Platform Building Techniques

[BobM]

Hi guys......

I wondered whether we could exchange information here on ways that you good guys move through the procedure of making station platforms (00 ideally) that are built from scratch....balsa wood.....plasterboard...card kits......or other mediums.....?

I am at that stage where this will be a major consideration.....going back some 40 years as a young lad make platforms from shaped balsa and painted it grey, scoring the surface to making an indication of slabbed surfaces and edges.....any links or advice on moving forwards I am sure would be appreciated by many.....

 

Looking to imitate something akin to this beautiful vista....

 

Regards as always.....

Bob

Edited September 28, 2017 by BobM

[melmerby]

Looking forward to the replies as I am in exactly the same stage, having more or less finished my track work and just starting the scenery & structures.

 

Cheers

 

keith

[Jeff Smith]

It's been a while since I built mine but used a piece of medium density board like Sundeala clad with embossed plasticard. It is good to have something solid so that you can plant things like lamps and nameboards firmly.

[Guest]

For the platform structure, I've always used 10mm x 10mm hardwood strips that my local hardware store sells in 3m lengths for about £1/m. Much stronger than balsa, but very light. If needed to follow a curve, cuts along the back edge around every centimetre allow them to bend without distortion. The 10mm height allows 2-3mm for the platform top bringing them up to prototypical height in 4mm scale. Screwed to the baseboard, they provide a very solid foundation.

A while back I discovered real stone "Juweela" slabs, sold for wargaming on ebay. The 50 x 50 description on the pack front relates to centimetres in 1/1 scale, so that's a decent match for 18" square slabs. As a natural product, each one is a very slightly different shade which helps with realism. They can be easily glued to a plasticard platform top.

For the platform surface itself, lately I've used Evergreen tile and "sidewalk" sheets to represent slabs, with the odd tarmac repair patch to break the monotony. If you just want a tarmac or concrete platform top, plasticard can be roughened with fine wet n dry and then coloured with spray paint and weathering powders. I used to use Isopon car body filler for this and a pleasant side-effect (discovered by accident and impatience) was that if you used a hairdryer to speed up the curing process, the filler would sometime exhibit some very fine cracks which looked quite realistic.

There must be a thousand ways to represent platforms, and I guess the trick is finding the one which suits you. Good luck.

 

[BobM]

Hi Guys 

Have been digesting the very useful information on platform construction techniques contained within the pages from PLS.....their link reproduced here for reference for all........

http://www.pls-layouts.co.uk/html/platforms.htm

 

Cheers Folks...Regards as always...

Bob

Edited September 30, 2017 by BobM

[coachmann]

Platform building is covered in my Carrog thread....

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/121995-carrog-in-00/page-8

[Silver Sidelines]

Hello Bob

.......going back some 40 years as a young lad make platforms from shaped balsa and painted it grey, scoring the surface to making an indication of slabbed surfaces and edges.......

I too remember being impressed by the patience of a club modeller scribing a balsa surface and shading individual paving stones.  Life is too short and I have kept the balsa wood surface and used an MDF subbase.  There are two or three Posts on my Blog with details and pictures.

 

I was asked again more recently how to make curved platforms.  I made a paper template of the rail track layout using A4 size magazine pages stapled together and then drew a line parallel something like 15mm inside from the rail line for the platform base.  (I am surprised that I have omitted this dimension in my Blog because I can remember looking at various station platform pictures and scaling the rail to brickwork distance relative to the track gauge.) The template was then recut and used to mark out the MDF for the base.  This was cut with a jigsaw outside in the fresh air resting the sheet on some upturned crates.  The balsa wood top was cut slightly larger than the base using the base as template.

 

Good luck

 

Ray

[Silver Sidelines]

Hello again Bob

..Looking to imitate something akin to this beautiful vista.....

Yes I couldn't keep away in the early '60s.

 

https://flic.kr/p/iSt8cv

https://flic.kr/p/8LEH7D

 

Thanks Ray

[melmerby]

 

A while back I discovered real stone "Juweela" slabs, sold for wargaming on ebay. The 50 x 50 description on the pack front relates to centimetres in 1/1 scale, so that's a decent match for 18" square slabs.

