RMweb Premium James Makin Posted December 12, 2014 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted December 12, 2014 Inspired by the prototype Kensington Olympia, I've added some graphics to the side of our Loftus Road station overbridge... These are based on the famous Kenny O bridge name sign, heavily weather-beaten and curiously half-painted out in grey for many years. Photo taken by Pete Hollman, Jan 2005) 17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium James Makin Posted December 12, 2014 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted December 12, 2014 Great layout there james. What unit is next, a 313 perhaps. Thanks, the guys will be happy reading that, lot of effort has gone in from the gang! I've got mainly loco-hauled passenger trains and freight stock in my sights for 2015 but for multiple units, well...there will be something that's long, grey and likes going through tunnels! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium James Makin Posted December 12, 2014 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted December 12, 2014 A class 12 car class 700 by the sounds of it or eurostar. Haha definitely not a 700, far far too new for my liking!! We've clubbed together to buy some Eurostar vehicles and I'm looking into repowering options (probably a HJ 33 or similar) and the cheapest way of making the centre saloon variations, perhaps with resin cast scratchbuilt window/grille sections, save laying out for those pricey Hurst brass overlays! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post James Makin Posted January 3, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) Ok so 6 months ago I foolishly promised to scratchbuild a petrol station for Loftus Road...here's how it went - Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr On our new extended scenic boards, we have the chance to really go beyond the railway and recreate more of urban London, and what better than an innercity petrol station! I'd always wanted to tackle one, and all sounded good on paper without actually thinking of the amount of work involved! The starting point is to choose which petrol brand you'll pledge allegiance to, they're all pretty much the same, but with my Ford Focus being finished in Ford's BP World Rally-inspired 'Ultimate Green' this may have influenced the outcome somewhat! Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr The petrol station is built on a raised triangular section towards the 'Northern' end of Loftus Road, and also features a busy West London red route, currently in development. Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Pretty much everything you see above has been scratchbuilt, and was broken down into bitesize chunks as follows: 1) Shop building 2) Canopy 3) Forecourt concrete 4) Petrol pumps 5) Illuminated tower sign 6) Fencing & walling 7) Misc forecourt detailing Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr The shop building was drawn out onto card, cut out and with embossed styrene sheet added on top. Windows are from solid perspex sheet with thin glazing bars added on top - Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Lots of the petrol stations I saw were actually a lot older than their initial appearance, with new metal/plastic cladding covering much of the orignal 80s-90s brickwork, such as in the example modelled here. We've also got bank ATM's installed on the left hand side of the frontage. Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Once each side was finished, the structure was glued together and I started on the interior. The buildings are all fully lit, and I wanted to create a decent petrol station shop interior, but I didn't have the time to do a full Pendon-style project. I took inspiration from the (awesome) computer game Grand Theft Auto V - where the gamer is often fooled into seeing full 3D shop interiors that are in fact 2D, but cleverly executed. At this point, the internet was emptied of all M&S related imagery and branding, I fired up the CorelDraw, and the rest was history! Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr I created images of shelving including newspapers, magazines, soft drinks, lunch products, convenience foods as well as lots of snacks and chocolates. Feeling literally like a kid in a sweetshop the images soon came together, you can just about make out the stacks of Mars Bars, KitKats, Bounty's, Twix's and Snickers on the upper rows on the cashdesks below - Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr I love scotch eggs, especially the drippy ones. Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Here we can see the lunch-to-go sections, with a variety of salad pots and 21st century fruit drinks for our cash-rich, time-poor and health-concious Loftus Road clientèle. Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr You could say it's all a little unnecessary and I can't disagree, at times it felt like going too far, but once you've already got two feet in... Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Soon it was time to stick the lights inside and seal on the roof. I've gone for the standard petrol station flat roof with a good dollop of patchwork and mould...and the odd lost football! Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr You can just about see some stacks of Bourneville through the window. In terms of the frontage, we have varying charcoal bags and a selection of newspapers, fancy catching up on the latest X Factor gossip in The Sun? Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Another one of those pesky Metro newspaper stands has ended up at the doorway! The automatic doors have drawn back into open mode whilst the CCTV records faces of those leaving the shop. Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Moving round the back, the football was originally a lump of polystyrene, while we have lots more CCTV keeping an eye on movements around the area. There is a small area for deliveries at the side of the building, whilst at the back is a staff car park. Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr I've used a few proprietary detailing items to finish the scene, the discarded S Kits/Ten Commandments roll cages are a particular favourite. I added the little fabric straps on as well, a detail I am nostalgically recalling from my former Woolies days! The Bachmann refuse bins have been repainted into bright red Biffa colours and given a good weathering, with custom decals. There's only so many details you can buy off the shelf, unfortunately this meant building the petrol pumps from scratch! If you look carefully you can see some of the branding for the different types of petrol available at each pump, along with pump number and the little LCD screens. The pump wires are actually from old Lenz DCC decoder straps, covered in black marker pen! Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr The petrol station canopy was another big part of the project, and had to be lit internally so as not to be too dark on the layout. This meant creating a skeleton framework from H section brass and laying LED strips with associated wiring inside, before cladding with the outer corrugated plastic. Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr The tower sign is also a massive part of the humble petrol station - and just like the canopy, had to be illuminated as well. I created the basic shape with 'H'-section brass and again clad this in plasticard. The real BP tower signs have a curved frontage, so the plastic was filed to a suitable shape. A printed set of graphics was added on to the front afterwards, and then varnished. Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr What price does one set the petrol at? This was a big talking point for months beforehand - you almost want a set of numbers that can permanently go round and round!! Loftus Road is roughly set around the 2000s so a reasonable set of prices was chosen, being taken from the actual average retail price in December 2007, but also figured to (funnily enough) be not a million miles from today's prices...fortunately! Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr The forecourt and walling came next, the Ratio wooden fencing has been pressed into usage atop some scratchbuilt brick walls, clad in BP and M&S advertising of course! Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr The concrete itself is mounting card with the joins scored in and painted in shades of yellow-grey, with dark grey weathering highlighting the concrete joins. Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Towards the 'business end' of the petrol station we can see the petrol tanker filling points, drainage, the tall air pipes coming out of the ground and I couldn't resist adding the water & air pump! Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Calor gas bottle display coming soon... Lamppost-mounted CCTV focuses in on car numberplates as they arrive for refuelling - Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr As touched on earlier, the petrol station is on a key red-route with dedicated bus lane and bus stop. The road surface was made from medium-grade sandpaper, filed down to represent traffic wear, and then sprayed with varying coats of greys and finally the dark red bus lane colour. All the markings were done manually with paint and masking tape as there was no way any decals would sit securely on the road surface!! Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr The cycle lane was added and being glutton for punishment, decided to handpaint some little bicycles. This seemed a great idea at the time... Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr The Bus Lane lettering was added, it took a whole afternoon handpainting this and making sure the font was correct! Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr The final part of the project was to add life - people and cars - to the petrol station. I'll probably add more in future but for the moment we have a couple of local cars filling up. I love using the HO scale models as there's a better range than in OO at present. They have been converted to right hand drive and had some interior and exterior trim detailing, to represent real prototypes. Because I'm rather sad I actually went on the AutoTrader app and found real cars for sale in the West London area with the same colour and spec as my models before adding the registrations...I'll get me coat! Scratchbuilt petrol station by James Makin for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr So there we have it! This scratchbuilding project has taken a solid 6 months to complete, probably half of that has been on the computer designing branding and the rest spend burning myself, inhaling solvents, cursing and chasing flying bits of plastic from across the carpet! Edited July 13, 2016 by James Makin 26 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack374 Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) Wooooow!!! No emoticon can do this justice! So much detail has been included, and to put it bluntly, most will never be seen by the public. But it all adds to the whole perspective and just looks...too realistic! The road really looks real too, you've got the markings spot on! Looking forward to more now, do please drop us a line if Loftus Road comes up Manchester way! Jack. Edited January 3, 2015 by Jack374 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCML100 Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Hi James, The eurostar project will be one that i will be following with keen interest as it looks to be a project quite rare these days and I'm sure you will make a good job of it. On the other hand, your petrol station looks the business. It is very good and don't think i have seen anything replicating the modern road network quite as good as that! Truly amazing and my words cannot do it justice. Bravo! Feel free to do me one anytime! Regarding the road that is also done superbly just a shame it doesn't work with transfers GREAT WORK THOUGH! KEEP IT UP! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
