The WMD Film Crew have been busy during the build of the Dapol Booking Hall kit and their results are here for your visual entertainment and pleasure!

Its finished!

Yes, it is finished! Not Mrs. Woody's list of jobs for me to do but the Dapol kit is now done. Final bits were adding the roof and canopy along with the privacy fence for the gents toilet as well as the front doors. Also added were some posters, a clock face and a gentleman inside at the ticket hatch. I think he may have a long wait until he can get his ticket! Anyway, some pictures illustrate the final product far better than my words can but I can say I am pleased with it!

Its nearly there! The windows and doors are now attached to the Dapol Booking Office and things are looking good!

A few more details to add, then the roof and chimneys and it will be done!

Chimney pots.

Just a small amount of work on the Dapol Booking Hall kit but it does make a difference. The Chimney pots are moulded as a solid part. By drilling through the chimney pot part and opening it up it does make it look a lot more realistic - it will be enhanced once painted and fitted to the roof!

I do enjoy these small jobs - if only the jobs on Mrs. Woody's list for me to do where this small!

What a pain to do the panes!

 What a pain to do the panes! Well actually it was not too bad a job to glaze the windows for the Dapol building. I could have used the clear plastic sheet provided but choose to use DeLuxe Materials Glue n Glaze to give a better finish and to fill in the all to deep window bars in the window frames.

Basically all I had to do was get the Glue n Glaze into the apertures and let it set.

It looks a bit of a mess but you need to have patience!

After a few hours it all turns good and clear!

And closer in you can see the end result.

Just need to add them to the main building now! Hopefully that won't be too much of a pain!

A night on the tiles!

Well I did spend some of the night painting the tiles on the Dapol kit and very soothing it was! As with the brickwork blogged about a few days ago, I picked out random tiles in a slightly lighted colour to the main colour used. I also used the same Rust colour trhat IU had for the brickwork on the ridge tiles and it contrasts nicely.

Of course it all looked too clean so a wash of dilute black paint was applied. You can see the effect in the half and half photo below.

With the entire roof 'washed', it was set to one side to dry.

With the roof temporarily on the building it all begins to take shape!

Its not easy to be random!

 It is not easy to be random despite what Mrs. Woody may think about my actions! What I am talking about here is being random in picking out individual bricks in a wall such as on the Dapol model I am building at the moment. Looking at a real building you notice that there a subtle and on occasions not so subtle variations in the colour of individual bricks. I replicated this to some degree on my model by taking the Rust coloured paint that I had painted the brickwork in and adding either the Sand or Leather Brown colour as used in previous painting of the model, in small amounts on a plastic bag to make up slightly darker and lighter colour variations on the original Rust colour. Individual bricks were then painted and an interesting effect starts to build up.

This is also the point at which being random becomes difficult - well for me anyway - as I always seem to start developing a symmetrical pattern in painting individual bricks! I really have to think hard about randomness! Just hope Mrs. Woody doesn't read this or I could face some difficult questions!

With the brick work painted, randomly, it was time to add some mortar to the joints and generally tone and weather the colour down. That was done with a very dilute cat of grey paint which was just applied to the surface and allowed to find its own way inti the brick joints.

Finally, all the brickwork had been treated and it looks a lot more lifelike.

I will need to do a similar treatment on the slate roof but I still need to get the windows and doors finished before I can think of adding the roof! You cant just make a model in a random fashion!

Adding some colour!

With the undercoated parts dry it was time to add some colour to the Dapol kit. The inside walls were painted with Sand, the ticket area woodwork was blue, the floor Leather Brown and the brickwork, rather oddly, Rust from the Panzer Aces range. I just found it a great match for brick colour.

Whilst most of the colour was brush applied I did airbrush the steps which would have been a nightmare to paint by hand!

Still more to do but a bit of colour does bring out the detail and with a few techniques that are up my sleeve that detail should get even better in the future!

Not the simple job that I hoped for!

Painting the Dapol station building did not turn out to be the simple job that I hoped for! I think a mix of hot weather, and some dodgy paint made the undercoating of the building and the preciously built steps a lengthy and frustrating process involving cleaning the airbrush on several occassions. However, forget about the frustration and admire the undercoated and primed models! 

