Black Country Blues

[durham light infantry]

Sorry to be pedantic but the Allegro's production run was 73-83 which only just overlapped with the 1100/1300 range which was produced 1962-74

Martin, I thought you would be promoting the tin worm infested push-me-pull-you Imp!!! Are you still growing them in the garden?

 

Mike

[Arthur]

Hi Flavio, this might be of some interest. I had in stock some of the sponges Mark suggested above, Tim Shackleton recommends them for some weathering effects.

 

I thought I'd give them a try. I brushed, onto one sponge face, some thick Tamiya red acrylic.  I then 'printed' that onto some SE Finecast brick sheet;

 

 

Considering this took less than a minute, it didn't turn out too bad. My initial concern was that the paint would be pressed into the mortar course.  Far from it, in fact I needed to dab the sponge on four of five times to cover the brick faces yet the mortar courses remained clear.

 

To do a large area I'd put a thin layer of thick paint in a flat tray and pick it up that way.  It also occurred to me that by swirling a few brick tones into the paint it would break up the overall flat colour as it was applied. 

 

Certainly worth experimenting with.

 

Arthur

[Stubby47]

Have spent lunchtime making wriggly tin panels for the roof.

 

Need to paint the underside before fitting, plus roughen the edges for the rusty bits.

[Jason T]

A bit more progress, and back to cutting out slates from 150gsm card (the blister is popping up already...)

 

First up, I created the uprights for the cart shed section and then painted and weathered the wood.

 

Then, I created another knackered roof section for the front of the shed, although this section (whilst larger than the plastikard insert used for the back) will most likely have two smaller holes; it just seemed easier to make a larger area of plastikard than two small ones. The tatty mounting board sections will be out of sight, I just had to do some trimming.....

 

Lastly (so far), I have added the slates to the longest section of roof. The building is sat on the printed out page of 'slates', with some rows already cut off to the right.

[Stubby47]

With such a hole in the roof, presumably caused by tiles leaking and then the rotten beams collapsing, would other parts of the roof also have had the tiles quite disturbed ?

Especially along the lower edge, I'd have thought there would have been quite a few slipped tiles.

[Mark Forrest]

In my limited experience of the couple of buildings/structures which I have done I've always struggled with the dry brushing brick approach - I've tended to paint everything brick colour then add washes of mortar, but this method looks promising.  Like the idea of having a few different brick tones mixed up on a pallette to give a more random finish too.

[Jason T]

It's probably not the best photo but a few below the hole have slipped and if I could (be arsed), I'd model the nails that hold the slates onto the slats. I suppose that if the roof was that knackered, any that were that loose and not supported by the weight of those above would simply slip off.

 

I tried to look as closely as possible at the photos Chris provided of the building when it had the holes in the roof and from what I could see, those rows below seemed to be fairly intact surprisingly.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Sandside

[2ManySpams]

This photo Jason?

 

 

[Jason T]

That's the one Chris; the slates around the hole don't seem to be that messed up although admittedly it's not the clearest.

 

However, I have moved one or two slates around on the back and been a bit more random on the front.

 

 

[Siberian Snooper]

A couple of pics of the outside loo.

 

There is more grot needed here...

 

outside_loo (2).jpg

 

but most of it will be hidden by the outside wall...

 

outside_loo (5).jpg

 

 

Hi Stu

 

Does it flush yet?

 

SS

[Stubby47]

I think it's a bit blocked....

 

Plus, the water's been turned off.

[Arthur]

Oh, God forbid that it hasn't been flushed for two days!!

[buffalo]

Just a thought. Those uprights would line up up with the main roof timbers, a horizontal tie beam and angled principal rafters (plus maybe simple king post or queen posts and collar or other style). With the knackered roof on the front some of these timbers might be visible through the holes so you might want to add a representation of at least the tie beam.

 

Nick

[Jason T]

Hi Nick. I sort of realised that after I had put the hole in the rear roof panel and as such, tried to make the holes in the front be either side of the joist so that I could get away with it. I think that the back wall and roof panel will be away from the prying eyes of the general public but I may try and retro-fit a joist just in case.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing

 

Edit: D'oh, just re-read your post and realised that yes, it does need the horizontal beams - I was thinking vertical. That's what beer does to you.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Sandside

[trisonic]

I think it's a bit blocked....

