Reade’s Wharf

[HonestTom]

Hullo all, I thought I’d give this cake box business a shot. I’m planning a canal wharf kind of thing, using the 6”x8” bit as the base. I used foamcore for the basic structure.
 

However, the box of foamcore boards included a sheet of polystyrene used as packing, so that’s the first bit of rubbish. I started scoring the rails and setts into it.

[HonestTom]

By the end of the first evening, I had this:

 

 

To be honest, I'm not happy with the stones at the edge of the quayside, which look a bit too random and were made out of construction paper. I also stuck them on with hot glue, which makes them very uneven. I'm probably going to redo them.

Edited February 16, 2021 by HonestTom

[Marly51]

59 minutes ago, HonestTom said:

By the end of the first evening, I had this:

 

 

To be honest, I'm not happy with the stones at the edge of the quayside, which look a bit too random and were made out of construction paper. I also stuck them on with hot glue, which makes them very uneven. I'm probably going to redo them.

Would it be possible to cut back the stone sets and use card or styrene sheet, the same thickness as your road surface sheet, to create the stone edging?

Edited February 16, 2021 by Marly51

[HonestTom]

2 minutes ago, Marly51 said:

Would it be possible to cut back the stone sets and use card or styrene sheet, the same thickness as your road surface sheet, to create the stone edging?

Possibly. The big worry is that the quay is basically solid foamcore, so some carving would be needed. To be honest, I think my biggest mistake here was being in too much of a hurry.

 

I'm debating which way to go stylistically, whether to aim for realism or more of a steampunky, fantasy look. I'm sort of inclining towards the latter.

[Marly51]

Steampunk/fantasy definitely frees you up to experiment more! Look forward to seeing how your model develops! 

[Marly51]

4 hours ago, HonestTom said:

Possibly. The big worry is that the quay is basically solid foamcore, so some carving would be needed. To be honest, I think my biggest mistake here was being in too much of a hurry.

 

I'm debating which way to go stylistically, whether to aim for realism or more of a steampunky, fantasy look. I'm sort of inclining towards the latter.

It might be possible to use a craft knife, with a new sharp blade, to cut away a sliver of surface to the width and depth of your edging slabs, then lay some individual card slabs? The sort of fiddly challenge I enjoy.... 

[HonestTom]

I decided I’d taken the rubbish theme too far and my original concept was rubbish. I am pretty married to the idea of a canal, but I wanted something irregular and interesting-looking. This is where Reade’s Wharf Mk II is at right now:

I took some photos of the warehouse under construction, which I’ll post when I’ve got some shut-eye.

[HonestTom]

So here’s the warehouse. The main support is foamcore (an offcut of the base, so I guess that counts as rubbish?). The main wall is some more polystyrene packing. The windows are by LCut Creative. The cornerstones, whatever the technical name is, are construction paper. The red bits are craft foam. The roof tiles are card taken from food packaging. I added a timber quayside wall made from coffee stirrers and matchsticks

[HonestTom]

And here’s a rough idea of how the whole thing will be laid out. I want a really cramped look to the scene.

 

Edited February 27, 2021 by HonestTom

[HonestTom]

Next job is the stone jetty. First, a facade was cut from black construction paper.

Next, it was time for some more rubbish. Have you ever noticed the texture on the inside of an egg box?

More work will be needed to tidy this up, but I hope you can see where I’m going with this.

Edited March 4, 2021 by HonestTom

[Guest]

I like the scribed cobblestones in the foam core.

[HonestTom]

I’ve started work on a second building. This one uses an envelope box for the basic shape, with a bit of packing card for the window frames and the roof. The windows are Wills, the sills are matchsticks and coffee stirrers are being used to finish it off. I wanted a clapboard exterior, so I’m applying construction paper planks, which is tedious.

 

 

[Guest]

I like this very much. It's just amazing what can be modelled using cardboard, coffee stirrers and match sticks.

[HonestTom]

1 hour ago, Wrenn said:

I like this very much. It's just amazing what can be modelled using cardboard, coffee stirrers and match sticks.

Thanks! I’m a big fan of the concept of making with whatever’s to hand. I took a lot of inspiration from the tabletop gaming community, who do a lot of that sort of thing.

 

I’ve been rethinking the overall look of the diorama - I want it crowded, but the jetties made it a little too crowded. I’ve reduced the number down to two, the stone one and the long, rickety wooden one.

 

[HonestTom]

The house is finished (at least structurally - it still needs painting).

[Guest]

The structure of the house looks great, nice work.

[HonestTom]

I wanted a barge or a boat of some kind. Using some more of the cardboard, I made a template which I used to make a basic barge shape.

Next, I cut some card strips and hot glued them around the edges.

And that’s the basic structure. Obviously there’s a lot of detail to be added.

Edited March 14, 2021 by HonestTom

[HonestTom]

A little more work on the barge. On a project this small, a little goes a long way. The details on the barge are the same sheet of card I used for the window frames earlier. Incidentally, the rest of the wharf has been undercoated in black.

 

I wanted to add a load. Tunnock’s Caramel bars have a rather useful wrapping that’s foil on one side and paper on the other, which makes them great for tarpaulins - they crinkle realistically, but they’ll take paint. I glued some offcuts from other bits of the build into the “hold,” then hot glued the wrapper on top.

Other caramel biscuits are available.

 

[Guest]

Nice barge construction and all modelled using cardboard. It's amazing what can be built using cardboard.

[ManofKent]

The tarp looks good.

[HonestTom]

On 14/03/2021 at 12:17, Wrenn said:

Nice barge construction and all modelled using cardboard. It's amazing what can be built using cardboard.

Thanks! I'm really enjoying this project because it's forcing me to think outside the box (pun not originally intended). When you start looking for usable rubbish, it's astonishing how much there is. Junk mail can make planks and roof tiles, cardboard can make walls, styrofoam can make brickwork, clear plastic is glazing, wrappers can be tarpaulins. Then there are things like matchsticks, skewers, stirrers, things that cost pennies at most. I find myself wondering if I could build an entire layout using junk.

[HonestTom]

Aargh lads I completely forgot about the deadline for this. Oh well, I'm sure it'll get finished one of these days.

[Marly51]

4 hours ago, HonestTom said:

Aargh lads I completely forgot about the deadline for this. Oh well, I'm sure it'll get finished one of these days.

That’s a shame HonestTom.... the model is looking really good! 

 

Marlyn

[ManofKent]

5 hours ago, HonestTom said:

Aargh lads I completely forgot about the deadline for this. Oh well, I'm sure it'll get finished one of these days.

You've probably got a day or two's grace...

[HonestTom]

On 01/04/2021 at 17:50, ManofKent said:

You've probably got a day or two's grace...

Indeed, having seen the actual deadline, it's looking like there's a much better chance of getting this lad finished. Assuming work doesn't take over again, I reckon I could get this finished in a couple of days. There has been some progress since I last posted photos.

 

I'm in that position where I've put enough work in that I won't be abandoning it, at any rate.

Edited April 7, 2021 by HonestTom