cakebox 3 City breaks in London and Paris

[47137]

I have discovered, a type F (ferry) sleeper in 1:87 scale will fit across the space available. The idea is to represent the arrivals of two pairs of holidaymakers, in London on one side and in Paris on the other. The two railway items will be the coach (by LS Models) and a length of track for it to stand on.

 

 

One side of the model will represent Victoria station and the other side Gare du Nord. I’m imagining a Preiser ‘film star’ couple representing a French couple arriving in London, and some other Preiser passengers weighed down with luggage representing an English couple arriving in Paris. Playing up stereotypes.

 

The English couple will be walking to a Citroen DS representing a Parisian taxi, and the French couple will be walking to an empty taxi rank. Unless I can find a 1:87 British taxi.

 

I wonder whether this can “work”, or maybe hardly anyone used the Night Ferry to go on holiday? Ideas welcome! Period would be late 1950s or early 1960s, to tone with the livery of the coach.

 

- Richard.

[Mikkel]

I really like that idea Richard, very creative thinking. 

[47137]

I have some white Bristol board to make the surfaces of the station platforms. This could stay unpainted, with only the holiday makers and some other details painted. Perhaps a tree on the Paris side and a London Underground roundel on the London side. I think the hardest part of the model will be representing the track, because Victoria should have BH with a third rail, and Gare du Nord should have FB without. Another thing to watch is, the idea for the project lends itself a bit too well to cheque-book modelling.

 

So to begin with, I think I should try to make the track. The sleepers can be some obechi offcuts I have, and the rails can be some code 70-ish FB I also have. But maybe, the rails should be thin strips of wood? Then they are clearly not trying to represent either type of rail.

 

- Richard.

Edited August 28, 2019 by 47137

[47137]

I was working in the charity shop yesterday morning and picked up a metal skyline of Paris. This is about 600mm long, but I can cut out the section from the Eiffel Tower to Sacre-coeur and wrap this around the Parisian part of the model:

 

 

Probably a bit avant-garde for these pages but it is geographically reasonable for a viewpoint across Gare du Nord. A sort of backscene you can look through from both sides.

 

- Richard.

[Allegheny1600]

Hi Richard,

Very clever stuff, I like it!

I've had a look through my British H0 road vehicle collection and I can't offer anything you probably haven't already got but you can get an FX4 here: http://www.modelcarworld.de/uk/BoS-Models/223156/Modelcar-Austin-FX4-black-RHD-1975.htm - on second thoughts, it looks like that's too late, sorry! (but I thought the FX4 was suitable from 1958 onwards?)

Cheers,

John.

[Marly51]

5 hours ago, 47137 said:

I was working in the charity shop yesterday morning and picked up a metal skyline of Paris. This is about 600mm long, but I can cut out the section from the Eiffel Tower to Sacre-coeur and wrap this around the Parisian part of the model:

 

 

Probably a bit avant-garde for these pages but it is geographically reasonable for a viewpoint across Gare du Nord. A sort of backscene you can look through from both sides.

 

- Richard.

 

Anything goes, Richard! CakeBoxes are for experimenting!! 

[47137]

I have started the project with the coach. This comes with a bag of detail parts.

 

There is a square hole under one end of the model. To remove the roof, you put a small screwdriver through the hole, touch it against the inside of the roof and push very hard. Not for the faint-hearted. Just when you fear a permanent impression appearing on the outside of the roof, the moulding moves away. I put in upper bunks and ladders for four of the compartments, and swapped out the bunk in the 'courier' compartment for a simple bench seat.

 

The bunks have moulded bed linen with the CIWL logo on it. The beds look freshly-made and I suppose they ought to look a bit slept in for the arrival of the train, but trying this in 1:87 scale is difficult.

 

The vestibule end of the coach has the usual extended corridor connection. The steps are hinged, so they will be up for the Victoria side and down for the Gare du Nord side. This will be opposite to the position in this photo, because Platform 1 at Victoria is on the right of the train and this is supposed to be the leading coach (below).

 

I want the coach to represent the first coach of the train. This would be marshalled behind a fourgon. To try to show this sense of 'place' to the model, I swapped the extended corridor connection at the boiler end for a retracted connection:

 

 

All of these changes are reversible one day if need be. I did trim off parts of the clips holding the roof so the roof still stays in place but I can remove it more easily next time.

