Saturday 31 March 2012

A Gaggle of Huts.

Idling away my time the other evening produced some small iron huts for Teignford.
All are from published drawings in various publications. They range from the humble lamp huts, on the left to larger stores.
The only problem is how to curve the roofs. On Hennock, I cheated and rolled them with the corrugations. However, I wanted to get a little better with these so the plasticard, from which they are made, had to be heated up to form a gentle curve. The small huts were no problem but I slightly melted the large roof. But with real life showing some degredation in use, this doesn't appear too bad- What do you think?

Thursday 29 March 2012

At long last the Nameboard.

At long last Teignford will have a name!
I have searched high and low for my 3mm lettering and finally found it.
Safely sandwiched between some plastic moulded brick arches, I have lost count of the number of times I have looked in that box.
However, these Slaters letters are just the right size for GW station running in boards- indeed examples of my work exist on Hennock and Nigel Cullimores St Levan.
Easy to clean up whilst still on the sprue,and with a guide line scored on black plasticard, it's just a matter of detaching each letter and , after lining up, a swift lick of MEK and it's done.
The surround is lengths of square microstrip cut to size and applied in the same way- Time taken? About 30minutes.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Platform Fencing

Some things are better done when there is a few minutes to spare. Such a job is to firstly add some posts to the excellent GW platform fencing supplied by John Bateman through the 3mm Society. It comes as you see it- with two 215mm pieces finely etched. I added the posts with superglue and when cured hand painted it with Humbrol No 1 undercoat. When dry a coat of Precision Paints Light Stone was applied.I ahve an assortment of paint brushes. This is definitely a job for the cheaper variety as etched brass of this type will damage the bristles. It si nigh impossible to take the sharpness off such a fine etch.
Todays top tip- Paint these type of things on greaseproof paper. It wont stick and will add a little paint to tother side making life a little easier. Plus you wont find it stuck to something in the morning.

Sunday 25 March 2012

Water Crane.

This is one of those kits (if you can call it that) you can make in a few idle minutes.
I picked it up from the Secondhand Stall some time ago for a few pence.Made some years ago by Mikes Models,I think it captures the look of the prototype perfectly.
Comprising of five parts, the main pipework comes as one piece, plus a base, drain and funnel.The support wire on top appears to be nickel silver, the rest is cast white metal.
Superglue was the chosen adhesive, a quick undercoat and then the colours you see applied.
It will stand slightly in front of the Engine Shed with the drain and funnel.
Took longer to type this than make the kit actually! Oh, and about five minutes to paint if you take out drying times.