Scratch-built card and styrene structures (based on real buildings around London Bridge)

[grahame]

As alluded to in my layout thread, while fiddling and placing the buildings I realised that I'd need to slim down my model of New London Bridge House to fit everything in - space so easily and quickly gets used up. Such is the need for compression and simplification.

 

Consequently I've cut a two inch section out (one inch either side of the centre line to preserve the waisted look). It does mean that it's much more slender (perhaps too much so) and I think I'll need to take off one or two of the top floors to help preserve the overall height/width relationship. I'll glue the two halves together to get a better look and feel. I'm just glad that I hadn't decorated the outside.

 

One side of the tower sits on a low block and the other side has a glass entrance reception beneath with a walkway between. The walkway is now much narrower but at least I should be able to fit in the road behind that leads to the bus and taxi stands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[grahame]

I've glued the two halves back together which surprisingly went together easily and accurately - very relieved. But, yep, I'm going to need to lop off a couple of floors (and hope no-one notices the lack of height, narrowness and rather tubby look as the waisted section is now effectively thicker).

 

I'll mark and cut when the glue has dried.

 

[grahame]

Top two floors now lopped off and new top roof fitted. Here's how it looks on it's supporting block. The glass reception will need a little adjustment.

 

 

And this is it roughly in place which allows a road each end of the width to pass - probably not quite a wide as they should be but hopefully I'll get away with it:

 

[grahame]

After a little on-line research on the residential block, Hatfield Close (see previous page), for the east end of the layout, I've found some drawings and dimensions. I'll be making it as a low relief building against the side backscene and located at an angle. Next is to check out my stash of pre-printed windows and see if I have enough of suitable sized ones.

 

 

[grahame]

After a window count up I'm going to go with 10 residential floors (instead of 12) and the ground floor giving 11 storeys. And I've made a start in cutting some of the floors (I wont do them all but probably need a couple more) and marking up the front wall panels. There is a recess where the chute balconies are so it's not just flat fronted. 

 

 

[grahame]

Just glue some sides on and voila . . . a set of cardboard bookshelves. Next I'll turn it in to a block of flats. But first to mow the lawn.

 

 

 

[grahame]

The two Hatfield Close towers were built at the end of the 60s/early 70s. They were constructed as concrete frames with red and yellow brick infill panels and looked quite smart. Later they succumbed to the rage of cladding everything, but the ACM used was deemed highly inflammable and was later ripped off and replaced by terracotta tiles which gives them an overall dull redish look.

 

Finding pics of how they originally looked in the brick finish has been very difficult. I've only found the one on the previous page.

 

 

 

[grahame]

I've started to put on the wall panels. These will be overlaid with brick embossed plasticard to represent the brick panels and plain strip to represent the concrete framing. The windows will be fitted from behind directly to the plasticard through the apertures cut in the card after the building is painted. Some of the printed windows can be seen in the pic below:

 

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by grahame
Correction

[grahame]

All the card bits are cut and glued on leaving the cladding to be added from plasticard. I've given it a dusting of grey primer which when dry makes any unwanted hairy and fluffy bits and strands go hard and easy to cut and file off with a sanding stick.

 

[grahame]

Cutting the wall panels and adding them is tedious and time consuming, but they do look quite good. I think this decorative work may take some time.

 

[sandsmodels]

On 02/02/2019 at 13:49, milepost48 said:

 

here a couple of pics of an American industrial building I just have finished.

Paul

excellent work

[grahame]

Slow but steady progress this afternoon on the panel bashing.

 

[grahame]

As a break from the tedium of panel bashing, I decided to make the roof top building (that accommodates the lift winding room, water tanks and so on) this morning. I was surprised how tall and large it was from the plans I have (12ft tall and 32ft long). I knocked my version up from plasticard sheet, gave it a dusting of grey primer and glued it to the roof:

 

 

 

 

[grahame]

Finally, I've got all the brick panels on. It's now the homeward straight - painting, windows/doors and any extra details.

 

 

[grahame]

I've now got some paint on the block. And painting those thin lines by hand wasn't easy nor are the result particularly neat but it'll have to do. The windows are yet to be fitted and is likely to be another tricky and fiddly job.

 

[grahame]

I've finally got the windows fitted. I can now put this project to one side (for later final detailing and weathering) and concentrate on the layout.

 

 

[grahame]

The next building project for the layout is Montague Chambers. It's a small, but interesting building, crammed in next to Southwark cathedral and partially behind Bank Chambers (now the Barrowboy and Banker pub but previously the first ever Nat West Bank). It should be viewable on the layout and will help fill a gap.

 

I measured the floor plan area to fit the layout and sketched the front elevation to size. Next I'll draw it up accurately on card ready to cut. 

 

[grahame]

Here's a pic of Montague Chambers (by Jim Osley and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons). It's a delightful little building tucked away and hemmed in. The white building on the right is Bank Chambers (Barrowboy and Banker) and on the left is part of Southwark Cathedral. The railings go around the cathedral kitchen garden (yet to be modelled) in front of the lady chapel and below Borough High Street.

 

[grahame]

First I marked up, and cut a kit of parts from mountboard to form the carcase:

 

 

Then they were glued together with superglue to form the carcase, ensuring it was as square as possible:

 

[grahame]

Next I added the roof tent frame from mountboard:

 

 

Then I added the roof panels from thinner card ready to have Redutex self adhesive tiling applied. And knocked up the lean-to part of the building from mountboard with a plasticard sloping roof (to make it easy to apply any detailing panels with solvent adhesive). I then check that the structure will fit it's intended location on the layout and found it to be a good fit. The space for it has effectively been formed by extending the low relief cathedral back to the side backscene board (see earlier in this thread).

 

 

The front wall will be cut from brick embossed plasticard and detailed with styrene strip, etc.

 

 

 

[grahame]

I've cut three wall panels from brick embossed styrene sheet. Just the side one is glued in place - the other two will need window apertures cut, details added, painted and windows fitted before being fixed in place.

 

 

Then I gave it a dusting of grey primer (without the two front brick panels) and again tested it in place:

 

 

That'll be it for today - I need to get some lunch, have a shower and get ready for the regular Friday afternoon session in the local.

 

 

 

[grahame]

This morning I've started to detail the two front facing wall panels. Here they are currently just resting in place - they won't be glued until completed. The windows for the top floor can also be seen ready for installation after painting:

 

[grahame]

There's still plenty to do such as the balcony fence, painting, adding down pipes, an AC unit, pipes, installing the windows, tiling the roof with Redutex and so on. However I'm not planning on a super detailed model - it's near the back of the layout and not prominent, plus the surrounding structures aren't finely detailed. The aim is to fill a gap with something fairly generic and impressionistic.

 

But now the rest of the day features live world cup rugby and international football. I'll make a pot of tea and settle down.

 

 

 

 

[grahame]

Managed to do a bit of cutting and painting in front of the Italy Namibia game. In this heat everything dries so quickly. Also matt varnished, windows fitted and Redutex tiles added. Still need to make and add some basic details like the ridge tile strips and the balcony fence.

 

 

 

[grahame]

Ooops, noticed I'd missed a bit off, which I've now corrected. But there's still other details to do. And it won't be done tomorrow as I'm off to TINGS.