I am new to the model railway and was drawn straight away to the idea of narrow gauge. My first layout is a freelance model set in South Wales. My problem at the moment is trying to recreate the stone finish found on buildings in that area ie. I have looked at Wills etc but all the stone seems more like Cotswold type. I have started a small station building as a trial using foamboard and filler with hand scribed stone work but still not 100% happy with the result. Any other ideas ??
I'd have thought that it was the colour of the stone, not the bonding pattern, that determined the location for a stone building. Wills do 3 types of stone, and from memories of stone buildings in the Welsh valleys (Taff & Rhondda), the stone block wills sheet (not the dressed front or random types) would do the trick, especially painted a darker grey (weathered to almost black in some areas).
Equally, as a building material brick is cheaper than stone, and even if your line had a free source of building stone (from a cutting or tunnel on the route) it may have made better financial sense to sell it for someone else's project (town hall, church, etc.) and buy bricks.
Hope that helps
I think it depends on the nature of the building and its location. Many traditional buildings in South Wales are or were rendered. Sometimes this was done for practical weatherproofing reasons and sometimes for appearance sake such disguising the humble origins of a building. A particular fashion was for rendering with very prominent quoins and lintels. Mock ashlar is also found on old buildings that were given a classical makeover, sometimes just crude lines scraped in the render. Sometimes rendering has been removed in more recent times to pander to the tourists and the "ye olde worlde" appearance. This is apparent where I now live (NE Scotland) and it is obvious why the building was "harled" in the first place - to disguise extensions or raising of the roofline. It is many years since I was a teenager in Wales, but one thing that sticks in my mind is the old houses that had tar poured over the slates to weatherproof them!
There is a range of styles shown here and its links from one of my old haunts:
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://frysingerreunion.org/uk/wales2109.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.galenfrysinger.com/wales_carmarthen.htm&usg=__NdQTtZ7TkSTfgH_Hwb0RTQQcbKA=&h=564&w=720&sz=179&hl=en&start=5&sig2=3_sXJ5jXc7QPeLnCkV2w1w&um=1&tbnid=s9hsIP9UeSRYiM:&tbnh=110&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcarmarthen%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1&ei=qgQcSuKCBNLR-QaP1YXQDg (http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://frysingerreunion.org/uk/wales2109.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.galenfrysinger.com/wales_carmarthen.htm&usg=__NdQTtZ7TkSTfgH_Hwb0RTQQcbKA=&h=564&w=720&sz=179&hl=en&start=5&sig2=3_sXJ5jXc7QPeLnCkV2w1w&um=1&tbnid=s9hsIP9UeSRYiM:&tbnh=110&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcarmarthen%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1&ei=qgQcSuKCBNLR-QaP1YXQDg) (sorry about the link)
If you want the archetypal neat random or semi-coursed rubble appearance, you'll have your work cut out! I have seen excellent stonework results on a Dutch layout where the maker peeled the paper from one surface of plasterboard and scribed individual stones, but many of the stones shown in the first photo would be tiny in 4 mm. 8 or 10 mm plasterboard is just about the right thickness for stone walls.
May I recommend "Houses in the Landcape" by John Penoyre. This is an excellent layman's guide to all aspects of vernacular architechture in England and Wales. Well illustrated with both photographs and line drawings, it gives a readable exposition on all manner of building materials, be it stone, brick or wood. My favourite bit comes in the section on roofing materials, with an explanation of the original limited spread of the use of pantiles.
And with apologies to Julien, there are regional differences in stone bonding. The many different regional brick sizes and bonding methods are also covered.
A good s/h copy can be obtained via a well known South American river.
As modellers we need to pay more attention to vernacular architecture, as it sets the locale as much as landscape. This is the basis of my unease with Skaledale which is a random mish-mash of buildings from all over the realm, which in reality would never be found in proximity.
many thanks to all of you for your advice and tips. My parents live in South Wales and have sent me photos of the house and surrounding buildings and I have also managed to get hold of some colour pictures of Merthyr. I will crack on with the trial station and see how this goes when fully painted.
Regards