The Skaledale 2 hour challenge

[Jason T]

In the Golden Pup thread, I made some comments relating to Skaledale and Scenecraft buildings and it was put to me that I could not produce anything to Skaledale standards in a two hour period. Not one to shy away from a challenge and for a bit of fun, I thought I would have a go, even though I was pretty sure what the outcome would be.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/49131-the-golden-pup/page__st__125

 

So, at 10:32, I started by measuring up a Skaledale Terraced house and with plastikard, set square, steel rule, craft knife and glue to hand, I started.

 

10:32 - measurements taken and noted down

 

10:44 - Plastikard marked out

 

11:05 - Base structure cut out

 

11:22 - Basic brickwork added and windows cut out

 

11:32 - Sills, etc., being added

 

11:50 - Brickwork added to door and window recesses, glazing attached to inside

 

12:32 - Windows added with Microstrip, nowhere near completion

 

My main problem was that I tried to do all the fiddly bits (windows, doors; the front one of which was a failure as the 0.010 plastikard I was trying to use, when cut out, fell to pieces). Good fun though.

 

I'll continue with it at some point and may offer it up for this years raffle (if it is to reoccur).

 

Skaledale 1, Jason 0

[Metr0Land]

OK so you may not have made it all in 2hrs but a really good try!

[Stubby47]

Hmmm, a building in 2 hours challenge..... that sounds like a glove in the face !!

[Jason T]

I was thinking about opening up the challenge to other RMWebbers

 

Has anyone else noticed the 'slight' error I made? In my rush to get it completed, I stuck the brickwork on the wrong side of the end wall (with the rear porch on). A valuable lesson it taking ones time?

[Jol Wilkinson]

How long it takes is rather irrelevant. The fact that you can build a model means you aren't constrained to use only what Bachbypol produce. You can have a unique model, rather than just another version of what everyone else has.

[Jamie]

Tailored to your layout, unique, your own work: it's equally good already, even in flat pack form.

[iL Dottore]

Gracious, given my track record with the signal boxes, terrace houses and pubs I've built, "less than two years" would be more my time frame.

 

However, IF this was to become a bonafide RMWeb Challenge (and something, perhaps, to be held "live" at the RMWeb yearly meet), then I would suggest that all contestants:

1. are issued with the same plans (and perhaps there is a reference model to emulate)
   
2. receive the same building materials (starting off with plastic card and a pre-printed overlay, even iD could knock out one in 2hrs or less)
   
3. everyone has the same tools and adhesives (I have a special punch for corners, which I think would be cheating a bit)
   
4. get extra points if you can paint the model within the two hours (acrylics are your friends here!)
   

If the challenge is held at the yearly meet, facing Andy Y and avowing in a loud, clear and steady voice "Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant" is probably NOT necessary before the contest starts

 

 

F

[aussiebrfan]

Doesnt matter whether you got it done, main thing is you gave it a go! Congrats, mate. A lot of people, myself included could learn from your example of doing rather than conjecturing and complaining.

[Jason T]

I've been giving this challenge a bit of thought (as you do). I picked the Skaledale terraced house for a number of reasons; I've been constructing a fair few terraced houses recently, I had one to hand for measurements and I reasoned that it was an involved enough structure to provide a worthy challenge whereas something like the new Low Relief Retail Outlet (or Backscene Triangle as I like to call them) would be far too easy to create in two hours, most likely including painting with acrylics.

 

As we know, 2 hours for the terraced house was too short a time for me as I had quite a way to go (door, roof, chimney, gutters, etc). Unless you use proprietary windows, doors, etc., creating them freehand is always going to take time. Painting would add a great deal of time but then, Skaledale do supply unpainted terraced houses so maybe that doesn't need to be a consideration. I was planning on using Slaters slates (the ones which come in strips to be affixed) but maybe Wills Slate sheets would be a legitimate shortcut (there is a lot of relief on the Skaledale slated roof - just looking at it now), as would using their brick sheets for the main structure, I suppose.

 

As such, my suggestion would still be for a basic terraced house, completed to the same standard as a Skaledale (unpainted) one in a period of two hours. Materials to use can be plastic or card (depending on preferences), embossed plastikard or printed brick / stone paper.

