rovex

Good to see I'm not the only one whose modelling goes in fits and starts - keep up the good work rovex

I must say Pannier I am tempted to try building my own. I've having a go at some building some brick walls in the garden as well as a new formal pond and if my bricklaying is any good I might have a go at building the railway room myself. We'll see. Good luck with yours. Rovex

Thanks for all the kind comments to my last Blog entry. Having had my two nephews (4 and 7) and their mum stopping with us for the last week the opportunities for modelling have been limited. Anyway with them packed off back to Leeds, I've been catching up by mass producing chimneys and roofing the central portion of the hotel. The roof has been made as a separate unit so that it can be lifted off to allow me access to the building to finish making all those windows. I've installed some (being those that came with the original Kibri kit, but lots more windows will be needed especially for the back of the hotel. As these are made up from a frame and two sashes, I've been putting it off. Here's the progress on the front The white structure in front of one of the windows is going to be a newsagents and tobacconists. The original building ended its days festooned with at least three such structures. I've decided to model just the one. I am however intending to add the huge lettering which adorned the front, advertising the fact that this was the Great Western Railways Snow Hill station and the several signs advertising refreshments. I've also bought a large stock of posters to put in the concourse. GWR/BR(WR) didn't seem to mind that these blocked many of the groundfloor windows. Heres an arial shot, to give an idea of the eventual size of this part of the station. The arched structure supported by the speaker will eventually form the ticket office wall. Right, back to work Rovex

Looking good BT. Very impressed with the paint job

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

Well we've been moved almost three months now and tonight was the first night I've done any modelling - althoug whether you can call daubing a bit of paint about modelling is questionable. I've not been idle the last three months, but unfortunately other things have been keeping me busy. Including trying to sort out the garden (it now looks like the Somme - whatever happened to GroundForce - I must have a birthday surprise coming up), extending the old pond, starting a new one. Once we can afford some bricks I'm going to have a go at building some brick walls. I've already built some breeze block walls for the new pond. It must be the builder gene I've inherited from my father. I only hope it looks alright when they done. I've also investigated the cost of a new shed the size I can fit in is about 16ft by 24ft, and a local firm can supply one for £2,000 (that was before the VAT increase). So I've got a lot of saving up to do. Although I'm currently thinking about having a go at building it myself - subject to planning and building control But the reason for tonight's modelling is to keep me off ebay. I'm spending far too much on things I WANT (in fact I don't know how I've managed to live without them all this time). So far I've bought a K's 42xx kit, lots of ratio canopy kits a lot of engines (well Brackhampton will be a busy station) and lots of scalelink cars and vans and coach kits. I've also bought a couple of the old Graham Farish composite suburban coaches. I think with a repaint, new underframe, detailed ends and roof , I might make a passable representation of a GWR 55ft suburban all third. I'll let you know how I get on. Anyway I've been daubing the brick colour on the station building, some touching up to do and then it needs a lot of weathering to capture all that city centre grime so redolent of the 50's. Hopefully I can get some actual modelling done soon and start on the attic storeys. I'm experimenting with a hand drill and some double sided sticky tape to try and get all the arches equal, but more of that later. So to the photos. A couple of the front and two close ups of the Snow Hill end pavilion. The columns are made from ink cartridges and the capitals are made from milliput (still got four more to make) now the Snow Hill side The concourse side, I made a start on the ticket office side before moving, and the arches have all been cut out but a long way to go yet. and that just leaves the Livery Street side. Finally I've been trying to decipher the platform signs which hung at end side of the concourse on the original Snow Hill, I've got two decent photos of the one for London bound trains but only one photo of the one for North bound trains. I've guessed most of the destinations but two remain a puzzle, I think they are "Manchester" and "Crewe", but I wasn't aware that those towns were served by the GWR, of course it could have been through trains. A colleague whose father travelled from the station has said her father thinks I'm right but if anyone can give confirmation I'd be grateful. Regards Rovex Edit - having just checked my reference material, it lloks like the hotel was faced in white brick (###### ), so I might spray it all white again and then give it plenty of dirty black washes for the soot, more so perhaps on the brickwork. If I do I'll leave the back brick colour as the Victorians tended to user cheaper materials round the back where it didn't show. ###### again.

