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Modbury Signal Box 5


Ian Smith

1,919 views

blog-0810935001450107441.jpgA couple of weeks work has seen the exterior of the Signal Box fundamentally complete.

 

Firstly, I added the gutters. These were simply 0.030" plastic sheet gouged out with a 0.9mm drill close to the edge of the sheet. Once a suitable furrow had been ploughed, the sheet was turned over and what will become the underside scraped with a razor blade to provide the outside curvature. A strip was then cut parallel to the gouged gutter such that the gutter itself would be a mil or two off the building in line with the edge of the roof. Hopefully the image below will illustrate the gutter in its raw state.

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The cut-outs at the ends are to accommodate the framing of the signal box. Once attached to the building, end caps of 0.005" sheets were welded on and once fully dry were carefully pared away to the profile of the gutter.

 

The roof was tackled next, adding strips of self adhesive printer label to represent the slates. The slates had first been drawn up in CAD, such that each alternative row had extra wide slates at the gable ends, and I also drew in a feint line half way up the slate to aid setting a consistent overlap when the slates were stuck to the roof.

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It was at this stage (before fitting the windows) that the building was painted. The brick and stone work were given an all-over coat of mortar colour, and once dry the bricks and stones were picked out by dry brushing/ dragging the side of the brush over the area so that the brick and stones collected some colour. The woodwork of the building was painted in Precision Paints Light and Dark Stone (although for 2mm scale I felt that the Dark Stone was a tad too dark so was lightened with a drop of white in a 5:1 ratio.

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The glazing bars of the windows was scrawked into some glazing material before being flooded with white ink. Once the ink was dry, a buff up with a cotton bud removed the ink from the surface of the glazing but left it in the grooves representing the glazing bars.

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The outer window frames were cut from the same self adhesive printer paper that was used for the slates, and once stuck to the glazing material was pared back to give a more or less scale sized window in its frame.

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The upstairs door was similarly prepared from layers of glazing material and paper label.

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Before fitting, the door had a small handle filed up in the mini drill from 1mm brass rod (the resultant handle being some 0.5mm round with an even slimmer peg at the back which was secured in a hole in the door. The image below shows the windows being fitted.

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The slates on the roof were picked out in various hues of thinned down Humbrol Matt 67, but once dry I was unhappy with the effect, so a thinned mix of Matt 67 and white was washed over the whole to tone it all down and lighten the effect somewhat. The name board and S & T plates (indicators as to the status of the Signal and Telegraph equipment) were printed onto photo paper and attached to the front of the box. Obviously in the idyllic summer of 1906, there was absolutely nothing wrong with any of the equipment so both show a white letter on a black background.

 

The down pipes are simply bent up pieces of 0.5mm phosphor bronze wire with little wall fixtures of twists of 0.0044" PB wire (this latter had to be annealed over a candle flame to prevent it breaking while forming the twists). A spot of solder secured them in place and strengthens them. Tiny pieces of 0.010" plastic strip with a 0.4mm hole in it forms the back of the wall fixing. Once secured on the building the down pipes were painted in more PP Dark Stone (with the requisite drop of white added). The handrails around the windows are 0.025" nickel silver wire, bent to shape and size and secured in holes in the window frames. The tails of the wire simply bent down inside the building to secure the handrails in place.

 

Finally some images of the completed box. I will add some rudimentary interior detail (the roof is removable, simply held in place by the barge boards within the gutters (a little but not much more than an interference fit). A rainwater barrel needs to be positioned below the down pipe - incidentally the "hopper" is simply a bit of carved 0.060" plasticard with a 0.005" backing. I also need to make a couple of fire buckets to hang on the steps too.

 

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Thank you for looking,

 

Ian

  • Like 8

17 Comments


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Hi Ian

 

Lovely little model, well executed and putting the S & T signs on just adds that bit extra, not always seen on models ( I added them to one of my early SB's and it gives it a more authentic feel ).

Certainly gives the larger scale models a run for their money imho !

