Having just about completed the rolling stock building, my attention now turns to finishing the works water tower and tank. All it really needed was a second coat of paint, a bit of weathering and the details attaching. These two views show both sides. It is deliberately only half-modelled because it stands in the corner of the Llanmynach site and I wanted to allow light to get in behind it to try and avoid it leaving a shadow on the backscene.
The building is a composite structure. The tower follows my usual style of card construction, scribed and shaded to represent slate blocks. The tank was built from styrene sheet, a bit of Plastrut angle and some etched brass rivet strip. For ease of working the two sections were built to fit together, with the tank sides sitting in a slot inside the tower sides. You can see how I tried to allow as much light as possible into the building by shaping the angle strengtheners.
Inside and outside of the tower. One gives some detail as to how I do the windows using paper which in painted and cut into fine strips. The other shows the effect from the outside. The door handle is 20 thou styrene rod which is held close to a soldering iron just long enough to get the end to mushroom out. Once cool, it's fixed into a hole drilled with a no 76 drill.
More photos when it's all finished!
That's a substantial structure! I like the stonework you've scribed in, David.
Using a soldering iron to partially melt the styrene rod is interesting, I'll have to remember that trick when I detail my buildings :)
Thanks Tom. Scribing the card was the only easy way to represent slate when I was starting out in 1975 and it seems to work well. I found the technique at Pendon in 1974, where Roye and his colleagues we using this method to reproduce the very distinctive stonework of the Vale buildings.
As for the door handle, I first came across that trick in a Model Railroader in 1976 - it was a way of splaying the end of fibre optic rod to increase the light distribution. I used it on the small door at the back of the Buccabury loco shed as well. Pendon used to use pin heads for door handles.
I've now glued the two parts together and should get onto attaching the details and the weathering later this week.
Just about finished I think. All dry-brushed. I'm never too sure how far to go with weathering these things. There are two colours of rust; Precision dark rust for most parts including the angles on the tank where rainwater collects and old stains from the ladder fixings and Humbrol orange no 84 for new rust stains. Humbrol green 48 is fairly close to the old 'Rifle Green' I used elsewhere on the layout. Weathered woodwork where the paint has peeled is Precision 'Weathered Sleeper' grey. Dirt is Precision 'Sleeper Grime' (very close to the old Humbrol 'Track Colour', a very versatile colour) and this is used to 'scruff up' the tank, for rain stains under the window corners and the 'splash tide-mark' on the bottom of the building and up the door. I also used it to paint the door handle. Sadly the illumination isn't the best but I think this gives the general idea. There's one detail yet to be added. I thought it would be a good wheeze if one of the staff were to fix a Welsh flag to the top of the ladder so I'm thinking of printing one out and seeing if I can glue it on in a 'relaxed' pose. There's only one drawback with weathering. I've found that only the best brushes will give a reasonable effect and they get ruined quite quickly! It's an expensive art! I notice there's a bit of fluff on one of the photos and I'm going to have to re-touch the corner stones where the colouring has worn off. Mindful of Tom's comment, the dimensions are 40x40mm and 75mm to the top of the tower (10ft square and 18ft 9 inches high); overall height is 110mm (27ft 6 inches). The tank body (minus pitched wooden roof of course) is approx 25mm high so by my calculation holds something like 3740 gallons or over 16
Very nice!
Nice detail and weathering, David. It has been worth sacrificing the odd paint brush!
Very nice, I like the window framing. Your weathering is a great job too and I must agree about the door handle. Very nice work. Mike
Very nice weathering, David. I must try dry brushing more, I'm just lazy and use Mig powders and washes to weather at the moment.
Many thanks for your comments, gents. I have some Carr's weathering powders but have never used them! I know the effects can be excellent though. I've always used dry-brushing but you do have to use good quality brushes and keep cleaning them for the best effects!
David, the scribing and effect and a technique I would like to try (= "borrow" because its better than mine !)
But just a few questions to ask, if I may:
1. Is the card the standard sort of artist mounting card ...I have some that is 1.5mm thick and think it should do the job.
2. What was the tool you used to scribe ?
3. Are the slates coloured by a dry-brushing method with the mortar being a white wash underneath - or is the mortar simply the scribes in the card ?
4. Which paints did you use - not the colours but the type.
5. Is the technique detailed anywhere - maybe 009 news ?
Thanks
Bob
Good evening Bob.
You're probably familiar by now with my regular feature in the News 'Letter from Llanmynach'. I've written a piece on walls for slate buildings and this is due for printing in the January 2013 edition. However - you'll probably agree that it's a bit unfair to make you wait that long!
So, to try and answer your questions:
1. I've used a good quality artist's card 0.5mm thick (basically because this is how Pendon did it way back in 1974 what I first visited them). I build up the thickness by using a number of layers, gluing them and pressing them between glass while they dry.
2. I used a compass point to scribe the mortar courses, held at an angle of about 45 degrees. This tends to not incise the card so much as emboss it.
3. The colouring is very basic and simple; basically I used a 2B and an HB pencil to rub over the surface in varying intensity, gradually building up the density of colour and picking out individual pieces. The HB was used for dressed stones such as lintels. The mortar is simply the natural colour of the card.
4. I think paint is covered already - basically Humbrol and Precision matt enamels.
5. There is a little more information on the section about my chapel on the L&TR website: http://www.buccabury.co.uk/ltr/chapel.htm
The 'Letter' article is on my pc at work; when I'm next in the office (Wednesday probably) I'll copy and post it here. Meanwhile, here's a photo of the completed Chapel to be getting on with.
Hope that's all useful to you Bob (and you other folk out there!) Any more you need to know, please ask!
Thanks David, this is really helpful and informative - the chapel on the website is also very helpful.
yes, I am familiar with the News articles and have already used (and adapted ) the Railway Boundary (2) Slate fences article on my layout - all 117 pieces of it !
Bob
I could have sold you a field full!!! ;D
Seriously, I'm glad you've found it useful. The 'Letter' features will be regular for as long as I can keep them up. I think I've got articles prepared up to the end of 2013.
As promised, this is the text from the 'Letter' which is to be published in Jan 2013. For illustration I was going to use the photos of the part-finished chapel wall which you'll have seen on my website.
When I started working on the L&TR there were only Superquick and Biltezi brickpapers available and of course, nothing suitable for representing slate built structures! Pendon provided the inspiration for how I would proceed. The walls were built from laminates of artist