Job's Modelling

The starting point. Last time I had finished the frame for my row of cottages It all started reasonable well. I made a new template and printed the texture sheets on my textured photo paper of 190 gr/m. In the beginning everything went well. At the and I thought It would be handy to use small parts to fill in the openings that where left at the upper part of the windows. And here things went not the way I want it. I knew that with thinner paper it wasn’t a problem to work this way. But a picture says more than a thousand words. And I was also content with some parts. So let’s see: With the red rectangles I’m not content: A. The horizontal and vertical lines are too much visible by the smaller parts B. The smaller white edges can’t be coloured in with a pastel pencil But: A. The longer vertical connection line (the small long blue rectangle) are almost invisible. I used two different textures here. B. The will try to paint the white window edges with some Vallejo paint. C. I like the way the printed doors look and the weathered appearance. I won’t use to different brick textures in my next attempt, because in the APA-box it will not be visible. And I will use the Scalescenes templates to create the cottages. I have to use long small brick parts between the templates to create the front of my row, but the vertical connections will be less visible. I also will hide some connections with a drainpipe. Historically it is also correct if the brick connection is not totally even. I hope my next attempt will give the good result. But remember: we learn from our mistakes. Or if anyone has useful information, comments or suggestions please let me know. Thanks for reading and till next time and kind regards, Job

The cottage with his front garden give the corner the right atmosphere. I think that the garden walls can use a little weathering at the bottom.

This is already a great loco to look at. Just a little weathering could give it its daily use appearance.

I agree with you. Modeling is a very mindful activity, with the focus on what you are creating. When you get in a flow you forget your daily troubles and you can cope better with the daily life problems. And yes I will keep doing happy modeling.

No life isn't too rough on my. We have learned to accept the challenges we have to handle. Just trying to find the new balance and making the right choices. Glad you like my roofs.

Thanks for the comment. When the diorama is placed in my APA-box the right sight of the cottages will not be visible. That is the reason I left the chimney away. The visible part will be to the third door form the left. I make my pictures outside the APA-box, what gives my also the possibility to make pictures from different angles when the diorama is finished.

The starting point. Last time I had finished the frame for my row of cottages I intended to build the front of the cottages. But after some thoughts I decided to start with the roof, because there were some parts that needed some extra attention. I wanted separate roof sections but no separate fronts as in the Scalescene kit. The tiles are printed on a high quality drawing paper, of course on the best possible settings. I tried to create some old roofs, because these cottages will be part of the demolition plans in Northall. The roofs are build using my usual method: - First I made a template for every the roof section - I cut stripes of tiles - I colored every strip at the lower side with a dark grey pastel pencil - I cut with my scalpel almost every tile half apart - I glued a finished strip on his place on the template After I had finished the roof sections I gave then some weathering with Smincke soft pastels. Then I made the chimney’s and gave them also some weathering. I only have to paint some the chimney’s. The other three were already painted for a previous project. I saw I had to make a small adjustment at the top of the middle roof. The top line is bowed away a little. Now I will start with the front of the row of cottages. As you have noticed I need more time to finish every step due personal circumstances, but modelling is still my favorite way to deal with daily life struggles. More about that in a next entry. Or if anyone has useful information, comments or suggestions please let me know. Thanks for reading and till next time and kind regards, Job

Just another beauty in your wagon collection.. The last picture shows the advantage of the earlier periods. The difference in color and wagon signs.

The end result is worth all your efforts. This is great modeling.

I found some interesting Heinz boxes, I like the blue one.

I found some interesting Heinz boxes, I like the blue one.

Nice to see the progress on your layout. Still enjoying it.

Thanks Mikkel and Grahame, I noticed that it is important to know more about the circumstances of the late 1950's to crate believable diorama's.

Thanks Mike for the useful information. When I have built the front of the cottages I can see if the interior will be visible in my APA-box. If necessary I can add some furniture to the interiors. On my first Layout/diorama I modeled a staircase from the frond to the first floor.

This is a great and very useful entry. Thanks for the link to Crafty Computer Paper. Is it possible to add your designs on a PDF for free use.

