Beginners OO 1950's Banff

[aardvark]

I made a thing.

 

I cut some little bits of 10- and 20-thou plasticard ...

 

 

.. and stuck them together to make ...

 

 

... louvres, which go behind the circular cutout made by the trophy shop ...

 

 

... to look remarkably like the vent on the end of the station building.

 

[aardvark]

The final west wall takes shape, with the various bits assembled here in a dry run prior to decorating.  This is on the back of a baking tray with a few magnets to help keep things in place

 

 

I'm looking for suggestions as to how best to write BANFF on that 7x3mm piece of plasticard in the middle of the windowed section on the left. The prototype is written in white.

 

My shaky hands are most certainly not up to it. 

 

Edited June 7, 2023 by aardvark
proofreadinf is not one of my superpowers

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, aardvark said:

I'm looking for suggestions as to how best to write BANFF on that 7x3mm piece of plasticard in the middle of the windowed section on the left. The prototype is written in white.

I'd do it in Word (other word-processing apps are available) on the computer.

[brylonscamel]

17 hours ago, aardvark said:

I'm looking for suggestions as to how best to write BANFF on that 7x3mm piece of plasticard in the middle of the windowed section on the left. The prototype is written in white ..

Have you got access to a colour laser-printer? You can get some lovely results by printing your design onto a laser decal sheet. The artwork would need to be a digital design but nothing fancy is needed to produce the text on a coloured background..

[aardvark]

8 hours ago, brylonscamel said:

You can get some lovely results by printing your design onto a laser decal sheet.

 

That's very interesting.

 

Do you know if it's possible to pass the same sheet multiple times through the printer? That is, if I print a 7x3mm decal in one corner, can I reuse the rest of the sheet at a later date?

 

And yes, I have Scottish ancestors.

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by aardvark
proofreadinf is not my superpower

[Signaller69]

20 hours ago, aardvark said:

 

That's very interesting.

 

Do you know if it's possible to pass the same sheet multiple times through the printer? That is, if I print a 7x3mm decal in one corner, can I reuse the rest of the sheet at a later date?

 

And yes, I have Scottish ancestors.

 

It didn't end well when I tried as the printer pickup of the paper wasn't accurate enough to ensure it printed in exactly the right position, which ruined the image.

So, possible yes, but depends on the printer at a guess.......

Better going for a single pass, having altered the settings to a photographic setting and high quality in my experience.

[rhnrhn]

20 hours ago, aardvark said:

Do you know if it's possible to pass the same sheet multiple times through the printer?

 

 

8 minutes ago, Signaller69 said:

It didn't end well when I tried as the printer pickup of the paper wasn't accurate enough to ensure it printed in exactly the right position, which ruined the image.

 

I have found it can be done, but have also had negative experiences. So whenever I want to do this with something expensive / hard to obtain like decal sheet, I do practice runs before with regular paper to check...

 

[aardvark]

24 minutes ago, Signaller69 said:

It didn't end well when I tried as the printer pickup of the paper wasn't accurate enough to ensure it printed in exactly the right position, which ruined the image.

 

10 minutes ago, rhnrhn said:

So whenever I want to do this with something expensive / hard to obtain like decal sheet, I do practice runs before with regular paper to check...

 

Thanks to you both. Makes perfect sense.

 

[St Enodoc]

I create a text box in Word then add the text and fill in the appropriate colours. I can go down to 4pt text size without any difficulty.

 

Here's an example, the numberplates for a car my aunt used to own.

 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by St Enodoc
speling

[aardvark]

That's either a small font or a really big ruler.

 

[St Enodoc]

9 minutes ago, aardvark said:

That's either a small font or a really big ruler.

 

4pt Mandatory font. The car is of course 4mm scale, by Oxford.

Edited June 9, 2023 by St Enodoc
Speling

[aardvark]

The west wall is not yet complete although progressing.

 

I managed to distract myself by considering construction of the trusses over the platform.  Next thing I knew, I was cutting them out and sticking them together. Not that that's a problem - it all has to come together to get a complete station building.

 

 

Each truss is made from three 20-thou plasticard trapeziums, 105 x 25mm.  I initially intended to use two trapeziums, but needed the third to give the assembly some stiffness.  The smaller strips are added to the diagonals to mimic the construction of the prototype.

 

 

Here's one being assembled on a block of steel with magnets to align the laminations.  The station requires 9, but I have made 10 so that I can discard the worst.

 

The steel blocks were an idea I got from reading David Neat's model-making blog (see https://davidneat.wordpress.com/methods/making-realistic-models/main-construction/).  I had mine made by a local engineering company - all surfaces are flat, all corners square, they're heavy enough to stay put, and magnets stick to them. They're probably the most used tool in my modelling tool box.

 

While I should finish the west wall, I'm now thinking about the skylights - there's probably a better name for them. I think I should make these before cutting the card for the roofs so that it will fit what I make, rather than what I intended to make,

 

 

There's one on each side of the roof, each a scale 343 x 25mm comprising 57 panes - larger that a single sheet of plasticard.

 

My initial thought was to cut each frame in two sections from 10-thou plasticard using my Silhouette cutter, then glue these onto a clear plastic carrier. However, on reflection, I think that I lack the dexterity to apply glue to the frame and apply it to the clear plastic without the glue drying, the frame going on crooked, or getting glue everywhere, so I'm looking for something more workable.

 

Options I can see but can't decide between are:

1. cut the frame into shorter sections of a few panes each;
2. cut the frame as single pane sections
3. assemble the frame onto the carrier using conventional plastistrip.

Suggestions would be most welcome.

 

Edited June 24, 2023 by aardvark
proofreadinf is not one of my superpowers

[aardvark]

Progress continues to progress, but ...

