C&WR Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Just waiting to see how authentic the wattle & daub infill is in materials Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 Yes I considered a variety of methods for the infill and discounted some as they would necessitate a drive to the edge of town and others because of the smell. I settled on experimenting with 3 techniques: Air-drying clay - I had some left over from a previous project and hoped I could just press it into the spaces between the timbers. This proved to be very easy but it shrunk too much when drying; Pre-mixed filler - this was also relatively easy to get into most of the panel spaces but also shrunk and was hard to achieve a smooth (ish) finish; Plaster of Paris mixed to a runny consistency with some PVA added for strength. This was very difficult to get into the spaces between timbers but provided the best finish. In the first batch I added a drop or two of washing up liquid - but that just created bubbles! So in later batches I just added the PVA. I still had to top up some areas, but overall the result was reasonable. The photographs below illustrate these experiments. Here is the first plaster attempt with added washing up liquid causing bubbles! The middle panel used the pre-mixed filler and you can see how it shrunk. The other panels used plaster of paris with added PVA. The rectangle is the air drying clay that has shrunk and fallen out of its panel. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandc_au Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 Sweven, Did you use PVA with the air drying clay? Khris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
C&WR Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 Looking most impressive, Sweven! I've been trying to find them to take pictures, but when I was in my early teens I was into wargaming and built some medieval-style houses for my 15mm & 25mm figures to have battles round. The plans were in White Dwarf magazine. These were made with cardboard walls and I obtained some scrap veneer from the School woodwork shop. The gaps were then skimmed with Polyfilla which looked really good. I was proud of these houses - I even made little wire rings for door handles and cut the roof tiles individually... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 Sweven, Did you use PVA with the air drying clay? Khris Hi Khris That was going to be the subject of my next post - I did add spread some PVA underneath some of the clay and when the clay dried it caused it to crack (which makes sense since it couldn't shrink). I have some photographs I need to sort through which show this, I'll add them in the morning. However without the PVA the clay did not adhere to the card too well, so some further research needed there. Cheers John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 Hi John. I hope you don't mind me putting a picture up, but what I did for the infill panels here was to lay in dry pollyfilla powder - spread evenly and worked into the corners - then very carefully dropped water, with a drop of washing up liquid added, onto the timber work all round allowing it to soak into the filler naturally. Also, I have had success with a very runny pollyfilla/plaster paste and also putty ! However, what does work quite well is to prepare a 'rough cast ' backing/infill sheet then glue pre coloured timbers over this but the timber used would beed to be of veneer thickness. Hope this helps. Cheers. Allan. Edited to say that fire cement works quite well and cleanly also Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 Hi Allan, All tips are most welcome! Especially when they result in such a great looking building. I like the idea of trying dry plaster and an eye dropper - some of the areas (being 4mm scale) are very small and in the end I found that I could not get wet plaster into all of the areas without getting it on my carefully prepared timbers and had to sand them back again and brush on some more dye. However I am having great fun trying new techniques. Onto the stonework next - which would be easy if I had any embossed plastic. However I don't so will make a simple press from a bit of Hornby stone walling I have found and use the air-drying clay up. Cheers John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 The brick infill is much easier. I have some scraps of Wills plain bond and while the thick sheets are a pain to cut into small parts I think the chunky rustic nature suits the building. I'll paint it later. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 First section of the stonework. I used a piece of walling that I had as a master and then used that to press into the air drying clay that I am trying to use up. It works, although not with as much definition as I would like, but given that the areas are small I think it can be used. Again the shrinkage is causing a few issues. If I had a lot of these to do then I would definitely need to create a better and much larger master and use Allan's fire cement technique. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Just keep at it John, I think you're making good progress. For every ten cock ups I make I get one good result and who can ask for better than that ! Cheers mate. Allan. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold JCL Posted June 5, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 5, 2014 Keep going, it looks great! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 5, 2014 Author Share Posted June 5, 2014 Thanks for all your support. Experimenting is great fun and I doubt it ever goes perfectly. My latest wee problem is that I think I have made the ridge line too straight! Easily remedied though. I have been working on the windows. The smaller apertures are about 10mm by 9mm with individual panes of glass that are 1mm by 1.5mm in size. They are also all different sizes and some are not square. In the end I have decided I need to print them off onto clear plastic using a laser printer (which warps the plastic due to the heat, but produces permanent black lines whereas when I tried with an ink jet printer the ink rubbed off the plastic). I have then added the mullions using 0.25mm plastic strip. The right hand window here is the least square of all the windows in the front elevation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 8, 2014 Author Share Posted June 8, 2014 Cutting tiles is fun. Cutting tiles is fun. Cutting tiles is fun. Meanwhile a couple of photos from the layout... