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Caledonian Basin - railway-in-a-box diorama


brylonscamel
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On 09/01/2019 at 09:17, brylonscamel said:

Despite the best efforts of life / Christmas / work to scupper my plans, I have made a bit of progress with Caledonian Basin.

The plan has been largely to see if I could 'kit-bash' some donated Metcalfe factory building packs into something that would fit nicely into a super-low-relief factory at the back of the elevated area in the diorama.

 

There is a mill/factory that used to stand at Dalmarnock that I tried to reproduce in styrene but it didn't fit the space very well - I'm hoping this one does the job better.

I thought of the idea for three reasons

  • Chris Nevard's inspirational article where he did a great job of tarting up and weathering the Metcalfe factory entrance and boiler house
  • The thought of cutting loads of arched window apertures in styrene
  • We are very lucky to have a cheap source of high quality printed and card punched models with Martcalfe - just that they are used so prolifically and suffer a bit from exposed card -edges and lack of texture

So here's some photos of progress to-date ...

 

The Metcalfe Factory gates get a twist, some additional stone capping and detailing and a side door and OK yeah I will touch up the visible card edges with paint

post-26609-0-54304800-1547025535_thumb.jpg

 

How the complete factory will sit within the diorama box ...

post-26609-0-27906400-1547027100_thumb.jpg

 

Some work to add interest to the roofs with styrene capping stones and some individual tiles ...

post-26609-0-78206600-1547027834_thumb.jpg

 

 

This has to be one of the best mods to a Metcalfe kit I have seen so far. Brilliant! So good, in fact, I feel the urge to steal it sorry be inspired to replicate it! Watching with interest.

 

Steve S

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3 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

 

This has to be one of the best mods to a Metcalfe kit I have seen so far. Brilliant! So good, in fact, I feel the urge to steal it sorry be inspired to replicate it! Watching with interest.

 

Steve S

 

Thanks Steve! .. I can't claim this as my own idea as it was largely inspired by an article fromChris Nevard that used the gatehouse kit from Metcalfe.

Oh and feel free to steal / rob / adapt / re-purpose /  replicate (delete as appropriate)

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12 hours ago, Southwich said:

Stunning work on this layout! The way you've managed to portray such depth in a small space is superb!

 

kind regards,

 

Will

 

Thanks Will - I did wonder if it was possible to put a canal lock, two factories, a wharf scene, factory siding and a railway viaduct in a small box without looking ridiculous!

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15 hours ago, Corbs said:

I was amazed when I saw the top-down view, it really gives the impression of being much larger.

 

Thanks Corbs, that's great feedback - you're right it doesn't look like much from above! One of the benefits of a 'railway in a box' is the restricted viewing angles - you know that someone can't peer over the top or from an acute sideways angle

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  • 1 month later...
On 06/10/2018 at 02:03, Clydebridge said:

 

Seems that overhead signal boxes were not too common, particularly north of the border. The only one I have came across is this one on the Glasgow & City Union line at Salkeld Street Parcels Depot/ Port Eglinton. 

 

 

post-15067-0-43024000-1538785901_thumb.jpg

 

Great photo, is it yours or from somewhere else?

 

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  • 1 month later...

Fantastic. Your stone setts recipe seems to be - lay thick card outside and abutting the sleepers - coat everything in modelling clay - carve into setts when dry - paint and weather. Is that about it? I'll need to do a fair bit of track embedded in cobbled road myself and am wondering how best to tackle it.

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53 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

Fantastic. Your stone setts recipe seems to be - lay thick card outside and abutting the sleepers - coat everything in modelling clay - carve into setts when dry - paint and weather. Is that about it? I'll need to do a fair bit of track embedded in cobbled road myself and am wondering how best to tackle it.

 

Cheers Martin - yeah you've pretty much got it! This is the first attempt at setting track into cobbles / setts but it worked OK.

One thing I found helpful was to develop a rolling technique that means I can lay strips of clay at the right sort of depth.  It just involved using a bit of dowel as a rolling pin and a palette knife / scraper to cut the soft clay. The trick was to lay an appropriate thickness of card either side of the piece of clay and let that regulate the depth of the clay sheet. 

Keep the substrate damp (squirt with any squirty-water device that comes to hand) . oh and a brush with PVA also helps adhesion. 

caledonian-basin-14i.jpg

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Glad you're back, the world needs to see these scenes!

 

Like Martin I will be looking at your setts when I need to do mine, thanks for the detail shots.

 

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Just found this. 

 

Lovely modelling. Nice to see Dundas Wharf popping up. Great location and one of my favourites. 

 

 

Rob. 

Edited by NHY 581
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20 hours ago, brylonscamel said:

. . .  if anyone continues to be interested, here is a photographic update. 

 

I for one remain very interested.  Great stuff!

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1 hour ago, Signaller69 said:

Martyn, I'm only just starting out with modelling clay but I've found it a lovely material to work with.

Here's a set of photos I took to illustrate my 'DAS pastry' technique - all done on a sheet of supermarket baking sheet for added bakery effect.

 

clay-rolling-01.jpg

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10 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Glad you're back, the world needs to see these scenes!

 

Like Martin I will be looking at your setts when I need to do mine, thanks for the detail shots.

 

Cheers! I had to fiddle with the notification settings on RMWeb as I had lost touch with threads I had been following. Normal service seems to be resumed!

PS I have posted some photos above to show my 'DAS pastry' technique.

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5 hours ago, brylonscamel said:

PS I have posted some photos above to show my 'DAS pastry' technique.

 

Thanks, very useful. But you didn't say how long in the oven? :jester:

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