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rovex

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  1. rovex
    The brake third is now finished, I've added the missing "W"s to the coach number, lining has all been done and the coach given a coat of varnish to protect the transfers from coming off on my fingers.
     
    The flushglazing has been added. Rather than paint round the window frames, I tried painting round the glazing before fitting, seems to work ok. Grab handles are from Comet and seem a little on the thick side, though I can imagine any finer and they would be prone to damage. Corridor connections have been added and all it needs now is a layout!!!!!!
     
    The photos show the coach alongside a 57ft all third - made from kitbashing more Hornby coaches. Really gives an idea of the length of these coaches. More photos will follow as I finish off the others.
     

     
     
    Rovex
  2. rovex

    70 foot stock

    By rovex,

    This is a continuation of my topic about GWR coaches and increasing passenger choice - (very topical - lol)
     
    I will try to put a link to the old topic when the sites back up and running - though at the moment I'm still trying to work my way round the new site - as a bear of very little brain I'm easily confused but as Basil Fawlty says "now we're in I'm determined to make it work".
     
    Anyway with the articulated suburban stock taking a back burner for a while, I'm trying my hand at the South Wales 70 ft stock.
     
    The first two examples are the composite restaurant car and the corridor composite (stock numbers to follow) the body shells are from Hornby originals and I'm going to try scratchbuilding the underframes as I feel this will be more robust then cutting up and regluing the old Hornby ones.
     
    The first couple of photos represent the body shell for the composite


     
    This requires two composite coaches and the insertion of an extra first and third compartment in the middle. The work also allows you to sort out incorrect spacing of the corridor windows.
     
    These next two photos are the body shell for the restaurant car.
     


     
    This was done by adding an extra window to each end, from a second restaurant car and then as the kitchen appears to be on the other side of the coah swapping the kitchen windows and the corridor windows around.
     
    I think the photos show where the cuts have been made.
     
    and finally I'm not bothering trying to upgrade the Hornby ends, I cut two many slices out of my fingers the last time I tried this, So I've just replaced them with plastic card and added the relevant details

     
    Obviously a long way to go, I also plan to try the 70 brake third and will then see if I have enough bits left over to try the all third - though this might be simpler to buy the Comet sides.
     
    Again inspiration copmes from Allan Tidders website GW Works linked to from the previous topic.
     
    Rovex
  3. rovex
    I have been a busy bee today and have got the carcases for both the 70 ft brake third and the corridor all third roughly cut out and glued together.
     
    The brake is made up from three of the Hornby 57 ft brake thirds - it could probably be more economically done, the only real difference is that the luggage compartment is bigger - having three sets of double doors and a greater space between them. However nothing has been wasted as the bits left obver from the compartments from two of the brake thirds where just right for the all third. On the corridor side I opened up the two small windows between the compartment doors and the guards door (does that make sense)
     
    One of the photos shows the various cuts I made for the brake third.
     
    Next job is filling and sanding, also the brake third ends will need squaring off as I believe that these had flat ends rather than bowed.

    The work never ends.
     
    It has suddenly occurred to me that with all this coach building I'm gonna have to have a lot of room to build a station big enough to handle all these cross country services - Oh dear
     
    rovex
  4. rovex
    These are the coaches after the first visit to the paint shop, lining and numbering to be done. Have you noticed they don't give you enough "W"s on the transfer sheets. I'm gonna be left with tons of left over lettering and numbering from these transfer sheets. I wonder if I can sell partly used sheets on ebay .
     
    Rovex
     

  5. rovex

    70 ft update

    By rovex,

    Just thought I'd post a few more photos of the restaurant and corridor composite now they've had a coat of undercoat and the underframes have been put together.This is the underframe for the composite, the trussing is made from 60 thou square plastic strip. This shows the extension of the interior by adding an extra first class and third class compartment.
     
    both sides of the composite.
     
    the restaurant car
     
    underframes for both vehicles, showing the six wheel bogies on the restaurant car.
     
    Well today I'm gonna start of on the brake third and possibly the all third - if the cat will keep off the workbench
     
    Wouldn't you just know it, someone is selling all these coaches on ebay as old BSL kits.
     
    Rovex
  6. rovex

    A Cornish diversion

    By rovex,

    Since I'm out of "W"s I decided to finish off the Cornish Riviera kitchen car that I'd been renovating. This was originally bought off ebay some years ago, together with a brass toplight composite and a Centenary brake third. I stripped it and the toplight down using Nitromors which proved highly effective, so much so that anything that had been superglued on fell off (the kitchen car disintegrated into its constituent parts).
     
