Traeth Mawr -Building Mr Price's house , (mostly)

[Jock67B]

Morning Chris,

I wonder how much of our feeling about dark and grey women's clothing stems from Victoria's period of mourning? Wonder if she could be seen as a leader of fashion, or was it the womenfolk coming out in sympathy?

Kind regards

Jock.

PS another vote for the top roof! Not a historical statement, more a 'rule1' feeling that it's more pleasing to the eye!

[ChrisN]

Morning Chris,

I wonder how much of our feeling about dark and grey women's clothing stems from Victoria's period of mourning? Wonder if she could be seen as a leader of fashion, or was it the womenfolk coming out in sympathy?

Kind regards

Jock.

PS another vote for the top roof! Not a historical statement, more a 'rule1' feeling that it's more pleasing to the eye!

 

Jock,

I am not an expert on this but from what I understand her prolonged period of mourning did her popularity no good at all and the monarchy had to be reinvented with all the pomp and pageantry we know today.  I am not sure how much women copied her but there was a whole protocol about mourning in Victorian Britain, what colours you should wear and how long you should be in mourning for which relative had recently died.  As they had fairly primitive medicine as compared to today the likelihood of long life was much smaller and so people would be in mourning more often.  A colleague at work was reading a book on the subject and some young ladies were quite upset when a relative died they hardly knew, not because they were upset about the death but because it meant they could not wear the latest fashion.

 

It also does not help that all the photos were in black and white.  I have to admit that I was quite old when I finally processed the fact that the phrase, 'the dark days of the war' did not mean that WW2 was fought in semi twilight and that people lived in colour!

 

Hope your visit to hospital went well.

[ChrisN]

Time for an update.

 

It may appear as if I have done no modelling recently, and in this case appearances are correct.  Well apart from a little bit of painting.  Last weekend we had a family gathering, sons, wives, grand children and my youngest sons future in laws.  Last week was spent sorting out the railway room so my son could sleep in there and of course I had to pack away my modelling from the dining table.  (I model on the dining table as my wife uses it to hammer her computer running code.  It means we are around each other when she is at home.)

 

This also means I have had no time to take more photos, but you will have to trust me I did do a little painting, well what else could you do on 22mm high figures, and have done a bit more on the coach.

 

My next big project is sides for the layout.  I am going to use the 6mm ply to act as edges to protect the track once it is finally bought and laid when the boards are apart.  I will cut out enough to go along one side and one end of each board.  There will be a 6" strip and an 8" strip.  They will be glued together so the shorter strip is next to the layout and keeping the taller protective strip away from the rails.  I will use the holes for legs etc. to bolt them to the sides.  Clear as mud?  Let me know what you think of the idea and if I could do it more efficiently.

 

Well, if you have been, thank you for looking.

[Anotheran]

Clear as mud?

 

Yes!

 

Sorry Chris, but I don't follow what you're doing here, so will be delighted when you put in the pictures of what you actually do as I'm sure I'll then copy the idea!

[aberdare]

Glad to hear you are still managing to do a little Chris during a busy period for you.

 

As for the post above, sorry you lost me too. So like Neil I'll wait for clarification so I know what to do with these bits of ply I'm holding.

 

 

All the best

 

Jim

[Jaz]

Morning Chris,

I wonder how much of our feeling about dark and grey women's clothing stems from Victoria's period of mourning? Wonder if she could be seen as a leader of fashion, or was it the womenfolk coming out in sympathy?

Kind regards

Jock.

PS another vote for the top roof! Not a historical statement, more a 'rule1' feeling that it's more pleasing to the eye!

on coming out of deep mourning purples plums and lighter shades were also acceptable for women, or black arm bands. but also before the modern colours became available, many colours were derived from vegetable dyes, and many colours became faded from washing.

[Jaz]

Yes!

 

Sorry Chris, but I don't follow what you're doing here, so will be delighted when you put in the pictures of what you actually do as I'm sure I'll then copy the idea!

or a drawing if you want input before making them.....pencil on paper perfectly acceptable

[ChrisN]

I shall try again.

 

 

Here is a representation of the baseboard.  Ok, it is not to scale you will just have to use your imagination!     Either that or it is travelling near the speed of light so it is shrinking in one direction.

