Copenhagen Fields

[bécasse]

9 hours ago, 2mmMark said:

It's a grave mistake to make 2mm/N models too dark.  If anything, it's better to make a them bit lighter.

Keith Armes reckoned to aim for a pastel-type approach to scenery colour and I think he was right.

That isn't just true of 2mm/N but of larger scales too although the depth modelled in 2mm/N is often greater (especially true of CF of course) and that too calls for that lighter touch.

 

The one thing that modellers of "historical" (say pre-1970) urban landscapes tend to get wrong is that they depict the sides of buildings in too light a shade. Roofs, and especially slate roofs, got washed down regularly by rain (and to some extent bleached by the UV rays of the sun) but the rough surfaces of brickwork and cement rendering collected soot from the atmosphere and had been collecting it in most cases since they were built. Indeed in some industrial towns like Stoke buildings would be encrusted with a measurable layer of soot and appear all but black in consequence. The Clean-air Acts that followed the dire smogs of the early 1950s have totally changed the situation today as wind and rain over the years have gradually muted the colour effects of the soot, making it easy to forget how things were. Some "public" buildings were actually physically washed down in the 1960s and for them the change was dramatic.

[CF MRC]

22 hours ago, Simon D. said:

York Road is brilliant, but very low down.  Does CF need to be raised up a foot or so?  I always think most layouts are too low, and steps or periscopes are available for the vertically challenged.  I did also see Mr W. struggling a little on one knee showing it off to a visitor. I know YORK is much different to CF, but the height works very well indeed for that.  We perceive trains more realistically at eye level or slightly above from the side, rather than a 'drone's eye' view.  Iain Rice talked about this in some of his books. (Yes, I know CF is a hugely intricate jigsaw, and raising it up is probably a logistical nightmare, but I bet a lot of people missed such a magnificent piece of modelling).

Thanks for the observations, Simon. When high layouts first became popular in the mid 80s we raised CF by 6” at one show. This was met with universal complaints that people couldn’t see the trains in the cutting - the experiment was not continued with.  We have also always had a barrier with a step rail for children to be able to see the trains and of course they also get the best view of the underground railway. 
 

The use of diminishing scale and perspective on the layout is designed to work with the viewing height as it is at present. The intensity of colours is very much down to individual taste, but I think that many layouts have a much too saturated use of colour: London was undoubtedly black in our modelled era, but the reality is that black isn’t - when viewed from a distance. I work in a 30 floor tower block in London and the effect of aerial perspective is very noticeable at height - which is broadly the scene before a viewer of CF.

 

The YR tube is low when displayed on CF because it is underground relative to the whole layout (I suppose that is somewhat a statement of the  obvious!) 

The view of the lit tube train running along the front of the Belle Isle part of the layout will really complete the scene, when we get that far and highlight its position. 
.

For the Cally section of the tube, the new Revolution Trains ‘38 stock (backdated to ‘35 stock) will be a godsend.

 

For those wanting to see YR tube at a comfortable height it can be seen at high level when displayed as a diorama. The tuba-shaped box it travels in doubles as both the diorama and base when shown on a table, bringing it up to a very comfortable eye level view. We will be showing this at the MRC mini-exhibition on December 10th at Keen House. 

 

We also had a preview of another super model from Rapido Trains at Warley that will look good on the layout - especially behind the Raven 4-6-2 class 2400 on trial at KX in 1923. 

 

Finally, we have Matthew Wald’s latest lovely signal box for CF: Five Arch, which apart from the Pope-selecting chimney is scarcely visible from the front. The south end operator can see it though. 

 

Quite a lot going on, really, and we have a good list of jobs to do on CF before its next exhibition in Buxton in July ‘24. 
 

Tim

 

 

 

[RobinofLoxley]

In that era the buildings would have been 'Exceedingly grimy' as Mr Kipling might have said. However that doesn't mean they have to be depicted as such. 

[Ian Morgan]

10 Downing street was originally standard yellow brick colour, but two centuries of smog turned it black. When the facade was rebuilt in the 1960's, they had to paint new bricks black to retain its famously familiar looks.

[2mmMark]

9 hours ago, bécasse said:

That isn't just true of 2mm/N but of larger scales too although the depth modelled in 2mm/N is often greater (especially true of CF of course) and that too calls for that lighter touch.

