Eu depot.

Peter Smith

Active Member
Nothing to do with Brexit, so don't panic; Eu is a real place on the north coast of France close to Le Treport and it's where we have based our loco shed layout.

As this thread is named 'layout progress' I'm not going to describe what already exists as the layout has been around for a couple of years. However as we are taking it to Perth next weekend I have done some work on the end baseboard to freshen it up as it hadn't been touched since it was built. Eu depot is O gauge and we run loco's from MTH, Fulgurex, Sunset and Lenz as well as a scratchbuilt 140C 2-8-0.

EU 1.jpg

This signal is new, built from a French kit and operated using a Hoffmann point motor which is controlled from the Lenz handheld controller. The line goes into the fiddle yard beyond the bridge.

EU 3.jpg

This is the wider view; I have replaced all the windows and shutters as the originals had been varnished with had dried streaky. They are all printed on paper, as is all the brickwork etc. The painted Dubonet advert on the wall is new too, coped from a picture of the real thing. The narrow gap really works well when the smoke fitted loco's run through. The buildings do have roofs but they are not fixed as they make the board too high, and at the moment they are at my storage unit with the rest of the layout.

EU 6.jpg

The picture between the buildings was just sky which was a bit plain so I have replaced it with a townscape. The windows on the buildings are all new. A bus normally stands where the two men are waiting.

EU 4.jpg

The view along the street; I had mistakenly included a zebra crossing but they didn't exist in France in the early 1950's so it has been covered up. The granite setts are printed on paper as is pretty much everything else you can see apart from the figures and vehicles.

EU 5.jpg

Items such as drain covers and the drains in the gutters are also printed on paper. The shop windows are all printed paper behind a layer of glazing, using pictures found on the internet. It would take hours to model them properly and these look perfectly adequate.

Sorry there are no trains; I'll take some more pictures at Perth.

Peter
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
It’s strange that today Dubonnet is very hard to find in France, even more so as the winery is not far from where we live, near Perpignan. The brand is now owned by Ricard. It is, or perhaps was, the preferred drink of the French Foreign Legion. It’s also my wife’s favourite aperitif. We buy it on line, having no other choice. Carrefour, Casino, etc. don’t even seem to know what it is.
 

Peter Smith

Active Member
I didn't use it for any particular reason, other than having found this picture.

advert.jpg

My shade of blue isn't correct but it will do. More importantly, I've spelt Dubonnet with one 'N' so it will have to be redone....I've only just noticed. A job for tomorrow.

It might be nice to make it look a bit more faded, I'll have a play around and see what I can come up with.

Peter
 

jonte

Western Thunderer
Hi Peter

Just a suggestion, but try drybrushing Matt white enamel over it.

Jonte
 

adrian

Flying Squad
No need, I do it all on the computer.
If it's easy to do then - a couple of suggested tweaks - mainly a closer font. It's quite distinctive with the squarer blocky font. Maybe something like "DIN Condensed" - I hope your web browser shows the font correctly - if not image attached at the end.

DUBONNET
Also the black drop shadow seems to be below and to the right and finally the "AU" needs to be smaller than the surrounding text.

Screenshot 2019-06-22 at 19.11.23.png
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
The real stuff from my wife's stash!

IMG_0709.JPG

Note the quinine content on the advert not present today - kept those mozzies at bay!
 

Peter Smith

Active Member
14.8%! I'll stick with beer!

This is the how I produced the artwork, using Serif Pageplus software. I haven't altered the font; I haven't got anything more accurate, and these ads were painted individually to there would have been a fair amount of variation.

To begin with I used a picture of the brick wall used on the building.

WALL 1.jpg

This was overlaid with a rectangle of blue, and I used the transparency tool on this until the brickwork showed through.

WALL 2.jpg

Next the black text was added, again faded.

WALL 3.jpg
This was copied and pasted, changed to white and overlaid but off set to produce the shading.

WALL 4.jpg
Finally the red areas were added, again faded to allow the bricks to show through.

WALL 5.jpg
It still looks much too bright, so I used this picture of a weathered wall next.

old wall.jpg

This was faded using the transparency tool and placed over the image, allowing everything below to show through but making it look worn and weathered.
WALL 6.jpg
I used the wall image four times as it looked better than increasing the size too much. Hopefully where the four images join can't be seen.

WALL 7.jpg
Finally it is just a case of printing it on matt photo paper, cutting it out, colouring the edges with a grey felt pen to get rid of the bright white, and sticking it to the wall.

Peter
 

Attachments

  • Plaster_Weathered_Worn_Old_1.jpg
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adrian

Flying Squad
I haven't altered the font; I haven't got anything more accurate
You should be able to download and install additional fonts for example
DIN Bold OpenType Free OpenType Font - ufonts.com

I used the wall image four times as it looked better than increasing the size too much. Hopefully where the four images join can't be seen.
I can't see the join - although there is some pattern repetition apparent, the long vertical slash being the obvious one. Even the original brick wall image you used shows signs of a montage, although they have tried to break it up by mirroring the image a couple of times. Unfortunately it's not that easy to tile images without introducing some pattern to the image. When I'm doing photo restoration I try to stagger and offset any tile repetition to break up the pattern but it doesn't always work. It's not just the detail of a mark here and a mark there but I think it's the whole tonal variation of the image.

It reminds me of an image that shows how our eyes work. Simply stare at the centre of the image below for 20 to 30 seconds without moving your eyes or blinking.


2ed027f87ac64c099db2eebddfb32d0a_7d2976e037b54f3aa9c51e67fc42c485_1_post.jpeg

What happens is that the certain colours begin to disappear at different rates, for me I'm just left with the yellow pattern. This is Troxler's fading ( Troxler's fading - Wikipedia ).

So I think I'm getting the same effect with the photos of the brick walls, you stare at it to absorb the details and the colour fading just makes the pattern stand out which is when it becomes more apparent if it's been repeated on a regular grid.
 

Peter Smith

Active Member
Bear in mind that when it's on the layout you won't be concentrating on this image, it will just be part of the overall scene.

Peter
 

Peter Smith

Active Member
We're back from Perth, so here are some pictures taken this weekend. The layout won't look the same when it is next exhibited as we've decided to lengthen it by two feet, which will no doubt all be recorded here in due course.

EU1.jpg

EU2.jpg

The 140C is scratchbuilt, and the other loco's here are all by MTH.

EU3.jpg

EU4.jpg

EU5.jpg

The 22m (75') turntable is by Realmodel of Germany and is DCC controlled.

EU6.jpg

The track is all Peco.

EU7.jpg

EU8.jpg

Peter
 
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