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

[millerhillboy]

lovely work as always Graeme, I don't know how you've got the fortitude for such a task. I'd be done after just one of your buildings such is the detail.

 

The overall effect is superb though and well worth your efforts.

[grahame]

I've managed to grab a screenshot from an old video of the entrance to the gas works in the 1970s - just as I remember it: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=trip+down+old+kent+road+video&docid=608043721673540838&mid=4356260048D531AE81DB4356260048D531AE81DB&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

 

 

It looks like it is shot from the top deck of a bus and there is only a fleeting shot of the showroom left and security gate house right with booster pump house just in view behind (over the top). I'll have to base my models on this as I've not been able to find any other suitable photos, apart from this which is a taken little earlier (late 60s) from inside the works looking towards the entrance:

 

 

This pic appears to be taken from the Area offices with the District office (that I've made) on the right edge, the medical centre (the white building I've also made) and the gate/security lodge on the other side of the road with a lot of people milling about - I think there was probably a strike on (they were quite common in those days in the works) as they appear to have stopped motorists entering.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by grahame

[grahame]

This morning I've made a start on the showroom building. The carcass has been constructed from mountboard card, including a roof that drops in ATM and can be removed to allow internal detailing - I'm going to need some N/2mm scale cookers and fires (anyone know of any 3D printed ones on Shapeways?). Next is to clad the exterior, where necessary, with brick embossed plasticard:

 

 

[grahame]

Brickwork panels are now on - they do help tidy up the card carcass. There's no brickwork on the rear wall as that won't be able to be viewed. This is a very simple and straightforward building, so care will need to be taken not to rush and bodge it any more than my usual bodging. The windows will probably be the trickiest parts being modernish large picture type display ones to allow viewing the appliances and window dressing:

 

[acg5324]

Quote

I'mgoing to need some N/2mm scale cookers and fires (anyone know of any 3D printed ones on Shapeways?).

Don’t know about Shapeways but Scalescenes do downloadable interiors which include white goods. 

https://scalescenes.com/product/interior-detail/

[phil_sutters]

Or you could make some. Standard size gas cookers are about 2ft square and 3ft to counter top level. 4mm square white plastic rod could be a good starting point. I didn't have any 4mm square but stuck two 4x1.5mm together. The grids and the grill support are small brass mesh.

[grahame]

Thanks for the suggestions. That's a very impressive model cooker complete with pan supports - is it N/2mm? 

 

Unfortunately with my printer not working I can't download and print anything ATM. And if I can't find and order any 3D printed ones then I'll have to make them. The snag is that I'm going to need a minimum of 6 stand-alone cookers and a couple of hobs and a similar number of fires.

 

 

 

[phil_sutters]

13 minutes ago, grahame said:

Thanks for the suggestions. That's a very impressive model cooker complete with pan supports - is it N/2mm? 

 

Unfortunately with my printer not working I can't download and print anything ATM. And if I can't find and order any 3D printed ones then I'll have to make them. The snag is that I'm going to need a minimum of 6 stand-alone cookers and a couple of hobs and a similar number of fires.

 

 

 

Because I knocked it up quickly the front got damaged by some glue marks. It is, as I said, made from two sections of 4mmx1.5mm rod 6mm long, plus the grill. So that scales out in 2mm/N at 2ft wide by 18" deep by 3ft high. I seem to remember gas fires being displayed with surrounds, mantlepieces etc. The fires themselves are going to be quite small. With your precision cutting skills and a few bits of plasticard I am sure that you can make a good job. Just remember that they all need to be different.

[grahame]

Yep, remember the appliances well. There were cookers from New World, Leisure and Cannon - some of those had a fold up eye-level grill which when pulled down to open, the grill burner raised and a little gun (cannon) swung out to light it. Then there were Debonair, Windsor and Misermatic radiant fires, the start of the LFE range and little balanced flue unit/hall heaters. Fire surrounds and marble hearths were becoming popular then as well, and split level cookers (separate hobs and ovens) were being introduced.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 11, 2020 by grahame

[acg5324]

11 hours ago, grahame said:

Thanks for the suggestions. That's a very impressive model cooker complete with pan supports - is it N/2mm? 

 

Unfortunately with my printer not working I can't download and print anything ATM. And if I can't find and order any 3D printed ones then I'll have to make them. The snag is that I'm going to need a minimum of 6 stand-alone cookers and a couple of hobs and a similar number of fires.

