brylonscamel

If nothing else you now have a very unusual place setting for a dinner party!

That's very kind of you David. People keep giving me these iconic originals, which helps!

I have the small matter of a side doorway to truly finish David's 'North British Hotel'. Fortunately it's a piece that can be retro-fitted to an aperture in the west wall. I say fortunately as the model has been with David for a couple of months and he is a few hundred miles away! Here's one of the photos I took before delivery, to give a nice sense of how big the model is and yet the south facade is less than half the length of the original!

Taste of Fife Behind the scenes, I am making buildings that will add a bit of flavour to Dad's 'Braeside' layout and help me develop new ideas for the resin-cast side of things. I want to establish Dad's layout firmly on the north-east coast but have thrown the net a wee bit further to include some buildings typical of the Fife coast. Because our harbour is small, the type of buildings that crowd the waterfront at places like Anstruther and Cellardyke seem ideal candidates. Here is where I am at with our assortment of Fife properties .. Materials: Foamex | Artboard | Modelling Clay | Embossed Styrene | Styrene

My attempt at 'Pink Granite' sits on the harbourside diorama that I keep for such purposes ...

You are right Michael, they are all recent images of much older buildings.

PS I hope this is useful! Cheers, Brian

.. also note the large block sizes combined with small infill stones and 'pinnings' from this classic vintage photo of Banff. The use of a broad spread of mortar, flush with the surface also seems typical of the area ..

You may remember a chat we had about the cottages on the approach to Banff station a while ago. Aberdeenshire granite remains one of my preoccupations! I have stared at a fair bit of it in recent years and travelled by bike on the 'Buchan & Formartine Way' trackbed, adding a trip out to Portsoy, Banff etc. The soot and dirt that accumulates on porous or textured stone seems less inclined to stain or adhere to granite. Also, coastal areas weren't troubled by the heavy chimney smoke that polluted city air. I also noted that 'rural' granite masonry has all sorts of variations in colour and tone, less consistent than the dressed grey granite you see in much civic architecture. I suspect the huge quarries like Rubislaw offered a greater consistency of shiny grey stone and why it was prized as a building material. On my travels I noticed that buildings further north had a lot of red amongst the greys and know that quarries existed at Peterhead, known for this colour in the material. A recent trawl of Google drew these examples ...

The truth may be that despite all my best efforts to be accurate, exact and consistent, I ended up with a wonky, uneven collection of setts! More evidence is on the harbourside ..

We avoided all the high-stakes *** words - hurrah for RMweb

Cheers - that's very much what my customer is aiming for - something grubby, cockney and Victorian!

Hi William - it's not one of mine (I simply did the build & paint for a client) but head across instead to JSModels on RMWeb or the JSModels website - the supplier of the kit in laser-cut MDF

Here's a loco in front of the brick factory, moving 'Caledonian Basin' a lot further south!

That's lovely thanks - I just downloaded the brick guide for some 'over a cup of coffee' reading. I also rely on a model-making friend when checking stonework. His day job is a stone mason in southern Scotland and he's been really helpful.

These little resin-cast cottages are still providing fun. In this case a slate-roofed building for Dad's layout and a 'wriggly tin' version for a customer. The plan is to fettle some new versions in the next couple of weeks to expand the selection.

Dirty Victorians My 'brickwork' customer and I had a chat about the finish on the London factory. We aim to represent London long before the clean air act, when stonework was blackened with soot and brickwork colours were very dark. I gave the building further passes with the brush and brought it nearer to photos he kindly supplied.

I could resort to asking my border collie how to arrange sheep in a field, although he seems most expert with squirrels!

It's good to know about the bond, it was something I had noted in looking at my subject buildings but this confirms it as the dominant bond. I am no bricklayer (or surveyor!) and appreciate the expertise on offer. At the risk of sounding thin-skinned - I would like to remind everyone that these are models made for a customer and criticism should be levelled with reference to the original. The comment about my use of stretcher bond for one shelter is incorrect as it's a 20th century structure, built using stretcher bond.

"Doing the Lambeth walk" I'm currently trying to reproduce a bit of London brick for a customer - with my trademark painted signs! The model is one of JS Models low-relief factory kits

Clanking overhead The classic view of 'Caledonian Basin' with a loco on the bridge. Trundling overhead is my first attempt at a kit-built loco, a white-metal and brass version of an ex LNER J35. Frankly, it was an exercise in proving how good ready-to-run locomotives are these days, and how much work we are spared. It does have a good hefty feel though.

I would challenge your observation on the use of stretcher bond for shelter No #2 as the prototype is not Victorian. One platform shelter at Arrochar and Tarbet is a recent addition and copies the style of the other building (originally a lever-frame signal cabin) but not the brick pattern. Thanks again for pitching in with your observations - I certainly feel clearer on the widespread use of a sort of 'Scottish wall bond' with multiple stretcher courses. Cheers, Brian

Hi Alan - these bits of feedback are always welcome. Most of my Scottish outline buildings have been stone-built, so I am lacking in experience with Scottish brick but I was aware of the widespread use of what we call 'Garden Wall Bond' in England (PS I actually operate from Bristol, deep in the heart of sassenach country!) For example, when I made my 'Caledonian' style engine sheds, I did use a garden-wall to represent its Scottish equivalent. Your feedback must relate to the 2 x West Highland platform shelters at Arrochar & Tarbet. I must admit to using English bond for one shelter, because it was easier to match the various corner joints and hoped it wasn't too obvious, with there being so few courses. Note to self : Fellow model-makers are an observant lot and will spot these short-cuts!

Cheers for the feedback - you are in luck as I am committed to produce a tenement. I am working through a backlog of commission work but the new castings are firmly on my list. I'll be putting any developments on here as well as Facebook and my website.

We brought my tiny rural Scottish diorama to the show. Here's a photo of the 'Highland' Class 24 production sample, perched on the bridge ..