The only pre-formed parts that are permitted are doors and windows (if you are lucky enough to find any of the correct dimensions), chimney pots and guttering / downpipes (although what are people's thoughts on the latter? Cheating?)

 

Finished item should have windows and doors fitted, chimney (including pots), gutters and downpipes, and a roof with some relief to the slates / tiles. It should be held together with glue (e.g. no blue-tac / sellotape to make it appear complete). Any fancy tools that can assist are permitted because the original challenge is to scratch-build something to Skaledale standards in the 2 hour period.

 

Someone out there will be able to do it, I'm sure

[Stubby47]

I fancy a go at this.

 

I'll be using a card shell and printed paper for the walls, but as it's a terraced house, I'm assuming I'd not need to cover the connecting walls, only the front and back ? I'll also use printed sheets for the roof, but laid as individual rows to give relief.

Do the windows/doors have to be exacly the same size, or would the correct number of windows per wall be acceptable ?

 

Stu

[Jason T]

Correct number would be fine I guess although within reason obviously. If one was the size of a letterbox and another the size of the main window in York Minster, it may look a tad weird

[Stubby47]

Well, I tried and failed... see here.

[Russ (mines a pint)]

Sometimes I wonder if these arguments & subsequent challenges miss the point a little?

- if a building needs scratchbuilding it will be 'cause it is unique and not possible to obtain by any other means.

- if its a 'filler' and easily obtainable why not use/adapt RTR/RTP stuff if you wish?

 

I can see that if you enjoy building, which you guys obviously do! - then it is fun and probably comparitively economical to build your own terraces.

If you are less talented its possibly more effective to put all your scratchbuilding into something you can't buy (eg a station building in most cases) then rely on the kits & skaledale for the more generic buildings. I'd put 20 or maybe more hours into an individual building which was essential to a location, but I can't ever see me even wanting to do this challenge!

[Stubby47]

My objective was to see how far I could get in 2 hours and how long it would take to complete the building.

Yes, it's a common building seen all over the UK, and Yes, it would normally be built as a terrace, not a one off, but the question of 'can you build a model as good as an RTP' in about the time it would take/cost to buy one ( using a figure of £10.00 per hour) is still valid.

The answer is probably 'No' - which if nothing else has educated me.

Stu

[Jol Wilkinson]

 

 

sorry to have to take you to task yet again Jol but thats not true.... Terrace houses (and signal boxes and huts etc) look summat similar all over the country - That is a bit simplisitc but its "how it is"

 

I dont think Sanside would even have got half way to makin a more complex Skaledale building much as I admire what he achieves...

 

 

When i have the latest 1;1 building sorted Ill try and give you a run for your money on model builidings and scenes.....time to put my money wher my mouth is Im not interested in trains as such so dont tell me to be a model engineer........ If I wanted a lathe, Id go back to my youth

 

Mickey,

 

different architectural styles exist because, especially in the Victorian and Edwardian eras when many of the buildings that lie adjacent to the railways were built, local materials andbuilding techniques were used. It was probably only in the 1920's and onwards that standardised house and building designs spread across the country to the extent that we are used to seeing today.

 

The railways also wanted to put their own stamp on their corporate image, so items such as signal boxes, station buildings, etc. were often designed in house with their own individual features. Generally only the much smaller railways bought in these items, such as Saxby and Farmer signal boxes, etc.

 

If you want a layout to have a sense of place that matches its period, location and the railway it represents, then I believe it's important to observe and model what was really there. To use generic items often fails to convey this sense of place and time. Just take a look at the WCML. The architecture along it's length changed according to which railway originally built it. Do London brick built terraced houses and streets look the same as those in Nuneaton or Preston? Probably very similar as you point out, but not neccessarily identical. Do the station buildings all look similar? Most certainly not, despite the LNWR's use of standardised pre-fab buildings for some stations. Are the footbridge designs all the same, again no.

 

If you want to build a layout as quickly as possible and looks good, then RTR and RTP products are great. If you want to build a model of a particular railway that conveys a degree of realism, then you have to go a step or two further. Otherwise you have a layout that has the same "feel" as all the other, which does not reflect the real railway.

