Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[Nearholmer]

Who knows, but if it is, this small town must be Bang up to date, because flourescents didn't hit the market until shortly after WW2 in this country, although there might have been a few in military establishments, and as display lighting in exceedingly posh shops, before that.

 

I'm more worried about the overdressed chap in the middle. Its about 27 degrees and as humid as a jungle today, so he must be in danger of keeling over!

 

K

Edited July 6, 2017 by Nearholmer

[Metropolitan H]

I was thinking that the lady in the door-way looked a bit under-dressed for 1948 - sultry heat or not!

 

Too hot for much this p.m. - so spent a couple of hours gently titivating the garden railway ballast bed, with a train to take away the arisings. Looks a lot better.

 

Regards

Chris H

[Nearholmer]

A short film for Mr Holmes. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6BdB0gNmIzU

 

Not day wear for an obscure rural town, I'll admit.

 

For some reason, the opening scene made me think: Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again.

 

K

[F-UnitMad]

Is that a genuine 1940s fluorescent tube in the left hand window above the RS Evans sign?

You can't get anything past RMweb-ers, can you??

I watched the film "Yanks" the other day, trying to spot things that were from 1979 rather than 1943...

[Nearholmer]

Getting to the point where I can start painting things.

 

The canopy is a cheap laser kit. To be direct, it isn't of great quality, and I may remake some of it using brass. Laser kits seem to vary quite a lot in terms of the materials chosen by the supplier, and this one has small-section structural parts made from what amounts to MDF ....... they really ought to have chosen 1/16th birch ply for the application. It certainly isn't as robust as the old-fashioned things!

Edited July 10, 2017 by Nearholmer

[Edwardian]

Getting to the point where I can start painting things.

 

The canopy is a cheap laser kit. To be direct, it isn't of great quality, and I may remake some of it using brass. Laser kits seem to vary quite a lot in terms of the materials chosen by the supplier, and this one has small-section structural parts made from what amounts to MDF ....... they really ought to have chosen 1/16th birch ply for the application. It certainly isn't as robust as the old-fashioned things!

 

Oh but it does look the part.  And the stairs are coming together very nicely.

 

Brighton or Southern colours?

[Nearholmer]

Southern, probably, because people get confused and mistake Brighton colours for LMS. And, green looks better with brick red than does maroon.

 

K

[Edwardian]

Southern, probably, because people get confused and mistake Brighton colours for LMS. And, green looks better with brick red than does maroon.

 

K

 

Looking at it, in my mind's eye, I could see the footbridge stairs and the canopy in green and cream, as if they were asking to be painted in those colours.  Perhaps because that seems a fit with the inherently inter-war style of coarse O Gauge, or perhaps because it would work best against the brick, as you say.

 

Anyway, good choice.

[Northroader]

With the laser cut wood kits, I always think the darkening of the cut gives them an unattractive look. Once there's some paint on, it'll look much better.

[Nearholmer]

It would be churlish to list the faults of the canopy kit, and it would take a fair bit of typing, I'm afraid.

 

I've got another, yet to be made, laser kit, of a Saxby and Farmer signal box, and the difference in quality between that and this is very marked, but then, the signal box was not cheap.

 

Incidentally, the signal box kit lives next to another beautiful wooden kit, a 1:35 fishing boat that my good lady secretly bought me as a birthday present many years ago, after I'd got unduly excited by it in a shop in France. I'm sort of frightened of both kits, because they are so good that I'm worried that I would ruin them if I built them. Does anyone else suffer from "Kit Awe"?

 

K

[Edwardian]

It would be churlish to list the faults of the canopy kit, and it would take a fair bit of typing, I'm afraid.

 

I've got another, yet to be made, laser kit, of a Saxby and Farmer signal box, and the difference in quality between that and this is very marked, but then, the signal box was not cheap.

 

Incidentally, the signal box kit lives next to another beautiful wooden kit, a 1:35 fishing boat that my good lady secretly bought me as a birthday present many years ago, after I'd got unduly excited by it in a shop in France. I'm sort of frightened of both kits, because they are so good that I'm worried that I would ruin them if I built them. Does anyone else suffer from "Kit Awe"?

 

K

 

Yes.  With every kit.

 

And with every scratch-build.

 

With everything, in fact.

 

Everything intimidates me.

 

So, I have a beer and carry on.

[BlueLightning]

It would be churlish to list the faults of the canopy kit, and it would take a fair bit of typing, I'm afraid.

 

I've got another, yet to be made, laser kit, of a Saxby and Farmer signal box, and the difference in quality between that and this is very marked, but then, the signal box was not cheap.

