Birdhouses and Brick Walls

The office building for 'Odsock Corner was last seen a a month or so ago. I'd like to say that there has been progress since then but in reality there has been very little. However, I have added one little feature which takes two forms of inspiration. Firstly a few weeks ago at the Immingham exhibition I was observing the 7mm layout 'Invermire' and spotted that the signal box featured a bird nesting box, something you rarely see modelled.

This coincided with my youngest daughter bringing home bird box designs for a school project, so the end result was the construction of a box for the gable end of the office building. Front and back are 20 thou black styrene, the sides are 40 x 100 Evergreen strip and two offcuts of 20 thou for the roof. The 0.7mm brass wire perch actually runs all the way though and doubles up as a mounting point and something to secure during painting.

The office and all it's accessories then had a scrub down to prepare for primer and painting, and attention turned to creating the basic structure of the brick 'estate wall' that forms part of the scenic divide between the sides of the pizza. I had envisaged this being foam core with embossed styrene brickwork and planned to (perhaps) draw some inspiration from this wall and gateway at Belton House, Lincs.

However whilst mocking up the wall on the baseboard I happened to use some strips of 5mm ply that had originally been cut for the baseboard edging before I chose to substitute stripwood. At 36mm high these were great for a wall about 5 feet tall. So after a bit of cutting I had pieces the right size, with some 3mm ply used to add depth to the gateposts and as an additional support pillar where the angle of the wall changed (this pillar may change in development). The gaps at the top of the gateposts were filled with more ply by gluing in oversize pieces and trimming them down once set!

Now comes the thing that has caused the most angst... the brick bond. By rights the wall should be garden wall bond, three rows of stretchers, then a row of headers, repeat... Whilst South Eastern Finecast do make this in embossed styrene, my stocks are offcuts of Slaters plain bond (all stretchers) and Flemish bond (alternating stretchers and headers in each row), and SEF plain bond. The Slaters Flemish bond is a very off-square sheet and I think I had the best bits for the wall on 'The Headshunt'. 

I am trying to keep costs to a minimum and the postage on single sheets of styrene is almost as much as the sheet. Luckily it appears that through the power of the internet a kind hearted 7mm narrow gauge modeller may have some offcuts for me... 

Colin

'Odsock Corner, Introducing an O9 Pizza

I first introduced my O9 pizza layout project a few months ago and it finally has a name, 'Odsock Corner.  For anyone thinking of looking it up on a map, they may be disappointed, it's that spot in the house where the unpaired socks go awaiting rediscovery of their pal... The last time we saw the baseboard was as a mock-up, although the hut is well on the way to being constructed as seen  recently.

With the plan finalised and track tested, I took my plunge-cutter to the edge of the board where I had built in provision for a dropped baseboard edge, cutting into both the edge and the board surface. Underneath a support holds everything in place. This will later be filled in and landscaped.

The track was then painted. I had removed all traces of old paint from the rails before laying to ensure I was starting from a clean sheet. A waft of grey primer was applied first, then Humbrol 64 spray. Rail heads were cleaned and at a later stage the sleepers were dry brushed with varying grey shades and the rails washed over with red/brown to give a hint of rust.

My intention was then to add a layer of thin corrugated card around the trackbed and then ballast, in a similar fashion to how I have treated other layouts. However, I got a bit carried away and eventually opted to get a large degree of the basic landform in place before the ballasting was started. Along the back edge of the scene, up against the higher side, polystyrene was used to build up the land, and where sloped of the land was too steep, some home made rock castings were used to mask the steeper edge.

 

More rock castings were added around the front of the scene to break up what will otherwise be a complex series of slopes. In this view they are only placed loose and a few changes were made before gluing in place. These casting were made some time ago from plaster of Paris in baking foil moulds, literally using up spare material from a craft the kids were doing! They are not perfect but are adaptable to remove any unwanted features. A fillet of polystyrene was added in the gap between the baseboard surface and the edge of the board.

The rock castings were tinted with Citadel 'Nuln Oil' and I then got a little carried away with the modelling clay, filling in gaps around the polystyrene, the front edge, and around the roadway I created from mounting card, which has various ruts and potholes, especially towards the back of the board. The two crossing differ, the one near the front has planks made from basswood (the central strip is currently laid in loose), whereas the rear one has guide rails and will get an infill once ballasting is carried out.

I had wondered how much I would be able to fit in the area behind the hut, given that the tree takes up a chunk of it. Another hut was envisaged at one time but there isn't room, however I have been able to add in a siding at right-angles to the main line to allow a wagon to moved over using a portable turntable or even man-handled. This line uses another offcut from a previous project, in a cut-out in the cardboard, blended in with modelling clay, still drying when the photograph was taken!

More soon...

Colin