Bahnhof Donnersbachkogel

[Gerhard Novak]

After the warm up with the Mariazeller house I go to have a look at the station for my lay-out. This comes from the same producer - Laser craft by Krois, so I will see the same problem - which are the not too detailed building instructions.

I tried to sort the parts a bit - some of them are again extremely fragile. And there are many - 132 different parts - equal parts are counted only once - I suppose in total there are more than 200 parts.

IMGP5369 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

I invested also into a proper printed station name - I have to apologize as the picture is not totally in focus.

IMGP5370 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

This kit needs painting for some of the parts, for instance the walls of the station building - the instructions say stone grey - in some forum comments I found sand colour-yellow. Probably I go for yellow as this was a colour which was very popular in Imperial Austria (probably as the summer palace of the emperor Schoenbrunn was yellow) 

But this may take some time, 4 of 5 days business trips next week - the reader shouldn't expect fast progress.

[Gerhard Novak]

ok, some more progress today:
The basic structure of the main building is going together.

IMGP5381 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

I hold the parts in position with different prism like metal pieces. This, together with the base plates guarantees that the pieces are glued together square.

IMGP5382 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

[Gerhard Novak]

The glue had a week time to set  :)
Finally I am back and had a few minutes time to proceed. In my collection of matt paint I found 4 different yellow tins - none of them is what I want. So I had to mix something together.

IMGP5384 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

Hopefully I mixed enough as there is also a second part which has to be sprayed....

[Gerhard Novak]

A bit further, not very fast as everything needs painting and the paint needs to dry. Also it is not easy as the card sucks the paint in. This means it needs minimum 3 layers until it is acceptable. What I do now - to save paint - is to give it a quick cover with diluted PVA. This closes the pores.

The stone layer at the base is painted and in place and I make a trial run with the cornices.

IMGP5388 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr


And I find out that I made a nice mistake. The walls are in the wrong position - I mixed up left and right....
OK, I am dyslexic but normally I correct that by knowing my problem and reading instructions twice. As mentioned before - the instructions are poor - just to find an excuse  :) :)

IMGP5386 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

The cornice of this side doesn't fit because of the mixed up sides. What I have to do is surgery - cut the right part off and put small stripes in to get the frames into the right position....

IMGP5387 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

[Gerhard Novak]

Wife is just looking at Holby City - so it just matches to show my build after the surgery  :)
I leave the walls as they are, probably I will see other problems later, but it seems easier to me.
Cornices are cut and arranged to fit the mirror image side.

IMGP5393 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

IMGP5394 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

ok, not perfect but I am quite pleased. Because of my inaccurate building I had some gaps at the corners which I corrected with some polyester filler. After repainting it is still visible but much better.
Now I will proceed with the windows.

[Gerhard Novak]

I am a bit further with this project - progress is slow even I was adding a little bit almost every day.

On the next picture you see the gaps mentioned before. Also here I will need to use the car-filler. Why car filler? Very smooth, low shrinkage  and quick setting.

IMGP5399 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

Now I have also started the second part of the building - containing the waiting rooms and toilets.
This is the view from the street side
IMGP5401 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

...and this is the view from the railway side.
IMGP5400 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

The waiting rooms have a wooden floor and I put some benches in.
IMGP5402 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

I finished the track side of the station - why - the canopy will cover everything up and it will be difficult to put in details. The canopy poles are just a test fit - so I can remove them and correct where necessary. Probably I will put in another guy who is looking at the timetable - but I have to paint the figure first - as I normally buy unpainted figures. First this is cheaper, second - you can "dress" them as you like.

The laser cut benches were not part of the kit, but as I think the benches which came wih the kit are made from too thick card - no idea why as everything else is nicely detailed - I changed them with some stuff from my bits box. Also the bin is laser cut. Found that stuff at an Italian shop where I used to live some years ago.
By the way when I say the benches are not nice - there is one bench in the kit which is exceptional - a cast iron bench - so thin that it bends when I look at it :)  I will put it on last - otherwise I will break it.

IMGP5403 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

I am happy I made these photos - as you find mistakes or areas with missing paint easier at the photos than on the real thing. For instance the step from the hallway coming in from the street side is half painted...

[Gerhard Novak]

A bit further - now the roof trusses are on.

IMGP5405 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

The wooden canopy poles all have their little socket - quite a job to paint them all and to get them into position...

IMGP5406 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

Next will be wiring up. I plan lights under the canopy, in the two waiting rooms and in one of the rooms of the left part of the building.

[gtmspyder]

It's looking good Gerhard, and from the quality, it looks expensive too.

Keep up the good work and keep us posted.

Regards, 

BrianT.

[tedp]

That's a most impressive piece of work, Gerhard. And it looks like an excellent kit!

[duttonbay]

Excellent work Gerhard. It's a most impressive station building, and considering its size, seems to gone together remarkably quickly.

[Gerhard Novak]

Thanks to everybody - I am happy with the progress, especially if we consider that most of the parts had to be painted (not all, for instance the wood parts are all pre-painted, as well as the chimney parts and the guttering and the lead flashing)

Finally I have wired all up and of course tested it, looks all right. The building is old, but it will be in a setting of the 90th of the last century (This or slightly earlier is what the majority of my rolling stock is). Therefore I decided for white LEDs - as in real life it would have been fluorescent tubes. The LEDs are SMD type, very easy to solder them in between two 0.6mm bell wires. The building had already pre-drilled (or rather laser cut) openings for the installation of the wire. I fixed the wiring with some 5minutes epoxy to the roof trusses.

IMGP5407 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

Next will be to put the roof on, but as my lawnmower decided to spill petrol over the garage floor the priorities will be slightly different...

[Gerhard Novak]

Finally I made it. There are still a few fine details to add, but I prefer doing that later - as otherwise they would be ruined before the station is on the layout. For instance the handrails of the stairs - I put just one on to show how fine they are, and there is also a cast iron bench which is extremely fragile.

This is the view from the street side
IMGP5410 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

Now the end on the waiting room side
IMGP5420 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

and the opposite end
IMGP5411 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

and finally the track side.
IMGP5414 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

Now the front left section - the gaps between parts are now all filled in and painted over.
IMGP5416 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

and the right hand side.
IMGP5417 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

This picture shows the handrails of the stairs.
IMGP5418 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr


I tested also the lights - they do what I expected.
IMGP5422 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr


This was a very enjoyable build, and also a birthday present which took more than 2 weeks to assemble. The quality of the kit is very good, there was only one part which didn't fit properly. The quality of the instructions needs improvement.
The price of 70 Euro (approximately 55£) is in my opinion correct, as you get a real scale model of a small station which shows a lot of detail. And - not to forget in this forum - it is one of the few models available which are really from a narrow gauge line!

[tedp]

Very nice, and the lights do the job as well. Remarkable to see how big a minor narrow gauge station can really be.

How is the layout coming along?

[Gerhard Novak]

Hi Ted,
Yes, the station is more  than 50 cm long. But as I have quite a bit of space on my boards it should be fine. Layout: No progress. Standard gauge track laid on 2 of the boards, didn't even start with the H0e part. I also need my mimic board operational to be able to move the points. I gave myself quite a job by using the megapoints controller. Before any serious wiring I need to modify the box of the board as it was not deep enough to hold all the cables...
On the other hand I am not in a hurry and I enjoy all the activities.
Regards
Gerhard

[danny]

Very nice and very detailed interiors.
Danny