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Westbrook Station Building

JDaniels

Entry posted by JDaniels

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I've now painted and therefore completed the station building. For the most part I used Humbrol acrylic paints and was pleased with how I got on with them. I've had problems in the past but I like the matt finish (unlike some so called matt enamels), the way in which you can mix the paints and the ease with which they dilute with water. I collected a number of greyish acrylics whilst I was at Gaugemaster at Ford but didn't realise that some are a satin finish, this is not shown on the container. As a result the first coat of paint was with one of these, my puzzlement answered by reference to the Humbrol colour chart. My conclusion is that acrylics are great for painting natural colours, for representing painted surfaces such as locos and coaches, enamels are best. I would have liked the underlying brown to show through a little more though.

 

The results of my efforts:

 

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Photographs of the end without the extension seem to show a lighter patch of stone in the middle of the wall with darker patches either side. I had thought about trying to represent this but thought that if I did anyone looking at it would say that I got the weathering wrong!

 

As you can see, I have added a couple of notice boards. Photos of the station show boards in the position I've fixed them although these disappeared in the "goods only" days. In part 3 of his series of books on modelling GWR branches, Stephen Williams suggested putting a raised border round the edge of the board to better represent prototype practice. The flat surface of the Tiny Signs boards are just that, flat. I didn't feel able to cut out a square in paper as he did so used the finest Microstrip instead. I also fixed the boards with two battens each, if I was presented with the job of fixing a flat board to a rough surface that's exactly what I would do.Also, as Stephen Willaims suggested, both boards were given a coat of matt varnish.

 

I really must refer to the Stephen Williams books more,they are full of simple ideas that can make such a difference.

 

The roof has turned out well, if a little irregular, but I didn't do too much weathering. We had Sunday lunch at a local pub yesterday, the service was slow and I found myself looking out at a house opposite with a slate roof. It had been raining and the roof looked new, pristine dark grey with no staining at all. We probably forget the cleansing properties of rain and the Welsh border country has plenty of that.

 

I'm now looking at the edging of the platform. I recently visited an excellent little model shop in Salisbury and found a sheet of moulded Plasticard with a very small diamond pattern. This is perfect for bricks (or slabs) that formed the edge of the platform. If I had felt like it I could have scored the strip to represent the separate bricks but balked at the thought. The separate bricks are hardly noticeable and bearing in mind my complete inability to consistently measure the same distance each time I thought it would probably look worse.

 

If anyone would like to see photos of the prototype Google "Westbrook station" and any number will come up. Take out the photos of Westbrook station in Canada, there's no mistaking them, and you're left with fewer than half a dozen and only some of these show the station building. It's a gloomy looking station overshadowed by trees but did have quite a floral display. With two trains each way a day (three on Thursday, Hay market day) Station Master Knowles had plenty of tinme to ensure the gardens were tidy.

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JDaniels
On 1/28/2019 at 7:35 PM, Captain Kernow said:

That looks really good, nicely weathered and very convincing.

 

On 1/29/2019 at 5:57 AM, Mikkel said:

What an excellent paint job, John. The whole building is wonderfully GWR, yet maintains it's own personal style. Great modelling.

 

I did a little Googling as you suggested. The train seen in the second photo down on this page is delightful, and no doubt the raison d'etre of your 517!

 

http://www.ewyaslacy.org.uk/Golden-Valley/Digital-Archive-Photographs-of-the-Golden-Valley-Railway-Westbrook/1924-1951/rs_gdv_0023

 

7 hours ago, Ian Smith said:

What a lovely paint job, you've captured the look of stone very well.

Many thanks for your comments. Since I started constructing this model I've looked more closely at stone buildings and it's suprising just what variations in shade there are. I do wonder though whether when the eye takes in a building close up it tends to look at parts, not the whole, and the variations, whilst there, aren't so noticeable. Looking at a model the eye takes in the whole building and whilst the variations in shade are authentic, because the eye sees the whole building it may look a little overdone.

The website Mikkel has highlighted has I think every photo ever taken of Westbrook. The one of the station in the snow shows that I haven't got the arrangement of the notice boards quite correct, I had this photo but overlooked it. I've now rectified this adding the small enamel notice at the end of the building. The photo also shows that battens were used as I guessed. The photos show ramshackle sheds tacked on to the end of the building. I've constructed these from Plasticard although the platform facing side does not appear in any photos so have had to make a guess as to the appearance, there must have been a door. I painted the sheds but stupidly used a Humbrol dark brown wash which dries to a gloss finish.

The Golden Valley branch was an attractive line, most trains were mixed with a couple of mismatched four wheeled coaches. The 517's worked the line until the Collett 0-4-2T's came along and after a few new examples were used, 5818 settled down to become the Golden Valley loco. It was always kept in immaculate condition.

Next job is the platform surface and a visit to Screwfix for aluminium oxide paper.

 

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