d winpenny Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Looking absolutely superb David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyneux Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 (edited) James, That's a fabulous petrol station! It captures the feel of the area nicely... could be the one on the A4 near the Hammersmith flyover or the one on Shepherd's Bush Green? It just needs a 4mm model of someone on a Brompton bike for your bike lane! Guy Edited January 4, 2015 by lyneux Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
class"66" Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 That's some modelling!!! wel impressive Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdw7300 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Wow. Stunning work James. Absolutely creamed full of detail. I'm in awe. Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobster Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 First class exceptional modelling James, as always. Cheers, Bob. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danfilm007 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I'd love to live somewhere where the Petrol is that cheap... Looks great mate! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
South-East Rail Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Ok so 6 months ago I foolishly promised to scratchbuild a petrol station for Loftus Road...here's how it went - Incredible work! Ed Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 That petrol station is simply amazing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foulounoux Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I'd love to live somewhere where the Petrol is that cheap... Looks great mate! Note far from that today 107.7 And the attention to detail is amazing - no telegraphs on the paper stand just like my local BP always selling out of them :-) You just need a figure looking grumpy with his free telegraph voucher in hand Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium GWRPhil Posted January 4, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 4, 2015 That is a really stunning petrol station. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry.ecmr Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Brilliant. Absolutely love it. Terry 'Earl's Court' Model Railway ecmr.webs.com Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TangerineWizards Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 This is brilliant. I've always been a fan of your modelling since the Wells Green days but this is superb. This could be a good prototype for a Scenecraft/Skaledale copy! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Awesome petrol station! Any chance of a pic with it all lit up...pleeez?! Jon F. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
briantwigley Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 The FCC 377 is unbelievable, the whole layout is outstanding. The Petrol station - possibly one of the best pieces of modelling I've ever seen. Looking forward to updates. Ryan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium James Makin Posted January 5, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 5, 2015 James, That's a fabulous petrol station! It captures the feel of the area nicely... could be the one on the A4 near the Hammersmith flyover or the one on Shepherd's Bush Green? It just needs a 4mm model of someone on a Brompton bike for your bike lane! Guy Thanks Guy! I've taken inspiration from a number of BP stations in the area particularly the Shepherd's Bush one, there's a lot more to be done on the road part which will eventually resemble my take on the vibrant Uxbridge Road running North out of Kensington - all sorts of exciting modelling awaits! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WOMBATTY Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Superb James Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apex Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Amazing, do you own the WRC Replica seen at ford fair? Sone of the best models I have ever seen. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Lime Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Awesome petrol station! Any chance of a pic with it all lit up...pleeez?! Jon F. Jon, James has handed over the wiring up of the lights, so with some trepidation, this will be done tomorrow evening. Hopefully, there will be some pics to go up by the end of this week...just hope that the God of Clumsiness is looking the other way tomorrow! Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium James Makin Posted January 7, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 7, 2015 Amazing, do you own the WRC Replica seen at ford fair? Sone of the best models I have ever seen. Thanks, no not got the WRC rep, just got the Mk2 RS in the 'Ultimate Green' - the colour is the same shade as the rally cars! Hoping to get back up to Ford Fair this year, now got the Mountune 375 fitted! 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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