chaz

Wow! Thanks Rob. You've convinced me. Convert to 7mm? Chaz

Thanks for the reassuring comment, Two Tone! Maybe in a day or two, having moved on I will look again at yesterday's results and like 'em more. Now, where's the DAS......? Chaz

You know that feeling when you have spent absolutely ages doing some fiddly task, and then you stand back to admire the result and think "Oh dear, is that what I wanted? Does that work?" Well...........

Another busy day yesterday. I planked the ramp. Lots of ply' strips cut to width on the Proxxon circular saw. Scissors to cut the strips to length. Pencil guide lines drawn on the foamboard base to help keep the planks parallel and to mark where the "joints" will be. Canopy support columns unplugged to get them out of the way. Fine nozzle PVA bottle to apply small amounts - an excess oozing out would not do. Later I added the anti-slip battens to the ramp and to the slope up to the end loading dock. The sort of job that really does make you feel that you've taken leave of your senses! I also gave the office cabin a second coat of buff and some green on the "skirting board". The windows and door also got their first coat of green. I put the canopy back on so that I could see how it all looks. The small lorry is there to give an idea of how much room there is between the ramp and the office. It's certainly tight! Next task in this area (which I have been dodging, as it's a bit daunting) is to do the setts off the end of the ramp and around the siding in the foreground, which is to be inset. Chaz

Thanks for the kind comment. I used Winsor & Newton black drawing ink, diluted with lots of water and then put on with a #2 brush. (EDIT - I should have said that's really only traces of the ink so the mix looks like dirty water) I only mixed up a little at a time and this gave rise to the slight (?) variations in tone. If you are going to do this be careful not to get any PVA on the top surface - it seals the wood and prevents the ink soaking in, giving rise to very obvious "bare" patches. Of course if this does happen a little enamel paint might retrieve the situation. When the ink is dry I sand the planks (always along the grain!) with fine glasspaper. This gives a worn-smooth effect and produces the occasional worn-clean bit if the end of a board is slightly raised. Chaz

Quite so, Peter. In fact it's usually made worse by the average modeller (and that definitely describes me) who, given more space, will just try to get more in. "If only I had another foot/metre/couple of yards....." Chaz

Well Don, there's not a lot of room anywhere on Dock Green. I have been forced into all manner of compromises by the inescapable fact that 16 feet by 2 feet is just not big enough for the yard - I just hope for a convincing look, with not too many obvious faux pas. However I will be erecting one of those low "fences" made of old rail to protect the cabin from careless lorry drivers! As for the idea of backing up lorries to the platform - that happens off the edge of the baseboard.......

Thanks for the suggestion Peter. In fact last night, as a test, I cut a few 1mm wide strips of 0.8mm ply'. Using a scalpel with a heavier blade (#26) they are easy enough to cut, if a bit tedious (I need quite a few). So I have decided to board the ramp and put a batten in the centre of every board. I know that 1mm wide is possibly oversize to scale, but I doubt my ability to cut them any thinner! If I sand the battens after glueing them on, so that the edges are rounded a little, they ought to end up looking well used. WTS. Chaz

Had a pretty intensive day's work on Dock Green yesterday.... I finished adding the boarding to the "concourse" area. This fits closely around the office and so locates it. I also spent most of the evening adding the staining. The sort of job which I just press on with to get it out of the way. Not sure how to finish the ramp up onto the concourse (the large white area between the two columns). I was going to board this as well but a friend suggested that if it were wet neither horses nor lorries would find enough grip to get up it. So if I do put planks down I will need to add some closely spaced battens. Problem with these is that to look convincing they will only have to be about 1mm wide - my Proxxon circular saw will not cope with this fine a cut - so I would have to cut strips of 0.8mm ply' with a scalpel. I'm not sure whether this is really practical - I know it can be done as I have tried to cut a couple, BUT it will take a long time..... I could use thin card for the battens but that would leave me the problem of how to finish them to make them look like the wood surface they are fastened to. Not easy. The alternatives are to finish the ramp as if it were tarmac or to continue the stone sets that will be at the bottom of the ramp up to the top. Chaz

Thanks, Don. Sometimes it pays to just get on with it! (Of course it's easier to do this when it goes well.....).

Thanks for comment. As soon as I cut the card I thought platform kiosk too - I hope the effect will disappear when the window frames go in. Also the green and cream paint will help, I seem to remember all the kiosks were varnished wood. Chaz

I have spent some time today putting the woodwork onto the shell of the goods office. I used some fine spruce sections for the lintles and sills and (inevitably) my favourite 0.8mm ply' for the planking. The woodwork will be painted in the BR (E) scheme of green and cream. Now I need to give some thought to the detail work for the interior (that might take a while....) Chaz

I have added another pillar as the overhanging corner looked wrong. I needed to refit the canopy to do this so I took the chance to try the office under it... I think it looks OK, or at least it will when I finish it. I may fit it with lights as a way of drawing attention, but this will mean I will have to do the interior properly (desks, chairs or stools, noticeboards, a clock, maybe a stove - could be fun!). Incidentally, I am making all the scenery (buildings, retaining walls, bridges etc) removeable as the baseboards have to be stacked away in a corner of a room and they would take up far too much space if everything were fixed in place. The only items which are fixed are the platforms and the canal and the bridges over it. Chaz