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  • RMweb Gold

Absolutely wonderful modelling Ian. ;)

 

Looks superb and looking forwards to seeing it insitu on the layout.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

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  • RMweb Gold

Fabulous Ian, all the added detail has really been worth the effort! I particularly like the open window and the safety rail. I really must add the S and T symbols to my box!

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

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Assuming that the downpipes are hollow just in case it rains?

 

;)

 

Nice work.

 

Regards, Andy

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Hi Ian Lovely little model, well executed and putting the S & T signs on just adds that bit extra, not always seen on models ( I added them to one of my early SB's and it gives it a more authentic feel ). Certainly gives the larger scale models a run for their money imho !

The S & T plates may be just a tad over-sized - I have no idea what dimensions they were in real life, and in images of Victorian/Edwardian boxes there is usually not much that you can scale from.  I ended up having to estimate the size from what prototype images I had available.  They do however need to be present on a box of my period.

 

Absolutely wonderful modelling Ian. ;)

 

Looks superb and looking forwards to seeing it insitu on the layout.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Mark, Thank you.

 

Fabulous Ian, all the added detail has really been worth the effort! I particularly like the open window and the safety rail. I really must add the S and T symbols to my box! Best wishes Dave

Dave,  Thank you.  It was always my intention to model some of the windows open, but the one at the landing end was of necessity because I made the fixed one very slightly too wide (literally a quarter of a mil or so) but the overlap of the two window panels meant that I had to have that one open as well to disguise the fact!

 

Very impressive Ian. The signs and the nameboard really set it off.

 

Regards,

 

David V.

David, Thank you.

 

Assuming that the downpipes are hollow just in case it rains?

 

;)

 

Nice work.

 

Regards, Andy

Andy, Thank you.  I don't need to make my down pipes hollow because it is eternally a beautiful summers day in Modbury :-)  Perhaps the next ones I do for St Ruth will allow for the odd shower :-)

 

Looks fab Ian :good:

Pete, Thank you.

 

It should be pointed out I suppose that when the box is in position on the layout, the viewer will need a mirror to be able to see the front!  The normal viewing side is actually the back!

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  • RMweb Gold

 

It should be pointed out I suppose that when the box is in position on the layout, the viewer will need a mirror to be able to see the front!  The normal viewing side is actually the back!

After all that work I'd seriously consider re-siting the box! :-)

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Very nice Ian. Looking forward to seeing it on the layout, and again, nice to see a step by step guide on how it all came together.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

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After all that work I'd seriously consider re-siting the box! :-)

Dave, it will be pretty visible as the back wall will only be an inch or two in from the front of the layout, one of the things that attracts me to the Bodmin box is the different materials it is constructed from (particularly the rear aspect - stone, brick and framed woodwork).

 

 

Lovely work Ian really nice this layout is going to be rather special I think John

 

Thank you John.

 

 

Very nice Ian. Looking forward to seeing it on the layout, and again, nice to see a step by step guide on how it all came together.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

Thank you Jeremy.

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Looks very nice. The only thing I would say is that the verge slates on roofs until fairly recently would have been half slates. That is why, as a builder I always had to replace missing half slates on a roof after high winds in the old days. Double and slate and a half only came in with asbestos slates or fibre cement slates as they are now.

 

Dave 

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  • RMweb Gold

Wonderful Ian, I'm especially impressed by the window glazing, it's really convincing. Don't think I've seen that approach used to such perfection before. The downpipe arrangements are nicely captured too. 

 

Will you be able to resist the bike leaning against the wall? :-)

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Wonderful Ian, I'm especially impressed by the window glazing, it's really convincing. Don't think I've seen that approach used to such perfection before. The downpipe arrangements are nicely captured too. 

 

Will you be able to resist the bike leaning against the wall? :-)

Mikkel,  Thank you.  The windows came out better than I expected, I have tried the approach of scoring the glazing bars and using paint before but I think using ink is better - it doesn't "stick" to the surface of the glazing like paint would do so can be burnished off with something soft like a cotton bud.

 

A bike leaning against the wall? Mmmm.  Wonder if I can get a 1900 period bike from somewhere?

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