 

Plus, the water's been turned off.

Lovely!

Eye-watering.

Best, Pete.

[iL Dottore]

Interesting experiment with the sponge. Yesterday, I tried out a home made silicon rubber pad and thick acrylic to "tampo print" the Tennants building - with very mixed results.

 

Given that I still have a wall to finish, I'll also try the makeup sponge approach, I'll post the details and photos of both tonight.

 

iD

[PhilJ W]

Edit: D'oh, just re-read your post and realised that yes, it does need the horizontal beams - I was thinking vertical. That's what beer does to you.

Yes, beer does tend to make you confuse vertical with horizontal, especially after one to many.

[Stubby47]

So, having painted one side of the wriggly tin panels, and some roofing struts, and a bit more of the toilet, yesterday evening I sat in front of Midsomer Murders (looking for suitable modelling projects, of course) and fitted the relevant bits to the rear of the roof.

 

Today, I've added some more to the front, including a perspex panel.

 

 

 

This view is one the punters will not see, once the two buildings are planted on the layout, but it gives the sort of atmosphere I was trying to create.

 

 

and a pic with the outside wall on

 

Edited January 10, 2013 by Stubby47

[Jason T]

Love the toilet Stu. Love all of it but the toilet, especially with the tumbled down wall, just looks fantastic. Future front cover of BRM?

[Adam]

I do like that a lot Arthur, very purposeful. It shows just how good that casting is in my view and the Big J was a rather handsome lorry. Almost as good as the Scammell Routeman...

 

Adam

[iL Dottore]

TERRIFYING TENNANTS TAMPO TRAGEDY

TEN TRAINFANS TOTALLY TRAUMATISED

WHAT WENT WRONG?

 

Alright, I do exaggerate a bit... OK a lot, then. But my experiment with pad (or Tampo) printing was not a great success.

 

After having spent about 16 hours painting individual bricks for Oldbury Road, I looked around for a faster method. The idea of Tampo (or pad) printing came to mind. With Hornby and Bachmann using the process to create superb finishes (the LNER teak finish on the Gresley suburban is apparently a 175 separate individual tampo print process), I thought to myself "how hard would it be to use the same approach to paint brick faces on embossed sheet". I did a little research and found that pad printing uses a silicon rubber pad - which meant that I could recycle some old silicon rubber moulds. Then, after Arthur had some success using sponge makeup pads (see the Oldbury Road Thread), I bought a sponge rubber makeup pad and used that as well. For the "ink" that's used in the Tampo/Pad printing process I used Revell brick red water thinnable acrylic paints (but unthinned)

 

From left to right: Silicon rubber pad, Revell acrylic paint, sponger rubber makeup pad cut into various shapes.

 

RESULTS

Most certainly the proverbial Curate's Egg. Both silicon rubber and sponge rubber pad took some getting used in order to lay down paint neatly on the brick surfaces, but it WAS achievable, with both the silicon rubber pad:

And the sponge rubber makeup pad:

Unfortunately, there was an awful lot of bad (i.e. too much) laying down of paint, both with the silicon rubber pad;

And the sponge rubber makeup pad:

 

The overall result was a spotty building, with small white corners where the pads didn't reach and with many completely disfiguring red blotches, much like a hormone ridden adolescent's face:

 

CONCLUSIONS

Was it a success? No, not really (see below)

 

Could this be a technique to use? Possibly, but it would depend upon a number of things: critically, the surface has to be absolutely and completely flat, the Tennants building isn't completely billiard table flat so this meant raised areas got more paint than recessed areas (and, yes, we are talking about micrometer differences here). Then the right shaped pad would have to be made. Pictures of tampo printing machines I've seen show a curved printing pad, perhaps that's the ideal shape. The right size is important as well. Too large and you can't get into small areas, too small and you defeat the purpose of pad printing - doing a repetitive job fast and efficiently. I also think that in the absence of a machine that gets positioning, pressure and amount of colour applied spot on with every pass, a lot of practice will be required to become proficient.

