I need some street lights for my current project so a search through the WMD Stores produced some plastic rod, tube and card - just what I needed!
I built a 'proving' first one which looked OK.
So, on that basis I built another two!
With a brass wire insert, they should hopefully stand straight once in position. It will certainly be an illuminating time putting them in place!
Time to call in the Dirt Squad and make that grey tarmac look worn and weathered. Having added white lines I then used a mixture of weathering powders and very dilute brown and grey paints to add dirt to the tarmac surfaces.
Unless a road and pavement are newly laid then the tarmac will weather as it oxidises from that fresh black colour to a muted grey. Add to that the passage of vehicles and the weather and you get an added bonus of dirt on the tarmac. Given the passage of vehicles and the effect of rain much of this dirt accumulates around the kerb edge.
I'd say the Dirt Squad have done a great job!
The one great thing about building models, and model railways especially, is that you can build your own ideal utopian bit of the World where you make things happen as you want. So with this in mind I have been developing bridge over the station to form part of an integrated transport system.
It is taking shape - the station area on my Last Great Project Layout.
Lots more to do but I am pleased with how this is shaping up.
With the station building and steps done it is time to move back to the bridge section that the building will sit on and the steps lead from to the station platform. I had already built the girder underside of the bridge some time ago and whilst priming the station building and steps I aslo primed this structure.
With the Dapol Booking Hall kit now finished it is time to move on with associated station area projects such as the steps that I built to take passengers from the bridge above the platform down onto the platform itself. I did airbrush them blue at the same time as the windows and doors for the Dapol kit. Much as the steps looked OK in the pristine blue....
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!
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! 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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