 

The one thing that modellers of "historical" (say pre-1970) urban landscapes tend to get wrong is that they depict the sides of buildings in too light a shade. Roofs, and especially slate roofs, got washed down regularly by rain (and to some extent bleached by the UV rays of the sun) but the rough surfaces of brickwork and cement rendering collected soot from the atmosphere and had been collecting it in most cases since they were built. Indeed in some industrial towns like Stoke buildings would be encrusted with a measurable layer of soot and appear all but black in consequence. The Clean-air Acts that followed the dire smogs of the early 1950s have totally changed the situation today as wind and rain over the years have gradually muted the colour effects of the soot, making it easy to forget how things were. Some "public" buildings were actually physically washed down in the 1960s and for them the change was dramatic.

I do recall blackened buildings in London of the early 1960s.  Even so, I would personally still avoid any form of dead black in 2mm scale.  Muted shades of grey will give the right sort of effect, along with careful consideration of where soot would build up.  The soot effects need to be built up slowly or there's a risk that it'll end up looking like an Ian Futers BR diesel.



 

[bécasse]

1 hour ago, 2mmMark said:

I do recall blackened buildings in London of the early 1960s.  Even so, I would personally still avoid any form of dead black in 2mm scale.  Muted shades of grey will give the right sort of effect, along with careful consideration of where soot would build up.  The soot effects need to be built up slowly or there's a risk that it'll end up looking like an Ian Futers BR diesel.

In my experience it is an effect best built up using black powder applied in many passes of a very soft brush. I use black powder poster paint (from a tin all but sixty years old) and a cosmetics brush intended for applying powder (but not this particular powder!) as face make-up. If one is applying it to modelled cement rendering it is best to find a period photo of a suitable prototype to ascertain the desired effect, finding such photos isn't difficult as there many were taken during the flush of postcard production in the Edwardian era. I also have an equally old tin of pale grey powder poster paint which I often use in the same way to tone down the effect of the black that I have previously applied, it is remarkable how quickly a totally realistic effect can be achieved in a way that wouldn't be possible with paint, even sprayed very thinly.

[natterjack]

20 hours ago, CF MRC said:

The layout was actually given a major dusting before its previous outing.

Out of interest, how do you go about the cleaning? I have in my mind a soft paint brush with an adjacent vacuum cleaner sucking away the air borne dust.

[CF MRC]

Just that. 
 

Tim

[CF MRC]

Following on from various discussions on the visibility of the YR tube platform, I decided to adjust both the diorama box and the platform roof itself, cutting back about 1/2” from the top of the latter.  This was achieved with a well known fine scale modelling instrument.

The station track work is now much more visible and is complimented by some pleasant curves in the infrastructure.
Next job will be to lay some temporary strip track so that we can get a train running for the MRC mini exhibition on 10th December at Keen House. 
 

Tim
 

[nick_bastable]

10 minutes ago, CF MRC said:

Following on from various discussions on the visibility of the YR tube platform, I decided to adjust both the diorama box and the platform roof itself, cutting back about 1/2” from the top of the latter.  This was achieved with a well known fine scale modelling instrument.

The station track work is now much more visible and is complimented by some pleasant curves in the infrastructure.
Next job will be to lay some temporary strip track so that we can get a train running for the MRC mini exhibition on 10th December at Keen House. 
 

Tim
 

wheres the Hammer ?

[CF MRC]

In the latest moving picture mode. 

https://youtu.be/rm04SuM50EE?feature=shared

 

 

Tim

Edited December 2, 2023 by CF MRC

[Ian Lilley]

Presumably all filmed by a2mmFS drone?

 

Ian

[Caley Jim]

'Round of applause' doesn't cut it.  We need a 'standing ovation' emoji!

 

Jim  😃

[CF MRC]

Had a great day at the MRC mini exhibition with YR in its first outing as a diorama. 

The standard stock also ran and looked the part. This train may get a new mechanism and act as a prototype for the gate stock which is currently at the design stage in the Jim Watt works.

Signage and posters soon.

 

Tim

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by CF MRC

[Caley Jim]

20 hours ago, CF MRC said:

The standard stock also ran and looked the part. This train may get a new mechanism and act as a prototype for the gate stock which is currently at the design stage in the Jim Watt works.

