4mm Life in a Northern Town - the Buttercrambe diversion.

[Neil]

Against my better judgement I've been cutting and sticking cardboard together for the light railway platform. I worry about damp in the garage but I thought that if I sealed the card with paint it stood a fair chance of surviving; also I hadn't sufficient plasticard for both the platform and the next building I want to make. I've used mount board, scribed to represent the planked edge, stuck together with UHU and then sprayed with Halfords grey primer (upper face) and matt black (everything else). Here it is being test fitted.





It then came inside to be painted and have the brick plinths fitted. The plinths are plastic faced with off cuts from a Triang brick viaduct.



The dark space between the plinths only extends back by about 8mm, these spaces will be filled with weeds and ground cover to mirror the style of the DVLR seen here in this image of York - Layerthorpe station.

 

[Neil]

I've done quite a lot of making over the past few months, am I allowed to do a bit of shopping too? OK, here's what turned up in the post this week.



Well I couldn't resist, a loco so closely identified with York for a layout inspired by my childhood memories of York and supplied by the brilliant Monk Bar Model Shop in York. All I need now is a Yorkie bar to go with an afternoon cup of Yorkshire Tea.

 

[Neil]

Back with making, my latest project which will sit just to the right of Stubbs is another iconic York building, Burley's fruit and veg warehouse.



It won't be an exact copy as I wanted to use the Ratio GWR signal box windows but I'm confident that it will capture the lovely art deco feel of the original.

 

[Neil]

Ok, so after a bit more work yesterday afternoon and this morning the construction phase was done. I took the building out to the layout in the garage so I could see how it was shaping up.



I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out and how it fits into the scene. Though the whole row looks very low relief in this shot I'm reasonably sure that once I've painted the background silhouette they will be far less obviously flat.

 

[Neil]

And here goes with the background silhouette.

First the rough sketch ...




.... transferred to a lining paper cut out .....







.... which was then drawn round in pencil ....




.... and coloured in with the same paint mix used for other areas of the backscene.







The finished item.

 

[simond]

It is very effective.

 

[Neil]

Thank you Simon.

 

[simond]

the approach may well be copied…

(eventually, some water will pass under the bridge beforehand)

 

[Tim Hale]

The grey background is perfect for northern Europe, which is unremittingly dull for 85% of the year. My backscene for the micro is simply three sheets of foamboard, joined on the back with Gorilla Duct tape and held in place by bulldog clips. The entire backscene is instantly removable and folds flat for transit.

I like the use of ‘granite grey’ having used some rather posh emulsion from Fired Earth to both seal the rather porous roadbed surface and introduce the ‘theme’ of industrial misery.

Tim

 

[timbowales]

And here goes with the background silhouette.

First the rough sketch ...

View attachment 220674


.... transferred to a lining paper cut out .....

View attachment 220675


View attachment 220676


.... which was then drawn round in pencil ....

View attachment 220677


.... and coloured in with the same paint mix used for other areas of the backscene.


View attachment 220678


View attachment 220679

The finished item.

View attachment 220680

View attachment 220681

I wonder if it could be used for welsh valleys.......
Watch this space

 

[RichardG]

I think this approach is marvellous for modelling a location where you know something was there, you know roughly what it was, you have no photographs, and it is since demolished. Thank you so much for sharing.

 

[Alan]

Something I did with my 11year olds years ago when I was a teacher on similar lines.

 

[Neil]

Goodness me, last summer when I last posted an update, so what has happened in the meantime? It's fair to say that the emphasis has been on building or tarting up rolling stock, winter isn't a good time of year to spend lots of time in the garage and so I look to projects I can tackle on my indoor workbench. Rather than waffle on in detail, let's proceed at pace through some of the photos I have taken over the last nine months.

In my minds eye I've relocated some of the overspill cattle pens at the foot of the Bar Walls from Foss Islands Road to Nunnery Lane and therefore felt the need to beef up my ability to transport livestock. I tarted up a Dapol cattle wagon to better match the Bachmann offering, applied extra distressing to a LNER liveried Oxford Rail wagon and built up an ex LNER horse box from the Parkside kit.

 

[Neil]

I've also been steadily working my way through my pile of pristine wagons to add grot and age. Here a couple of insulated vans in the ice blue livery represent many more that I've attacked with gunge coloured paint. Yes I know the ice blue livery is a bit of a stretch for the early sixties cut off period of Northern Town but one of my first train set wagons was the Triang 'Insulfish' ice blue job and ever since I've had a soft spot for the hue.

 

[Neil]

Wagons haven't had a total monopoly of the workbench, I've put together a couple of structures too. The first is a hack of the Hornby 'Playtrains' station building from a clip together garish horror ....







.... to something that might just pass muster as the lodge to the local hall.





It's loosely inspired by this building which I often used to pass on my way to visit my mum and dad.

 

[Neil]

Finally a proper scratchbuild, DVLR style, of a station structure destined for an add on to the light railway section of Northern Town; Northern Hamlet if you will. All the same techniques that I employed to construct its big brother were used it's just that there was less cutting and sticking to do as the bits were smaller.







The family resemblance pleases me. Though the panelling is a right faff to cut out not copying the same style would have diminished the believability of what is a pretty tall tale already.

 

[Jordan or Plymouth Mad]

I've put together a couple of structures too. The first is a hack of the Hornby 'Playtrains' station building from a clip together garish horror ....

That is an amazing transformation!!

 

[ColPeake]

The re-imagining of the Playtrains building has blown me away! To be able to visualise that from some primary coloured plastic takes some skill

Colin

 

[Herb Garden]

Goodness I've missed your interesting projects and out of the box thinking Neil

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

It's loosely inspired by this building which I often used to pass on my way to visit my mum and dad.

Certainly in York - the cream bricks and the road name sign on the lamp post. I wonder if this was an old toll house as it's on Fishergate which was an old route to become the A19 in 1922/23 road renumbering.