    I had to take the soldering iron to the toplight to remove excess solder from when it was first built and the previous owner had inserted the compartments the wrong way round. It remains on the workbench awaiting further surgery.
     
    However the kitchen car has now been reglued and painted and is I think now finished. I won the Phoenix kit of the restaurant composite on ebay recently so I might make a start on that sometime soon. So that just leaves the restaurant third to complete the set.
     
    Heres the photos
     

     
    In a recent auction I also won the BSL kit for the Centenary all third. I tried this out against an old Hornby composite and it fitted the sides and underframe quite well. Encouraged by this I constructed the sides and ends and glued them to a slightly modified Hornby chassis. - Saves having to make one up. The chassis just needed a couple of mm cutting off the subframe above the buffers - I forgot to take some phots of the area - but perhaps next time. I will have to sort out a few errors in the chassis (new battery boxes etc) but I think I'm off to a good start. I think I've mentioned already that I've got the first kitchen car and third diner for the Centenary stock in storage. When I'm back in Leeds in December I'm going to try to dig these out and see if I can do the same with them.
     

     
    Rovex
  7. rovex
    With the aid of the annual bonus from work I've purchased teh home for Brackhampton. Its at the end of the Garden and thus allows the long suffering other half to be free of all things model railway. It was put up surprisingly quickly on Saturday and once boarded out will give approximately 21ft by 14.5 ft to fit the railway in.
     


     
    Right, where did I leave that number of the builders yard
     
    Rovex
  8. rovex

    A repaint

    By rovex,

    Having discovered that my brickwork should have been white, I got my spray can out and whited out the brickwork again. Once completely dried I gave this a wash over with diluted black enamel, varying the mix so as not to give a variation in colour. Areas were washed down with more white spirit (like the front of the columns) to add greater variety.
     
    Have also started building both attic pavilions. The arched heads were done with a 10 mm flat drill to make sure there were equal. Ordinary drill bits just chewed up the plastic - very infuriating.
     
    Tell me what you think of the paintwork
     
    Regards
     
    Rovex
     

  9. rovex

    A Saint?

    By rovex,

    I've posted this here as well as in the topic on the Hornby Saint and hope the administrators will forgive me the duplication, on reflection it seemd more appropriate here on my blog.
     
    I think I may also have to change the blog title if thats permitted, since I seem to be straying from the title topic, how about "building all things GW"?
     
    Anyway I've been doing a bit of thinking and am wondering whether I can make a hash at a model of a Saint as follows.
     
    Bachman Hall - rewheeled with correct or approaching correct size wheels.
     
    Cut off the cab and cut out the boiler, discard running plate. keep boiler - might have to use the older modified Hall as running plate on new Hall I seem to recall is metal - Course this depends on the modified Hall having the right wheelbase.
     
    Use footplate of Hornby Castle (I've got a spare body. This gives the correct depth to the curve on the front of the footplate. Probably cut of splashers, make good and refit in correct place and probably cut down a bit, remove and filler where the inside pistons project onto footplate
     
    Extend firebox on Hall boiler by about 2 mm, this should give it the correct length, rest of boiler dimensions seem OK.
     
    Replace cab with correct pattern (probably old 4-4-0 County one).
     
    Replace buffers, chimney and saftey valve as required.
     
    It probably wouldn't win any prizes but I think it might give a passable representation, the cost might be prohibitive, but I'd try and pick up the bits off ebay. And given the costs of even badly built saints on ebay is in excess of 70/80 quid (and there are based on the old B12 chassis and thus incorrect) it might work out cheaper
     
    Any thoughts?
     
    Rovex
  10. rovex

    A stairway to heaven

    By rovex,

    Just a few shots of one of the stairways up to the footbridge. Construction is plasticard and slaters embossed brickwork. Doors and windows will be added from Scale link etchings once the stairs have been painted. The stairs themselves come from an old Hornby concrete footbridge glued together to get the necessary width and cut down to the right height.
     
    Still some fillering to do and a bit of fettling to tidy this one up - and oh yes the one for the other platform to build too.
     

  11. rovex

    A Star is born

    By rovex,

    Not a GWR coach at all - but it didn't seem worthwhile starting a new thread for one picture. I'd asked elsewhere about problems with the old Hornby Saint - and wow was that a case of lighting the blue touch paper and retiring.
     