The drawing office at JW Works has yet to commence work on this project as all staff are currently fully occupied in the erecting shop.  Thinking will hopefully commence soon!

 

Jim (MD,CEO, & General Factotum)

Edited December 11, 2023 by Caley Jim
Edit link

[CF MRC]

In December, the MRC usually holds a pre-Christmas mini exhibition. The York Road tube diorama was having its first outing with a working train for the show. Whilst certain features such as the toilets and occupants are popular with all ages, I thought it was appropriate that the younger members of the audience get a preview of Santa Claus and his reindeer on a flight test. Having spent far too many hours making the underground tube station I wanted something nice and simple. Osborn Models came up trumps with a nice little 3DP of Santa in his sleigh with four reindeer out front.

This had landed on the YR tube station roof and attracted many favourable comments from the audience, not least Phil Parker from BRM who was surprised to see such a model on CF.  In discussion, I indicated that I thought it was capable of improvement, especially in the motive power department; CF is, after all, 2mm FS.  Close examination reveals that the antlers and heads of the ‘reindeer’ pass a strong resemblance to a love child of a triceratops and a moose. There could be a case for an after-market bespoke antler etch if someone was very keen: I certainly didn’t fancy soldering up eight antlers from wire as an alternative. I then recollected that Preiser make some reindeer as a plastic moulding. Now these come as a very fine six pack in pairs, including four adorned with rather more plausible antlers.  The challenge with these models was that they come in pairs and two of them would have looked as if Santa had done an emergency brake application with their heads down grazing. These therefore required plastic surgery with a triangular neck re-section.

With the other pair I moved the head around on one of them to create a bit more variation. The Preiser reindeer are not too steady on their feet (maybe it’s not just carrots they have on Christmas Eve) and so some sort of location was required. A centre pole was made from metal strip and cross pieces of 0.4mm brass wire soldered in place. This replaced the chunky 3DP structure which was actually quite weak. At this stage the reindeer underwent key hole surgery with a 0.4mm tungsten carbide drill to locate the cross pieces just behind their withers. The antlers were also trimmed a bit.

After a fair bit of thinning down of the sleigh edges with a scalpel and very sharp chisel the whole assembly was given a puff of grey primer, to show any major defects.

At this point I had a serious look at reindeer liveries on-line. They are very similar to dairy shorthorn cattle with a mixture of beige, yellow ochre, umber & white. The antlers would generally be darker shades. The noses are generally pink and of course one of them (Rudolph) has a red nose. Any bridles / tackle were painted on with a fine brush. The parcel load in the sleigh was augmented with extras and some are carrying the initials of the grandchildren. The gold lining on the sleigh was re-instated using a fine line gold marker pen.

Finally, I thought that the sleigh ought to carry some aircraft recognition marks for Lapland. These are OH-JLP. Those of you that know about these things will recognise that OH is the symbol for  Finland and JLP is a shortened form of Joulopukki, Finnish for Santa Claus, or literally ‘Christmas Goat’. So now you know.

Of course you could save yourself a great deal of work by purchasing a Modelu Santa & sleigh 3DP, which came out just as I started this project, but where’s the fun in that?

I look forward to seeing the grandchildren’s faces when they see Santa Claus on CF.

 

Tim

[bécasse]

Actually Santa Claus has just swept past my house this evening - only one reindeer though and running over a week late (Saint Nicolas normally brings the children's presents on December 6).

[Grafarman]

14 hours ago, CF MRC said:

In December, the MRC usually holds a pre-Christmas mini exhibition. The York Road tube diorama was having its first outing with a working train for the show. Whilst certain features such as the toilets and occupants are popular with all ages, I thought it was appropriate that the younger members of the audience get a preview of Santa Claus and his reindeer on a flight test. Having spent far too many hours making the underground tube station I wanted something nice and simple. Osborn Models came up trumps with a nice little 3DP of Santa in his sleigh with four reindeer out front.

