RSS Fetcher Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 A couple of weeks work has seen the exterior of the Signal Box fundamentally complete. Firstly, I added the gutters. These were simply 0.030" plastic sheet gouged out with a 0.9mm drill close to the edge of the sheet. Once a suitable furrow had been ploughed, the sheet was turned over and what will become the underside scraped with a razor blade to provide the outside curvature. A strip was then cut parallel to the gouged gutter such that the gutter itself would be a mil or two off the building in line with the edge of the roof. Hopefully the image below will illustrate the gutter in its raw state. The cut-outs at the ends are to accommodate the framing of the signal box. Once attached to the building, end caps of 0.005" sheets were welded on and once fully dry were carefully pared away to the profile of the gutter. The roof was tackled next, adding strips of self adhesive printer label to represent the slates. The slates had first been drawn up in CAD, such that each alternative row had extra wide slates at the gable ends, and I also drew in a feint line half way up the slate to aid setting a consistent overlap when the slates were stuck to the roof. It was at this stage (before fitting the windows) that the building was painted. The brick and stone work were given an all-over coat of mortar colour, and once dry the bricks and stones were picked out by dry brushing/ dragging the side of the brush over the area so that the brick and stones collected some colour. The woodwork of the building was painted in Precision Paints Light and Dark Stone (although for 2mm scale I felt that the Dark Stone was a tad too dark so was lightened with a drop of white in a 5:1 ratio. The glazing bars of the windows was scrawked into some glazing material before being flooded with white ink. Once the ink was dry, a buff up with a cotton bud removed the ink from the surface of the glazing but left it in the grooves representing the glazing bars. The outer window frames were cut from the same self adhesive printer paper that was used for the slates, and once stuck to the glazing material was pared back to give a more or less scale sized window in its frame. The upstairs door was similarly prepared from layers of glazing material and paper label. Before fitting, the door had a small handle filed up in the mini drill from 1mm brass rod (the resultant handle being some 0.5mm round with an even slimmer peg at the back which was secured in a hole in the door. The image below shows the windows being fitted. The slates on the roof were picked out in various hues of thinned down Humbrol Matt 67, but once dry I was unhappy with the effect, so a thinned mix of Matt 67 and white was washed over the whole to tone it all down and lighten the effect somewhat. The name board and S & T plates (indicators as to the status of the Signal and Telegraph equipment) were printed onto photo paper and attached to the front of the box. Obviously in the idyllic summer of 1906, there was absolutely nothing wrong with any of the equipment so both show a white letter on a black background. The down pipes are simply bent up pieces of 0.5mm phosphor bronze wire with little wall fixtures of twists of 0.0044" PB wire (this latter had to be annealed over a candle flame to prevent it breaking while forming the twists). A spot of solder secured them in place and strengthens them. Tiny pieces of 0.010" plastic strip with a 0.4mm hole in it forms the back of the wall fixing. Once secured on the building the down pipes were painted in more PP Dark Stone (with the requisite drop of white added). The handrails around the windows are 0.025" nickel silver wire, bent to shape and size and secured in holes in the window frames. The tails of the wire simply bent down inside the building to secure the handrails in place. Finally some images of the completed box. I will add some rudimentary interior detail (the roof is removable, simply held in place by the barge boards within the gutters (a little but not much more than an interference fit). A rainwater barrel needs to be positioned below the down pipe - incidentally the "hopper" is simply a bit of carved 0.060" plasticard with a 0.005" backing. I also need to make a couple of fire buckets to hang on the steps too. Thank you for looking, Ian Attached thumbnail(s) View the full article Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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