 

 

 

If you want Grahame I’ll get the file for the interiors and print some sets for you and post them to you.

[grahame]

Thanks Andy. That's a really kind offer.

 

If you do get the download and print it I'd be grateful for a set  or two, and I'll arrange to pay for the costs (download, printing and postage) perhaps by PayPal? I might also have a bash at making a few such as fires and surrounds.

 

 

[grahame]

I've added raised 'GAS' lettering as per the real showroom but I didn't have any 'S's so I've used a number '5' and tried to make it more look like a letter 'S'. The question is have I succeeded? 

 

 

I've also given the building an overall base colour of desert yellow to represent the yellow brick. Oddly the GAS lettering will need painting yellow as well, but brighter. You'd have though it would be the corporate blue colour but the video I posted details of shows it as yellow:

 

 

 

 

 

[Killybegs]

3 hours ago, grahame said:

I've added raised 'GAS' lettering as per the real showroom but I didn't have any 'S's so I've used a number '5' and tried to make it more look like a letter 'S'. The question is have I succeeded? 

 

 

I've also given the building an overall base colour of desert yellow to represent the yellow brick. Oddly the GAS lettering will need painting yellow as well, but brighter. You'd have though it would be the corporate blue colour but the video I posted details of shows it as yellow:

 

 

 

 

 

 YES

[acg5324]

4 hours ago, grahame said:

Thanks Andy. That's a really kind offer.

 

If you do get the download and print it I'd be grateful for a set  or two, and I'll arrange to pay for the costs (download, printing and postage) perhaps by PayPal? I might also have a bash at making a few such as fires and surrounds.

 

 

No problem, no charge you’ve sent me things in the past. Can you PM me your address.

[Ian Morgan]

1 hour ago, Killybegs said:

 YES

 

or is that YE5?

[grahame]

Unfortunately the showroom is in front of the medical centre so blocks out some view of it.  To the right across the entrance road is the security/gate house which is a similar single storey modernish (well, late 60s) yellow brick construction:

 

 

 

[Jim Martin]

Presumably that'll be a low-relief structure on the backscene behind the office building?

 

Jim

[Ian Morgan]

You have told us about the changes and compromises in size, etc, and how wrong it all is, but you have still made it all look so right.

 

[grahame]

39 minutes ago, Jim Martin said:

Presumably that'll be a low-relief structure on the backscene behind the office building?

 

Jim

 

Yep, it was the Area office (the District office being in front). It no longer exists and I've not been able to find any pics of it. I remember the inside which was very grand with an impresive staircase, wood panelling, a warren of passageways with individual offices and a large entrance foyer with beautiful models of ships in glass cases that the south met gas company owned.

 

 

Edited November 12, 2020 by grahame

[phil_sutters]

The fire on the left was inspired by a tiny fragment of mesh, with the cut ends looking like a fire basket's spikes, for an artificial coal fire. The second fire was an attempt to use a few mm of a narrow cable tie, using the ribs to create the creamy ceramic elements. I can never get brown acrylic to thin and cover properly. It always ends up with paler edges. The black cooker was based on our modern Zanuzzi, although the black 'glass' fold down lid is a bit too shallow and there aren't any control knobs. They look a lot better in real life than they do here -  on my screen at 12+ times magnification!

Any excuse not to get on with the Highbridge Anthracite Fuel Company's works, on Highbridge Wharf.

 

Edited November 12, 2020 by phil_sutters
wrong photo

[grahame]

The card and superglue has been out this morning, to make a start on the security/gate house. It's very similar in style (not shape) to the Showroom but there are a number of subtle differences.

 

 

 

[grahame]

All the walls are now on and the brick cladding is in place:

 

 

 

[grahame]

Some details (like frieze, sills and door frame, although others still to be done) made from plasticard strip and sheet, and a quick blast of primer to make it easy to check out progress  and spot anything that needs tidying up or correcting.

 

 

 

 

[grahame]

Some progress this evening - colour on and windows in, but still other details to make (roof details, door, etc.,)

 

[grahame]

A few simple shapes/structures on the roof (based very roughly on the murky photos I have) adds some interest and breaks up the plainness of it. Just the door and some sign boards to make and add, but no doubt as usual, they'll wait while I consider my next lockdown project.