2ManySpams

Funny, I was only thinking of GBloke the other day when I came across something he very kindly sent me to help with Pencarrow. Very kind, very generous and very funny chap. I did acquire his silhouette cutter, a couple of wagons and quite a lot of paints in his estate sale. I've also got some odds and sods from the estate sale of Iain Rice. I would like to think that some of their skill and inspiration has soaked into my modelling room but I suspect not.🤣 I'll be raising a glass to him tonight.

Proper job loco too!

Apparently dear SheepBloke has already had a minor incident this morning doing just that. Thankfully I've not seen the photos....

Plonk the new board to one side. Don't do anything rash like getting shot of it or trashing it. Play trains and enjoy the layouts you have. Spend a bit of time adding detail and titivating the scenes and stock.

And not forgetting the stink of the massive sewage treatment works.

Now why would you think that?

They just make you worse but I know I'll see your face again (apparently)

See now I'm confused. Take the tablets, don't take the tablets 🫣

A thousand thank yous, you're far far too kind.

Such a pity they don't do the Devil's Pannier, I'm truly crestfallen.

Oh no, there's more of the blighters...

1no padded cell on order🤣

Ah, sniftii

Whilst the stone is ready coloured and an authentic product, it's also very hard and not something at our scale that can be easily adjusted. Plasticard, clay and DAS can all be easily adjusted and shaped either during the build or afterwards if something needs tinkering with.

Late to the party... What sort of length are you talking about for this wall(s)? Is it inches, feet or yards? PS, happy to remove my earlier photos as they clearly have nothing to do with stone walls. I wrongly assumed you were thinking about stonework for buildings.

Thanks Jay, I think to get the completely random effect and the voids and see through bits you almost have to replicate how the real things have been built. Not quick or easy. Have you also explored casting thin layers (3mm ish) of polyfiller and then breaking up onto lumps, building the wall from those lumps? Again not a quick method.

It's also fun enough getting agreement on exhibition issues within the confines of a single club. I imagine you'd multiply that several times by bringing additional clubs and additional politics. People are normally only happy when everyone else agrees with them and does things their way. 🤣

Ah, good luck! Doable though in either DAS (I'd use their stone type) or plasticard. Both will take a while though. Depending on how much you have to do it might be worth making several masters and then casting in resin. I'd do each side separately and apply separate stones along the top to finish. The closest I've seen to that sort of finish is the interlocking plastic mouldings I used for this wall... But even those are too regular.

Hi Nick, as you can't fully see the photos on WT I've included a few in the two posts above. Shout if you want anything more or have questions. Edit: and to expand on Rob's comment. Yes, I now rarely post my building modelling on RMweb. I got fed up with comments along the line of "don't know why you bother, just buy a kit", or "spending time on buildings is a waste, people only look at the trains", or "you're a rivet counter". To an extent the second comment is correct. People are much less likely to visit or comment on threads about buildings. It misses the point though that the reason I model buildings to the same level as track or stock is that I enjoy it. It just gets dull defending what you enjoy.

I'd agree about the SEF sheet pictured in the question but there are other options and methods. DAS is certainly one but I wouldn't write off plasticard. It all depends on what you are trying to replicate.

For option 2, here's some Wills stone sheet that, to me, looked too much like crazy paving. So the block shapes were attacked in places, filled in others and scribed. There's also the option to use the plasticard sheet as a base. Here I've rendered over the top of it.

Ah my old nemesis. Finding suitable embossed plastic sheet for my buildings. Generally I find something suitable for about half of my buildings. For the rest I employ several options: 1. Attacking the sheet with various tools to modify its appearance. The Wills course stone is a favourite as it can be carved, sanded, have filler added to it and scribed. 2. DAS stone effect clay. Nice grey base colour with a slight texture. Can be carved, sanded and scribed. 3. Plasticard sheet. Can be attacked, carved, sanded and scribed. 4. Plasticard bits. I think Rob is referring to this in his post above. Here I raid the plasticard offcuts box and stick lots of different thickness (10 to 60 thou) to the structure to form rough blocks and then carve and scribe to get the desired finish. These are the tools I use. Think laterally with some. The course fil and razor saw can be dragged to give a textured finish to plastic. An example of method 3 is below (must finish painting it) A few photos of method 4 progressing. Various thickness bits stuck on the shell. Then worked on with the tools above. You can also merge in with Wills sheets where their finish is closer. I do tend to attack, fill and amend the Wills sheet in places. I'm currently just starting to paint this building. There's going to be washes over the building to tone it all down.

Sound advice in a number of situations...

And probably also the move from film to digital collapsed the film sale and processing market.

Couple of thoughts. It's a different skill set drawing up cad and getting the blessed prints to work properly - not everyone wants or can move in that direction. After spending all day at work on a computer, the last thing I want in my leisure time is to spend more time on it. I much prefer low tech, hands-on modelling. It's early days yet with materials, and we probably don't know how long printed things will last and how durable they will be over time. Bakelite anyone? Because 3d printing involves tech and a different skill set it could well encourage different people into the hobby, which is a good thing. The scope of 3d printing is only limited by your creativity (and some practical limitations) and the ability to do lots of identical repeats can be a real asset in some cases. I don't have a 3d printer myself but am more than happy to make use of the products where appropriate. For instance, @mudmagnet produced these for me in 7mm scale: They are far better than I could have produced by hand, better than metal castings I've used before and saved me a rather laborious task. 3d printing is however not the answer for the rather large building they go on. Horses for courses.