This had landed on the YR tube station roof and attracted many favourable comments from the audience, not least Phil Parker from BRM who was surprised to see such a model on CF.  In discussion, I indicated that I thought it was capable of improvement, especially in the motive power department; CF is, after all, 2mm FS.  Close examination reveals that the antlers and heads of the ‘reindeer’ pass a strong resemblance to a love child of a triceratops and a moose. There could be a case for an after-market bespoke antler etch if someone was very keen: I certainly didn’t fancy soldering up eight antlers from wire as an alternative. I then recollected that Preiser make some reindeer as a plastic moulding. Now these come as a very fine six pack in pairs, including four adorned with rather more plausible antlers.  The challenge with these models was that they come in pairs and two of them would have looked as if Santa had done an emergency brake application with their heads down grazing. These therefore required plastic surgery with a triangular neck re-section.

With the other pair I moved the head around on one of them to create a bit more variation. The Preiser reindeer are not too steady on their feet (maybe it’s not just carrots they have on Christmas Eve) and so some sort of location was required. A centre pole was made from metal strip and cross pieces of 0.4mm brass wire soldered in place. This replaced the chunky 3DP structure which was actually quite weak. At this stage the reindeer underwent key hole surgery with a 0.4mm tungsten carbide drill to locate the cross pieces just behind their withers. The antlers were also trimmed a bit.

After a fair bit of thinning down of the sleigh edges with a scalpel and very sharp chisel the whole assembly was given a puff of grey primer, to show any major defects.

At this point I had a serious look at reindeer liveries on-line. They are very similar to dairy shorthorn cattle with a mixture of beige, yellow ochre, umber & white. The antlers would generally be darker shades. The noses are generally pink and of course one of them (Rudolph) has a red nose. Any bridles / tackle were painted on with a fine brush. The parcel load in the sleigh was augmented with extras and some are carrying the initials of the grandchildren. The gold lining on the sleigh was re-instated using a fine line gold marker pen.

Finally, I thought that the sleigh ought to carry some aircraft recognition marks for Lapland. These are OH-JLP. Those of you that know about these things will recognise that OH is the symbol for  Finland and JLP is a shortened form of Joulopukki, Finnish for Santa Claus, or literally ‘Christmas Goat’. So now you know.

Of course you could save yourself a great deal of work by purchasing a Modelu Santa & sleigh 3DP, which came out just as I started this project, but where’s the fun in that?

I look forward to seeing the grandchildren’s faces when they see Santa Claus on CF.

 

Tim

 

Wow...just, wow!

 

David

[St Enodoc]

17 hours ago, CF MRC said:

In December, the MRC usually holds a pre-Christmas mini exhibition. The York Road tube diorama was having its first outing with a working train for the show. Whilst certain features such as the toilets and occupants are popular with all ages, I thought it was appropriate that the younger members of the audience get a preview of Santa Claus and his reindeer on a flight test. Having spent far too many hours making the underground tube station I wanted something nice and simple. Osborn Models came up trumps with a nice little 3DP of Santa in his sleigh with four reindeer out front.

This had landed on the YR tube station roof and attracted many favourable comments from the audience, not least Phil Parker from BRM who was surprised to see such a model on CF.  In discussion, I indicated that I thought it was capable of improvement, especially in the motive power department; CF is, after all, 2mm FS.  Close examination reveals that the antlers and heads of the ‘reindeer’ pass a strong resemblance to a love child of a triceratops and a moose. There could be a case for an after-market bespoke antler etch if someone was very keen: I certainly didn’t fancy soldering up eight antlers from wire as an alternative. I then recollected that Preiser make some reindeer as a plastic moulding. Now these come as a very fine six pack in pairs, including four adorned with rather more plausible antlers.  The challenge with these models was that they come in pairs and two of them would have looked as if Santa had done an emergency brake application with their heads down grazing. These therefore required plastic surgery with a triangular neck re-section.

With the other pair I moved the head around on one of them to create a bit more variation. The Preiser reindeer are not too steady on their feet (maybe it’s not just carrots they have on Christmas Eve) and so some sort of location was required. A centre pole was made from metal strip and cross pieces of 0.4mm brass wire soldered in place. This replaced the chunky 3DP structure which was actually quite weak. At this stage the reindeer underwent key hole surgery with a 0.4mm tungsten carbide drill to locate the cross pieces just behind their withers. The antlers were also trimmed a bit.

After a fair bit of thinning down of the sleigh edges with a scalpel and very sharp chisel the whole assembly was given a puff of grey primer, to show any major defects.

