Job's Modelling

Your deserve this. I follow your blog an you have created a beautiful realistic layout.

Hi Mikkel, At the end of Victorian times the live standard is getting better. More people could effort a larger house, especially skilled labourers and office clerks. Although not railway related it is interesting to know more about the social circumstances of a period.

Thanks for the comment KH1. I will use the darkest door as a starting point. To get a more drab colour I will use my pastels. To get the right colour for the doors and window frames I will do some try outs.

The starting point. RESEARCH. I found some interesting information about cottages build around 1900. One of the things I have never released that from the same type of cottages several sub-types were build. To get something different then the standard card kit model size I used the Scalescenes small terraced cottages as my starting point. The information told me the following: there were 12 three-room; 548 four-room; 967 five-room and 116 six-room cottages build. A drawing of a three-room building was available for use with measurements. The Scalescenes cottage is 6 cm wide. The cottage in the drawing 14’6”, what is in 4 mm scale 5,8 cm. That is the size that is used for the Scalescenes small cottage kit. I could see what type of windows were used. I had to make a small changes to make it look like the drawing I have. Also the chimneys have a different appearance. I will try to create that too. The other difference will not be visible in the diorama.The cottage I’m creating is a almost square cottage with three small bedrooms on the first floor, and not one with an extension at the back side for the third bed room. On another drawing I saw some possibilities to create a more detailed brickwork front. Maybe I will give that also I try. Below the starting point of my design with the cottages from Scalescenes. In the picture below my design my Northall cottages. The upper windows got a other size. This is made with just normal prints of my brick texture on a laser printer. As you can see I changed the color from dark red to yellow. That is the result of the test printing of the brick textures on the Fine Art photo paper. Some explanation about printing colors on the building: The cream brick wall behind the cottage wall is printed on 190 gr. Fine Art textured paper on the best printing settings of my printer. This color will by used for the final building The cream color on the cottage is just plain 80 gr. printing paper / laser jet The light green door at the left is printed on 190 gr Fine Art smooth paper on the normal printing settings of my printer. The dark green door is printed on 190 gr Fine Art smooth paper on the best printing settings of my printer The other doors are printed on 80 gr printing paper / laser jet. I think there are a lot more possibilities using different papers and printing settings. Any additional information about Victorian cottages is welcome. Or if anyone has useful information, comments or suggestions please let me know. Kind regards, Job

A really lovely scene.

Hi, Mikkel In the first attempt I didn't do any weathering. But my wife was very enthusiastic about the look of the texture. On the final building a added a little weathering with some pastel. The textures of Clever Models are very realistic in my opinion. But the use of high quality papers makes the difference.

I like the concept, Looking forward to see the progress on this one. Will give a lot of shunting opportunities.

Thanks for your reply. The health story of my wife is complicated, but we manage to keep her as fit as possible. Recovery time is mostly longer than she wishes. Especially cyclist with no light are common and sometimes a real problem. I wish you good luck with your French models and hope to see them on the RMweb. Because for me card modeling is the only way to do railway modeling I"m searching for the best possibilities to get the best result I can achieve. I think that there are still more possibilities with the use of different papers. For the background paper I used textured photo paper (wall), smooth photo paper (windows) and watercolor paper for the roof.

The last couple of weeks nothing did go as planned and hoped. My wife has serious problems with the flu, I had a little accident with my bike and a friend of yours needs some personal coaching en help. And luckily I found still some time to do some modelling. About the result you can read below. As I tried out in the design stage I tried Scalescenes brown stretcher bond at the building behind the cottages. Before building the final background building I printed the texture of the cottages on the Fine Art photo paper. The colour was so much deeper red that I reconsidered the texture of the background building. After printing several textures I decided to look for something totally different. On Northall Dock I used a texture from Clever Models. So I got I look at their textures I downloaded three of them to try out. After testing I had two options and the final choice was called “cream city brick”. It looks like garden brick bond and has a nice texture after printing. I used one the templates from Scalescenes High Street backs to create the building. After I had finished it I was not happy with the final result. I had a look at my own reference map of Northall and searched again for the templates I could use from the Scalescenes High Street backs. For the windows I wanted to try out again the same approach I had used for the factory and my first attempt of the back ground building. Scalescenes doesn’t have the windows I wanted to use, so I searched again in by Clever Models for some windows. The windows the use in their Coal Merchant building could do the job. So I bought the kit. I tried the Clever Model windows out on the Scalescenes textures. For the roofs I used a texture TX161 from Model Railway Scenery. The final result you can see below. I like to hear your opinion about the use of the Clever Model texture and kit parts for British buildings. Or if anyone has useful information, comments or suggestions please let me know. Kind regards, Job

I think your blog entry approach on this subject could also be helpful for others.

Thanks for sharing this useful information.

Looks so much better now.

Thanks Mikkel. I agree with the textured "feel". I have compared my picture, made with a standard digital camera, with pictures of the factory on the card modeling section of the RMweb and think that the use of Fine Art photo paper gives a lot more detail to the building. The poster is part of the story I try to tell with this diorama. More about that later.

The use of Schmincke pastels is I believe also possible on plastic card, after you have painted your building etc. with (acrylic) paint. Just try out with one piece of chalk. They have an excellent choice of greys. The picture above shows a detailed part of a cotton photo sheet.

Thanks for the compliment. But I believe you are modeling in N scale and I have to try that out first.

Thanks for the information about the surrounding of a factory. One advice: spend some attention to gaps between your buildings and the surface they are standing on.

The starting point. I hope I have not tested your patience to much. Because I wanted to use the textures of the new low relief factory from Scalescenes I had to try out it first in scrap seeing of it would work out. Let’s start with a picture of the design I made at first: Here I used just the sign and windows from the new kit. The factory will have a totally different appearance. I started with the underside of the building. But I was not happy with the dimensions above the wall. The solution is simple: cut the part above the brick wall away! And start again with the upper part. Working with Fine Art Textured Photo paper is quite different than paper. The material isn’t cellulose but cotton. And cutting cotton asks for an other approach. You have to work very carefully with a lot of patience. Cutting a line several times until it is really through. I wouldn’t advice to use this paper if you are starting with card modelling. But I’m very happy with it. Look at the first and the last picture of factory and compare the colors and the texture. Because it also a little bit thicker than normal card or paper I also decided to color every edge with a pastel pencil. The signs were made for my by Scalescenes to personalize my building. Many thanks for that to John. The window are just prints on smooth Fine Art Photo paper. I was not happy with gleaming of the windows on the factory of Ince and Mayhew on my last diorama. On the website on Clever Models I saw they also made models with just a picture of the window. I tried out the several colors and my final choice you can see in the finished factory below. I’m curious what you think of this solution. When I had finished the upper part I glued both parts together using a total back card on which I glued both parts. The only thing that had to be modeled was the corner with a rain pipe. Here is the final result of the building after some weathering. And an overview picture of the diorama until now. If anyone has useful information, comments or suggestions please let me know. Kind regards, Job

Thanks Mikkel, for this excellent entry. A lovely story and a lot of useful information. Gives me new idea's for my Northall diorama's and story telling.

This is a great entry. I agree completely with Snitzl

I looking forward to your final livery.

I have still one in stock. But now I can remove a diorama, store it in a smaller box, and use the open place for a new diorama. It is also possible then to create a real shadow-box for one of the diorama's.