 

Too often the much improved quality (and low price) of ready made models is used an excuse to use them, whether or not they match the context of the layout they are used on. If you want a layout populated with standardised, albeit good items, so be it. If you want to make a model that speaks of the prototype's origins than you have to make your own or adapt what's on the market to match the sense of time and place that you want to achieve.

 

As for your last sentence, I'm not interested in a p*ssing contest over who can build the best model building or scene, what will that achieve?

 

Jol

 

Who will shortly be going back to scratchbuilding a four track LNWR overbridge (from L V Woods Bridges for Modellers) because, guess what, despite the various kits, etc. on the market, there isn't one that represents the LNWR style.

[Jason T]

I hope that thus thread hasn't come across as being argumentative, willy waving or any other form of negative posting as that was not my intention at all; I was merely curious as to how much I could get done in two hours and fancied a challenge. Having said that, I would argue the point about all terraced houses being the same. There are about 80 terraced houses on my street and the most consecutive ones that are the same is four. Luckily for me, there is a lot more similarity of the ones in Bacup but the RTP or kit ones that are available are totally wrong. It is the houses that make the scene for my layout, so they need to look something like (and hopefully I am achieving that).

 

Plus, the more I look at the Skaledale one, the more errors I spot. It's interesting to note that we have both used the dimensions of the Skaledale one but have both modelled the rear door / porch in line with the front door rather than diagonally opposite as on the Skaledale one. Not saying that the Skaledale is wrong but of the many terraced houses I have been in, I can't think of one where the layout of the doors was in that format.

[Stubby47]

I just copied what you had done (even as far as adding the brick paper to the wrong side of the end wall !) - the layout of the house seemed correct - I'd not have considered placing the doors diagonally opposite.

[Allegheny1600]

Hi Jason,

Jolly good show, old bean! I would probably have spent two hours simply making a scetch!

Buildings are something that I've always shied away from for some reason but I have recently been doing a bit of building work - adding a reasonable(?) interior to a cheap continental signal box! So far, it's taken me a week of evenings!

Thanks for the inspiration to keep having a go!

John E.

[Jason T]

I've progressed somewhat, although I have to say that it's not my best effort and there are quite a few rough edges. I tried using tracing paper to represent net curtains rather than tissue paper (that I normally use) and it's not really worked that well. In the end, I went for mounting card and paper slates; it's what I am now more comfortable with.

 

Still to do is paint (obviously), downpipes on the back and the odd bit of Milliput where there are nasty gaps. Here's a few comparison shots with the Skaledale house I took the measurements from. As mentioned above, I changed the side that the back door is on because the Skaledale one seems a bit odd. I have since started to question whether there should be two upstairs windows on the rear of a house of this size........ In my defence, I was thinking more about the challenge than accuracy

 

 

 

Little boxes, on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky, little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same

 

And as an added bonus, here's a shot of the houses on my street. All terraced, all slightly different.

[Russ (mines a pint)]

Far from being wrong, I do think that even though the houses look different now, they probably all started out uniform and have become 'individual' by means of being altered from the original spec. It would be equally valid to modify or kitbash rtp or kitbuilt houses.

 

It was a very interesting challenge, made interesting reading, its just not something I'd do myself !

[Mikkel]

Very interesting little challenge indeed. I've enjoyed following it, including Stubby's spin-off attempt. Only on RMweb!

 

Plus, the resulting models look great to me.

[ste234]

I think I prefer yours to the Skaledale model, looks much better!

[carl1962]

The scratchbuilt one will look much better than the readymade one once its finished and painted. Plus you had the fun of building it and making it your own.

[SquireBev]

Just stumbled across this topic while looking for dimensions of the Skaledale houses so I could start building my own.

 

Impressive work! I doubt my attempts will look as good.

[TheEngineShed]

Impressive work! I doubt my attempts will look as good.

 

If you have the right tools and take a bit of time to develop a technique for the scoring and cutting of plasticard, it isn't hard. You will probably be a lot better at it than you think.

 

Besides that first one can go at the back of the layout and ivy covers all sorts of sins...