 

Incidentally, the signal box kit lives next to another beautiful wooden kit, a 1:35 fishing boat that my good lady secretly bought me as a birthday present many years ago, after I'd got unduly excited by it in a shop in France. I'm sort of frightened of both kits, because they are so good that I'm worried that I would ruin them if I built them. Does anyone else suffer from "Kit Awe"?

 

K

 

Constantly. That's why I buy kits / plan scratch builds, then they just get looked at for months!!

 

Gary

[Donw]

It is even worse when you start a kit and realise that something could be better but don't really feel up to it so you are torn between building something knowing it will have faults or building something knowing you are likely to bodge it a bit. So you do nothing and the bits sit in a box somewhere. 

So I say build the kit as the maker intended unless you are confident you can improve on it. 

Never be frightened to scratchbuild at least it will be your own mistakes not someone else's.

Remember the only way to improve is by building things

and invest in decent tools.

 

The saying a Bad workman blames his tools  is because he probably didn't buy decent ones.

 

Don

[Nearholmer]

I've started painting, and most of it looks a bit of a mess at the moment, pending second coats etc, but this is interesting.

 

Card retaining wall and 3D equivalent, painted with B&Q mixed to match paint. Looks the same to me!

[Edwardian]

I've started painting, and most of it looks a bit of a mess at the moment, pending second coats etc, but this is interesting.

 

Card retaining wall and 3D equivalent, painted with B&Q mixed to match paint. Looks the same to me!

 

Brilliant match.

 

Will you aid the deception by painting shadows to enhance the natural shadow?

[Nearholmer]

The thought had occurred. But, since all of it might eventually be 3D, probably not. At Blenheim palace there is a huge room painted in tromp l'oeil where they have added false shadow to real structures to blend it all together.

[Northroader]

Over in America, the Frisco/MKT lines bought some new streamline coaches from Budd with fluted stainless steel panels. They wanted some of their heavyweight cars to match, (with flush sides) so painted these aluminium, with shaded stripes to look like the fluting.

[Nearholmer]

Amazing, craftsmen painters needed to do that; a bit like stumbling on metal panels to make them look vaguely like wood. A real triumph, of course, would be to anti-shade corrugations, to make them look flat .......

[Nearholmer]

I'm pushing my luck with drying- time on every front here, but it certainly begins to look how I envisaged. I'm not going to pick out the stair timbers in green; I started to on the other side, and it instantly ceased to look right.

[Simond]

You might not be overjoyed with your canopy, but from where I'm sitting, it ain't bad at all!

 

Presuming you'll glaze it, add pigeons, their nests, and their mess (and maybe a stalking cat...). A bit of gentle weathering to blend it in, bit of platform clutter and Mrs Groggins & little Jimmy waiting for the train...

 

Best

Simon

[Edwardian]

I would imagine that there have been debates concerning weathering in relation to coarse scale.  My instinct is that it would be inappropriate, but, Kevin, what's your philosophy?

[Nearholmer]

Weathering is a SIN on deliberately old fashioned layouts. The Revered Beal as good as says so in one of his books, where he makes a narrow exception for a bit of soot rubbed under bridges.

 

And, the structure of the canopy is so weedy that if I added 1/8" picture glass, the approved material before plastic, it would collapse.

 

The stairs are much more satisfactory, being effectively a solid lump of wood, made up from oddles of slices of 1/4" x 1 3/4" beading glued together.

 

K

[BG John]

And, the structure of the canopy is so weedy that if I added 1/8" picture glass, the approved material before plastic, it would collapse.

I doubt if it would have been laser cut at the time either, when what later became lasers were still fictional death rays of devastating power, that would obliterate the whole area the layout is set in. If you're using modern techniques, what's wrong with a bit of plastic?

[Northroader]

If you have to make everything spotless and have to use glass instead of plastic, this deliberately old fashioned modelling is harder than it sounded at first. Still, now it's painted the canopy looks good.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Northroader

[Nearholmer]

It's certainly time consuming, which is why I resorted to the evil death ray cut kit. If it wasn't for that, there would be a half-finished canopy ......... which wouldn't look too good at the show it's going to on Saturday. I will make a nice old fashioned one to replace it, but I can't imagine that will happen until school restarts in September.

 

I'm determined to stay with the "no plastic" rule, because it makes a massive difference to the look. And, yes, before anyone points it out, the sleepers are ABS, and the rail NS, cos the equivalent tin and drawn steel track is as rare as can be, and costs several fortunes.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Nearholmer