Frankland: N gauge Southern Railway

[bcnPete]

Lost for words

 

Stunning - Gobsmacked - Blown-away....to name a few.

 

Absolutely well worth the wait Mark....

[Andrew F]

_{Good man! That was a brilliant update Mark; beautiful modelling, helpful, really fascinating and just way too cool!}

_{It's amazing how the advertisments have moved the project on and breathed life into it. It also helps that you've made an incredible job of them; never seen anything like it to be honest. The bridges and viaducts are a triumph and a tribute to your skill........}

_{I got my first look at Copenhagen Fields at York today and was thinking about your layout. They're both rather good aren't they}

 

_Andy

[shanks522]

Brilliant Mark, absolutely brilliant.

So well thought out, constructed superbly and displayed on here in an excellent way, I really like how you write up your work and the photos are fantastic. Inspiring modelling if ever i've seen it and i can't wait for more.

 

cheers

 

Graham.

[KevinWalsh]

That is some superbly stunning work, please tell me you plan to take this out on the exhibition circuit when you are finished so we can get to see it in the flesh (so to speak).

[Zunnan]

I'm pinching the angle cutter idea, Mark

 

You've succeeded in making me want to rebuild my own bridges while I still can, but then I was kind of expecting something extra special after noticing a snippet 'elsewhere'.

[Dave777]

Outstanding work, it makes me look again at my own work and think I need to put more effort in.

 

I bet Slaters must be watching their bank account increase with all the embossed sheet going in here

 

 

Superb stuff, some of the very best modelling on RMWeb.

[Oldddudders]

One of the most impressive single updates I have ever seen on here. You do things in N that many of us would struggle to equal in larger scales, and your attention to detail is astonishing - again, in a scale where such things are easier to ignore. Detonator placers and fog huts are scarce on models in any scale.

 

I note that you have linked Greg Beecroft's excellent bridge-details page on SEmG - Greg also knows all about tenancies in the arches from his day job, as well as being a railway author (think Hastings DEMUs).

 

A landmark layout, as others have already said. Love it!

[devondynosoar118]

Another amazing update. The graphic work alone would make a great magazine article, I am sure that lots of people would like to know how the fly posting was created. The arches too are stunning, as is the attention to detail on the trackside stuff. You are illustrating very well that N models can have the same levels of detail as 4mm fine scale, well done.

[SNCF stephen]

Good grief, this is amazing. I am blown away by this scene and the attention to detail. Well done!

[Southernboy]

Thank you, thank you to everyone for your very kind comments.

 

You know, I really do enjoy my modelling, and the little stories that go with it. I find it very relaxing.

 

The fact that I can share it with so many people I've never met out there on the internet - and that positive comments flow back makes it all the more rewarding again

 

In reply to a few posts:

 

 

Andrew F

Thanks. Your comment about the adverts is spot-on. I've been wanting to get to this phase for so long as I knew it would add a whole new dimension (plus a well-needed splash of colour) to the layout, and set-the-scene even more firmly.

 

And you've reminded me of a credit I forgot to post in my introduction, which is the LT Photographic archive (online): It's a great resource for anyone seeking urban pictures from around the 1890s onwards. Whilst the subject matter is of course transport, there is so much to be observed in the background detail-wise - the subtle shifts from one decade to the next in styles of advertising, fashion, street surfacing, roadsigns, how shops displayed their goods, the lot.

 

Kevin Walsh

I'm afraid Frankland is a stay-at-home layout. But I like to think you probably see more and get to understand it better through the occasional broadcasts than you would by standing behind a barrier in some large exhibition hall

 

Zunnan

Thankyou - if my work passes-the-muster with you I'm over the moon

 

Dave777

I think I used less than a dozen sheets of Slaters at the end of the day. Like many others I get a little frustrated that the brick courses are not horizontally consistent.

 

 

Thanks again for your comments one and all

 

 

Mark

[Revolution Ben]

Hello Mark,

 

Fantastic update!

 

Your modelling is superb, and shows wonderful attention to detail and precision. I think your painting is excellent too - and really brings out the best in the brick-built items.

 

But what I really like most is that this is sooo much more than a model railway - it's a story stylishly and brilliantly told.

 

There is plenty of good modelling on RM Web, but what sets your thread head and shoulders above pretty much anything else I can think of is the presentation - this is a totally different kind of thread to anything else (example - who else would introduce an update with a listing from the Radio Times?)

 

Your graphic design work is really inspirational too. What program do you use, and what is the font in the "Southern Electric - Trains to the City etc" sign on the bridge faces?

 

This update was well worth waiting for, and I am already looking forward to the next one!!

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[Southernboy]

Ben A

Thanks. I use Photoshop for image manipulation and InDesign for layout work.

 

For the bridge signs I use Gill Sans for the words 'Southern Electric' and the rest of the text uses 'Interstate' (because I didn't have a condensed version of Gill Sans to hand - Arial Narrow would probably have done just as well).

 

The arrow was copied and pasted from a picture of an original Southern Railway direction sign.

 

 

devondynosaor118

Apologies, I missed your post in my previous reply:

 

In answer to your question about how the old posters were done ... initially I searched the internet for originals to download

 

 

 

 

They were opened in Photoshop and the strength of colour reduced (using Curves and Saturation in about equal measure) to around 60% / 50% of the orginal.

