courses giving me not quite the look I was going for :-)

 

Ian

Hi Blackrat, I'm undecided about the window surrounds! I might just try some 10 thou or thinner plasticard cut to shape and glued on top of the brick. If I bevel the edges slightly and blend it into the brickwork it might save me hours of cutting out! I think some experimenting is called for tonight.

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

 

Can I suggest 'Milliput', used to infill the relevant 'mortar courses'? Use an old scalpel blade & keep it moist. Leave to harden & gently sand with 1400 grit. Works for me?

 

Regs

 

Ian

Hi guys, Glad to have had your interest, comments and top tips!

 

Thanks to Ian for letting me know that 5 thou card disolves, I can imagine there was some fairly choice language that day!

 

Scanmans idea of using milliput to fill the mortar courses is something I'd not thought of, if my experiments with the 10 thou don't go to plan, then I'll be giving this a go.

 

If I run out of Butanone, I'll be contacting BlackRat!

 

I'll post some pics of the window surrounds, once I've finallised how I'm going to do them.

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

I agree that 5 thou does require a lot of care, but I would not have thought that thickness was needed in any 7mm buildings work.

 

What I'm confused about is the reference to Milliput and bevelling window surrounds.

 

What I'm confused about is the reference to Milliput and bevelling window surrounds.

Hi Miss P, Hopefully I can clarify the bevelling and Milliput scenarios. In William Clarke's brick station buildings, the stone quoins around the windows and doors are flush with the surface of the brickwork. In order to model this correctly, the brick plastikard sheet would have to be cut back prior to inlaying smooth plastikard "stone quoins."

 

Rather than attempting this I proposed to use some thin ten thou plastic card simply stuck on the face of the brickwork and then sanded down as thin as possible. I hoped to mask this "cheat" by bevelling and blending the edges of the stone work.

 

Scanmans suggestion was to fill in the brickwork with Milliput where the quoins should be and simply sand smooth those areas to simulate the stone work.

 

I hope this makes things clearer.

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

...In William Clarke's brick station buildings, the stone quoins around the windows and doors are flush with the surface of the brickwork...

Such are the wonders of Clarke's buildings that there is even some variation in these charactersitic details. Fortunately, I won't have this problem when I get around to my station building because Camerton has fake quoins done in pale yellow brick that contrast with the red brick used in the walls. Each 'stone' is represented by three courses of brick, one stretcher wide and one and a half long. In this case, the effect is enhanced because the 'quoins' stand proud of the surrounding brickwork by perhaps as much as an inch. The only stone components are the corbels in the end walls and the door and window cills and lintels. These also stand proud by the same amount.

 

Nick

Hi Nick, the more I look at his buildings, the more subtle differences I find! Some of his buildings have staggered quoins in relation to adjoining windows and some others are symetrical. I guess it allows for some artistic licence, if like me you are modelling a fictitious location with a building in the style of William Clarke, rather than a specific building. Well thats my excuse lined up anyway!

 

Dave

Ah, thanks, Dave, the penny has dropped! I had assumed, from your pics, that you were adopting an 'all brick approach' (apart from lintels of course). I don't know much about Clarke's stations, but it would seem your style is a kind of Barbers Bridge (that was the best online example I could find of that style), where it would seem that flush stone and brickwork was a characteristic feature. Actually, cutting out brick sections and insetting plasticard stones is not difficult when commencing construction, but I can see it would be difficult at the stage you've got to now. I think Milliput will be a messy solution (it will sand down at a different rate to the plasticard), but I'm not convinced that bevelling the stone edges is going to look right, because where do you stop the bevelling? Stonework of that style is always flush fitting with the other stone courses. Having said that, I suppose sanded-down 10 thou will look ok in 7mm.

Hi again Miss P,

 

Yes Barbers Bridge is a good example of the type of Clarke building I'm going for, Fencote http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1512699 and Rowden Mill http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3677 are other similar designs. I'm still reserving judgement regarding what technique to use to make the quoins, I agree cutting out and inlaying would be the best solution, but there would be an awful lot of it!

 

That building of Keith's is fabulous, I'm afraid I haven't got the dedication to apply individual bricks!

 

Dave

Lovely pic of Rowden Mill. Never seen that one before. I can see what you mean about the amount of stonework. Hmmm.

Apparently both Rowden Mill and Fencote are now in private hands and have been restored back to their former glory, even to the extent of some track being relaid in front of the platforms! http://oldsteamers.com/herefords-two-little-secrets/

 

It looks like they are only open to the public once a year. Sadly I can't find any information on the next open day though.

 

Dave