4mm Llanfair ....

[LarryG]

The resin chimney stacks from Model Railway Scenes are fab and I'll fit these to any future buildings...



All the fireplaces in the station masters house are catered for here. The single stack had been raised at some time to aid draughting... I must have been drunk...

 

[LarryG]

All structural work is complete and the whole building sprayed with Halfords Matt Lacquer, which also livens up the paintwork.....



The slate-clad wall has come out okay. Because the rear of the building has no public face or entrance, plain bargeboards must have been considered sufficient when the originals needed attention...

 

[LarryG]

Finished with some photos in this mornings sun....


Ladies lavatory accessed inside tea room while Gents is outside.....


Back of the station showing kitchen extension covering blocked up street entrance...


Upstairs bathroom & toilet conversion with stink pipe....


Temporarily in position showing lighter red brickwork than used on earlier buildings....


I had overlooked ticket office and porters room. Now sorted.....

 

[Dai88D]

I wouldn’t mind buying that and converting it into a house

 

[Dai88D]

Now you’ve finished the station, goods shed and signal box, have you thought of trying 7mm?

 

[simond]

LArry, I know you've retired from a successful career, but are you a frustrated architect?

Do you spend your non-modelling time watching "Grand Designs"?

 

[LarryG]

LArry, I know you've retired from a successful career, but are you a frustrated architect?

Do you spend your non-modelling time watching "Grand Designs"?

Haha. I watch as little tele as possible. Architecture and structures have interested me since art school days.

 

[LarryG]

Job's stopped again. I had hopes of converting a brick signalbox into a part wooden box before throwing in the towel. Anyway, a different firm has kindly agreed to produce me a RH version of one of its signal boxes so I am confident something positive will come out of this. I managed to produce this RH version from a LH kit in 7mm scale, which gives an idea of what I am aiming to produce in 4mm.

 

[LarryG]

While awaiting a signalbox kit, I decided to spruce up a second-hand Small Prairie by rubbing off the original insignia, spraying it lightly with Halfords Satin Black and affixing large pre-1956 totems, varnished with Halfords Satin Lacquer.

The totem are 9mm high off Methfix sheet B3, replaced in later years by BR Sheet 14. Transfers on the latter sheet were slightly larger with the large BR totem coming out at 10mm high.

I intend making up a new smokebox number plate. 4560 worked on the Cambrian section in BR days...

 

[sjp23480]

varnished with Halfords Satin Lacquer

Hi @LarryG

Do you spray this directly from the can or decant it to use in an airbrush?

Thanks
Stephen

 

[Quintus]

If I may comment , not wishing to pre empt Larry's reply, I had a very bad experience spraying varnish from an aerosol onto a recently completed 7mm coach side, which lifted the paint, resulting in a terrible mess. I had sprayed prescision paint with my airbrush, and thought acrylic varnish would be OK. I came to the conclusion that it was the propellant in the aerosol that caused the problem rather than the varnish itself.
regards
Mike

 

[daifly]

While awaiting a signalbox kit, I decided to spruce up a second-hand Small Prairie by rubbing off the original insignia, spraying it lightly with Halfords Satin Black and affixing large pre-1956 totems, varnished with Halfords Satin Lacquer.

The totem are 9mm high off Methfix sheet B3, replaced in later years by BR Sheet 14. Transfers on the latter sheet were slightly larger with the large BR totem coming out at 10mm high.

I intend making up a new smokebox number plate. 4560 worked on the Cambrian section in BR days...
View attachment 213649

I think we've discussed totem sizes before.


4560 near Afon Wen 1956 - photographer unknown

'Nuff said!

Dave

 

[sjp23480]

If I may comment , not wishing to pre empt Larry's reply, I had a very bad experience spraying varnish from an aerosol onto a recently completed 7mm coach side, which lifted the paint, resulting in a terrible mess. I had sprayed prescision paint with my airbrush, and thought acrylic varnish would be OK. I came to the conclusion that it was the propellant in the aerosol that caused the problem rather than the varnish itself.
regards
Mike

Mike (@Quintus)

This is also my experience of using Halfords Satin lacquer, I also found the nozzle (at least the one I have) tends to spatter and delivers the lacquer in more of a stream than a fine mist.

Should I persevere and buy another can from Halfords and try again?

Stephen

 

[PhilH]

If I may comment , not wishing to pre empt Larry's reply, I had a very bad experience spraying varnish from an aerosol onto a recently completed 7mm coach side, which lifted the paint, resulting in a terrible mess. I had sprayed prescision paint with my airbrush, and thought acrylic varnish would be OK. I came to the conclusion that it was the propellant in the aerosol that caused the problem rather than the varnish itself.
regards
Mike

Is the problem that while enamel might be touch dry fairly quickly it takes days for the solvents to evaporate fully, and spraying acrylic before this process is completed effectively seals the solvent in and causes the problem ?
Note I put this as a query rather than a statement and confirmation or otherwise would be helpful.

 

[Overseer]

Halfords clear lacquer is an automotive acrylic paint. It is not water based. The solvent will dissolve most model paint.

 

[LarryG]

Been tied up with non-railway matters, so this is the first visit to WT for a few days.

Halfords Acrylic Varnish aerosols: I used the satin varnish straight from the can on the 45xx loco, but it was on top of Halfords satin black anyway. I have not had any problems on top of enamel paint, but enamel was only on the running plate. I often decant the varnish into a spraygun for a finer spray when spraying 4mm scale locomotives. Always best to test things beforehand.

diafly, thanks for uploading the picture of 4560. Sods law that it carried the early small BR totem. My mistake, so the loco will have to carry a different number now.

EDIT: I have since come across three photos of black 4560 with small totem. So I have an alternative 'Cambrian' choice of 4549 with large totems.

 

[LarryG]

If I may comment , not wishing to pre empt Larry's reply, I had a very bad experience spraying varnish from an aerosol onto a recently completed 7mm coach side, which lifted the paint, resulting in a terrible mess. I had sprayed prescision paint with my airbrush, and thought acrylic varnish would be OK. I came to the conclusion that it was the propellant in the aerosol that caused the problem rather than the varnish itself.

I can imagine the anguish. I've used cellulose since the early 1960's, mainly for speed. Anyone remember the 'Celspray' spraygun? It was like a scent bottle with a hand activated bulb. I once sprayed 50 Hornby TT gauge coaches for George Mellor (GEM) using the darn thing. You should have seen the sags across my hand. By 1970 I was using a DeVilbis Type M miniature spraygun while dad built me a compressor.