The Blue Peter Awards - show us your ingenuity

[33C]

Cereal packet card. Great for mocking up bodies etc to check for fit and even to make stock from! Recently discovered those large, plastic knitting needles in various sizes in the charity shop at pence a time. Great source of plastic tube/pipe and takes glue very well.

[CameronL]

On 22/06/2022 at 07:08, AyJay said:

Warning! Slight digression coming up.

On the ‘re-purposing’ front, it amuses me that when searching for something to be used in a modelling application, the bemused expression of sales assistants is priceless.:

In the kitchen furniture store where I am looking at those odd hinges on cooker hoods - to be used as dampers in controlling the drop of a vertical entry flap on my layout “What make of kitchen have you got?”

Then theres in the pet shop looking at tubs of grit, to be used as the rock interior of a broken castle wall “what cage pet have you got?”

I have yet to be caught prowling around the make-up counter, looking for Trident missiles 😉

 

As for recycling, some of my wooden stirrers are now planks of wood on my lumberyard. If I ever go to a hotel, I have to keep those small glass pots that jam comes in; useful for putting small bits in.

Lastly, the foil bags inside boxes of M&S Teabags, line the roof insides of my buildings, to reflect light.

You are John Noakes and I claim my £5. 

 

Definitely worth a badge.

[AyJay]

8 hours ago, CameronL said:

You are John Noakes and I claim my £5. 

 

Definitely worth a badge.

Funny you should say that…..

Not John Noakes, but when he was Chief Scout, Peter Duncan looked just like me.  No, I don’t do dares.

[SR71]

On 22/06/2022 at 12:06, 33C said:

Cereal packet card. Great for mocking up bodies etc to check for fit and even to make stock from! Recently discovered those large, plastic knitting needles in various sizes in the charity shop at pence a time. Great source of plastic tube/pipe and takes glue very well.

As promoted by Project Binky you are at the very forefront of technology. CAD...

 

Cardboard Aided Design.

 

One I use regularly.

[CameronL]

And there's a gold badge for Ben B and his Somewhere in the Top-Left Corner of Wales... Ivor the Engine clockwork micro. A blast-from-the-past layout in best traditions of any Blue Peter build.

Edited July 29, 2022 by CameronL
Added a bit

[CF MRC]

Copenhagen Fields has appeared four times on Blue Peter: does that count?

Tim

[CameronL]

1 hour ago, CF MRC said:

Copenhagen Fields has appeared four times on Blue Peter: does that count?

Tim

I don't know.  How many otherwise useless household objects were involved (by which I mean as construction materials, not the builders)?.

 

Seriously, four times? That's worth a night out with Valerie Singleton.

 

I wonder how many children who saw Copenhagen Fields on Blue Peter are now grown up and still modelling because they did. It could be the railway modelling equivalent to kids wanting to play the guitar because they heard Jimmy Page's guitar solo in Stairway To Heaven.  

Edited July 29, 2022 by CameronL
Added a bit

[CameronL]

Another gold award goes to Andrew D, for his regular and ingenious use of simple household objects in Operational Interest & Slow Speed reliability in a Boxfile - on a budget  and Dale Green. Sadly, Dale Green has lost all its pictures, but there is a video at the end that's well worth a watch.

Edited July 31, 2022 by CameronL
Typo

[Andrew D]

12 hours ago, CameronL said:

Another gold award goes to Andrew D, for his regular and ingenious use of simple household objects in Operational Interest & Slow Speed reliability in a Boxfile - on a budget  and Dale Green. Sadly, Dale Green has lost all its pictures, but there is a video at the end that's well worth a watch.

Thanguverymuch. I’d like to think I’m creative, but I think it’s more true to say I’m a cheapskate 😉 

 

Never thought my amateur muddling would win anything, let alone a coveted Blue Peter Badge! 

[Ben B]

On 29/07/2022 at 10:44, CameronL said:

And there's a gold badge for Ben B and his Somewhere in the Top-Left Corner of Wales... Ivor the Engine clockwork micro. A blast-from-the-past layout in best traditions of any Blue Peter build.