 

I wanted to fit the buffer beam details too, but doing this means removing the coupling cams. I had a go at extracting the chassis (eight clips to be slackened off as opposed to two for the roof) and decided this was much too likely to spoil the model. Anyway, I want to be able to use the coach on the layout too. So the coupling cams and their NEM sockets stay. The model won't get couplings for now because these would make it too long for to go into a cakebox.

 

After all this the model was smothered in finger prints. I wiped these off with a dry cotton bud for fear of anything stronger spoiling the finish.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

8 hours ago, Allegheny1600 said:

Hi Richard,

Very clever stuff, I like it!

I've had a look through my British H0 road vehicle collection and I can't offer anything you probably haven't already got but you can get an FX4 here: http://www.modelcarworld.de/uk/BoS-Models/223156/Modelcar-Austin-FX4-black-RHD-1975.htm - on second thoughts, it looks like that's too late, sorry! (but I thought the FX4 was suitable from 1958 onwards?)

Cheers,

John.

 

An FX-4 would be fine - except I've just bought a Routemaster bus. This arrived today, along with a dark red DS19.

 

The Routemaster might be a bit overpowering on the model. I'll experiment and come back.

 

I need to work out whether it is sensible to spend "50 Euros or more" if I buy the FX-4, because this will make the order post free.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

On 30/08/2019 at 12:25, Allegheny1600 said:

Hi Richard,

Very clever stuff, I like it!

I've had a look through my British H0 road vehicle collection and I can't offer anything you probably haven't already got but you can get an FX4 here: http://www.modelcarworld.de/uk/BoS-Models/223156/Modelcar-Austin-FX4-black-RHD-1975.htm - on second thoughts, it looks like that's too late, sorry! (but I thought the FX4 was suitable from 1958 onwards?)

Cheers,

John.

 

An FX4 is very suitable - what's more, it would be the 'state of the art' in London opposite the DS in Paris. It's a useful model to have in the collection too because it suits a setting through five decades. I passed one on the Colchester bypass yesterday.

 

So - I did a search of Model Car World for "RHD" and sorted this by scale, and found several Brekina Minis and Minors on special offer. So my order is for one taxi, one Minor, three Mini vans and one Mini Countryman. Calculated to take me just over the 50 Euros. There are model vehicles of all scales here, there might be something for a cake box in one of the larger scales.

 

My Routemaster (by Tomica) is a bit too big for this idea, it swamps the model. It would be fine if the railway item was to one side of the 8 inch square and not straight across the middle.

 

I've bought some strip wood in B&Q and I'm waiting for a square of plywood to arrive to make the base.

 

- Richard.

[Allegheny1600]

Excellent!

Nice one, Richard, glad to have helped. I'm currently trying to decide whether to take advantage of that offer myself, sorely tempted by a Foden flatbed truck.

Cheers,

John.

[47137]

Well - the square of ply I ordered up a week ago hasn't arrived so I've made a start on the base using some thin mdf board:

 

This is all-glued, no pins. Corner blocks to avoid gluing onto end grain. The mdf is obviously a bit flimsy but if I make the two platforms from strip wood then these will add some diagonal bracing. The space underneath will probably remain empty - there is room here for batteries here if I ever want lighting but I won't have time for this having begun rather late in the day for the competition.

 

The finished size is 194 x 194 mm, this gives me space all round to add fascias from card and still be able to get the model in and out of its cake box.

 

- Richard.

[Sweet pea]

Nice solid baseboard construction Richard. Looking forward to seeing more.

[47137]

I've made a start on the track and the taxi has arrived from Germany:

 

The sleepers are 3 mm obechi laid on sandpaper. I have made a jig and cut about 30 to the usual British length, this is 8' 6" or 29.8 mm in 1:87 scale. The spacing is a tiny bit too loose - after eleven sleepers I am 3 mm too far along, so the pitch is representing around 2' 7" instead of 2' 6". The sleeper width is within a scale quarter inch of prototype.

 

At the moment, I would like all of the model-making I do to be using traditional materials like wood and card and metal, and these efforts to be unpainted. This will contrast with the factory finishes on the coach and the car and taxi. However whether I can actually carry this off depends rather on how neatly I can build things and how much glue ends up showing! I will still need to paint the holidaymakers.