    Anyway it stirred me into having a go at knocking up a Star (Saint to Star? Don't ask) I can't claim any credit for the process as its all detailed elsewhere on other threads - have a look at the thread on the Hornby Saint for the links.
     
    This is based on the old Airfix Castle, but I've been lucky enough to get hold of a Hogwarts Castle for under ??20 of ebay and will be using the motorised chassis and tender from that to put under the Airfix body, and dispensing with the Airfix tender drive. I'm intending to model "Glastonbury Abbey" as I quite like the sound of it and it also had the larger style tender. A paint job for this and the red hogwarts tender awaits but I'm in a quandary as to whether these engines carried BR black in the early BR days, or lined green. They were after all express locos which would suggest green but the only colour photo I've come across (and believe me finding any photos of Stars is a challenge) would seem suggest black? Alternatively as the proposed railway is meant to be 1950, I might go for a late GWR livery.
     
    Anyone any thoughts on livery?
     
    Rovex
     

  12. rovex
    It being too cold to be in the shed, I have spent the day playing with Sketchup.
     
    Opposite the entrance to Snow Hill id the Great Western Arcade. It was built over the tunnel carrying the tracks from Moor Street to Snow Hill. Originally it had a very impressive facade but this fell victim to enemy action and was burnt out. Rather than restore it after the war it was demolished and for a long time the arcade was somewhat truncated.
     
    A modern building now occupies the site but the original arcade exists behind this building - albeit with a more simplified roof.
     
    I have decided that I would like to have the original building and so began my search for photographs etc. Surprisingly I've only found a very small handful of photographs.
     
    This is progress to date. Still some more to do and the original carved stonework will have to be reproduced in Milliput, my Sketchup skills aren't up to it.
     



  13. rovex
    Just a few photos to show progress. The main front has been built up and glued in place, along with the main concourse entrance and one of the other decorative porches. The central entrance to the old hotel has been started and I've started building up the porticos on the ends (well one at least). I'm simplifying these - the original had three rows of columns, This would have looked a bit squashed on the model and so I've gone for two. I've also decided to remove some of the detritus that had collected on the front. By the time the building was demolished three newsagents kiosks had been added to the exterior. As they do add interest - I think I'll only model one, but thats a long way off.
     
    More work to do tomorrow, including trying to make corinthian style capitals for the columns from milliput. By the way the larger columns are probably going to be cartridge pen refills.
     
    Apologies for some of the fuzzy pictures but I was trying to take them without the flash as it shows up my over zealous use of glue.
     
    Happy Easter everyone.
     
    Rovex




  14. rovex
    Thanks to Mikkel's help and a bit of lateral thinking, in that I could only save the screen print's in a format which I couldn't upload, so I ended up printing them off and scanning them in, here are two track plans for the environs of Brackhampton station.
     

     
    This first one shows the overground approach with four tracks from left to righ the main up and down lines and then the relief up an down lines. These run into from extreme top to bottom, platform 12/11, bay platforms 10 and 9, platform 8/7, two through lines, platform 6/5, two more bay platforms 4/3 and at the bottom platform 2/1. Whilst looking very complicated the plan isn't finished and so far I've omitted the turntable, carriage sidings and cross over lines to gain access to them. Some of these are going to have to go. Building the access lines on a curve makes for very difficult geometry.
     

     
    This one shows the opposite end of the station and again some rationalisation here as well as most of the point work will be under neath the city centre, consequently the fish sidings have been omitted as it would be impossible to work these. The top track splitting offo from the curve is intenede as an engine spur and again as it is underground there seemed little reason to keep it running along with the main line.
     
    This is very much a first work in progress and bits will need printing off to get a feel for the size. But I've measured the area where the layout is going to go (when I've built the shed) and it should fit.
     
    I was thinking for the opposite sie of having a split level fiddle yard with down and up lines on different levels.
     
    Rovex
  15. rovex
    Building work continues a pace. The shells of the East and West pavilions have been fashioned and work has started on the front of the central section. The following photos show the ground floor cut out and glued in place. This piece has been scratch built from a large sheet of 80 thou. It has been scored to match the ground floors of the end buildings. The floor of the passage way has also been scribed to represent Victorian Paving slabs (3ft by 2ft). Three porticos will need to be built one for the entrance to the concourse, a cental one for the entrance to the old hotel and then one on the far right next to the east pavilion.
     
    Works stopped for the moment as I've run out of glue. Got some on order - thank goodness for ebay.
     


     
    Rovex
     
    PS Have been working on the main concourse entrance and here are a few photos to show progress.
     