It shows two more pieces of 6mm ply cut out and ready to be glued to each other, and afterwards attached to the side of the board with bolts and wing nuts.

 

 

 

This is what it will look like from the end.

 

At first I will not have these all the way round because, 1) I do not have enough ply, and 2) at the start at least there will be no scenery on the other side to protect.

 

Hope this helps

 

 

[ChrisN]

I ought to say thank you Neil, Jim and Jaz for your replies.   It was perfectly clear in my head but I thought that I had not got it down correctly.

 

Jaz,

I have tried at least one faded colour, we are just waiting for Mr Davis the milliner to sort out his trousers and then the ladies will get their hats and I can put some pictures up.  He is in a box somewhere and I shall just go and look for him.

[emt_911]

Chris

 

I have to admit, it made sense to me. However, a picture is worth a thousand words (or 268 of the original post)

[ChrisN]

The figure painting goes on as it always does at a snails pace and I am not happy, but more of that tomorrow.

 

Now for those of a nervous disposition, look away now.

 

 

Here is the coach with its roof and on its original chassis.  Yes it is the original Hornby chassis and it has tension lock couplings.  I have thought long and hard about couplings.  Three link will probably not work with my radius curves and I had thought of kadee, but and it is a big but, I have other stock already with these and I need to get something running.  Maybe in time I will convert everything. 

 

The roof is just push fitted and the passengers have to get in but we are ready to go, except

 

I have no idea if there should be a brake cylinder under there.  I think by 1895 there was continuous braking but I can never see anything underneath on the photos.

 

Here is the roof, repainted and matt varnished although it may need a little more.

 

 

I ought to add vacuum pipes but I do not need to add steam heating as there was none, not until about 1912 or so.  Until then the railway supplied foot warmers!

 

On a positive note my son said that his son had seen a railway and was fascinated and I had to hurry up and build it.  I have not bought any track as we have been buying lots of other things recently, but my wife said that I just should get on with it!  Well, maybe next week I will put the order in.

 

Finally, a word from a little friend

 

 

 

PS.  With apologies to Mikkel who does this much better than me and I have tried other colours and yellow seems the best.  Oh hum.

Edited December 27, 2014 by ChrisN

[Anotheran]

Really like the coach Chris. The roof looks great to me. I agree with your grandson... you need to get some track down now to put it on

 

Kind regards, Neil

[uax6]

Chris,

 

Have you looked at Dinghams? All the advantages of an auto-coupling, that is compatable with 3 links, and looks better than those *amn Kadees....

 

http://www.dingham.co.uk/4mm_coupler.htm

 

I have now decided that this is what I'm going to use, with scale screws on the locos, so there will still be a bit of hand in the air...

 

Now if we could work out a way of having auto coupling vac and steam pipes!

 

Andy G

[ChrisN]

Two posts in two days, is this a record?  No, 'Telstar' by the Tornadoes is a record.  I found it upstairs when I was tidying up.

 

I have eventually managed to take some photos of the Tweed trial that have sort of worked, and I have managed to finish off another couple of figures but generally I am not very pleased with how it is going.

 

Firstly the painting.  I just have to look at my figures and the primer falls off exposing the bare metal.  Not happy.  I have figures from 20 years ago that this did not/does not happen with and I did not worry about not handling them which I do now.  The first type were plastic Preiser and the white metal Langley ones were brush primed with Dulux multi surface primer. 

 

I changed after seeing what others did.  I will probably go back to Dulux.  I have nearly a litre, and at the rate of coverage I will probably be able to paint enough figures for a small city.  Comments welcome.

 

The photos are something I will need to work on.  You will notice that I have gone back to using a building as background.  This is because I think that having a white background badly effects the automatic settings on the camera and having a darker background should help.

 

This has two drawbacks, 1) even when you focus on the figure the camera actually focusses on the building, and 2) it shows up how rubbish my painting of the building is.

 

I tried today to set some of the settings manually but the focus is only automatic and it seems to fix it at a certain distance when any manual setting is chosen.  I will have to investigate further.

 

Bored yet?  No?  Well I am! 

 

So, how many were found guilty in the Tweed Trial.

 

Here are the three amigos, and yes the one on the left blinked!