 

The taxi is made from resin. I usually dread the thought of resin after memories of a 7mm building kit made out of some kind of rigid soap but this kind of resin is very different:

 

I am guessing the whole taxi is clear solid and the bodywork is painted on. Possibly the front bumper is a bit over scale, but if so it's less over scale than my sleeper spacing. This is by BOS Models meaning "Best of Show", I think this is the own brand of Model Car World. The FX4 was introduced in 1958 so it is as state of the art as the DS19 for the model.

 

- Richard. 

Edited September 6, 2019 by 47137

[47137]

I have settled on Peco IL-1 rail for the track. This is marketed as code 60 but measures about code 67, so it looks reasonably like the FB rail used at Gare du Nord and also the scale height (but not cross section) is close to the usual British BH rail. Also, with the rail held down by tiny blobs of glue and no rail fixings, the wheels of the coach will sit on the rails not the sleepers.

 

This has all taken rather longer than I would have liked. I painted the rails with Humbrol no.1 matt enamel undercoat and then an enamel earth shade from Ammo Mig, this dissolved the primer so I cleaned up and started again with some Revell earth colour - which seems to have stuck hard after two coats. To be honest, I have never successfully used Humbrol primer (from a tinlet) and I'm still not sure what it is for. Their aerosol equivalent is better, but Halfords primer (acrylic) does seem to work like a primer and stick to the bare surface.

 

I know the paint on the rails is going away from my intention to not paint anything but all-bright rails look too wrong. The track looks like a scale model to me, but some people might reasonably ask "a scale model of what?"

 

I am running out of time on this project, I wish I had begun a month earlier.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

I have had a concentrated session on the model. I would usually build a station platform as a self-contained model and attach this to the baseboard, but really the two platforms "are" the model here so I am building them in situ:

 

 

 

It probably looks a bit extravagant to use three different cross-sections of strip wood but I am sure the off-cuts will get used up soon enough on other projects. I bought the wood in 900 mm lengths from B&Q.

 

The base was not as sturdy as it looked - the MDF was like a drum skin and when I attached the front of the Victoria platform one of the rails pinged off in two spots. I'd expect plastic-based track would survive but this is a very rigid model track with no flexibility in. The MDF is now braced on top, by the front of the Victoria platform, and underneath, by a diagonal at right-angles to the track.

 

I have just realised, the taxi and the car need to be facing the same direction so the holidaymakers can be heading towards the passenger sides of their respective transports.

 

I would like the model to be viewable from all sides and this is working out ok so far.

 

- Richard.

[Allegheny1600]

Hi Richard,

It's coming on in leaps and bounds and I do like seeing your progress.

I'm impressed with your track and I wish you luck!

Cheers,

John.

[47137]

1 minute ago, Allegheny1600 said:

Hi Richard,

It's coming on in leaps and bounds and I do like seeing your progress.

I'm impressed with your track and I wish you luck!

Cheers,

John.

Thanks for this John.

 

In a way, the track is a prototype for the branch to the vehicle dismantlers on my main baseboard of Shelf Island. It has a much finer appearance than my present Peco code 75 with its re-gapped sleepers and I think the layout would look better, even with only a few feet of this. I expect I would build track for the layout using copper clad, this really needs to be 3mm not 1/8" strips to make it look right. Otherwise I might as well use Scaleway 00 with the sleeper ends trimmed down.

 

I have another, more hare-brained idea which is to file down the foot of the Peco IL-1 rail to make it look like bullhead, and then solder onto pins put into obechi sleepers. Probably use P4 or similar cosmetic chairs, at least on the outside. With 16.5 mm the most popular track in the World this is probably a bit obsessive but it wouldn't be so bad for say 60 or 70 sleepers. It seemed over the top for this diorama because the coach will be hiding most of the track.

 

- Richard.

[Sweet pea]

Richard your cakebox is looking great, It’s nice that you have built your own base and I like the wood construction of the platform areas.

I am impressed with the way you have laid individual sleepers then added the rail, some I might use in the future.

Keep up the great work.

[47137]

On 15/09/2019 at 08:29, OOman said:

Richard your cakebox is looking great, It’s nice that you have built your own base and I like the wood construction of the platform areas.

I am impressed with the way you have laid individual sleepers then added the rail, some I might use in the future.

Keep up the great work.