Sorry to hear about the job, Wollaston. I got made redundant 18 months ago and it took me six months to find a new job, hopefully your search won't be so long. Modelling kept me sane ( well watching daytime television wasn't going to do it) and I got quite a bit done on the layout. Only shame was that when I found a new job it was over a hundred miles away from my old home and so I had to dismantle it all. Hope you find something closer to home. Rovex

once again absolutely superb. Rovex

Thanks Tornado. I'm obviously too trusting, I'm not so bothered about thefts because there's no rear access to the garden but better safe than sorry. Rovex

Not much modelling to report as over the last week or so we've been moving house. This house at least is ours (well mainly the bank's) and so I can start proper modelling. Well I could if I actually had somewhere to build the layout. For the time being the railway is all in boxes in storage, whilst I save up to build a big shed at the bottom of the garden. Site of the new shed (hopefully) Till then and once the house has stopped looking like a furniture repository, I can carry on building. Rovex

Thanks Guys. Means a lot Gerry that someone who knew the station appreciates it. As for the signalling Horsetan. lets just say I'm trying not to think about it too much at the moment. Although I do like the idea of the North Signal box on its girder stilts - but I'm trying not to get distracted. Thanks again guys. Rovex

Thanks David. Be good to see some photos of your layout sometime. Rovex

Thanks Tim, make sure to post some photos of your engine when its done. Rovex

Heres a few photos of the concourse as mocked up. Its made from 80 thou plastic sheet, supported beneath by 80 thou strips cut 10 mm wide. On top of this will go scribed paving to bring it up to the level of the building and metcalfe cobbles for the road surface. And here's one of the main entrance to the GWR offices Well, back to work Rovex

Looks good - hope to see it out on the exhibition circuit sometime rovex

I've started work on the back of the old hotel at Snow Hill, unfortunately I've found very few photos of the back wall of the concourse (plenty - well enough - of the ticket office side and the two side walls but not the back) so i'm winging it a bit, but at least I know what the back wall looks like above the glazed roof By the way the plasticard is that blue colour, I've not painted yet 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

Clever idea with the Airfix trussing. I bought a lot of these kits for the junction station on my old layout but never got around to building them. Had been wondering how to use them on my new project to produce something with a GW flavour. Again - well done. Rovex

Thanks Mikkel, I don't think I've got any real tricks for cutting out the plastic sheet, the usual, very sharp blades (I generally use a stanley knife rather than a scalpel or excel blade) and don't cut too deeply to start with, mark sure you put plenty of pressure on the ruler and not too much on the knife otherwise the ruler slides away and takes the knife with it. With the large sheets of plasticard I tend to give it a sanding first, which may help prevent slipping but I do it more because it means the pencil actually leaves a mark on the card. The arches are started using a compass like device I obtained from an art shop, has a knife blade on one end and is intended for cutting out circles in card. Great however for cutting perfect circles in thin plasticard and give a good start in thicker card by scribing the circle allowing you to use a craft knife with a fine blade (not the stanley knife this time) to slowly par away the material till you reach the scribed line. When it comes to cutting out window frames (I'm going to be using a lot of the ones from the kit for this building but will have to make some), I try to make the frame as exact a match for the window opening as possible. Whilst I love the etch ones that can be bought, I tend to find that I can be a bit clumsy cutting windows openings which then means the etch is too small for the opening, leaving an unrealistic amount of frame exposed. I'm very impressed with your modelling on your Farthing thread/blog and the painting is beyond anything I could hope to achieve - keep up the good work. Regards 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