 

 

They were all repainted with Humbrol 29.  The one on the left had continuous strips of Humrol 102 green and Humbrol 73 wine.  The lady in the middle had smaller stripes with washes of 102, and 73, and the one on the right was much the same after trying in with yellow not thinned.  Looking at his eyes he probably needs some sleep.

 

 

This is the other side.  Please do not be put off by the general poor quality of the painting as I have only shown them for their jackets and skirt.

 

Here is Gladys Meryweather in her tweed suit which was done using Humbrol 29 and then a wash of 102 and a thin wash of crimson, Humbrol 20.  Are the above an improvement?  Answers on a postcard.

 

 

Below we have the real Garreth Davis.

 

 

You will notice he is wearing a tweed jacket.  This was done with Humbrol 29 and washes of 102 and 73 in short stripes both vertically and horizontally.

 

Now the back view.

 

 

He is of course the local Milliner so at last the ladies can get their hats! 

 

Finally the happy couple.

 

 

You will notice that the last three have not been matt varnished.  I was going to take them outside and give them a blast of the old aerosol but after seeing Howell Griffiths I have had second thoughts.  They cannot stay like that all shiny and paint dropping off when I say 'BOO!' so I may have a go with a brush.

 

The figure painting will continue slowly but what shall I do next.  My honeymoon cottage, although it my not go on this railway,  finish off my Ratio 4 wheelers with Shire Scenes brass sides, try and do a Brassmasters 6 wheel Cleminson Chassis and try and glue/solder a Kemilway Cambrian coach onto it, or build my Metro tank?  Again, answers on a postcard.

 

Phew, you made it to the end, so if you have been, thanks for looking.

 

Edited October 25, 2014 by ChrisN

[Jaz]

Jock,

I am not an expert on this but from what I understand her prolonged period of mourning did her popularity no good at all and the monarchy had to be reinvented with all the pomp and pageantry we know today.  I am not sure how much women copied her but there was a whole protocol about mourning in Victorian Britain, what colours you should wear and how long you should be in mourning for which relative had recently died.  As they had fairly primitive medicine as compared to today the likelihood of long life was much smaller and so people would be in mourning more often.  A colleague at work was reading a book on the subject and some young ladies were quite upset when a relative died they hardly knew, not because they were upset about the death but because it meant they could not wear the latest fashion.

 

It also does not help that all the photos were in black and white.  I have to admit that I was quite old when I finally processed the fact that the phrase, 'the dark days of the war' did not mean that WW2 was fought in semi twilight and that people lived in colour!

 

Hope your visit to hospital went well.

If you search there are some actual coloured pictured in WW2...not retouched.....googling for them drives you nuts. As for the dark greens grown etc, these were usually wore by the poorer people who did not have loads of dresses to choose from, and often a shawl would have to suffice. As my social and economic history exam is in the long and distant past my memory is a bit iffy, on exacts, but i am fairly sure that they could get  away with paler lavenders etc towards the end, especially for young unmarried women who were still in the marriage market.In more olden days it would be activities such as dancing that were curtailed to show the act of mourning, this broadening of the area allowing the clothing rules to be a bit more relaxed, when those ideas stopped being put in practise I have no idea..

[Jaz]

 

I really like this one....just down from Cambridge I shouldn't wonder in his nice straw boater....is probably on the rowing and the wrestling team two by the size of him....

[ChrisN]

Jaz,

Thanks for the information.  The dark green gown information is useful.  I have one lady in a green skirt, hopefully a bit faded.

 

The gentleman above is not as big as he looks, and is certainly not as big as the man in the bowler.  As for just down from Cambridge, I am sure he told me he was the Milliner, but he may have just said that to get painted.  Mind you I think I can see him helping ladies to try on their hats.

[billbedford]

For more information about the colours used for Victorian clothes, I suggest you look up the history of aniline dyes. After all, all history is based on material science.

Edited October 26, 2014 by billbedford

[ChrisN]

Time for an update.  Well, not much has happened, in fact everything was put away at the end of last week as the grand children were coming round and it has not been got out again.