     
    The carving is made up of milliput moulded into rough shapes and then pushed into place. The quoins round the arch shown in the original will be put in place when I glue it onto the model, the arch will also be beefed up at the same time. The parabola for the arch was marked out on card and then cut out using scissors, this means I can use it as a template for the other side of the station as well. There's a very good book called "Bridges for modellers" which shows how parabolas are formed - something to do with drawing out two circles and then joining points on each circle - Not the best description but honestly the book makes it much clearer - lol
  16. rovex
    Having had to lift all the track at Brackhampton due to my revolutionary track fixing technique proving about as effective as Network Rails maintenance of the Dawlish sea wall. I've been concentrating on scenic modelling whilst I save up to buy more finescale flexible track.
     
    Latest thing I've been doing is building the platforms. The arrivals side has been started, using large amounts of wills platform kits and additional paving sheets. This has also meant I have had to have a go at the subway which went down to the Great George Street ticket office under the station. Here is my attempt.
     


     
    and with the side wall moved away
     


     
    I know very little about this subway, other than it was probably faced in white glazed brick, that it opened into the lower ticket office and that it descended straight down in two flights. So this is my interpretation of the subway that originally graced Snow Hill.
     
    The subway on the other platform, which will be next, truned though 90 degrees and wrapped round two sides of a lift.
     
    Hopefully both sets of stairs will lead to a representation of the Ticket office - but I don't intend going to great efforts in that regard as it will be barely noticeable under the layout.
     
    The subway is constructed from the stairs from an old Hornby footbridge and 80 thou plasticard covered in slaters embossed plasticard. The arches are by Wills. Once inset into the platform, railings will go round three sides and there should be some kind of ornate gateway at the top of the stairs.
     
    As for the track. I had originally glued the cork underlay and track down with spray adhesive. With the warm weather far too much of it had lifted. So the remainder was lifted and the pointwork painstakingly saved. 4mm thick cork sheet was bought of ebay - very reasonably priced if you avoid the stuff specially sold for model railways - this has been glued down with copious amounts of PVA glue, and then once dried the Templot track plan has been printed off on 160gsm paper and pasted with wallpaper paste to the cork.The track will be laid directly on top of this secured with yet more PVA.
  17. rovex
    The Vollmer kit has now arrived for the station hotel (honestly I've got far too much time on my hands) now how do I turn this into something with a passing resemblance to Snow Hill
     

     
    The ground floor needs extending, so I've sliced the pieces in half and inserted some plasticard, scribed to carry on the stone courses. I've also spliced one side vertically and glued it either side of what was the main entrance to one of the buildings. All the cut sides were then glued to some 40 thou to give more strength and thickness to the sides.
     
    Its then been built up on some 80 thou sheet which will form the basement area, I've not bothered to put windows in this since the area wall will be quite close and you wouldn't see them in any event. I might put some plasticstrip as window surrounds to give the impression that the actual windows have been bricked up.
     
    Sorry buts its a bit difficult to make out any detail with all the white plastic but heres a photo or two.
     


     
    Anyway this will form the ground and basement floors of one of the end pavilions. Think I'll do the columns on the front when the other floors have been added. The other end will be done in the same way, but with the back wall blank as this had an extended rear.
     
    Have also got a faller overall roof kit ref 120199, this will form the basis of the booking hall.
     

     
    well should keep me out of mischief for a while
     
    Rovex
     
    P.S.
     
    Sunday has seen me getting a move on with the building work. The upper floors of the west pavilion have been made and glued in place. The sides from the kit were glued to slaters plasticard, this gives a smaller brick size and helps to hide the joins. With the windows cut out, and the kit window surrounds attached to the side ansd back these were glued in place on the ground floor. Stengthening strips have been glued inside. The front has been left plain (without window surrounds) until I've attached the columns and pediments which decorated this front. A pediment from plasticard strips has been stuck round the top floor. I'm in two minds as to whether to start the east pavilion or to have a go at the top floor. The sensible thing wqould be to do the east pavilion whilst I still remember how I did this one
     
    Heres the progress.
     

     
    P.P.S.
     
    Work has started on the east pavilion, a mirror image of the west pavilion but with a rear extension. The two are shown here, set approximately the right distance apart.
     

     
    And this shot just shows detail of the ornamental brick corner quoins.
     
