Scratch-built card and styrene structures (based on real buildings around London Bridge)

[grahame]

Have you had a look at https://ncap.org.uk/

 

There are numerous flights at different times over different areas, may give you someting more accurate timescale-wise.

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

Interesting - thanks. It's rather like the 'Britain from Above' website: https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW006813

 

I've had a quick look and found an image of the station from 2000. But it taken from very high and I doubt, that even taking out a subscription, it would be zoomable down to see road marking level. Does anyone have experience and know whether it worthwhile paying the subscription fee?

 

G

[grahame]

I've got the pavements and traffic island in place (as accurate/best as I could) as well as the drop kerbs for the pedestrian crossings. Next will be painting, adding kerb stones and the road lane markings, then the pavement paviors and then weathering:

 

 

G.

 

 

 

[grahame]

I've been practicing white lining freehand and against a straight edge for straight lane lines: 

 

 

I used a white Uni Posca paint pen which can be seen in the pic bottom left. If I make as mistake or want to change it I can simply paint over with grey and start afresh.

 

Having looked at the real road it is surprising just how rough and ready (and freehand) the road markings are. Look at the arrow head on the turn right arrow and the lettering. And just how much they change is a short space of time. In the pic in the PC screen in the photo beyond the No Entry words is just white lane lines but from another angle (presumably taken at a different time) there is a yellow box junction added and no lane lines.

 

G

 

 

[acg5324]

Those Uni Posca paint pens are very useful, I’ve used them on the RailNscale cars, I expect you have too.

[grahame]

I thought I had a yellow Posca pen for the yellow lines but couldn't find it - I'll have to get one. In the meantime here's how it is looking with a few suitable vehicles:

 

 

G.

 

 

[Stubby47]

Will you be wreathing weathering the road, rubbing off most of the white lines and adding wear lines & ruts ?

 

Edit - wreathing is something else instead...

Edited November 14, 2018 by Stubby47

[grahame]

Will you be wreathing the road, rubbing off most of the white lines and adding wear lines & ruts ?

 

I will be grubbying it down but I need to get the yellow lines, kerbstones and crossing studs (https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=pedestrian+crossing+studs&FORM=HDRSC2) in place first.

 

G.

[grahame]

The yellow Posca pens arrived this morning and I purchased the styrene strip for the kerbs from the local model shop a day or two ago. I can now get on with finishing the road surface. I'm more relaxed about it now as it will be at the back of the layout and behind a viaduct so wont be able to be overly scrutinised. I've got some etched drain grids and manhole covers but will save those for detailing the foreground roads. Hopefully when I've finished the junction and added some painted on road surface repairs and weathering even my freehand lettering and arrows will suffice:

 

 

G

 

 

[Freight Connection]

Lovely work as ever Grahame,

 

What paint or primer did you use for the grey road surface? I've had a scan through and so apologies if i have missed it.

 

I started with white and yellow watercolour pencils on the strength of your book / articles ( I think ) and loved using them, and the result with these pens looks ideal...

 

Looking forward to seeing your repairs and weathering close up as it's something I've never really mastered over the years.

 

Steve

[grahame]

Lovely work as ever Grahame,

 

What paint or primer did you use for the grey road surface? I've had a scan through and so apologies if i have missed it.

 

I started with white and yellow watercolour pencils on the strength of your book / articles ( I think ) and loved using them, and the result with these pens looks ideal...

 

Thanks.

 

The road surface colour is just Halfords grey primer. Real roads always seem lighter than many model them as they reflect light from the sky - they are certainly not black as I have seen on some layouts. It's best to go out a look at real roads and take inspiration from the prototype rather than other people's models (including mine).

 

I discovered Uni Posca paint pens a couple of years ago - the type with a fine 0.7mm 'pin' type nib are best for road lines. They do fine 0.7mm 'bullet' fibre nibs as well but are not so consistent. Prior to that I marked out the lines with a pencil and then carefully painted over the pencil with acrylic colours and a fine paintbrush.

 

I'd suggest never using self adhesive lines as they will be too proud for N/2mm and will eventually curl up. I've not tried rub down transfers but you'd be limited to the standard shapes/formations available - real road line are bespoke.

 

G

Edited November 17, 2018 by grahame

[grahame]

I've been checking road levels, bridge clearance heights for the buses and that the curved (was Oddbins) shop will fit and look okay between the two bridges. For that I knocked up a paper drawing as full scale size rough facsimile (photo below) and tested it in place with the road junction as well as a temporary bridge deck behind. It's quite ornate in real life but luckily I wont need to go mad with details as it is on the side facing away from the viewing position :

 

 

It's surprising just how much things have changed over the years. Oddbins is now closed and boarded up but prior to that I seem to recall a Campari sign on the building many years ago and probably for the era I'm trying to model :

 

 

Also the bridge sides have carried various adverts painted on them over time. Below is Phillips - and dig those period cars , the bus stop shelter in Duke Street Hill which is no longer there and the now closed Italian restaurant. Even some of the advertising hoardings along the walls seem to have disappeared. 

 

 

G.

[grahame]

It's quite tricky making bespoke 3D non-regular structures to fit in with existing other structures. I don't mind irregular shaped floor plans and vertical walls that sit on flat (baseboard) surface (like most of the buildings I've made so far) but where the floors/ground (roads, pavement, etc) slope in different directions and there are strange angles to accommodate and match up with it gets more difficult.