I didn't want the "concourse" area underneath the goods platform canopy to be too plain so I decided to try a cabin/office against the back wall. First step was to make a mock-up in card just to see how it would go..... ....as you can see there is plenty of room for it. The etched door and windows have been in a drawer for years - I've had them so long I have no idea who produced them. I think a foreman might well lurk in an office like this and would need lots of windows so he could keep an eye on what was going on.... having made the mock up in card I decided the shell of the actual model could be made the same way. I used artist's mounting board (I bought a pack of offcuts from a local picture framer for next to nothing). Here I have stuck the walls to the ceiling with PVA and am using G cramps and wooden blocks to keep the joints pushed together while the glue sets. I find that if I didn't do this the natural springiness of the card made the joints keep separating. The card was scored quite deeply so that the bends would form neatly. The "V" shaped groove is no problem as I intend to cover the shell with planking. This photo shows the complete shell, walls ceiling and floor, glued up and tried in position. Of course I don't have to give the office any sort of roof as it will be covered by the canopy. Beyond the office you can see that I have been busy adding boards to the top surface. In the foreground I have a short ramp boarded so that the end of that siding becomes an end loading dock. I won't be finishing the boarding until I have finished planking the office, as I want the planks to fit around it hiding any slight gap at the base and locating it in position. Chaz

Just had a look at the image from your link and....... that's the colour! Now all I need is a "recipe" to do this shade in gloss enamel, Hmmmmmmmmm................... Chaz

Having looked at the warehouse end of Dock Green here are some views of the other (very unfinished) end. This is dominated by the canopy over a goods platform. The platform is really far too narrow, the real things were usually pretty generous to allow for access with carts and later lorries, the stacking of goods items and plenty of working room. I have had to compromise here, as with so much else on the layout, to get it into the available space. Above is a general view. The platform has a planked top surface. This is from my favourite 0.8mm plywood stained with diluted drawing ink and sanded with fine glasspaper to produce "wear" highlights on any odd corners of planks which are slightly proud, exactly the places where wear would show on the real thing. The brass columns will be painted later. The siding the wagon is standing on is to be inset into the yard surface with stone setts from DAS (hence the card packing between the sleepers). The setts will cover the area from the white strip of foamboard to the edge of the baseboard, and from the foot of the platform ramp towards the camera and beyond the edge of the photo. A close-up of a section of the roof. The top surface is Slater's corrugated plastic cut into sheet sized pieces, with Peco trackpins to represent the fixing bolts. The ridges are thin card creased along the centre and then glued in place. The dark grey enamel paint has been treated to a patchy application of talc and some “dark rust†dry brushed here and there. The vertical surfaces are 0.8mm ply' (yet again!) stained with dilute black drawing ink and thinly painted with grey enamel to produce a patchy, weather-beaten finish. I need to add some "flashing" (probably thin dark grey card) to the planks below the ends of the valleys, as rainwater would otherwise make short work of these. I included a couple of wagons in this view to give a sense of scale; the platform tracks will both accommodate six four-wheel wagons. The broad area of white board in the foreground will be given the planked treatment, but I don't think the ramp would be boarded, both horses and lorries might struggle with the slope if it were wet! I may well go for a tarmac effect on the ramp. I will be adding more timberwork to the platform edge on the end of the front siding to make it an end loading dock. Should there be a board (a soffit?) under the overlap of the corrugated top surface, sloping down the angle of the roof? The end wall under the canopy will have a bay-window style office projecting onto the area seen behind the GWR fruit van. I will put in another support column – that projecting corner looks decidedly unsupported. I may also add a length of gutter and a downpipe for the exposed edge of the projection. There's a lot to do! Chaz

Good suggestion Dave. Not sure what would be polluting the Grand Union in North London, apart from the odd pram and dead moggie....... Chaz

I will be happy if my canal looks anything like as good as this! So a piece of painted board (MDF doesn't have any grain...) with lots of varnish layers it is......but my search is still on for the correct colour shade for an urban canal (yours looks excellent for a river). My part of Hampshire is not blessed wiith canals - it's rather a long time since the Itchen Navigation had any water in it! (or rather the bits with water still in have reverted to being part of the river....) Maybe a Google and a look in the library for canal books.....WTS Chaz

Thanks Dave. I have used the Wills cobbles for a 7mm layout in the past. As the sheets aren't that big I ended up with a lot of joints. Still, I agree with you, they seem to scale just about right for 7mm. Chaz

That's a huge area of setts, and looks very neat. I'm impressed. Chaz

Yes indeed, but thanks for the link. Unfortunately his uniform is out of period for Dock Green - late fifties/early sixties - but he might do at a pinch. I'm not an expert on the constabulary in London, so I don't know how much the uniform changed. EDIT - SILLY ME I just found.... Omen - British policeman, post 1947 Ref: OMA064P now, he would be ideal. chaz

I found the article you refer to Don. it is indeed by Philip Harvey and is in issue #164. It's an interesting read, detailing several attempts (some of them he notes as failures) to portray water. In his closing sentence he says that he intends to redo his canal with a painted surface with several layers of varnish added. In the article he rejects clear acrylic as unconvincing. So next task is to find, or mix, that shade of yellowy green that might be called "opaque canal" Chaz

I wouldn't say that was cheating Phil. However DAS appeals to me because it allows more variety in the pattern, spacing, etc. I will give it a go but embossed plastic sheet could be a useful fall back..... Chaz

Good point. However, as so often with models, it's often better to do what looks right rather than follow slavishly what is exactly to scale. They are not always the same thing! Chaz

Thanks for that advice Rob, much appreciated. I will give both wet impression and dry scribing a try - it may be that a light impression from a press tool that marks out an area followed up with the scribing technique will be a good method - I'm a convinced "try it out and see" person. You will notice in my photo that the gaps between the setts (what would be called mortar courses in brickwork) look quite generous. I note your comment about thickness - I wasn't intending to go quite as thin as 0.5mm but it's reassuring to know that very thin layers will adhere without cracking. I will coat the surface with PVA as you suggest. I will test thoroughly before moving on to the yard surface on Dock Green, and that includes the card packing, which will itself be glued down firmly with PVA. WTS Chaz