    Anyway back to the plasticard
  18. rovex
    Those who have been following my long winded efforts to build my model railway may remember that I lifted all the trackwork following a failed experiment in securing both the cork underlay and the track using spray adhesive. The warm weather saw expansion which resulted in track lifting and the cork bubbling. As the track had not been pinned the adhesive didn't prove up to the job.
     
    So reluctantly the whole lot was lifted and I decided that I had to start again. Well the starting was delayed until recently when I received the last of the major pointwork items required. All pointwork has been made by Hayfield and he has been good enough to share some of his work on his own blog.
     
    This time around I have adopted a much more old fashioned method. Cork underlay has been glued down to the baseboard using PVA glue (and copious amounts of it. The cork underlay is 4mm thick and came in a huge roll bought of a certain internet auction site. It worked out quite cheap compared to buying the usual stuff sold specifically model railways.
     
    The layout, which had been designed using Templot (when you still had to pay for it), was printed out onto slightly heavier duty printer paper and then glued on top of the cork using wall paper paste.
     
    The track abnd pointwork was then laid on top of this. Each peice of track has had drop wires soldered to it and these will then be soldered to the bus wires which will be under the layout. My previous layout have always suffered from terrible running quality and I think in part this has been caused by reliance on fishplates for electrical connectivity.
     
    I hope that with each separate piece of track having its own supply this will to some extent be ameliorated.
     
    Almost all the track at the North end of the station has now been relaid, with just a couple of bay tracks and platform 1 (or is it 12) to be laid.
     
    Next will the South end (under the Great Western Hotel) which thanksfully is somewhat simpler.
     
    Then starts the process of dusting off my old DCC controller and starting to attach power and point motors (i'm trying to buy 10 each month just after payday).
     
    My thoughts are also turning to the storage facility. I've swung between a traversr ( decided not to) a traditional fan of sidings and a casette system.
     
    Currently I'm thinking a mixture of traditional fan and casette may be the answer. My thought is to have the fast lines run into a fan of sidings where the crack expresses can be kept. The slow lines would then run into a casette system where the suburban trains and freight trains could be kept.
     
    Well enough words here are some pictures.


     
    Here is the station looking towards Paddington. From left to right we be through line (platform 12 and 11), two bays (platforms 10 and 9), through line (platform 8 and 7), two avoiding lines (up and down), through line (platform 6 and 5), two bays (platforms 4 and 3) and finally through line (platform 2 and 1). Although the station has been compressed it is still possible to get two trains onto the through platforms and the scissor crossings in the middle allow trains on the central platforms to cross each other.
     
    The bays are large enough for five or six coach trains if necessary - so you can see why I am desperate for Hornby to bring out some non-corridor Western coaching stock.
     

     
    a view striaght across the station throat.
     


     
    and now looking towards Wolverhampton (which I think I shall rename Worford for the layout).
     
    Although you can't see it in the background by the large tub of PVA glue are the four running lines (slow lines on the inside of the curve - the fast lines on the outside). The pointwork is such that any train arriving on a slow line can access any of the platforms and all four bays. Any train arriving on the fast line can access the main through platforms and the bays at platform 10 and 11.
     
    In reverse trains heading out this way can all leave by the slow lines and trains from platform 10, 11 and 5 and 6 can leave by the fast line.
  19. rovex
    Impressed with what can be acheived with 3D printing I have been having a play over the weekend with "Sketchup" a free 3D drawing programme that can be downloaded off the interweb.
     
    I had intended to use the ratio canopy kits to produce the extensive canopies that covered the bay platforms at Snow Hill. Each one being approximately a metre long (or more) in model form. However the work needed to beef these up was concerning me, and I wasn't sure that they would look high enough.
     
    They also (whilst a prototypical GWR design) weren't right for Snow Hill - Although I don't know why I'm being so precious on that score.
     
    Anyway having seen other people's efforts I thought I would at least try and draw some up and see If could create something that could be printed up. Given the nature of the beast it lends itself to a mass production technique like 3D printing.
     
    So here is my attempt at drawing the support column and cross beams. - lots of these will be needed.
     

     

     
    I'm quite pleased with it. the programme is quite easy to grasp, The only thing I haven't got to grips with is making rivets - any ideas anybody.
     
    Dean
  20. rovex
    Well a pleasant afternoon which should have been spent in the garden - or at the very least doing some productive modelling has been spent beavering over my new toy - sketchup - on the computer. The results are here.
     

