Stour Valley Dream - Reversing a kit and making bushes
Entry posted by Fen End Pit
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As the next baseboard to work on contains the station platforms I started studying photographs and plans to work out the exact size the buildings on the platforms. This includes the main station building and also the timber build signalbox.
I'd already bought a Wills kit because it matches, or so I thought....
It turns out that the kit is for a building of the opposite hand to that on the platform at Clare and is not manufactured in a manner which allows you to swap the ends around.
So, faced with the issue of how to reverse the kit I looked at Eileen's Emporium 'Extreme Products' section. Unfortunately, even there I couldn't find the Matter Reversing tool so I had to make one of my own. It turns out that these are complicated to make!
So instead I opted to model up the signalbox end in CAD and then try to print it on my Anycubic Photon. The result wasn't too shabby, there are a number of issues but none of them insurmountable. In order to print the part I orientated it to about 75 degrees. This has the effect of limiting how much resin has to get peeled off flexible film which forms the base of the resin tank on each layer. I could have printed it almost vertically, this would probably have been better but would have taken about 4 times longer. The down side of this was that some of the detail on the underside of the part (the inside of the building) was covered with uncured resin when the part came off the machine. I did not remove the support material before final curing because I wanted the part to have the best chance not to warp at all. Again, in retrospect it might have been been best to take that risk, remove the support material while the part was still 'soft' and wash off the uncured resin in the alcohol bath before final curing.
So, here is the original molded end.
And here is my 3D printed, reserved, reversion. ( there are also a couple of minor changes to the bracing to match the photographs.
While all this was printing I spent sometime on more traditional modelling, making the first of a load of bushes. I used some string to form the basic bush and spread PVA over the bottom 20mm to stick the fibres together, once that first layer of glue has dried I tease out the 5 or 6 large pieces of the string and then cover the lower part of each of these parts in more PVA. Once dried again I tease out the individual fibres of the string.
I sprayed with Woodland Scenics 'Scenic Cement' from a tiny cosmetics spray bottle I purchased from the pharmacy in Sainsbury's (sold with the transparent bottles for taking liquids on aircraft). Once dried I coloured the bush with a quick burst of brown from the airbrush. More Scenic Cement is then sprayed on and then the bush dunked it Woodland Scenics foliage material. Another quick blast of Scenic Cement and the bushes are finished ready for planting.
It is very interesting looking at the aerial photographs of the station site I have from the 1950's. Anyone who has visited the Country Park which now includes the station will be aware of the trees and dense undergrowth that forms the sides of the old cutting. The 1950's photographs show a very different picture with only small amounts of growth on the site.
Batch building the bushes has been quite therapeutic.
David
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