 

wp_061.jpg

 

Hi Pete

 

Could you confirm the size of these slabs?

If I read their website correctly the 50 x 50 refers to the size at 1:32 scale (about 20"), however with a quoted actual size of 1.56 x 1.56 cm they work out nearer to 4 feet in 1:76 scale!

 

Cheers

 

Keith

[Guest]

Could you confirm the size of these slabs?

If I read their website correctly the 50 x 50 refers to the size at 1:32 scale (about 20"), however with a quoted actual size of 1.56 x 1.56 cm they work out nearer to 4 feet in 1:76 scale!

 

You're right, Keith... I was having a bad maths day.

Actual size of the slabs is 15mm x 15mm, so yes, just under 4 feet in 4mm/OO. An eighteen inch slab would never be used as platform edging - that's more of a garden patio size. Platform edging is usually around 3ft, so they are overscale, but to my eye still look believable. Below is a slightly better view of them in place.

 

Edit: I actually ran out of these and ended up cutting some additional slabs (around 20) from 1mm styrene sheet. They were "roughened" with 80 grit paper, sprayed with grey primer and then the shade was varied with weathering powders. They were almost indistinguishable from the real stone slabs. Cutting them individually from styrene would allow any size you wanted.

 

Edited October 12, 2017 by Pete 75C

[melmerby]

You're right, Keith... I was having a bad maths day.

Actual size of the slabs is 15mm x 15mm, so yes, just under 4 feet in 4mm/OO. An eighteen inch slab would never be used as platform edging - that's more of a garden patio size. Platform edging is usually around 3ft, so they are overscale, but to my eye still look believable. Below is a slightly better view of them in place.

 

Edit: I actually ran out of these and ended up cutting some additional slabs (around 20) from 1mm styrene sheet. They were "roughened" with 80 grit paper, sprayed with grey primer and then the shade was varied with weathering powders. They were almost indistinguishable from the real stone slabs. Cutting them individually from styrene would allow any size you wanted.

 

wp_116.jpg

They do 25 x 50 as well.

I had a look at their 1:72 scale bits as that's close to 4mm/ft but they only do bricks!

Might try the plastic sheet method as that, as you say, allows any size to be made.

 

Nice bit of track work on show in that picture, looks the job.

 

Keith

[melmerby]

Made a start on my platforms

 

I decided to make a basic framework with 12mm x 12mm timber with 12mm x 4mm triangulation for bracing.

It will be held in place with 4mm c/sk bolts through the baseboard:

 

 

Then I covered it with 3.5mm ply (I managed to get half a sheet of decent stuff from the local woodyard as an "offcut" for £4!)

I've done the opposite platform already:

 

 

I now need to sort the paving to finish the surface and reproduce the corbolding and brick face

With cork based track I need to get the height correct as it will be too low as it is.

 

Keith

Edited October 18, 2017 by melmerby

[The Fatadder]

I am also using softwood strip (off the top of my head I can’t recal the size but it’s in my Brent thread), this is clad if slaters embossed stone and painted before gluing down. The top will be added from 1mm plasticard as a sub deck, clad in slaters paving slabs for the edges and ultra fine stone for the centre.

 

I haven’t yet found a suitable material for the curved bay platform as the softwood is to thick to bend to anything other than a very slight curve

[melmerby]

 

I haven’t yet found a suitable material for the curved bay platform as the softwood is to thick to bend to anything other than a very slight curve

You can see I have put saw cuts into mine. (Junior Hacksaw - fine blade)

You could get down to about half that radius if you want.

After cutting I bent it in reverse and filled the slots with pva then bent it how it should be and fixed it in place. Once the glue had dried it was fairly rigid and curved.

 

Keith

[Guest]

The 12mm x 12mm strip is also sold alongside 12mm x 6mm. This will bend down to quite a tight radius without deformation. It's imperative to use hardwood strips if you plan to bend it beyond a certain limit. If you use softwood and there's any imperfection (knots etc), it will just snap. You won't really know what that limit is until a piece snaps! Been there, done that etc... I'm lucky having an old-fashioned hardware store in town that does softwood and hardwood stripwood in a vast array of sizes, but the big "out of town" retail park stores often have less choice.