 

Was it a waste of time? Will you repaint? No and No. Although there are quite a few areas that need remedial work, because the majority of these just need the mortar courses repointed (so to speak), a wash of mortar colour followed by a quick dry brush with brick colour to remove any lingering traces of mortar colour on the brick faces, means it will be a fairly fast corrective action to take. Yes, there will be a number of bricks to touch up or repaint entirely, but far, far less than with the Oldbury Road building, so in all I'm quids in

 

Cheers

 

iD

[Jason T]

Bar the ridge tiles (which I'll hopefully get done in the next hour or so), the roof is ready for painting and the building draws closer to being completed.

 

This shows the back of the shed, the side that will face the operators (e.g. the back of the layout and hence out of the public's view) and as such, I've not added any knackered slates, etc., it's just plain slates.

 

Once again, this side will be angled away from the public's gaze to an extent although they will be able to see down it's length.

 

This is the main viewing side(s) so I have added quite a few more knackered slates, etc.

 

Once the ridge tiles are cut out, my blister will have chance to recover

[Jason T]

Bloody bricks; I had a few issues with the painting of my building as well, and ended up using a few methods before it got anywhere near acceptable. I firstly painted it with Precision Paints Light Brick, then dripped emulsion into the courses which made it look like it had recently been pointed. So, I reverted to my rag and dab method which was partially successful although I too ended up with areas where all the courses fulled with paint, so I then dripped thinned down enamels of a suitable colour into the courses and then dabbed again, gently, before finally hand painting a few bricks in slightly different shades.

 

Next year's winning entry will hopefully be a modern industrial estate with those awful looking metal boxes painted in gawdy colours and half-covered with company signs :D

Edited January 11, 2013 by Sandside

[Arthur]

Thanks Adam, yes, the basic cab casting certainly looks right, I think it’s worthwhile opening out that narrow rear window. I’m a bit of a Scammell Crusader fan myself, the Crusader and Guy did share some cab panels.

 

Onto the build.

 

Almost but not quite finished.  I'm just awaiting a decal for the cab. It will then have a coat of Dullcote and I don’t want to fit the glazing and complete the final assembly before that. An hour or so will see it complete.

 

Here’s the completed trailer, registration plate fitted and weathered. The deck is dirty with grime, oil and rusty deposits, and the headboard has been scarred and bashed a few times.

 

 

I went for Mark’s suggestion on registration number, just transposing the J and W.  It’s a nice link to the original lorry whilst also placing it in the Black Country. A locally registered vehicle, owned by a local haulier, working on contract to the works. The plate was made on PagePlus software and printed onto white decal sheet from Crafty Computer paper.

 

 

I fitted the suzies (air lines) to the trailer, they’re thin copper wires wound around a small drill bit to coil them, primed and then painted. The plate on the front is to attach them to the tractor.  Modern practice has just two lines but in the 70’s three were used. I didn’t fit the straight, black, electrical lead, it’s not very visible and it just gets a bit too busy back there!

 

 

Here’s the trailer loaded up.  Lengths of Evergreen fine styrene sections painted with metalcote and bundled up with twists of fine wire. I’ll make up some restraining chains to hold the load down.

 

 

I made an over length load and marked the end with a red rag (paper). It was once a familiar sight whereas today you would see a triangular warning board with diagonal stripes. I tried to find out when this became obligatory and was surprised to find that current regulations still allow marking with a rag for loads over hanging up to 2m. More than that does require a board, though I suspect that boards today would be used for any overhang.

 

 

Nearly there;

 

 

I’ll come back with final photos once the tractor is complete.

 

 

 

The next build starts Saturday.

 

Edited for spelling

Edited January 10, 2013 by Arthur

[Guest Dave.C]

A cracking model Arthur.

 

Crusaders, 3 line brake systems, chains rather than ratchet straps, you are bringing it all back to me.

 

Another fad at the time was lengths of rag tied on the mirror arms that flapped over the mirrors and kept them clean.