 

Thanks!  I rather enjoyed improvising the build from whatever was lying around the house.

 

In a similar vein, from the same time period, when parts for projects were hard to get hold of;

 

 

Plumbing parts, and a broken toy loco...

 

 

...some scrap wood...

 

 

...some plasticard, insulation cable, stationery...

 

 

And with a lot of bodging, a model of "Welsh Pony" for the garden.

[CameronL]

4 hours ago, Ben B said:

 

In a similar vein, from the same time period, when parts for projects were hard to get hold of;

You've already got the gold badge. Beautiful model of a great engine. 

[robert17649]

On 16/01/2022 at 09:10, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

I shudder to think what the 2nd prize was!

 

Mike.

I shudder to think what the first prize was

[phil_sutters]

2 hours ago, robert17649 said:

I shudder to think what the first prize was

I wondered that when I found this little card among family photos from English Bicknor!

[CameronL]

9 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

I wond"ered that when I found this little card among family photos from English Bicknor!

"Then when the solemn bell I hear,

If saved from guilt, I need not fear;

One final question is asked plain - 

"Have I time to run one last train?"

[Philou]

The only recycling I've done that hasn't yet been mentioned is the sifting of coarse builders' sand through some - ahem - borrowed - ordinary kitchen sieves. I also have some cheap loose tea strainers for very small grains/dust. From one bucket of sand and assorted sieves/strainers you can get a huge amount of ballast from 0 to n gauge size and the finer stuff is good for 'tar and chip' on road surfaces. The dust can be used for the cess/ash path or sand on a beach. Colour as necessary by using cheap acrylics from just about anywhere.

 

(Don't be tempted to use real cigarette ash for a path as I once did in my yoof. Looked good, but it just stunk forever!)

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[CameronL]

1 hour ago, Philou said:

The only recycling I've done that hasn't yet been mentioned is the sifting of coarse builders' sand through some - ahem - borrowed - ordinary kitchen sieves. I also have some cheap loose tea strainers for very small grains/dust. From one bucket of sand and assorted sieves/strainers you can get a huge amount of ballast from 0 to n gauge size and the finer stuff is good for 'tar and chip' on road surfaces. The dust can be used for the cess/ash path or sand on a beach. Colour as necessary by using cheap acrylics from just about anywhere.

 

(Don't be tempted to use real cigarette ash for a path as I once did in my yoof. Looked good, but it just stunk forever!)

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

That's worth a badge! 

[40152]

Prompted by Philou’s work with a sieve, I have been using a similar technique for a few years now, but instead of builders’ sand I have been using the contents of the ash pan from under the fire. It’s a messy job and I always do the sieving outdoors on a still day. Obviously the consistency of what comes out depends on what’s been burned; wood ash is finer, coal and wood gives a nice, gritty mix. I use an old spoon and retired kitchen sieve to remove the bigger lumps. The resultant coarse powder is then mixed with water and PVA and spread where needed. 
 

It makes a decent textured ground surface for industrial yards in its raw state and of course can be overpainted and flock or static grass applied for other areas.

 

Costs nothing, would have gone to waste and is great fun to spread around with an artist’s palette knife.

[CameronL]

3 hours ago, 40152 said:

Prompted by Philou’s work with a sieve, I have been using a similar technique for a few years now, but instead of builders’ sand I have been using the contents of the ash pan from under the fire. It’s a messy job and I always do the sieving outdoors on a still day. Obviously the consistency of what comes out depends on what’s been burned; wood ash is finer, coal and wood gives a nice, gritty mix. I use an old spoon and retired kitchen sieve to remove the bigger lumps. The resultant coarse powder is then mixed with water and PVA and spread where needed. 
 

It makes a decent textured ground surface for industrial yards in its raw state and of course can be overpainted and flock or static grass applied for other areas.

 

Costs nothing, would have gone to waste and is great fun to spread around with an artist’s palette knife.

Have one of  these - 

[John Besley]

As well as bean tins...