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

Thanks Gerry Sorry to hear about your injuries - i won't say accident as that would probably be to rub salt into the wound. Thanks for the link to Steve Williams thread on RMWeb3 I hadn't seen those photos, and theres some useful shots there. Nor had I heard of the Kidderminster RM book so will have to try to find a copy. I don't know if you've seen this site http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://farm1.static.flickr.com/109/268595791_1f6d0b8b4d.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/loose_grip_99/268595791/&usg=__yFO1_U-8j_Jp3HpSlA9OtRYGdIQ=&h=332&w=500&sz=140&hl=en&start=13&itbs=1&tbnid=bjwvvC1P036-sM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbirmingham%2Bsnow%2Bhill%2Bstation%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den One of the things that had been vexing me, was the taxi ramps either side of the station as these just seem to go nowhere. I had assumed that there must be some means of crossing the line, i.e going up one side and down the other, but my investiagtions at Birmingham Library shows that there did indeed go nowhere at all. Does make me wonder how on earth there was room to turn the cabs round and then pass each other on the way down. The crinkly bits on the building didn't worry me so much as my low boredom fresh-hold, Whilst I like scratchbuilding I know what I'm like for starting things and not finishing them. So I thought bashing about a kit would give me something different and speed up construction before I had a chance to be distracted by something else. Its going to be a long project in any event as I first have to build somewhere to store it - and thats dependent on my house purchase going through as referred to elsewhere on here. So the intention at the moment is to build bits at a time, whilst i hone my bricklaying skills. I had given some thought to the overall roof, There's a Birmingham firm which does brass etching to order (http://www.graingeandhodder.com/) and this might be a useful firm to get some large girder sections, roof bracing and the glazed end panels made. I was thinking of using the ratio canopies for the platforms, these are really quite narrow, but a good representation of the style used. The track plan will of course have to brutally cut down, i'd like to keep the crossover points on the main platforms but might have to see whether I can get these made. I've worked out that it is possible to keep the full number of platforms in a width of about 2 1/2 foot or so, but this doesn't allow for much scenery either side. And I quite fancy reinstating the traverser which I think was taken out of commission in about 1930 or so. The main scenic elements would be at the station end - where the tracks will curve away under the tunnel straight into the fiddle yard and at the other end where current thinking is to treat the slow and fast lanes as two separate main lines diverging away from the station through the usual industrial landscape - unlike the real thing where I believe the tracks all stayed together- the tracks would reconverge before entering the fiddleyard, with a potential branch line running into the old Milchester station (from my previous layout) which would be located above the fiddleyard - Milchester and Brackhampton sharing the same City/town centre - just to confuse the locals. Anyway thats the plan - lol (or should that be hysterical laughter) Rovex

Looking good. I've got one of these stored away somewhere, will certainly be trying this when it eventually comes out of the box. Rovex

As one does when you don't have a railway I've been thinking about what to build next, I want to utilise as much of the saved buildings from the old railway as possible, so this would mean it has to be quite a size, (so hopuse hunting has been a bit difficult what with prices in Redditch being somewhat higher than my backwater in Leeds. So as well as a house that has room for large Victorian furniture, I also need a large garage, or play room or a garden big enough to allow me to build one and still allow Kevin room to have the dog he's always wanted. Being so close to Birmingham my thoughts turned to Snow Hill (nothing like being ambitious and to be honest I was somewhat inspired by this thread from the old RMweb (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=40583) called Solsbury Hill but based on the pre 1908 Snow Hill - actually I'd love to know how this is coming along) I spent Saturday in Birmingham City Archives seeing what plans they have of Birmingham Snow Hill. The answer seems to be very little - Railways apparently being exempt from the old planing process. Any model would be very loosely based on it - thus Brackhampton and not Birmingham - that and my love for Agatha Christie novels. I've got plenty of photos and plans for the platform buildings I was trying to find something useful about the Ticket Hall and Station Hotel as well as tryiung to understand the layout of the offices and access roads above the station. I've only got a few photos. I'm stuck between scratch building the hotel or kit bashing the Vollmer Kit for the Palais apartments (3775). I intend using one of the faller train sheds for the roof of the ticket hall This is the Vollmer kit and this is the real thing it's not a bit like the real thing, but i hoped if I increased the height of the ground floor, added a few columns to the end bays, stretched out the middle, got rid of those rather nasty bay windows and removed the roof and those great curved dormers adding an extra storey to the ends and those rather trade mark chimneys I might be able to make something that would at least have the right scale and be passable, well at least in the dark with the lights off. If anyones got some decent photos or better still access to plans - I understand that BR sold most of them off in the 80's I'd be grateful. I think I've probably got most of whats readily available - (two books specifically about Snow Hill and of course that textbook on GWR architecture which has a very comprehensive section on the platform buildings) Cheers Rovex

Whilst I collect the bits and pieces necessary to have a go at bashing together a Saint class loco, I thought I'd pull out the articulated stock. These are ca couple of photos of the job so far - as u can see not much progress made. This is one half of the set - brake, third and compo, the rest is a mirror image, its been rested on the bogies for the moment. I really need to decide how close to put them and this will depend on the eventual radius of the layout when built. Still a lot of work to do as the photos I think make obvious. On a different note, I've now sold my old house in Leeds, and we've had an offer accepted on one here in Redditch. Its not big enough for a railway, but it has a massive garden - well massive for a semi anyway and so funds and time permitting I should be able to build a huge shed in the garden - fingers crossed. Rovex