 

I was going to make the most of my wife being out last Saturday to cut the wood for the side protection.  I have some offcuts from the boards and I was convinced that I had enough.  Er, no, by not very much.  I decided that I might as well buy another 8' x 4' sheet of 6mm ply.  I looked at this earlier this week and found that I could get all the long pieces cut for me at B&Q.  I will have to wait until next Wednesday for old Farts day.  I will have to see what else I need as well. 

 

I then realised I could have cut out the sides from the wood I already have.  That was planned for today but my son's heating is not working and so I got our Calor gas heater out of the shed to take to him.  As I was doing this I found that the corner was damp and mouldy.  Earth scrapped away and a fern that was hard against it removed it should dry out but whatever happens it looks like a new shed in the spring.

 

Any good news?  I took my grand children to Beckonscott last Friday.  It is a model village that was built in the 30s and is both excellent modelling and entertaining.  There is a model railway running through it.  Lots of stations and trains, probably between 0 gauge and gauge 1.  My grandson squealed with delight and shook with excitement every time he saw a train.  He also would look at the train coming and as it disappeared under the bridge he was on would rush to the other side to see it disappear.  (I used to do that with 1:1 steam trains at not much older than he is now.)

 

My wife said to me, "You must buy your track this weekend."

 

It arrived yesterday.  Well, who am I to argue? 

 

If you have been, thanks for looking.

[Jaz]

one the shed has dried...and the earth which caused the problem moved away, can you just treat the bad piece, or at worst replace it?  I mean the corner effected not the whole thing.?

[ChrisN]

one the shed has dried...and the earth which caused the problem moved away, can you just treat the bad piece, or at worst replace it?  I mean the corner effected not the whole thing.?

 

Jaz,

Possibly, but it needs new felt on the roof as well.  The shed is probably as old as the house, about 1980; if so it has done well.  I could spend a lot of time on it and find I need to replace it anyway.  We shall see.

[aberdare]

Quote - My wife said to me, "You must buy your track this weekend."

 

Sounds good to me Chris, I hope you have done as you are told.

 

Reading through that earlier post also reminded me that I will qualify for my 'Diamond Geezer' card next month so I can go out and buy some wood for the extensions to my layout, I've got the ply just need something fo the frames.

 

I hope your old dhed just needs some new felt too as that is an easy fix and saves money for model railways (one of those important things in life).

 

Looking forward to seeing further progress soon.

 

 

Jim

[Jaz]

And hope the son is suitably warm.

[ChrisN]

And hope the son is suitably warm.

 

Jaz,

Thank you.  The man came round this morning to fix the boiler so it is working again now.  He came yesterday but had not got the right part but when he left he left something important behind so had to go to theirs first! 

[ChrisN]

I thought I ought to post what I have been doing.  I have not had that much time to model so modelling has taken priority over posting.

 

I have bought the wood for the protective sides and may start to glue them together tomorrow.  I had a senior moment when I was for a week or so convinced I had built my baseboards from 6mm ply.  It was not until I got home I realised I had actually done it in 9mm ply.  (I wondered why it looked so flimsy!)

 

It does not really matter except the protection at the end will be 9mm and the sides 6mm.  Depending on whether the builders turn up tomorrow to finish some things off depends on whether I start laying cork on my baseboards.

 

However, I have done a small amount of work on a GWR coach which I will put up when I have done some more plus I have started on 3 Cambrian kits of Cambrian 2 plank wagons. (Now is that confusing.  I had thought I had got it made when I came across Cambrian, until I found out, at that time, they did no Cambrians Railways kits.)

 

The two plank wagon was the most numerous and I ought to put a few on my Christmas list.

 

 

I have tried to have a production line.  The wagon with wheels is on some track just to prove that it did really arrive.  As soon as I finished this photo shoot I put the truck with wheels down elsewhere on the table and it promptly rolled off, popping out its wheels and the end coming off.  It is fixed now but it is of course very prototypical as the Cambrian used them so much with very little repairs that they on occasions just fell apart.

 

Now to a question.  The trucks should be painted light grey, or dark grey depending on when they were built and both are right for 1895.  My question is, should I go for a Precision paints colour or is there a Humbrol grey that is about right.  Having said this I assume that the Cream and Chocolate Humbrol make are not the right colours for GWR and I will need the Precision paints for these. 

 

If you have been, thanks for looking.