 

 

This was sufficient for the 'new' adverts, and I laid a variety of them out in sheets (using InDesign, although Photoshop of Word would probably be just as good) to print on a commercial machine designed for reproducing photographs such as those you see in shops like Boots

 

For the 'old' adverts I took the following additional steps:

 

I searched the web for free texture downloads (you know the sort of thing 'rusty surface', 'grungy stone' etc)

 

 

 

And layered the texture underneath the original images and applied some transparency (dilute to taste).

 

 

 

I now had a sheet of old adverts.

 

 

 

 

You'll see that some are repeated to various degrees of strength of colour because it's one thing to look at something on screen - but another when you cut them out and place them against a painted model - so this gave me a selection to play with in situ.

 

They're printed on an ordinary office printer on standard 80gsm paper.

 

Some of the adverts were applied in their entirety, others were torn into strips to represent situations where someone had had a go at removing them from the wall, but not finished the job for whatever reason, as per my original inspiration.

 

 

I mixed 50/50 water and PVA and painted it over the adverts until they were quite wet, then stuck them on the wall. In some cases the paper was so saturated it started to disintegrate, but that was ok as it all added to the effect. There were two or three layers of adverts in all stuck on top of one another.

 

Whilst still damp I used a bristle brush to 'stipple' over the adverts so that they were pressed into the mortar lines of the brick sheet.

 

When thoroughly dry, I rubbed over the edges of the torn sheets with fine sandpaper just to rough them up a little, and in some areas sanded over the images themselves to bring through the surface of the bricks underneath in more pronounced fashion.

 

I then took some of the smaller adverts I'd created (on the right of the sheet of adverts) and stuck them over the finished composition to represent more recent opportunistic fly-posting.

 

Later I matt varnished the lot (aerosol) and applied weathering powders.

 

 

 

 

I hope that makes sense

 

 

Mark

[devondynosoar118]

Brilliant, highly informative. Thank you for the how to, advertising can really set the place and time and is rarely done to the standard of yours on models, now we can all use the techniques.

[Zunnan]

Thankyou - if my work passes-the-muster with you I'm over the moon

 

It more than passes muster, you're far far beyond that!

 

You've thoroughly absorbed how someone whom I consider to be one of the best bridge scratch builders around (Dave) works and the processes he uses, but rather than a scaled down imitation of Daves work you've made it your own to suit the smaller scale and in the process have produced something that everyone can aspire to. The first thing he mentioned at the club tonight was this latest update, its not often he compliments bridge builds and that was just the beginning! The layout as a whole has just the right mix of neglected old grot, looked after old grot and new build, and there is still so much to be done. I said it before, I think it'll be a sad day for us observers when this layout is finished and the updates end! The quality of the work and of the updates themselves is truly inspirational.

[Southernboy]

Thank you Zunnan.

 

Don't worry about when this layout is finished, I'll step straight into the next one, the plans for which have been in my head since I started this current layout

[NSE DAZ]

Hi Mark,

 

I must firstly say WOW this is amazing level of detail you are achieving in 2mm if my 7mm layout is half as good when finished I will be a happy man

 

Thanks for sharing a top quality masterpiece with us all

 

Look forward to the updates,

 

All the best Darren NSE DAZ

[Black Sheep]

Thank you Zunnan.

 

Don't worry about when this layout is finished, I'll step straight into the next one, the plans for which have been in my head since I started this current layout

 

what will become of the current Frankland when you've finished?

 

or is the plan to build an exhibition layout and keep Frankland at home?

[Southernboy]

Hello Black Sheep,

 

in answer to the first question: I haven't really thought about it.

In answer to the second: No, I'm not the exhibiting type I'm afraid, sorry!

[devondynosoar118]

As I have said previously, with the standard set if this layout or the next don't appear in a magazine I will eat my spats and trilby whilst doing the Charleston with a scantily clad flapper...

[westerner]

devondynosoar118 said;

 

I will eat my spats and trilby whilst doing the Charleston with a scantily clad flapper

 

Sounds almost like you don't want it to be in a mag.

[Allegheny1600]

Hi Mark,

I've only just discovered this magnificent thread of yours and it's taken me two whole days to read through it!

Thank you so much for a thoroughly absorbing and entertaining narrative!

I love the way you've captured the atmosphere of the period, it must have been a great time to experience but such a shame storm clouds were gathering in Europe, otherwise who knows how our railways, architecture and general style of living would have turned out?

I cannot add any further superlatives as words fail me but I think what you have done is to model a fantastic little piece of London (unmistakably so!) that also happens to have railway running through it - truly wonderful!

Thank you once more, thread now 'followed' and can't wait until your next broadcast.

Cheers!

John E.

[Black Sheep]

Hello Black Sheep,

 

in answer to the first question: I haven't really thought about it.

In answer to the second: No, I'm not the exhibiting type I'm afraid, sorry!

 

All my hopes and dreams crushed!

 

The standard of modeling is something I amongst many would love to see in the flesh, but I understand the many reasons behind not wanting to exhibit (the getting lynched at an exhibition thread covers many of them!)

 

looking forward to future updates and re-working my own layout to a better standard as a result of your work - thank you

[Arpster]

What a fascinating set of updates. Thank you for going into so much details about your techniques and experiences, and presenting them in such an informative and entertaining way. It makes for a brilliant read!

 

Keep up the good work,

 

Arp

[devondynosoar118]

I reckon the spats and trilby are safe, flapper might still be in danger.....

[MinZaPint]

As I have said previously, with the standard set if this layout or the next don't appear in a magazine I will eat my spats and trilby whilst doing the Charleston with a scantily clad flapper...

 

Now that's what I call a vivid imagination! but I fully agree with the sentiments.