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Braeside Models: The Scratchbuild Commissions of Brian McCulloch


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A Cottage industry

Here are some photos after priming the various 'but and ben' cottages. There are still some 'quirks' be dressed by hand but as a first batch of samples, they are generally tidy and will pop into life with the addition of paint.

 

As with all materials and processes used to produce models there is a lot to learn and expertise is usually won over years of practice. I consider myself very lucky that I found so much help and encouragement to start this venture. A local friend has recently pitched in with his own experience to offer tips and answers to numerous noddy questions. He has worked on things as various as the original Spitting Image and Tim Burton's 'Corpse Bride' so he has lots of ideas gained within a commercial setting.

 

I'm aiming to up the ante with the next set of buildings but as a starter for ten I feel this is 'Nae Bad'!

 

bm-casting-samples-06a.jpg

bm-casting-samples-06-INSTA-03.jpg

bm-casting-samples-06-INSTA-04.jpg

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Nae bad indeed Brian. The middle photo with all the models together makes me think it is only a matter of time before you produce rows of terraced houses a la Coronation Street! Well done

 

Cheers

David 

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3 minutes ago, David Bell said:

.. it is only a matter of time before you produce rows of terraced houses a la Coronation Street!

 

Thanks David - you are the second person today to mention Coronation Street in response to the grouping of cottages! 

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The North British Hotel

On the commissions front, David and I have agreed on a piece of Glasgow's railway and hotel heritage with which to proceed.

It's a beautiful, iconic building that makes a perfect companion to the office that I built.

 

The original is massive so we are restricted to the western end but it will have enough of the façade to be instantly recognisable to anyone familiar with Glasgow Queen Street station. 

 

north-british-postcard.jpg.21a9ad63977b1527522f84fdb798fed7.jpg

 

 

 

Edited by brylonscamel
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3 hours ago, brylonscamel said:

The North British Hotel

On the commissions front, David and I have agreed on a piece of Glasgow's railway and hotel heritage with which to proceed.

It's a beautiful, iconic building that makes a perfect companion to the office that I built.

 

The original is massive so we are restricted to the western end but it will have enough of the façade to be instantly recognisable to anyone familiar with Glasgow Queen Street station. 

 

north-british-postcard.jpg.21a9ad63977b1527522f84fdb798fed7.jpg

 

 

 

Looking forward to seeing this develop! 

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4 hours ago, Enfys_Rainbow said:

How much are these lovely little cottages going to cost? 


I'm just working out the cost of this first batch. l will post the info here when it's sorted but I've also dropped you a personal message.

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  • RMweb Gold

As the birds sang and the wind blew gently through the grass, John knelt quietly in the back of his trusty old Landrover and  prayed that he would annihilate his enemies in tonight's Counterstrike session.

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4 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

Sometimes, something comes along which makes you wish you modelled a different area to that which you do!

 

That's a brilliant response! My plan to convert everyone to modelling the highlands and the old Great North of Scotland area is working!! 

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7 hours ago, Mikkel said:

As the birds sang and the wind blew gently through the grass, John knelt quietly in the back of his trusty old Landrover and  prayed that he would annihilate his enemies in tonight's Counterstrike session.

I love that this has sparked an accompanying story - will there be future episodes?

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  • RMweb Gold
2 hours ago, brylonscamel said:

 

That's a brilliant response! My plan to convert everyone to modelling the highlands and the old Great North of Scotland area is working!! 

 

Well, if you came up with engine sheds/goods sheds/tenements I might weaken.

 

Mike.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Oops!  I've been very busy behind the scenes, almost forgetting to update this RMWeb thread in the process.

 

A sort of 'sample sale' is up on the website and the small batch of fully prepared is available to buy.  Despite my recent career in web design and web development, the nuts-and-bolts of e-commerce setup, email configuration and page design still takes a bit of doing!

 

Anyway, you press buttons and things pop up in a reassuringly reliable fashion. If anything takes someone's fancy, purchasing is easy.

 

The fully-finished nature (and price) of most pieces may disappoint some. This is due to the fact that I needed a batch to photograph and showcase. Also, this being my first venture into resin-casting, there were lots of quirks in the castings that needed fettling to assemble. To complete the buildings, some parts are scratch-built or were tweaked to fit. This makes the current castings too fussy to sell as self-assembly kits.

 

My confidence with casting is growing and I feel certain that some nice kits will be rolling out of my shed  and have lots of ideas for the future.

 

I really hope this develops into a healthy little enterprise and adds to the growing industry of specialist model-producers in the UK.

 

When I last looked, a slick young estate-agent was even spotted nosing around one of the properties .. he said he had been waiting for the owner to install the gutters and downpipes!

 

bm-but-ben-gutters-01.jpg.f44167fe092c61706e69166ca85599c7.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by brylonscamel
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33 minutes ago, thompclass37 said:

What is your website address please

 

Thanks for that comparison  - funnily enough I read a book last year ("Precisely") and it included the rolls-royce story. Mr Royce's dedication to accuracy remains something to aspire to! 

The website was produced in haste last week but seems to work fine: https://braesidemodels.co.uk/

 

I'll be adding buildings in kit form as soon as I can get the next round of development* done. 

 

* a fancy way of saying 'make some more buildings"

 

Cheers,

Brian 

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Thanks for that comparison  - funnily enough I read a book last year ("Precisely") and it included the rolls-royce story. Mr Royce's dedication to accuracy remains something to aspire to! 

The website was produced in haste last week but seems to work fine: https://braesidemodels.co.uk/

 

 

Thanks Brian

 

Charles

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In my ignorance, would these cottages have had some sort of flashing around the chimney?  It may be there and I cannot see it in the pictures or it may be that cottages like this didn't have flashing.   I am not trying to be petty, I dont know and am curious.  As a matter of interest I live in Canada near Ottawa and there are a few cottages so similar to these you wouldn't believe it.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 14/06/2021 at 21:03, Theakerr said:

In my ignorance, would these cottages have had some sort of flashing around the chimney?  It may be there and I cannot see it in the pictures or it may be that cottages like this didn't have flashing.   I am not trying to be petty, I dont know and am curious.  As a matter of interest I live in Canada near Ottawa and there are a few cottages so similar to these you wouldn't believe it.

 

You are right, flashing is a feature of these  buildings but not always obvious to the eye and some old cottages with 'wiggly tin' roofs seem completely without flashing. I believe the use of lime mortar fillets was the most common method but time and weathering reduced many to something hardly visible. Traditionally, lead was rare and expensive so hardly used.

 

I've taken a bit of license with this first model and rendered them without a clearly defined mortar flash running over the top of slates or corrugated sheet. This compromise was partly to facilitate the model construction which uses chimney stacks set into a recess in the roof parts. Future models will feature something more clearly defined where appropriate.

 

roof-examples-02.jpg

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