I'm currently helping a friend get a layout finished for a railway exhibition and he needed an engine shed. Time constraints meant that the model has to built fairly quickly so I chose cardboard as a medium and I have used some of my own printed brick paper and some of the screen printed windows that I make to help speed up the build time. The photos show the early stages and there is one of the roof trusses leaning against the wall. The building will be lit and have interior detail but that may have to wait until this exhibition is over. The card I use is picture framing mount board which is quite strong, the brick paper is printed on a digital printing press and is quite durable unlike some of the problems I have had using inkjet printed material. The walls are built up of three layers and the windows are sandwiched between the layers, I did find that not allowing the glue holding the window panes enough time to dry has caused them to bow..oh well we learn by our mistakes! Next time we may have the luxury of waiting for things to dry properly. I think once the model is completed and some weathering done on the walls and the windows will help to give some character to the model. So far it has taken around 3-4 hours to get to this stage and possibly another 2-3 hours should see the model close to finished. The roof will be Will's corrugated iron sheeting but more on that later.

Robyn

Nice neat job. I've never seen that brick paper before. A bit different.

:thumbs

Toto

Mmmm waiting to see the finished shed.

Excellent work there, well done

Looks good Robyn.  Do you cut by hand, or do you use a plotter cutter like some of us on this forum?

I print brick, stone tile etc onto A4 labels using a colour laser, no problems with ink running, and using self adhesive label saves a lot of messing about with glue and waiting for it to dry. (you do need to take a bit of care positioning it unlike glue where you can usually slide it around)

A4 is fine for N gauge and smaller buildings in 00, but you can also get A3 self adhesive paper and A3 colour lasers for the bigger stuff. Some of the colour lasers can also print to banner paper, mine will do 215x1200mm, ideal for backscenes

:thumbs  :cool:

[user=1397]Dorsetmike[/user] wrote:

Looks good Robyn.  Do you cut by hand, or do you use a plotter cutter like some of us on this forum?

I print brick, stone tile etc onto A4 labels using a colour laser, no problems with ink running, and using self adhesive label saves a lot of messing about with glue and waiting for it to dry. (you do need to take a bit of care positioning it unlike glue where you can usually slide it around)

A4 is fine for N gauge and smaller buildings in 00, but you can also get A3 self adhesive paper and A3 colour lasers for the bigger stuff. Some of the colour lasers can also print to banner paper, mine will do 215x1200mm, ideal for backscenes
 

All hand cut, mind you I have used the grey card for the trusses and that takes quite a few cuts with the knife to get through. I also find my blades get blunt rather quickly. I am sure the laser printer would be better than inkjet, I have had some problems with self adhesive labels which don't seem to keen on the humidity we have here in sunny Queensland.

Robyn

I have fitted the internal support bits for the roof trusses and these can be seen in this shot.



Now for the part that has caused me some grief. The roof trusses are to be joined together with some strip wood and I have had a reasonable amount of issues trying to get the sticks to stick to the card, the problem is no doubt the end grain so I decided to try sticking them with superglue. The sticks did not stay in place but the superglue soaked through the card and glued it to my cutting mat! I think I may have found a solution of sorts and that has been to apply a dollop of pva to the endgrain and set them aside to dry. After drying I have then glued them to the card trusses and this seems to have worked…YAY! YIPEE! etc. I did find that I do not have enough hands to hold it all together so I have used some steel blocks and this seems to have worked. If anyone else has a better and quicker method to build these I would love to hear from you.

Robyn

A quick update on the roof trusses and all seems to be good. I have fitted the first part into the model to show how things are progressing and here is a couple of photos. Hopefully this will all hold together ok when I paint it.

Robyn

Hi Robyn,

Nice looking shed, wish my fingers were up this standard. Are you planning on a kit?

It looked familiar, especially the brick, check out:

 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/adderbury-milton-g-w-r-engine-shed-and-quarry-pump-house-february-11th-2012.t75031

Not quite the same, but replete with original details.

Incidental to the shots are some nice details of the roof trusses and window frames (still there after over 50 years). Plus the inspection kit.

Nigel

[user=1632]BCDR[/user] wrote:

Hi Robyn,

Nice looking shed, wish my fingers were up this standard. Are you planning on a kit?

It looked familiar, especially the brick,

Not quite the same, but replete with original details.

Incidental to the shots are some nice details of the roof trusses and window frames (still there after over 50 years). Plus the inspection kit.

Nigel

Hi Nigel,
This is a design it as you go model, I have created the drawings to fit a space on my friends layout. A freelance design that is plausible ???? I am sure that some of the details may be incorrect when compared to real engine sheds but I think it will look ok when finished. Your photos are a great help thank you for the link. As far as a kit is concerned I doubt anyone would buy it, I have over twenty card model kits on my computer that I have developed since 1998 but there are so many people doing this now that I doubt there is room for more. The line drawings for this model were created in CorelDraw and are very basic.

Robyn

I have painted the roof truss and while waiting for it to dry I coated the building with a matt clear which has taken quite a long time to dry. I have finally put the truss framework into the building and it looks OK.



There is always a little gremlin that works its way into these sort of projects and I feel like a bit of a dummy. The roof truss at the opening is lower than the arch I cut.. oh poop, it is too late now to redo this so I have decided to fit a timber panel across the front and "square up the arch" I will amend my drawings just in case I ever make another one of these. It is such a silly mistake and annoys me greatly but I am sure it will be alright once I do the infill panel.

Robyn

Plans are meant to be changed Robyn 

[user=606]Sol[/user] wrote:

Plans are meant to be changed Robyn 

Thanks Sol, I appreciate your support.  I usually don't do models on the fly like this and making it up as you go is a bit scary for me. I always want my work to be really good and silly mistakes are a bit annoying. I'm sure it will be alright on the night.

Robyn

While waiting for the paint to dry on the engine shed I made a start on Martins Engineering which is a previous kit that I designed. This is a fairly simple build and hopefully I haven't made any errors on my drawings. The model has some vents on the side and these are from a collection of detail photos that I took some time ago of industrial buildings not far from home. The graffitti is also from this collection. I have amassed a library of doors, windows, vents and numerous other details that are perfect for model making. This model is built using only one layer of mount board and hopefully at some stage I should be able to put some interior detail in the building, the usual collection of steel racks gas bottles etc etc. should help to bring it to life.

Robyn

Excellent!

Robyn
As always the quality of your work is excellent. Love the brickwork.
Andrew

Very precise Robyn as always

Ian

Why not make a slightly smaller arched top to the doorway instead of squaring it off , to mimic the effect of the window recesses ? 


Cheers


 Matt

Nice models.

Regarding the roof trusses, I think I would have made the wooden beams the full length of the building and cut out square notches in the card trusses to take the beams, you would then not be trying to glue onto the end  grain.