 

I have used the tops from Olive oil pumper sprays as rubbish bins and currently a top from a toothpaste tube for a large rubbish skip - see Exhill Works

 

 

Metal foil trays for leaves on plants, brown envelope to make cardboard boxes, Garden string for weeds 

 

Plumbing parts for boilers, Lego to build a lathe and pillar drill, Lego cupboards become workbench tool boxes 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by John Besley
Schpelling

[CameronL]

21 hours ago, John Besley said:

As well as bean tins...

 

I have used the tops from Olive oil pumper sprays as rubbish bins and currently a top from a toothpaste tube for a large rubbish skip - see Exhill Works

 

 

Metal foil trays for leaves on plants, brown envelope to make cardboard boxes, Garden string for weeds 

 

Plumbing parts for boilers, Lego to build a lathe and pillar drill, Lego cupboards become workbench tool boxes 

 

 

Well, that's a gold badge for you then. Did you used to be a presenter?

[John Besley]

1 hour ago, CameronL said:

Well, that's a gold badge for you then. Did you used to be a presenter?

 

Not yet 😅

[relaxinghobby]

Some Blue Peter grade buildings here. Cardboard from finished writing pads, cereal boxes and other cast off packaging.

Sheets of cardboard is good for buildings which are a series of boxes and flat slopping roofs.

Combined with brick-paper and other building textures, brick paper works well when stuck on with Pritt Stick or some similar dry rub on glue as it does not crinkle the paper.

From left to write, two Metcalfe kits from the factory and warehouse set as a comparison. Cut back a bit to about 1 inch thick to act as back scene. Third along is a proper Blue Peter, scratch build with Superquick brick and roof tile paper. The windows are home made, can you tell? Frames painted onto clear plastic packet material, bubble pack or something. The blue bits are from left overs of that Metcalfe kit. Worth a bronze badge?

Then along from that, towards the corner, more scrap cardboard covered with brick papers, the retaining wall below has built up blind arches and the terrace house end is a single layer of card with Metcalfe brick paper. A silver badge's worth?

 

The big end retaining wall is some scrounged feather board. This is a 3mm layer of soft polystyrene, like that used for ceiling tiles sandwiched between paper sheets. The model can be marked out and cut then the outer layer peeled off exposing soft poly and then the stone work scribed on with biros or a sharp pencil. A few horizontal lines ruled on with felt tip pens helps keep things horizontal.

 

 

The larger tunnel entrance is salvaged from an earlier layout, an essential of Blue Peter modelling is to never throw anything out if you can help it. It uses the cheap card from the back of a note pad. The card is so poor that after the stone work is scored on with a knife, for each stone a few layers can easily be scraped away to give a rough stonework look.

 

 Some very rough stone work

 

Gold Badge?

 

 

A whole loco body now, some 0.5 mm card, post card that is flexible enough to go through the roller system inside a computer printer. If you swipe that bar code perhaps you can tell me what was in the packet. The yellow bits are from an old manilla wallet file.

The parts are drawn out on a computer drawing app' like Inkscape and then printed and cut out. This gives accurately shaped parts but it's not really strong enough to form the cab. The front is too weak and has been squashed a bit. Could try metal, using the card model as a pattern perhaps?

 

 

 

This is a Tri-ang TT tank mounted on a Tri-ang 00 metal chassis frame. All the extra tank holding frame parts are coffee stirrers. Several are glue together and cut down to make realistic scale timbering. Bits of paper-clip wire for details. The white manhole tower on the tank is the end of some lucky pen body.

 

 

[CameronL]

That's worth a gold badge! What would modelling do without the humble coffee stirrers? 

[Martino]

These are all 16mm/ft .

 

Signal box out of political yard signs (only good use for the the things), milk churns out of eye drop bottles and an oil tanker out of a dog food supplement plastic tub.

 

All ones I made earlier.

 

Get down Shep!

[CameronL]

All amazing. It's a gold for this lot. Can you put the signal box on when it's been painted, please?

 

Best wishes 

 

Cam