What can we do with an old Hornby signal box

[NMBS Danny]

Years ago I bought a ready made out of the box Hornby Signal box second  hand described as "R503 signaling Box".

These where sold as toys in the 70's, so you can put some houses next to the track on the living room carpet.

This is how a lot of us started the hobby, and will bing back memories when railway modeling was on a low budget and we dreamt of the layouts a lot of us have now.

And I thought it would be fun to use this as a base to start a scratch build on.

So I take you on a tour how I go ahead.

All sort of materials will be used, from cardboard to 3D printed parts.

I don't like flat printed structure such as brik or stone, to me there must be structure.

So I started to cut out Wills thin brick work, also use for tunnels.

This is my favorite brick work because it's quite thin and very easy to cut, strong, and not too thick to glue against existing structure.

After the brickwork was cut to size glued it on to the signal box.

Next thing I did today was cutting out the molded plastic interieur with a Dremel cutter.

Sometime one has to destroy first to start the build, a bit like renovating a house.

Next thing is to make a plank floor, but that's for next post…

Edited September 30, 2023 by NMBS Danny

[Danny Vanstraelen]

OK a little update.

The brickwork and wood work got their prime color.

I don't use special model paint, I always use art acrylics from Talens (the Dutch equivalent  of Winsor & Newton)

Their Amsterdam range comes in spray cans, and in tubes, also in the range, are acrylic inks.

The nice thing is that color coding for all products whit in the range is for every product the same .

The advantage of art materials although they are still expensive, but less than modelbuilding colors, and they come in bigger quantities.

As far, as I also work with specific special modelbuilding acrylic colors, the quality is the same, and these art colors can be combined with any modelbuilding acrylics.

[Danny Vanstraelen]

This is how I make wooden flooring…

-I start with a cut to size 1.5 acid free framing cardboard 

 

-Next step is, I mark ever 2mm for the planks, and give it a cut (only surface cut)

 

Than with a stump steel I go over the cuts to press them in a bit, notice that I also make random vertical cuts to create seems where planks meet each other, so you don't have te effect of wall to wall planks, that looks unnatural.

 

[Danny Vanstraelen]

-next step is a primer, for wooden floors I always use a gold ochre

 

-With a waterproof very thin sharp I imitate the nails holes

 

-Then I brush on a diluted brown umber acrylic ink, I also put a flow improver from Winsor and Newton into the mixture…

[Danny Vanstraelen]

-Then comes the most time consuming work, with a very thin brush imitate wood grains with a puur umber acrylic ink.

 

-And then comes the magic, a black very diluted acrylic ink, also some flowing agent from Winsor & Newton added.

The black will show the cut lines very well giving it the perfect finish…

 

If you find the floor to glossy you always can put a Matt varnish over it, I would advice to go for a Tamiya spray can Matt.

Hope you find my tutorial of any intrest…

Cheers,

Danny

Edited October 5, 2023 by Danny Vanstraelen