 

I was at the Bluebell yesterday and found myself sharing a compartment with the proprietor of the firm who do track parts for popular scales. He explained how his component chairs and track bases work and how they will stick to wooden sleepers using Butanone. Now - I am happy with my slender IL-1 rail glued straight onto sleepers here because it leaves room for the wheel flanges but for further work I would look to try his rail bases or chairs.

 

Fundamentally you have got to decide whether to lay the sleepers onto the layout and add both rails (as I did), or build half track and add the second rail on the layout (e.g. with copper clad sleepers) , or build your own track entirely on the bench and lay this complete. His individual bases and chairs will slide along the rail and I think this is the sensible approach for anything beyond a short straight like this diorama. Apart from anything else, you can build the track with the sleepers butting up against each other, see the rail is located in the right place on the sleepers, and then move the sleepers to the right spacing.

 

Details: https://www.clfinescale.co.uk/examiningproductrange

 

- Richard.

 

[47137]

The Parisian taxi is a slightly awkward model because I will have no use for it except on this diorama. Whereas the red DS19 (left-hand drive) would fit into a British scene at a pinch. So for the time being, I see the red DS19 belonging to friends of the English couple, collecting them from the station.

 

I have found a Busch model of a DS19 taxi and this is now on order from Germany. If it arrives by the deadline there can be two taxis as the original plan, and if not there will be the FX4 and the red DS19.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

I have picked up Marlyn's suggestion of the pastel coloured paper by Daler Rowney, and used this for the surfaces of the two platforms. The platform faces are obechi. Here are the two platforms and the patch of card with a third shade of paper to make the taxi rank:

 

 

The whole model may well end up looking a bit bare and lacking in detail, but I have wanted to try out coloured paper (as opposed to the printed  brickpapers) for ages and of course the cakebox challenge gives me a way to try it out.

 

- Richard.

Edited September 18, 2019 by 47137

[Marly51]

This looks interesting, Richard. I like the different colours to differentiate the two locations.  I have only used the papers for my buildings so far, but still to experiment using pastel crayons or chalk to weather or pigment the surface. Platform and road surfaces are always tricky for me, sometimes resorting to drying out garden soil and sifting the finest grains onto a painted road or yard surface, using a piece of nylon over a spice jar, as a shaker. 

[DMU]

With me being new to the forum I am browsing and I like what is going on in the cakebox challenge.

I like how you have constructed the baseboard and built the platform around the track. I will be watching for some more ideas and inspiration.

[47137]

Well, looking for detail or authenticity I watched a dvd of 'The Ipress File' yesterday. The plot went pretty much completely over my head, and the sequence featuring the Night Ferry is tiny. Also, the train seems to be leaving London in daylight - departures were at night. Arrivals were in daylight and this was the reason for me choosing to model the two trains arriving at their destinations.

 

- Richard.

Edited September 20, 2019 by 47137

[47137]

On 18/09/2019 at 22:08, Marly51 said:

This looks interesting, Richard. I like the different colours to differentiate the two locations.  I have only used the papers for my buildings so far, but still to experiment using pastel crayons or chalk to weather or pigment the surface. Platform and road surfaces are always tricky for me, sometimes resorting to drying out garden soil and sifting the finest grains onto a painted road or yard surface, using a piece of nylon over a spice jar, as a shaker. 

 

I like the sound of crayons or chalk, but I would like to save these for another project. For my "City Breaks" I want to create a stylised representation of the theme, a pastiche if you like, rather than a detailed model. This is partly because any representation of two major termini in an 8-inch square has got to be pretty limited, but also because I want to leave a lot to imagination.

 

So - the base is mostly done now. The colours are simple greys and browns, plus a blue around the edge:

 

These all tone with the colours of the coach - blue and grey outside, and brown inside:

 

 

The Busch taxi has arrived and so there are two shiny black taxis to mark the limits of the model and let your eye wander back to the holidaymakers (still to do). I have added a simple kerb on the French side, this adds a bit of height to redress the vertical balance between the two different platforms.

 

The two bits of cocktail stick visible in the first of these photos go into holes in the taxis to stop them falling off the model. The wooden strips around the outside stop the coach rolling off the model. The coach is very free-running, but if I keep the model level then it will stay within its cake-box size.

 

The next task is the figures and to fix the metal skyline.

 

I am stuck for ideas for anything else to put on the model. To my mind, International arrival platforms should be pretty devoid of clutter. So the model may look a bit bare to some people, but it will portray its theme.

 

- Richard.