Next job - add some colour!

Ceiling time!

Before I can actually get round to painting the Dapol station building I needed to make a ceiling for the interior. Not a particularly difficult job which is nice in the hot weather we have here in the UK at the moment! 

With a bit of fettling, the roof fits too!

Finally, I just noticed a very slight warp in the building so I left it overnight with brick on top to straighten it out! It should work as the brick is heavy enough!

It looks a bit more interesting!

On with the Dapol station building. Having got the four walls constructed I noted that the long walls had a bit of a bow inwards. I also noted that it all looked a bit empty inside and anyone looking through the windows would just see a large empty space.

 To deal with both matters I decided to add a floor and some room partitions.

As I am intending to leave the central doors open where passengers would walk through I also added a ticket hatch to one wall together with a dado rail and some scribed planking on the lower section.

The floor and first wall went in.

Then the rest of the walls and it looks a bit more interesting! Time to paint!

I concluded yesterdays post by highlighting I was not too happy about the very top of the steps that I have been building in 4mm scale. Looking at the picture below, the two uprights on the top of second flight of steps are too close together and it just looks odd to me.

I could have left it but I would always be drawn to that part of the model so I took the plunge and altered it! 

I think that looks better! I just need to fill a few joints with some acrylic putty and then its time for paint. However, before that there is another structure to build so that will mean yet more plastic to glue!

Adding a handrail!

With progress being made on making the steps to the platform for my 00 gauge layout, it has come to the point of adding handrails. Nothing too challenging - just take a bit of time and it should all work out! Well, that is the theory!

First off, add some support uprights from plastic strip to the first flight of steps.

Next add the handrail from the same plastic strip.

With that nearly finished and once the glue dries I can add the second flight of steps. However, even at this early point it is looking as I hoped! 

Were my calculations incorrect?

With the second flight of steps constructed as part of the bridge to platform access, it was time to see if it fitted its intended location or were my calculations incorrect?

Well my calculations were slightly out but at least in a good way!

I have ended up with the second flight of steps being a bit to long but I can trim that. If they had been too short I might have added several contributions to the WMD HQ swear jar!

Taking a slightly different view point I think the steps fit in well. Once fully completed and painted they should really look the part - hopefully!

One step at a time!

It is literally one step at a time as I continue building the steps between the bridge section and platform on my 00 gauge layout.

But, step by step it is getting there!

I have even formed the mid way platform between the two flights of steps to which a supporting structure will be formed.  That will be the next step in this project!

One step beyond!

Before getting the paint out to paint the grid I posted about yesterday I thought that it would be best if I built everything that needed painting for this project so that it all could be painted in one airbrush session. Thinking ahead! Therefore I have started building the steps that take the miniature 4mm scale passengers from the bridge section down to the platform or indeed from the platform to the bridge. For me, it is a long time since I built any steps so this is probably a case of one step beyond my skill set!

Sensibly, for me anyway, I draw a rough plan of some angles and heights.

With the rest of the plan in my head, never the most promising of starts, cutting of plastic card commenced.

And with parts cut gluing commenced!

And slowly the beginnings of a steps started to emerge!

This could take some time to build but it is a step closer to finishing the layout even if only a vert small step!

Making a grid.

I am no bridge engineer but I have worked with such people in the past so I understand a bit about bridge structures. So, I do know that the bridge deck sits on cross members that then sit on the girders. I certainly would not trust a real bridge that I designed but in model form it does at least look something like a real bridge should! On that basis I cut the required cross members from some plastic card and these then formed a grid pattern over he girders which I had cut to the right length.

Putting the finished steel (or should that ne plastic?) work onto the underside of the bridge it begins to look like a real bridge should. It just needs painting once the glue hardens and then it can be glued into position.

Girder making!

Work on my bridge section for my 00 gauge layout continues but first a brief test to make sure that it fits where it should.

It does but the underside is far to sparse in detail!

I will sort that out by constructing the various girders that hold up something like this. First off, strips to make the girders were cut from a sheet of plastic card.

These were then glued into H sections.

Four of these are required and they will need to be cut to length once the glue fully hardens.