[melmerby]

 I'm lucky having an old-fashioned hardware store in town that does softwood and hardwood stripwood in a vast array of sizes, but the big "out of town" retail park stores often have less choice.

I'm lucky because my local "shop" is a proper sawmill and they can do just about anything you want

I wanted to replace the newel posts on the staircase (which were a non standard size) and they made me new ones to my spec.

 

You can see that the stripwood, which I bought there is knot free, although it is softwood.(unlike the rubbish in the out of town sheds)

 

Another advantage is that they are extremely helpful. Explain what you are trying to do and they will suggest how you can do it.

 

Keith

[melmerby]

You're right, Keith... I was having a bad maths day.

Actual size of the slabs is 15mm x 15mm, so yes, just under 4 feet in 4mm/OO. An eighteen inch slab would never be used as platform edging - that's more of a garden patio size. Platform edging is usually around 3ft, so they are overscale, but to my eye still look believable. Below is a slightly better view of them in place.

 

I've taken a few shots at Moor St station and using the other slabs for comparison reckon they ain't far short of 4' x 2' 6" x 4", so the Juweela 50 x 25 would be a reasonable match, if I can find them!

 

 

 

 

These could of course be modern replacements as I'm not sure how much refurbing was done to the platforms when it re-opened, however the recesses for the traversers were not removed.

 

Keith

Edited October 19, 2017 by melmerby

[BobM]

Hi Guys,,,,,

Have been thinking ( I know that's a dangerous thing for me as not only does it hurt but also wears the batteries out).....

 

but continuing to research the differing techniques on forming up platforms, wondered whether combining the use of both 18mm mdf for straight runs of the platform joined to ( to two layers of ) 9mm plasterboard to form the curved or ramp sections 

The plasterboard technique shown here with the straight mdf too....

 

from 7mins in

 

also

 

Comments guys please...

 

Bob

Edited October 23, 2017 by BobM

[melmerby]

IMHO as far as I am concerned 18mm mdf is too darned heavy to work with easily apart from small pieces!

It also creates a lot of toxic dust when you are working it, so ideally everything has to be done outside.

 

(I certainly wouldn't use plasterboard either)

But hey - each to their own.

 

I consider the way I did mine was "easy"

 

The baseboard was marked where the platform face went using a homemade jig (scrap of wood!)

The longitudinal pieces were screwed down to the baseboard to align with the marks, curving where necessary.

Cross pieces were screwed and glued in place (PVA) along with the bracing

Once the glue had gone off the frame was lifted and laid face down on the ply top which was marked to suit and cut. (outside using jigsaw & router)

Finally the ply was glued to the frame - job done.

Only needs the paving & painting to finish off.

This is what it looks like:

(one in place, one upside down)

 

Keith

[BobM]

Evening guys...

 

Does anyone have any experience of using this method, or have comments....only just seen this site...?

 

https://www.cd3dmodelmaking.co.uk/platforms

 

Regards as always....

Bob

[melmerby]

Evening guys...

 

Does anyone have any experience of using this method, or have comments....only just seen this site...?

 

https://www.cd3dmodelmaking.co.uk/platforms

 

Regards as always....

Bob

Interesting idea but a tad expensive IMHO.

 

My 2.4 metre platforms would be about £100! (each)

 

Keith

[BobM]

Interesting idea but a tad expensive IMHO.

 

My 2.4 metre platforms would be about £100! (each)

 

Keith

Strewth!

Hadn't looked at it that deeply yet...

Regards

Bob

[Guest]

Does anyone have any experience of using this method, or have comments....only just seen this site...?

 

https://www.cd3dmodelmaking.co.uk/platforms

 

The brick edging does look quite nicely done, but like Keith, I'm a little taken aback by the economics of making a full-size platform by this method.

The 12mm x 12mm hardwood strips that I use are less than £4 each, allowing you to make a 2400mm 7-8 coach platform for around £12, including internal bracing. Just add top and edging to taste. I do like the idea, just not the price!

Edited October 27, 2017 by Pete 75C