Making a start a start with Scalescenes

[ejgray52]

Seems the photo didn't attach. I will try again when I return home. Or try this link

 

https://flic.kr/p/u3oMzw

[Edwardian]

ejgray - a great use of this kit - the heraldic sign is particularly effective. Thanks for sharing.

[ejgray52]

ejgray - a great use of this kit - the heraldic sign is particularly effective. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your comments. The next building will be the boilerhouse from the set of industrial buildings turned into an agricultural engineer's workshop. I hope to add some machinery of various descriptions around the place, including an old ploughing engine - as it is set in the mid 60's I am sure that wouldn't be too unusual?

[C&WR]

Ooh, there's an idea of what to do with it, ejgray52.  I saw one of these workshop interior kits on the internet recently and wondered where I could put one.

[ParkeNd]

Once you have become familiar with the joining techniques and roof construction used with these kits you will find that scratch building in Daler board surfaced with Slaters Plastikard is easier than you might think.

 

[Edwardian]

Good stuff ParkeNd; I, for one, intend to try that out.  It won't be for this initial project, as I am trying to limit the media to card and papers as much as possible for consistency, but I like the effect you have achieved and would like to reproduce it, maybe for the planned Magnus Opus.  Can I ask, therefore, what glue you have found best for attaching the plastikard to the Daler board?

 

Otherwise, I apologise for lack of updates, but I am trying to get the house ready for market (33' x 16' Games Room perfect for a layout if anyone is interested!!), and this tends to be rather time absorbing. 

[ParkeNd]

I use Deluxe Materials Plastic Kit Glue (from Hattons) to glue the cut pieces of Daler board to the sandpapered back of Slaters Plasticard (thin and flexible and soft so it cuts easy) to which I have already superglued etched windows. This leaves the etchings as the meat in a Daler board/Slaters Plastikard sandwich. I then cut around the edges leaving a 3mm Plastikard tab on the edge of one piece of a pair of pieces to be joined to make each L piece - this covers the edge of the Daler board of the mating piece - note the fin waiting to be sanded off below. I use wood PVA to join each L piece - then push two L pieces together to form a rectangle. Textured walls with no edges to crayon over.

 

[Edwardian]

C&WR - Go for it!

[Job's Modelling]

Something of a hiatus for a couple of weeks due to Real Life, but managed to pick up the scalpel again over the Bank Holiday.  The result is that I have completed the fiddly bits (sills, steps, gutters & drainpipes, bargeboards and chimney pots).

 

I also took up airwimp075's kind suggestion of using the Scalescenes outhouses kit, and a version is tacked on to the white house. Time to do a spot of gardening.

 

Just came along this post.

You have done an excellent job here.

[Edwardian]

After many tiring and stressful weeks of burning the candle at both ends, trying to get our house (12 inches to 1 foot scale) ready for market, today I thought I might, at last, return to the Cottages.

 

No.  I have experienced a very extreme reaction, that of sheer exhaustion, and I have never in my life felt so completely debilitated (I've only just got up!).

 

Clearly, I have yet to achieve Work-Life-Modelling balance!

 

I have to do some work now, after which I shall go back to bed, so no updates just yet!

 

Thanks for all the input, nonetheless.

[Job's Modelling]

Best wishes and looking forward  to your updates.

[Edwardian]

Right, so, first bit of modelling since July!

 

Started work on a lean-to greenhouse for the white house, and have started to extend the scene.

 

Website is not allowing pictures to be uploaded at present, so, will try tomorrow.

[Edwardian]

Pictures:

[ianLMS]

Very impressive work there. Looks very realistic and convincing! I am a fan of Scalescenes too and use them extensively on my layout "Jencaster". I have also covered some of the shells with plasticard and modified them a little. I now print my windows on transparency film which is quite effective on the church.

 

Ian

[ianLMS]

The flint and white wash certainly speaks the east side of England to me. Not seen much of Lincolnshire, but they really do look the part. Lots of flint cottages, walls and churches where I live in deepest, darkest Norfolk and you have captured it well, so you could always model in this area as well.

[Edwardian]

Well, how funny, Ian.  I live in the North Country that you depict so well on your layout, but am currently modelling Norfolk, where you evidently live.

