Part 36 – The new building……

Hiya,

Not much done today just the carving for the fourth building!

The original plan has changed slightly, i am now putting a large shed door in the front of the building as well as i want to put in a fully kitted out workshop and have the doors open so it can all be seen.

So i started out by drawing out the sections to be carved and glueing them to the board.

Then i added a surround of balsa wood 5mm thick

Then after casting with javis plaster I left it to semi dry for an hour then sat for three hours and carved all the stone work. Then when completly dry i broke the balsa away and carefully lifted the sections. I then glued these onto there black foamcard backings.

Nikki,

Part 35 – Getting there ……. slowley

Hiya,

Today finally finished the basic paintwork in the corners, popped in the windows and did some more landscaping. First i painted the little water tank and the glued this and the seat into place. I then laid scenics around them and tryed to make them look like they have been there for a long while.
First some pictures of the tank, it was made from plastic bits from my bits box, some lime wood and some carved plaster for the bases. It was painted first in dark green then blackwashed and finally drybrushed first in brown then in rust and then drybrushed with white and grey.

This was placed next to the seat and i built grasses and flowers around it using noch long grass and bits of multi coloured foam.

I then painted the little platform with flat white from vallejo.

This was then washed with a wash made from a spot of black enamel in a mix of plastic weld and thinners. These two chemicals eat into the paint and wood when dried quickly with a hairdryer.

When this wash was still tacky i started to brush over various browns and greys so that parts were covered with colour and parts were not this gives a faded and worn wood effect.

When this was dry i built the rest of the colours up with black washes and brown and grey drybrushes.
Finaly it was glued into place and the scenics built around and over it to embed it in place and make it part of the scenery.

I then decided to change the height of the fence section that sits on the end of the platform. I wasnt happy with this when i made it as i thought it was to high and looked out of place. So i made it about 1.5 cms shorter. I feel it now looks far better. It was first sprayed with grey primer then painted with Games workshop bleached bone before being blackwashed and drybrushed in grey and brown. i picked the detail parts out in bronze and drybrushed them in black.

It was then glued into position

The street lamp was completed using a small end of a glue lid with a plastic top with bits out the bit box glued on it.

I then finished the roof for the third building again using a blue wash over light grey, then a black wash then finally a drybrush of light grey. Barge boards were painted black and drybrushed in white and grey.

I then fitted the doors and windows and the lamp made for this building.

I then finished the little areas that still needed the scenic touch.

Nikki

Part 34 – Basic building work finishes!!

Hiya,

Today i have managed to finish the paintwork on the bulk of two buildings. They still need to have all the super detailing added ( door handles etc ). First i finished the roofs on both buildings, using firstly two black washes then drybrushing in Games workshop Fortress grey. The ridge tiles were painted in terracotta, washed in black and drybrushed in grey.

The corrugated roof is painted with a rust brown then drybrushed heavily in grey. I then washed it in black and let it dry. Then i drybrushed it with various silvers, bronzes, browns and greens. When it had all dryed i drybrushed it again with the base brown and gave it a soft black wash.

I then turned my attention to the walls of the buildings that needed finishing and whilst they were drying i painted and finished the doors and windows ready to be glued in. the large wooden topped building has green doors which i really dirtyed up with various washes. I used white windows to off set the darkness of the scene. I find that using a much darker wall colour adds a lot of uncared for feeling to the model but you have to make sure that the buildings do have small areas of light colour that stand out.

The front of the smaller half releif building has proved to be the most difficult to finish. I have spent a long time with black and brown washes and light brown and grey drybrushes to finish it. I am pretty happy with the finish. Again the doors are in red but darkened down and the windows in white to lighten the model.

I also have nearly finished the next three bits if rolling stock.

Here are some pictures of the layout so far for you all to see.

I have also taken a couple of black & white to see if they look even slightly realistic……

Hope you all like …………………………….

Nikki

Part 33 – Some more rolling stock…..

Hiya,

all i have done this evening is make up some kits from KB Scale and paint the blue coat wash onto the roof of the larger building!

http://www.kbscale.com/

Fuel bowser and tank wagon – WA052b – £14.00

Flat wagon – WA070 – £5.50

Three more wagons to add to my slowly growing wagon collection. The three kits were acctually two as two wagons come as a set, the fuel bowser and tank wagon. I havent painted them yet that will be done tommorrow. So i thought id post some pictures of them in an unpainted state. These really are delightful kits to assemble.

The flat wagon…….Unbraked

The fuel bowser and tank wagon… The tank is weighted with a large lump of metal. I thought id post a few extra pictures of what you get in this kit etc…

The kit is really well detailed and made from a really decent plastic that responds well to plastic cements especially revell contacta….. Also you get all the parts in the bags to finish it

The instruction sheet is clear and precise

I filled the oil drums with a large lump of metal and some plastic filler to stop it moving about

The unpainted model

I also painted the roof of the larger building with a blue wash. This is needed to create the deep purple slate effect. Still needs a multitude of washs and drybrushing.