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 While Sweven's timberwork looks believable, mine looks what it is - contrived and a paper doily stuck to a sheet of cardboard. Roll in the wheely bin missus ! Cheers. Allan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 8, 2014 Author Share Posted June 8, 2014 While Sweven's timberwork looks believable, mine looks what it is - contrived and a paper doily stuck to a sheet of cardboard. Roll in the wheely bin missus ! Cheers. Allan Thank you Allan, it is incredibly kind of you to say so and I am pleased with the way it is turning out! However I'm not sure that sticking a piece of lolly stick to some card is the most important skill - as someone once said (actually it was probably you), it isn't the small parts that make a good model it is the overall impression; and you are the master. Just like a good band or a good sports team, somehow the sum of the parts in your models always adds up to more than the whole, creating a really believable result that captures the essence of a scene. I hope you don't mind me re-posting one of your images here to make the point. I can definitely see the wood grain in this card! Cheers John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 9, 2014 Author Share Posted June 9, 2014 And while the tile cutting continues a b/w image too... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 And while the tile cutting continues a b/w image too... platform6g.jpg You ought to do a model of that station Swev. Cheers. Allan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 15, 2014 Author Share Posted June 15, 2014 Back to the Mary Arden Tudor House and more than 5000 tiles later the roof is just about there. The tiles are cut from paper strips. I sampled some real tile colours from photographs of the actual roof and printed strips of tiles, cut between each tile and glued just the top of each tile to the roof. So the roof just requires gutters (which look to be made from wood) and down-pipes and then chimney pots and a sprinkling of green growth on the tiles. I then have a little more work to do on the stonework and the doors. Cheers John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 15, 2014 Author Share Posted June 15, 2014 And after quite a search I found the construction photographs I took a few days ago to explain how the tiles were applied.... The paper stuck to the ridge-line around the chimney was to build the roof up in that area as the prototype is anything but square! I remembered to paint the gullys and flashing with a slap of grey primer before tiling. Once all tiles were on the roof it was dry brushed with leather, black etc to hide any remaining glimpses of white paper. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 17, 2014 Author Share Posted June 17, 2014 This evening I found a few minutes to make the doors. I remembered that I had some iron-on wood veneer in the garage and found it without too much trouble. It is thin and has a webbed backing which makes it very easy to work with - so it was a simple matter of inscribing some planks and gluing the doors into the openings. Photographs show that the actual doors and the roof are both going to need a lot of weathering, particularly on the rear of the building. I have now started work on the gutters which I am making from plastic strip as it is the only material I have that is thin enough for the job. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold westerhamstation Posted June 17, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 17, 2014 If I had a cap I would doff it, or a quill pen and the words of Shakespeare I would pen something to describe how good this building is. all the best Adrian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Sweven, I see that you tile your roofs insitu whereas I find it so much easier to tile roofs flat down on the table then affix to the roof after all has been textured, coloured and weathered and any dormer roofs are treated likewise. Anyway mate, it's looking good all the same and your half timbering looks totaly believable whereas mine looks totaly contrived ! Cheers. Allan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
C&WR Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 If I had a cap I would doff it, or a quill pen and the words of Shakespeare I would pen something to describe how good this building is. all the best Adrian There's an old line that goes like this: "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw a perfume on the violet, to smooth the ice, or add another hue unto the rainbow, or with taper-light to seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, is wasteful and ridiculous excess." I suspect to that we could add, "to try and improve upon Sweven's building..." Cracking work, and thanks for the tip about making the roof line a little bowed. A very subtle way of achieving it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
freebs Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 beautiful work - especially the tiling - consider my hypothetical cap doffed also Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweven Posted June 17, 2014 Author Share Posted June 17, 2014 Thank you all for your very kind words. They mean a lot coming from a quartet of superb modellers. I must say that I am pleased that the roof is done, sticking the tiles on didn't take too long and was enjoyable but cutting the strips was very tedious. Allan raises a good point about tiling the roof before fitting it. I think that would work well, although to get a nice bendy roof line I expect it would have to be mounted on quite thin card? After work this evening I will see if I can get the gutters and drain pipes done and then think about some further weathering. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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