 

Still I've started on the Oddbins shop which is incorporated in to the two bridges either side as a kind of central support and has a rounded frontage. It seems to be working out roughly okay so far. In the pic below the steel rule is holding the rectangle of card in place to show the track bed over Borough High Street to allow checking for height (that buses can pass under and so on). The final track bed will be cut from plywood and needs to remain horizontal, at least for this section, resting on ply sides with the viaduct wall on each outer side:

 

 

G.

 

 

[grahame]

Add curves, that need to match up, to all the slopes and angles and it starts to get a little frustrating. Not impossible or overly difficult, but requiring care, thought, double checking and trial and error.

 

And this is the side won't be able to be seen . . . . 

 

 

G.

[grahame]

I've slapped some rough basic details on the corner shop - no need to go into too much fine detail as it will be facing the rear of the layout (and Allen Dawes always said don't model what you can't see). The frontage curvature fit is now better and the structure clips in to place on the junction roadway section. Plus I've re-tested the bridge heights and they're fine for double deck buses. Yes, the bus in the pic is going the wrong way down a one-way street.

 

 

G.

[justin1985]

That curved shop frontage always catches my eye when commuting through London Bridge. It seems very grand - and especially with the clock, it feels like it might have originally been intended as some kind of railway-occupied structure - perhaps a ticket or enquiry office? All the photos I found from a quick search online seemed to show it as a shop - but was that always so?

 

Great modelling as always Graeme! Really looking forward to seeing the track elements of the layout develop too

[elttus]

I've got the pavements and traffic island in place (as accurate/best as I could) as well as the drop kerbs for the pedestrian crossings. Next will be painting, adding kerb stones and the road lane markings, then the pavement paviors and then weathering:

 

 

G.

 

Hi Grahame, the roads and pavements look great and are bringing it to life even more. I'm guessing you've used 2mm mount board card for the main road surface but what thickness of card are you using for the pavements and traffic islands and how have you created dropped kerbs?

[grahame]

That curved shop frontage always catches my eye when commuting through London Bridge. It seems very grand - and especially with the clock, it feels like it might have originally been intended as some kind of railway-occupied structure - perhaps a ticket or enquiry office? All the photos I found from a quick search online seemed to show it as a shop - but was that always so?

 

 

I don't really know. I guess the shop front window/door fittings are relatively new and not original.

 

I doubt it was an entrance to the station as there is a bridge either side and platforms there would restrict the number of tracks and add weight as well as not having room for ticket sales and other station facilities. The actual station is quite a way from it but it might have been a passageway under the tracks to the station approach road or even a shortcut from London Bridge to the original tube station entrance (now demolished) as that is nearer than the mainline station buildings.

 

The 1920s aerial view (see a few pages back for link) appears to show it as an open archway rather than a shop but it's difficult to discern with any accuracy.

 

G

Edited November 18, 2018 by grahame

[grahame]

Hi Grahame, the roads and pavements look great and are bringing it to life even more. I'm guessing you've used 2mm mount board card for the main road surface but what thickness of card are you using for the pavements and traffic islands and how have you created dropped kerbs?

I've used mountboard card for the roads and pavements but it's just a tickle over 1mm thick rather than 2mm which gives a scale 6" step.

 

The sloping ramps in the pavement to the drop kerbs are cut with a sharp scalpel, then coated with Superglue (rubbed in) and filed with a sanding stick. The kerbs are square section styrene strip cut at an angle for the slope down to the drop kerbstones to match the pavement ramps. I'm planning on covering the ramps with flagstone/pavior printed paper - I'm not sure whether those red knobly tiles (that seem to be everywhere these days) were around in the 1980s.

 

G

Edited November 18, 2018 by grahame

[grahame]

I've added some basic blocks of colour to the curved frontage (whatever is was/is) and hoping to simply add other details with pencil and paint effects (fingers crossed). And the other side bridge is also okay for buses, especially those driving down the wrong side of the road:

 

 

G

[Cornholio]

It's a bit before the period that Grahame is modelling, but many readers of this topic will find interest in this video:

 

 

It shows the renovation of London Bridge in the early seventies and shows just how decrepit the station had become.

[grahame]

After a whole day at Hospital (last Friday) and a trip to Warley, I've got back to a little modelling. I thought I'd experiment with some weathering/dirtying down the corner shop/structure (before roughly fitting it out). How it turned out wouldn't really matter due to it facing away from the viewing position and not being noticeable.

 

Nonetheless I've probably made far too much of a mess of it. The drawn on lines are to indicate stone blocks (not bricks which are much smaller) and the relatively close-up pic highlights all the messy inaccurate construction as well as wobbly non-horizontal lines and so on. Thankfully it's unlikely to be noticed when finally installed on the layout.

 

 

Oh well, back to some road lining.

 

G.

 

 

[chaz]

I dip into this thread every now and then to get my fix of seeing modelling of a real place firmly based on research. Each time I do it gets more convincing. I don't think you need to be in any way apologetic about the compromises you take with building sides that will be out of sight. What alarms me is how well you do them.

 

KUTGW!

 

Chaz

[grahame]

I've been adding kerbs, drop kerbs, some paving and lane and crossing lines to the road junction. It's been slow progress and has got rather tedious. It has taken most of the day and it's far from complete:

 

 

G.

[Siberian Snooper]

It's starting to look like London Bridge, great work, even if progress is slow and tedious.

[grahame]

With most of the road details on - but not any street furniture (which would be far too easily damaged at this stage) - I feel confident to move on to the next build project:

 

 

Can you tell what it is yet? Here's a very rough plan sketch:

 

 

As is probably obvious it will mostly be out of view.

 

G.