 

If a resident of Norfolk feels that the model captures the look of that region, then it looks like one of the primary goals of my little project is likely to be achieved.

 

Thanks 

[ianLMS]

You definitely achieved it well. Many of the villages, towns, sea-towns look exactly like your scene. The detail is superb as well. Something I need to work on with my layout and buildings. I have a love of the North ever since I used to walk in the area in my Scouting days, so I couldn't resist modeling a part of the area.

[C&WR]

These just get better and better.  What I love is the irregularity of it with no cottage the same and the extensions.  It's very reminiscent indeed of a row at the end of our Lane where I grew up.  Fabulous stuff, I must pull my finger out and finish mine!

[ianLMS]

Here is a pic of one of the flint buildings in my village, and one of the pub which I used as a basis for "The Duchess" on my layout. If I find some more, I'll load them up.

[edcayton]

Help! Do you print on to card, or print on to "normal" paper and then stick that to card, plasticard etc? If so, what glue do you use, and how do you avoid getting bubbles?

 

Thanks

 

Ed

[BG John]

The kits are intended to be built from 1mm and 2mm card, so far too thick to go through a printer. I stick paper to card using Pritt sticks. Give the paper a good even covering, right up to the edges, and carefully lay in place on the card. Then I smooth it down gently with my hand, turn it face down and give it a good firm going over with a roller like this (random supplier that was the first that came up on Google). Then I leave it overnight under a fairly heavy book, so it's really dry before cutting out. I haven't had any bubbles yet.

 

A4 sheets are about the limit of what I find easy, so I tend to cut off the unnecessary bits round the edge, but still leave a good margin. That way I don't need to align them quite so accurately on a sheet of A4 card. I keep a stock of old, but clean, A4 paper from my printer, catalogues, junk mail etc., to use when I'm applying the glue stick, so I can be liberal with it round the edges of the paper, and that's another reason to trim the edges of the sheet I'm gluing.

 

Other paper parts need to be added later, and I also use Pritt and a similar technique for those, but pressed down with my fingers or gentle use of the roller.

[ianLMS]

I do exactly the same as BG John. I use Pritt Stick and 2mm / 1 mm greyboard card (I buy mine from Amazon). I don't have a roller yet, so I used a 3" cut off from a brass curtain pole I shortened. Just make sure you file the edges down or you get unwanted "red" weathering on the papers!

[BG John]

Jackdaw Express on Amazon tend to be the cheapest I've found so far, although last time I ordered 1mm and 2mm together they came from different suppliers. But Amazon seems far cheaper than I can find it on eBay. 18 sheets of 2mm arrived from Jackdaw this morning.

[Edwardian]

edcayton, I, too, print onto paper and then used Pritt Stick to stick them to card.  I generally use mount board.  This is 1.5mm thick, so awkward for Scalescenes kits, but I am generally scratch building so it hardly matters.

 

One manufacturer suggests printing onto self adhesive labels.  I do this for windows, but not otherwise, as I felt safer with Pritt stick because I have a short window of opportunity for pulling it off intact if I misalign the cover layer.

 

Lots is said about the best paper to use.  I found a free supply of company stationery; the company rebranded and all its old unused letter-head was redundant.  I found this grade of paper took the ink very well. 

 

I do, when I remember, spray the sheets with Windsor & Newton matt varnish for protection before use.

[BG John]

I haven't tried self-adhesive labels yet. I know there are lots of different types of adhesive, but I worry about them falling off some time in the future. I'm using some labels I bought years ago, produced for print it yourself postage, for labelling files, and they stick beautifully to plastic covered folders that I've never found anything else that will stick too. But they refuse to stay stuck to my corrugated card box files! Maybe I'll try self-adhesive one day!

 

I'm sticking my windows to the transparent packaging from Peco Points using Tacky Glue.

 

I use whatever printer paper I can buy locally at the moment. If I have a choice, I pick the one most suitable for a colour laser printer, and make sure it's white!

 

I haven't varnished anything yet, but living in an old and not very well heated house in a part of the world where it's a novelty to have a dry day, I'm a bit concerned about damp. I've just bought some matt varnish to brush on, as I'm not organised for spraying yet, and it doesn't stop raining for long enough to do it outside! I'll try it on a test piece some time, and if it works, have a varnishing session with all the buildings I've done so far.