     
    The Central girder
     

     
    The intermediate girder
     

     
    the valance
     

     
    and all four compenents shown together - roughly
     
    Now I shall no doubt find that what I've created is unprintable.
  21. rovex
    Well this 3d printing malarkey is something that can cause the brain to melt and dribble out of your ears. I have been playing around with a model for the overall roof columns. The hope is that if I can succesfully design one than it can be amended to create the other two types.
     
    So having beavered away, I then have to convert it to a "dae" file, then download another programme and convert it to an "stl" file, then downlaod another programme , because Shapeways doesn't like the design - something to do with holes - this programme every time I pressed fix made it worse. Finally I discovered a function which allowed you to upload the model to the cloud - it fixed it and then you downloaded it.
     
    However something funny happens along the way a model which started out as 92 mm is suddenly 3.2mm abns too small for Shapeways.
     
    So I go back through the conversion process and open it in Sketchup, now its over 16 metres long?????
     
    Anyway after reducing it down again I've managed to get it to upload to Shapeways.
     
    The girders for the canopy were too thin? so I have to decide whether to proceed or beef them up a bit - they only seem to be 0.1mm to thin, so I might risk it and see what one of each looks like.
     
    Anyway here is a presentable version of the roof columns
     

  22. rovex
    Last week I finally took the plunge and ordered the results of my CAD doodles. I sent for one roof pillar and enough canopy parts to make up some three sections.
     
    I decided not to buy the valance sides and having designed a roof and failed to upload it properly decided from a cost point of view that these bits could be more readily constructed from plasticard.
     
    When the items arrive I shall post the results.
     
    For the last few days I have been playing with the roof column to make a piece for the sides of the roof. Here are the preliminary results.
     

     
    an amended column and screen - still needs the lower part of the screen wall designing.
     

     
    and here a bit of a play to show what they will look like with several joined together.
     
    Dean
  23. rovex
    The laser prints arrived today. So I am posting a few pictures for comments.
     
    I apologise for the quality of the photos but my camera isn't up to much when it comes to close ups and the flash bleached everything, so I had to turn it off.
     

     

     
    These are probably the best of the photos. The surface is a bit rough and I managed to mismeasure the roof column so this is a bit short. I've corrected the uploaded version, so next time should get it the right size.
     
    Would appreciate knowing what people think
     

     
    This is screen shot of a possible wall piece - a work in progress. I am contemplating making up several different types and constructing the main station buildings from these. Still work to do including adding a brickwork texture - Is there an easy way of doing this.
     
    Does anyone have any thoughts on the best material to use. The above were printed using frosted acrylic - but its quite expensive when you consider the quanitiy I'm going to need. I was wondering about white plastic - which is considerably cheaper.
     
    All opinions welcome
     
    Dean
  24. rovex
    As promised in my last entry, I have finished the design work on a section of the platform building. My idea is to create a kit of parts and to create the platofmr buildings from this "pack" of standard parts.
     
    This is the image for the first of these, what I might call "full length large windows section". All the time has been taken in adding the brickwork. it all having to be drawn in by hand - if you thought scribing individual bricks was a long haul - think again.
     

     
    A column with attached wall section will go either end of this piece and so on.
  25. rovex
    Arrived home from work today to find that the sample side all had arrived from shapeways. This was done in FUD and I must say looks a far better product than previous samples. However this is reflected in the price.
     
    I've sprayed in brick red as a primer and also to help it show better in the photos below.
     

     
    An exterior shot.
     

     
    close up of the column detail
     

     
    Another exterior shot
     

     
    and a partial interior shot.
     
    The top and bottom screens will be glazed and you can see in the last photo how I have created a recess to take some plastic glazing. This should also help to strengthen these peices. Although there are not that flimsy.
     
    The distorted look is caused by two factors - the hole the column has been planted in is a little too large (so the column is not standing upright) and the bottom barrier is somewhat distorted, but hopefully this will be resolved by the glazing and gluing them together.
     
    Cost is going to be an issue - this was about £30. A cheaper material could be used but wouldn't print. I'm not sure whether it would be possible to cast this, given the complexity and I don't think resin would be a solution.
     
    Also as Livery Street rose towards Colmore Row on the real thing the heights of the columns got progressively shorter and this may mean designing each one individually.
     
    it might be possible to design this with the screens as separate parts and then perhaps these could be cast along with the standard length columns, with the ones getting progressively shorter being 3D printed.
     
    Another thought would be to hollow the columns out to reduce the amount of material used and perhaps run plastic or brass tubing up the middle for strength. As the original columns were cast iron dressing on H girders this rather has the merit of imitating the real thing.
     
    Dean
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