The Farm

Entry posted by wiggoforgold January 15, 2012

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As the railway line enters Diddington station, it passes behind a cluster of farm buildings. I put a photograph of the barns in my gallery a little while ago, and was asked if I had some more pictures. I took a few, and have added a few notes about the models themselves.

The buidings are situated at the front of the layout to act as a view block, and to balance the river scene, with the boathouse at the other end. Here's an aerial view od the group:

The buildings are made from card. The weatherboarded building was designed with a hole in the bottom. It was originally built for an earlier layout which folded in two by means of hinges fitted on blocks at the front and back of the layout. The back hinge was covered by part of the scenery, and the barn fitted over the front hinge when the layout was set up. The scene was built on its own base, a piece of MDF with a hole cut in it to fit over the hinge. In order that the hinge could not be seen through the arn windows, there is a full height false wall inside the building, about 1cm back from the windows.

The design of the barns comes from a sketch by George Illife Strokes, of a group of buildings at Marlow. He made a model of the buildings himself, which appear in some of his photographs. The small cart shed at the right hand end is from a plan by John Ahern in "Miniature Landscape Construction"

The large chimney stack was made round a sub frame of plastic card. Panels of exposed brickwork were added from scraps of Wills sheet, and the surrounding areas built up to the same level with pieces of plain plastic card. These areas were then coated with a mix of Artex and PVA white glue, diluted with water. This was applied with a brush, and when it was dry, lightly sanded to smooth it off. The plastic areas were painted with Humbrol acrylics, and the card and plaster parts painted with artists watercolours. The chimney pots were made from lengths of brass tube, with rims from copper wire. The pots were the coated with gesso and painted with Humbrol acrylics.

The pantiles on the barns are from paper strips, A false roof is made from card, and this is marked with vertical lines at about 4mm intervals. Lengths of plastic rod are stuck to these lines. The tiles themselves are made from strips of paper, fixed in place with Bostick impact adhesive and pressed down round the lengths of plastic rod to represent the joints between the tiles. Once dry, the roof is painted with artists water colours. I ran out of patience when I got to the cart shed, and the roof on this buiding is made from Wills sheet, which lends extra rigidity to the structure, which has a frame of balsa wood, with weatherboarding from thin card.