The starting point. Last time I have made the final design for my row of cottages. Now I had to build the frame of the cottages using Scalescenes kit 022 Small Cottages. In an article which compares the living circumstances in working class cottages in the 1950’s and the 1970’s is the following description about a working class house in the 1950’s: “Along with the strong imposition of categories and relationships in a working-class house, there is strong insulation of rooms from each other. Doors are kept shut most of the time, particularly the par lour door, cupboards and the staircase frequently isolate the parlour even more firmly from the back room. It is not even possible to see into the interior of the front room of the street.” “In a ‘traditional’ working-class house the interior of the house is usually concealed from the street by net curtains, which remain closed even at midday.” So the interiors won’t be visible, but I liked to create the right atmosphere for them. The used wallpapers for the living rooms are from Model-Railway-Scenery. For the bedrooms I used the textures from Scalescenes kit. For the floors I selected the textures that fitted the best for the bed and living rooms. Bedroom floors were covered with lino or oilcloth. Linoleum (lino) and oil cloth were made by different processes but they both looked the same. In the living rooms there was planking with rugs. Also lino was possible used there. I couldn't find more information about this subject. After finishing the frame of the building I noticed that there is some difference with the try-out I built. I have to make a new plan for the front of the building to make it fit the frame. Because it won’t be visible I used scrap card to build it. So it is not so well fitting as I usually try to do. More about that in a next entry. Or if anyone has useful information, comments or suggestions please let me know. Kind regards, Job

Thanks for sharing. My major concern is the composition on an A4 sized paper with a believable story.

Yes, I have planned a diorama with a crime story for one of my Northall diorama's. But that is for later. For my next diorama my mind is struggling how to create a believable diorama for a Northall Goods depot.

Great to see how you try to create a good looking roof. Instead of card you could try a good quality of water color paper. This gives more texture than card.

Yes, Spocanian is an extreme example, but worth looking at if you want to create an imaginary county, place or ...... I didn't use Northall as the place to search for. I searched for names in a Greater London district. Northall is situated as somewhere there. Oxford was not a frequently used name in in Northall according to my search on the web, I think a bicycle factory in Farthing manufacturing Penny Farthing bicycles would be great. I will wait to see one in the street of Farthing or for sending from your Goods depot. More information can be found here: http://www.victorianworkshop.co.uk/penny-farthing-fact-file/4579138087 For the names I found another interesting site: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Rich The surname Rich for instance can be used for a rich person or as a nickname for a poor one. Nice to see those pictures. As you know I love to read UK based detectives and the criminal events described in it. ( I hope every is OK with your finger)

How to find back my information. Since I started building Northall diorama’s I collected a lot of information. But one way or another I wasn’t always able to find it back as soon as I wished. I hadn’t built up a system for collecting my information. Searching again takes sometimes away time for modelling. Last week I came upon a website created by another Dutch man. He has an interesting website about a fictive land somewhere in an ocean. See his website here: http://www.spocania.com/archief/menu-e.htm What triggered my was his alphabetical index. Today I bought a new folder to collect my Northall information on paper and creating an index folder on my desktop. I will also use an alphabetical index. An example you can see below. Names The other thing I was not sure of were the surnames I used for my diorama’s. I now know that not all names were common in all parts of the UK. The same counts for Holland. My surname is a typical name you will find frequently in a part of the province Groningen and not in other parts of the Netherlands. Then I found the following for my usable website: http://www.1911census.co.uk/ You can select a county or a place and fill in a surname. In this way I could see if the name that you had chosen was known in that place. This means that I have to go through my Northall Gazette’s and my story to change names that are, in my opinion, are not suitable. Progress Progress on the row of Victorian cottages goes slowly. Personal circumstances are responsible for this. So you have to be a little bit patient to see A wow of Victorian Cottages - part two. As you know I like to create a history for the firms in Northall. You can read the history of Robert Oxford and Sons Limited below.

Thanks Paul, Actually the Scalescenes cottages are large. I found several smaller cottages. Maybe something for the future, using the Scalescenes kit as a base.