At this point I had a serious look at reindeer liveries on-line. They are very similar to dairy shorthorn cattle with a mixture of beige, yellow ochre, umber & white. The antlers would generally be darker shades. The noses are generally pink and of course one of them (Rudolph) has a red nose. Any bridles / tackle were painted on with a fine brush. The parcel load in the sleigh was augmented with extras and some are carrying the initials of the grandchildren. The gold lining on the sleigh was re-instated using a fine line gold marker pen.

Finally, I thought that the sleigh ought to carry some aircraft recognition marks for Lapland. These are OH-JLP. Those of you that know about these things will recognise that OH is the symbol for  Finland and JLP is a shortened form of Joulopukki, Finnish for Santa Claus, or literally ‘Christmas Goat’. So now you know.

Of course you could save yourself a great deal of work by purchasing a Modelu Santa & sleigh 3DP, which came out just as I started this project, but where’s the fun in that?

I look forward to seeing the grandchildren’s faces when they see Santa Claus on CF.

 

Tim

Great work, Tim. I presume that the other five reindeer are resting until Christmas Eve?

[CF MRC]

Peter rabbit has come to visit his distant London cousins for the Christmas holidays. 

Tim

Edited December 16, 2023 by CF MRC

[CF MRC]

York Road spiral stairs are now complete, after a weeks work: the illuminated steps will help to draw attention to the lift and give a raison d’être for the funny shape on the southern side of the tube station. 

The construction was aided by John Jesson producing laser cut step sections using the MRC laser-cutting facility; rather like a castle stairway (the top step shows the profile). 

Once glued together, the centre section was cut away, the steps trimmed with a high speed tungsten carbide trimmer and a new brass ventilation shaft turned up to the correct diameter, complete with plate work jounts scribed into place. The aluminium collar helps to centralise and support the stairs towards the bottom. The reason for the polished conical tip will become apparent later (it’s not an ICBM).  

The copper pipe of the stair shaft had a window cut into it using diamond discs and the position of the stairs was then determined. 
There are a number of conduits surrounding the ventilation shaft and these were represented by brass square section and strip. The vertical plate joints were scribed in using a tool in the lathe, where they would be conspicuous. 
The artwork for the tiles was already available from the station building. Tile strips were cut out and thinned down from behind with a scalpel and tweezers so that they were almost like a transfer. 
A paper liner was marked up and the individual tile patterns glued into place. I’m sure some clever person could have drawn all this up and printed it, but I’m more of a make it directly sort of person.

The liner was held in place with photo mount and a chrome metallic pen used to finish the top of the ventilation shaft cone and the top of the main shaft lining. Finally a light cured resin spherical lens was made to go on top of the cone. The reason for this? There is an LED positioned immediately above the main shaft in the roof and these reflective / refractive devices might capture and improve light transmission down the stairwell. I did not want to fiddle with extra LEDS. 
The final scene fulfils the aim we had three years ago of showing how a tube station is laid out. It’s not really realistic modelling, but I’ve found it great fun to do. 
Just for completeness here is a

link showing the famous Covent Garden steps. https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fiwl8o3d7eebb1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D3024%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D4d5f74c09a51902e8548e2fd49a23467d3bf2a61 

I think that’s enough tube modelling for a while, apologies for the long post!
 

Tim

Edited December 30, 2023 by CF MRC

[Donw]

Wonderful Tim. 

 

Dont apologise for the length of posts its very inspiring. There is a considerable gap in my skills compared to yours but the posts do encourage one to  have a go. 

 

Don

[Grafarman]

12 hours ago, CF MRC said:

It’s not really realistic modelling

Not sure if this is modest self-deprecation, or tongue-in-cheek irony, but your modelling creates the sort of realism most of us could only dream about and rarely reproduce in our own efforts!  I look forward to seeing it for myself at Railex next July 👍😊

 

David

[CF MRC]

What I was trying to say, was that we generally try to make models of complete scenes rather than buildings with e.g. walls missing so that you can see inside. But this tube scene has become a bit of an ‘educational model’ such as we used to have in museums. Virtual reality screens have now replaced many of these displays: I prefer models…

 

Tim

[grahame]

3 hours ago, CF MRC said:

Virtual reality screens have now replaced many of these displays: I prefer models…

 

 

Aye, me too.