Blog- Up the Line - 1918 - Not sitting on the fence.

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Have now given up sitting on the fence (too painful!), and am getting on with the railings for the big building which has been on hold since Christmas. Yes, that does mean that the Simplex is on hold in a semi working state but think I need a bit of a change. I am working from a couple of original pictures for this building so have a general look for the railings but do not feel obliged to copy them completely, which would be pretty difficult anyway from a couple of grainy pics. So to get something that looked right I thought I would go out and find some railings - not as easy as it sounds! The local 1940 scrap for tanks committee (or whatever they were called), must have been particularly enthusiastic as after keeping my eyes open for a couple of weeks didn't manage to spot anything that wasn't modern. Then when I stopped looking realised that I pass this twice a day on school run.

 

 

 

So with some real dimensions I set about drawing up a plan in PhotoShop and printed a few out. It was then that my super scale intentions hit a problem. I had intended to drill a flat strip with a row of holes for the uprights, I knew it wouldn't be easy but I wasn't banking on impossible! Getting the drill to start by itself was a non starter, counter punching just bent the strip if it was to be done to any useful degree, layer of masking tape and a quick prod with a scribe just about worked. But.... having got a row of holes the strip was so bendy it was next to useless. Am sure that thicker material would help and if I was really going for it etching the holes on the strip would be the way forward. So, what I have settled for is just a horizontal bay on one side. Now, anyone just looking at this would probably say it looked OK but now I have told you all you will all be pointing it out! Here is the first panel being soldered up over the drawing, held in place with double sided tape;

 

 

 

Note the little jig I made up for cutting the bars to the same length. Almost finished;

 

 

 

And one panel finished except for the fact that I have decided to add a third horizontal at the top to make them a bit posher like in the photo. Have made three now which is about half way there.

 

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