I join the ranks of the great artists.

Backhanded Compliment?

The other day, someone described my modelling as 'Impressionist. I'm not sure if it was intended to be an insult or a compliment, but I quite like the idea.

Tiles - large and small

 This weekends achievements 

More work on the Tudor tavern.

I made the roofs out of Daler board - I almost got the angles right - and spent Saturday afternoon sticking on small rectangles of cereal packet card. Individual tiles give a roof a totally different look than the tile strip method, I feel the individual tiles are more in keeping with an ancient and slightly run down village tavern.

I can't help wondering if I should have made the chimneys and stuck them in place before tiling the roof, never mind, the flashing will hide the joints, I hope.

I've had a bright idea for the barge boards - more on that later.

Jump to next installment.

I also made up over a metre of platform from scribed foamboard. I shall pop down to the club later and stick it down.

Narrow gauge platforms

This weekends achievements 

Around four feet of foamboard  loading dock for the club 0n16.5 narrow gauge.
I had to make it in three sections as I was bound to snap it into at least two bits getting it to the club.

As usual, the photography is a bit cruel - I really should improve my camera techniques. Maybe I'll give the sides a little tickle around with the old airbrush, and a bit of 'undergrowth' to be added once the platform is in situ on the layout.

I spent Saturday afternoon building and Sunday morning painting, now I'm off to Fleetwood exhibition to admire other peoples no doubt superior efforts.

The wagon is a Smallbrook Studios Glyn Valley box van, a bargain at twelve quid (+ a Dapol wagon chassis)

More on the Tudor tavern

The previous part of this project is here

Click here for the first part of this project.

So far so good, all windows are made up and installed, and the shell is lightly glued together.

The original test piece which I wasn't at all happy with, was resurrected and used for the back wall. I did this by by spraying over with white and after cutting out the white panels painting the 'woodwork' black as I did for the front elevation.

I decided to jetty out the front gable, I also added a downstairs window and changed the upstairs window in the gable for one with more suitable glazing bars.

Doors are made from Daler board, scribed and with microstrip detailing. The iron rivets are dots of pva glue.

As I'm going to fit some lighting, I've added some internal black card masking and the next job is to add some internal strengtheners and think about how the roof will be.

More to come

Jump to next installment

Tools

Foamwerks straight/bevel cutter

I used to cut 45 degree bevels by hand and eye, but not anymore since I bought one of these little gadgets. Just over eight quid from America, it cuts perfect 90 degree right angles or 45 degree bevels in foam with ease and grace and most importantly, safety.

Recommended.

A Tudor style tavern.

This isn't going to be a quick project, I've already spent some time making experimental test pieces to find the best method (for me) of making this building.

What follows is an account of how I'm going about it. 

I usually build the complete shell - sans roof - before painting the brickwork, but this time I decided to complete one side  before proceeding with the others

Here is the front elevation of the tavern marked out and ready to paint. I'll let you into a secret, I've been here before, and painted it using the logical method, The black woodwork followed by filling in the white wattle & daub panels then the brickwork. Hmmm, doesn't really look very good, and it's really difficult for me to keep the white paint off the black - touch up the black... Hmmm, it's really difficult for me to keep the black paint off the white... Still not good enough - Start again

Next attempt, I decided to cut out completely all the white panels, but first I sprayed the whole side with powder grey acrylic. Once properly dry, I tickled out the white squares and windows with a scalpel - It's easier than it sounds - Then after marking them on the back, so I'd know where they came from, I painted the woodwork part of the remaining fret a nice dark brown/almost black. The most humane way to do this is with an airbrush.

I left the door in at this point to retain some strength in the foam fret.

Here is the foam fret with the white panels removed, sprayed black and a first dry brushing of some brick colour

The next step was to replace all the white panels in their correct places leaving out the window positions of course. To hold them in position, I backed up the whole side with black card. This serves two purposes, it stiffens up the whole side and as I`m going to fit the building with lighting, it makes the side light tight.

Below is the side with all panels replaced and a start made on making and fitting the windows.

One of the great advantages of wooden framed buildings is that they are generally both ancient and organic. This means that they move and settle over time with the result that frames are often not parallel and windows and doors are rarely square. Some of these old buildings twist and lean alarmingly, so if, during marking out or cutting, things get a bit squiffy, it doesn't matter so much.

The windows are made using a variant of my usual method. A card frame stuck to OHP film using banner tape. The film is printed with a diamond pattern to represent the cames of the leaded glass. A second frame is added on top of the card to give the window a little more depth.

More to follow.

Jump to next installment

Airbrush hints and tips

Cleaning

If you have this kind of inexpensive suction feed airbrush, you'll know what a pain it is to clean the feed tube. Here's a little tip to make it simple.

Get a disposable plastic dropper pipette and cut off the end so that the remainder is a nice fit over the airbrush feed tube, when it's cleaning time, a little warm water or thinners in the pipette, hold the brush upside down  whilst spraying into a rag, and Bob's yer uncle.

Another little tip, instead of forking out ten or twelve quid on a superdooper airbrush cleaning vessel, get a big coffee jar and make a hole in the lid. Be careful with naked flames if you are using volatile thinners.

Here's a photo of mine relaxing in the conservatory and sporting my trusty (and nearly 40 year old) badger 100.

Coaling up

Coaling stage

I came across this little 4mm scale yard crane in a pile of 'old stuff' at the club. It needed a few repairs but was essentially all there, and as we are needing some form of coaling stage for the narrow gauge part of the layout, I figured it would do for 7mm scale for hoicking buckets of the black stuff onto the footplates of the little engines.

The timber staith and stone platform are made from foamboard offcuts, and the coal is graded cat litter. To be truthful, nothing looks like real coal except real coal, but cat litter painted with black acrylic comes close enough for me.

All we need now is a couple of buckets, a chain and maybe a new hook, and some steps for the crane operator to be able to climb up onto the platform, and it's ready to plant.