Nikki

Part 32 – Trying to make new look old……

Hiya all,

Sorry for not posting much this week at all. Been busy with various things and at the railway getting things ready for easter. Anyway. I have been making a start on getting colour into the buildings…

All the stone work / plaster work / brickwork was first painted with Halfords primer spray ( sprayed into a plastic cup and painted on ) this gives a really good and sealed surface to start work on. The Stone work was then painted grey with Games Workshop Fortress Grey. I then used the same method as used on the walls to add different colours to the stones. The only thing i havent done is to wash and “mortar” the wall mainly because ive run out of paint and havent had the time to go and get some more!

The building with the overhang is the first i will concentrate on. The base stoneblock work was done in the usual manner as was all blockwork in the broken plaster sections. The plaster work was first painted white then overlayed with a very pale pink. This allows there to be white ” plaster” showing through where sections of wall have fallen away. This has still to be mortared, washed and drybrushed.

The top wooden part was first painted white with a thickish coat of Vallejo White. This coat was to be uneven to allow the top colours to cover unevenly. When it had dried it was washed with a mixture of thinners and show polish. When that had dried out i then painted a thin layer of Games workshop black before drybrushing in white brown and grey. There is still much to do before this will be finished.

The largest building in the corner had the same treatment for its wood except i painted it with thin layers of rust brown from the humbrol acrylics range. I did this by cleaning most of the paint off the brush and then lightly painting the wood in an up and down motion following the panels. This allowed a partial covering of the rust brown over the white and thinners / shoe polish mix and made the whole area look old peeling and distressed. The door and window frames were painted black as was the edging and facia boards. They were then drybrushed with the entire building in grey and white.

Some close ups of the wood grain and finish.

Back in situ……
Sorry about the darkness of the pictures our front room lighting isnt very good !!

This building is still waiting for its stone work, roof and detailing to be finished….

The smallest building has had the least done to it ….. As it was all plaster there wasnt much to do except paint it. Its stone work has been picked out ready and the top section painted white then a sky blue ( this will darken down then get much lighter after weathering and finishing is done).

So still much to do on the buildings and of course this becomes time consuming due to having to wait for washes to dry……….. and me buying more paints!

Nikki

Part 31 – The Planting Begins…………

Now on to the scenics……….

The scenics are made from a mixture of Noch, Gaugemaster, Peco and various packets of ground scatter. I have treid to

create a look of overgrown but still used. The flowers are made using tiny bits of foam which are sprinkled over clumps of grass

randomly. I use a 60/40 PVA mix to lay the bulk gradually building the scenery over a few layers. Once I am happy with the

landscaping i spray a large amount of extra firm grip hairspray over the entire area to hold anything not already fixed by the

vast amounts of watery PVA down.

Overall landscaping ( the gap is for the platform to go into)

The tunnel heavily overgrown with many small flowers and plants. There will be more greenery around this structure in the

future consisting of Ivy and climbing plants but will not complete it until the building is complete and i have laid the fence and

ground layer on the second level.

The waste ground will have waste items and old rusty metal bits laying around on it. It will still be in use but just not looked after.

Some wagons in the landscape………..on the spur…

entering the tunnel

Nikki

Part 30 – The Great Paint…….. (prt1)

I have started to paint the ground and scenic sections now, even though i said i wasnt going to do it for a while…….anyway.

Firstly i cleaned the entire layout up using a large dry paintbrush and the vacumm cleaner then i got out all the paints and laid them out for ease of access…. then i was ready to get started.

first thing was to paint the wall sections and the cobbles with Games Workshop 61-53 Fortress Grey. I do this by painting over the tops of the stones – this starts to create a highlight of colours….

With the walls i then started to paint random bricks with Vallejo flat brown

then i used Games Workshop Graveyard Earth, Snakebite Leather, Codex Grey, RC412 Humbrol acrylic and a terracotta in that order to randomly pick out various stones in each section. This left me with a very coulorful wall…..

When it had dried off completly i mixed a Black wash using 2 x Brush loads of Games Workshop Chaos Black in 2 Tablespoons of water and painted this onto the wall sections allowing plenty to run into the cracks and to stain all the paintwork i had just completed.

Whilst this was drying off I painted the granite setts with RC412, Codex Grey and terracotta again randomly.

I then black washed this as well.

I had also painted the flat ground areas with Dulux Feature Wall Expresson Shot…. This was also blackwashed…..