 

Oh, Calamity! 🫣

 

I've just found that I cut one of the external walls 7mm to short.  I see 3 options:

1. Do nothing. Ignore the error, and proceed with the roof as per the walls as cut, which would mean that the ridgelines would not meet as in the prototype. Would anyone else realise? Probably not. Would anyone else care? Definitely not.
2. Replace the incorrect wall with a new correct one.  I do not find the prospective of removing the existing wall attractive.
3. Repair the mistake.

 

Fortunately, the 7mm is missing from the top of the wall.  Here's the errant wall with a chevron of freshly cut card balancing on top to take it to it's intended height.

 

 

I'll cover the chevron with matching stone paper, trimming around the edges of individual stones in an attempt to merge the repair with the existing stonework.  If I succeed, I'm set, and if not, option 1 is looking very attractive.

 

Edited July 13, 2023 by aardvark
added smiley

[pH]

Excuse me, but could you indicate on that picture where the problem is? I’ll admit that my eyes aren’t quite what they once were, but I can’t see any obvious problem. 

[aardvark]

11 minutes ago, pH said:

Excuse me, but could you indicate on that picture where the problem is? I’ll admit that my eyes aren’t quite what they once were, but I can’t see any obvious problem. 

 No problem.

 

Red arrow identifies the added card.

 

 

[KNP]

Make the mistake a feature and no one will realise what happened.

The best way to hide something is to make it stand out so it looks like it should have been there from the start.....

Talking from experience here!!!

[westerhamstation]

All the best Adrian.

[aardvark]

Many thanks to all.

 

I'm was neither suggesting that the error was catastrophic, or that I was the only one ever to make a mistake.  It is, after all, part of the human condition.

 

Anyway, here's the papered chevron (apologies for the poor photo).

 

 

... and installed.

 

 

From Normal Viewing Distance there's nothing to see, which, of course, I'm quite happy with.

 

Onwards and upwards, or somesuch.

 

 

[Tortuga]

You can’t even see the join!

[aardvark]

The internal platform is in place, the western wall completed (including signwriting) and attached, and the roof/ves have been fitted to the Banff station building, just in time to catch a rare dusting of snow 😁

 

 

 

I use 2 layers of 1mm card for roof/ves: the under layer is hidden within the walls, providing stiffening for the upper layer, which will shortly start receiving strips of slate tile paper.

 

The astute reader will note that I'm still procrastinating over the sky/rooflights. These will have to be the next task, so that they can be fitted to the roof/ves before slating can commence.

 

[aardvark]

On 09/06/2023 at 15:18, St Enodoc said:

4pt Mandatory font. The car is of course 4mm scale, by Oxford.

 

Special thanks to @St Enodoc for leading me to use Word (other word-processing apps are available) for the station sign on the western wall.

 

Mandatory font isn't available on my aging machine (I guess Mandatory is optional 😁), and I wound up with good ol' Arial.  It took a while to make that choice, during which I discovered that half-point fonts were supported (e.g. 4.5pt), and that the Font dialog has a Character Spacing tab which provides even more flexibility to help make the graphics look more like the prototype station sign.

 

I no longer have a colour printer, choosing to get my printing done at a printing business which gives excellent service at a price of A$1/page. Multiple copies of the BANFF sign were printed on a single sheet of ordinary 80gsm paper, but I might also consider print-it-yourself decals in the future.

 

I was delighted to find that the background colour used in the graphics was a very good likeness to the paint I've used to model faded LNER green.

 

[aardvark]

I have encouraged my Silhouette cutter to produce one sky/rooflight frame in two parts from 10-thou plasticard.

 

 

The long piece is approx. 270mm long. The glazing bars are 0.75mm wide.  The curl apparent in the picture largely goes away as the waste is removed from the openings.

 

For those unfamiliar with the device, it cuts through the plasticard, but since it has a triangular blade, much like a scalpel, doesn't cut all the way into the corners on the back.  There is a setting to allow it to overcut, meaning that it would cut all the way into the corners on the back, but this would mean that it would overcut on the front.

 

I prefer to release the corners manually with a scalpel. This is not that difficult, but can be tedious, if you're careful, and disheartening if you're not.

 

[aardvark]

I caught a break from Things That Must Be Done and managed to stick a sky/rooflight to it's glazing.

 

I figured that spray adhesive would be  the go, and fashioned a jig to help align the long edges of the frame and glazing.  The idea was to paint the front of the frame, adhesive-spray the back, put it upside-down in the jig, then place the glazing on top.

 

Unfortunately, I used too much adhesive, which made the frame go as floppy as wet noodles.  Moreover, glue got on the front of the frame, which stuck the frame to the jig better than to the glazing.  Attempting to separate the frame from the jig only served to get glue on my fingers, and on various places on the glazing where it shouldn't have been.  The second short section of the frame got less spray, and was positioned with little fanfare and much less cussing.

 

 

 

The 2nd photo shows a close-up of the join between the two frame sections, as well as a degree of glue in the wrong places and general wonkiness. At Normal Viewing Distances, it's probably adequate, so this attempt may yet find a home on the back roof section where it will be harder to see. I would give myself 6/10.

 

I'll have another go with a repeat of the reduced glueage and shorter frame sections.  The short 12-pane 72mm section shown to the right of the 2nd photo was much easier to work with than the long 45-pane 270mm section.

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by aardvark

[Graham T]

The station building is looking rather impressive, Monsieur Vark - bravo.  Like what you've achieved with the skylights too.

[aardvark]

Thanks @Graham T for your kind and supportive words. Thanks also to those that stopped to leave a "like", and to those that passed by this way. It all means quite a lot to me.

 

RMWeb says I've had 523 replies and 53.5k views. I find that boggling, although I'm well aware that many many other threads have much better statistics.