HonestTom

Vr1 794 is no longer there.

The gunpowder wagons are interesting, particularly given that they’re based on Ffestiniog prototypes.

I’ve been hoping for these for ages. They’re so versatile in terms of era and usage. Perfect for light railways or industry.

My thought process was, “Well, I don’t model that era and I’ve never heard of any in my region. HOWEVER…”

It’s finished! Here’s the painting process. I’m not sure exactly what colour a building like this would have been painted. It’s intended to be in the 19th century, in a poor part of town. I know that pure white paint wasn’t a thing for the Victorians, so I went for an off-white upper storey and a green lower storey. On the whole, I’m happy with how it turned out.

Progress has been slow these last two days (thank you, migraine), but I’ve added chimney pots, given the whole thing a coat of Mod Podge and per the advice of the Rolling Stones, painted it black. Debating whether to add guttering and down pipes. In the final diorama I could probably get away without them. The chimney pots are beads from the Trimits range. They make lots of odd little bits that are intended for jewellers, but very handy for modellers.

South London is a great setting for quirky branch lines. I’m looking forward to seeing this progress.

Further additions. The door and the planking were cut from food packaging card (in this house, they believe in recycling). As you can probably tell, that projection at the top is more foam and mesh. This feature is not only typical of these houses, but it helps to break up the outline and disguise the origin of the structure. So begins the process of planking, which is unbelievably tedious. While embossed styrene does exist, it’s just not rough enough for my purpose. This is where I am so far after an evening’s work. Roof shingles were also card and also tedious. The chimney is low relief, being made of a scrap of foamcore I had lying around, with bricks inscribed with a pencil. There are details to be added, but otherwise, on to the painting!

I’m bored! So I’m turning another of those wooden houses into something more interesting. There’s a book called Lost London which has some fascinating images of ramshackle old houses, and I’ve often thought they’d make a fun scratchbuilding project. The starting point. I have too many of these things, because they’re so ridiculously cheap and I keep having ideas on what to do with them. I’m using blue insulation foam to add some relief to the structure. Windows are cross-stitch grating. First stage assembly. I was able to make quick progress simply because the prototype is so “rustic,” to put it politely. Measurements were by eye with no real attempt at precision.

I think I recall someone successfully using that method many years ago in one of the magazines.

Thank you! I wasn’t sure how well it would work, so it’s fairly accidental.

I tend to go with a colour slightly darker than my intended colour. Then dry brush the “correct” shade over the top, then a light wash of brown to tie it all together. Variation is important.

Next, the walls were assembled. I used some scrap bits of wood as crude internal framing. Then, the roof. This was styrene pantiles, topped with a half-round styrene rod. Then painting. Same technique - base coat and dry brushing, but this time with some touches of brownish-green to represent moss. Some final details. Barge boards and notice board made from card - the barge boards aren’t quite symmetrical, but I hope they’ll pass from a distance. Gutters from more styrene rod. Downpipe from wire. Aaaaand… I think we’re done. It’s far from perfect and I dare say anyone familiar with the building could point out a million different mistakes, but I’m pleased for a first attempt. Plus the layout it’s going on it pretty big, so hopefully any faults will go unnoticed.

Well, this isn’t an industrial building, but it’s my first attempt at something based on a real structure. It’s meant to be the Lea Rowing Club’s boathouse. I used thin insulation foam for the front and back, and the more solid side walls are made of foamcore (minus paper). These take impressions really well, so I like to use them for brickwork. Thus: The building has windows and also some odd sort of buttress things? I don’t know the technical term. I decided to paint the walls before assembly. A sand colour as the base, with various reds and browns drybrushed on. For the windows and doors, I used card.

There is, but it’s a replica.

I think… it’s finished. Mostly the final stage was weathering. Somewhat frustratingly, the wash I used to create a mossy effect turned out shiny, so I would have been better off using watercolour or something, but hey ho. On to the next project! EDIT: Here’s Dolgoch with a pair of slate wagons to kind of demonstrate what the building will look like in context. The idea is that it will sit by the sidings, mostly to make it look like the sidings are there for a reason.

Been getting to work on the paint. I started with some of the smaller details like the window frames and chimney pots, but in retrospect this was a mistake. Then I painted the walls and roof grey, picking out the odd stone in different shades and slightly different colours. Then, dry brushing in light grey to bring out the texture… Then a dark wash to tie everything together, weather it down a bit and add depth to the recesses.

Next step was to coat the whole thing in Mod Podge for strength. The last step before painting was to fill in some of the gaps between stones. Now, I could have used model filler, but as I was trying to go as DIY as possible, I used the old bicarbonate of soda and superglue method. The main disadvantage of this is that it dries rock hard in seconds, so you have to be sure of what you want. That being done, I painted the black undercoat. I like this stage, because it ties everything together. Even if my camera can't quite see it.

There was an area on the other side where I wasn’t happy with the way the slates looked. Fortunately, this being a ramshackle building, it was easy to justify covering it up with more corrugated card. I have to say, I quite like the effect, and considered adding it elsewhere, but I think I’ll leave it as is.

The building is now ready for painting. Roof slates are ordinary white card - let’s just say that the slate company doesn’t exactly use this building as an advertisement. The chimney pots are beads that I picked up for the remarkable price of 5p.

Alas, Wiltshire is a little distant, but thank you for looking. In other news, the rest of the windows have been added. Doors have been made from card, which I picked up from Poundland back when everything was still a pound. And the first side is fully clad. Not as tedious a task as I thought.

That's the stuff, but it's out of stock everywhere that even lists it. It's different to corrugated card - that has larger corrugations, more suitable for larger scales. I've seen Warhammer modellers use it very successfully, for instance.

A little more work. Extra windows, more stone. I also added a roof to the extension, using a material known as corduroy card - I don’t know if it’s no longer made or known by a different name, but I can’t find any more for sale. I like it as a way of making corrugated iron panels.

The London Underground's Circle Line, if we're only including typical revenue-earning trains.

I've seen people get good results with air dry clay or even grout.