Once everything had dried out i started with the overlays of colour. The first thing was to fill all the gaps in the walls with ” mortar”. This was done using 61-17 Bleached Bone from Games Workshop. The process i use for it is to paint it one forcing it into the cracks then quickly rubbing it off the stones with a bit of toilet
paper. This tones down the stones top and also fills the cracks simulating mortar. I then darken it all all down again slightly using a blackwash. This wash isnt applied to the entire section, I first clean half the mixture off the brush and then lightly brush it over the top of the stones to just wash the tops. Here is the
finished sections of the tunnel area close up.

I darken down the stones on the dock side one time more to acheive a darker and gloomier finish. at this point the wooden posts have not been finished.

I then started to colour and overlay the granite setts using a watered down Vallejo Middlestone. This allows slight amounts of “Sandy Mortar” to show through
the finish.

This was washed with black twice, left to dry, drybrushed with various browns and greys then washed with a very thin Games Workshop Bleached Bone.

Here you can see the effect the Yellowish brown has throu the overlays…..

I then carefully brushed fine and coarse gravel around the small section of track not encased in granite setts and after spraying it with water with a couple of drops of washing up liquid in it glued it down with a mixture of Evostick PVA glue and water 60/40.

I did this using a pipette and after i had added the glue i dripped a couple of drops of black wash in between each sleeper to darken down the ballast. Here it is once dried and prior to painting.

Nikki

Part 29 – Lighting the darkness……………

Hiya,

Havent posted for a few days as i have been busy with other things and so have been fitting

tumbledown wharf round other things……..

Anyway to bring you all upto date.

First there was the problem of the lamp for the platform. I found an old kit in my local modelshop of a

lamp for a larger scale. It was cast in white metal and the kits was far to out of scale for what i wanted.

However the base of the lamp was perfect and as it was only 2 pounds i decided to convert it. First i started to cut the post in half with a razor saw.

this left me with just the base of the original kit, the rest going into the parts box.

I then drilled out the inside of the base with a small drill

then after poking about in the bit box i found a section of OO gauge lamppost which is made from brass

tube. this i cut to the length i required

then with a larger drill bit i drilled a 5 mm deep hole into the post i had already drilled to hold the tube.
I then soldered it to the base section and cleaned it all up with a file.

I then fitted a grain of wheat bulb and heat shrunk it to the top of the post.

For the moment i havent thought any more about the top altho i have quite a few ideas…… more to

come at a future point on that one.

Nikki

Part 28 – Little Bits……..

Hiya,

as i had other things to do today, i havent done to much on tumbledown wharf. I have however made the smal sections of fencing up and the little water tank.
The little platform has two sections of fence so i grabbed the platform peice first.

I then took some slaters O gauge fencing and split it down to make it slightly shorter.

I then filed and drilled out holes to take the base pins in the platform

Next i cut a shorter section of fencing and added a thin section of plastic to the end of it. The other end i carefully filed to an angle before gluing it to the end of the ready fitted section.

I then did the same for the other side and added a gate to it. This is also made from slaters fencing with brass strip to make the handle, hinges and catch.

Close up on the details…..

I am still toying with the idea to break a couple of the wooden uprights and make the fence look older and uncared for.

I also found some old bits in the parts box and using these OO bridge sections i decided to make a small water butt to sit outside the building in the corner…

First i angled the sections to fit together then added a a base section from a bit of plastikard.

I then used some plastistrip to make the top edging before cutting a roughly sanding some wood sections to make the makeshift cover.

I then took some old sections of plaster and cut them to size with a razor saw. These i then carved to represent stone work.

These were glued under the water butt and using a section of white metal i formed a pipe which i glued into a hole drilled in the front of the butt. I used a small section of square plastikard and a brass strip with rounded corners to make a tap on the top of the pipe.

The two items placed in situation, nothing will be glued down yet as i still have to paint and finish them and the entire model.

Nikki

Part 27 – Plastered…….

Hiya,

I have finally plastered the whole ground section on one side of the layout now……

The setts were once again hand carved and carefully worked around the point area. The small section in between the blades will have a wooden section fitted in between them.

I have plastered the rest of the layout to match following the setts design all along the dock front.

the rest of the area is made up of a mix of setts and flat earth…. I have overrun the earth into the setts to give it all a more unkempt look.

I then cleaned out the track clearances and tested it with a wagon..

The section around the points i wanted to make look like it had been altered in the past and so i added the setts in sections which can be seen in this picture.

I then got the vacumn cleaner out and vacumned the massive amount of plaster dust out the corners and cracks all over the board leaving it all clean and ready for undercoating.

Then i undercoated it all using halfords grey spray primer ( which i spray into a plastic cup) painted on by brush instead of spraying. This is to allow me to keep it all in order as i build it. I use a spray paint with a brush because of its quick drying time and also the mix is thin enough to cover everything and get in every gap.

This ground part of the layout will stay this until i have finished the rest of the buildings and ground layer. This is so a finished section wont get covered in plaster dust. I might paint the track colour in though.

Nikki