Hi Marty, thanks for that comprehensive "how-to".   I really admire the trouble you take and can well imagine those support brackets could be "the straw that breaks the camel's back"!

I must admit I'd thought of omitting gutters etc on my buildings but you've given me fresh inspiration so I'll give them a try.   (As a matter of interest I've at last finished all my electrics and loco testing so can now get down to my favourite bit, the scenics!).

Ken

[user=34]Ken[/user] wrote:

Hi Marty, thanks for that comprehensive "how-to".   I really admire the trouble you take and can well imagine those support brackets could be "the straw that breaks the camel's back"!

I must admit I'd thought of omitting gutters etc on my buildings but you've given me fresh inspiration so I'll give them a try.   (As a matter of interest I've at last finished all my electrics and loco testing so can now get down to my favourite bit, the scenics!).

Ken

Hi Ken,

I've caught up with your layout thread and I must say that I'm eagerly awaiting the commencement of the scenics. 

I find that guttering and down pipes finish a building if they had them, you'll notice that my Mill Wheel building doesn't, because it didn't, being directly over the water it didn't need them.

cheers

Marty

[user=201]georgejacksongenius[/user] wrote:

Marty,
          Lovely buildings mate.Your persistance in getting it to look right to you has certainly paid off.What a showstopper!Can't wait to see it bedded into the finished scene,(impatient beggar aren't I?)

Cheers,John.B.:thumbs

You and me both mate… I'm chugging along, more soon.

Look forward to it, Marty.

You might think it could get boring Marty but there will always be someone on the forum who it will be fresh to. Apart from that I just love following your modelling, as do many others.

Top class modelling on the mill building Marty.:thumbs
Good to see the different stages of the painting and weathering.
To my eye you have got it just right….:thumbs

Thanks DD, Bob and Ste.
Here's some progress.
Mill Building 3
One of the problems I have with these buildings is that they are half relief and that the back scene board is on an angle of about 35°. Not much of a problem for the walls but when it comes to constructing the roof…. oh brother.
To help get the angles right and to give me a better idea of what I'm aiming for this building has been created in CAD as per below.







From the software a template for roof construction from sheets of plasticard is produced and the template then goes under a sheet of glass. 






Building 3 will dispense with the balsa frame and be plasticard only, a 1mm shell and a 0.5mm brick sheet. Internal floors will be installed to hold the structure rigid.

Other than that…. more window frames   Thank goodness this is half relief.

cheers

Marty

Good job.

CAD eh. Is there no end to these people's skills I ask myself.

If your results are half as good as the computer can do Marty, that's going to be a really stunning building. :pathead

Would have of been easier to build it square then put the hacksaw through it… :shock:  Then again, that would have taken the challenge out of it ! :roll:

Looking foward to the finished model. I have no doubts that it will look as good as any of your other buildings.

Cheers, Gary.

Marty - have you seen this pic?
A reliable source seems to think it was taken on the Newcastle Emlyn line, but not sure which station.

Just a bit of nostalgia…

(I have ownership of the original photo, BTW)

Shaun.

That's a super photo Shaun - have you got any more like that ?

G'day Shaun,

No, hadn't seen that one. Is it a slip coach?

I ask because my reading says that they didn't have an auto coach.

Off the do some checking.

Lovely photo all the same, further inspiration.

Cheers

Marty

Phew! Just gone through all 40 pages since this afternoon. I think every superlative used in the comments is more than justified, such that I don't think I can add anything new. As for your worries about the eyesight, I'm 79 and still managing, some improvement last year after a cataract op but the headband magnifier is never far from reach; another aid to the vision is one of those large (about A4 page size) Fresnel lenses you can get intended to aid reading books and other printed matter. I made up a pair of triangular "props" and clamped a Fresnel lens  to them so it would stand up at an angle, stand it on the layout for a better view of things a bit further away than than you can manage with a headband mag, I found it worked fine when I had to replace a point about 2 feet away from the edge of the layout, I couldn't get close enough to focus decently with the headband mag.

One or two things you do differently from me, I find it easier to print downloaded brick, stone and other textures to self adhesive label or vinyl stock. I've also recently invested in a plotter cutter (thanks to a thread on this club) that has made the chore of cutting out windows a thing of the past the machine, driven by the PC does it for me. I would think it would also cope with scoring window frames, using the engraving tool, must try that soon.

After scoring the frames into clear plastic do you fill the scores with paint or opaque ink?

Being inclined towards laziness I get packs of 30 or 40 trees from Chinese Ebay sellers which have twisted wire armatures and do a bit of enhancement, they do have a semblance of bark which I add to for any that will be near the front of the layout, less or none for those further away, I also tone down the brighter greens and add flock and scatter. put the desired colours of flock and/or scatter in a plastic food/freezer bag, spray the tree with adhesive, drop in the bag and shake. Pulling the trees apart can also give the makings of a hedge, these can do a very good job of hiding baseboard joins! Luckily the area I'm modelling has very few, if any conifers!

Goodness!  Well done Mike, it's a bit of a marathon! As long as it kept you entertained.

Thanks for the comments about the eyesight… I'm hoping to carry on and finish the layout so my peepers have to hold out until then. I like the idea of the fresnel lens and will look into it or something similar.

I find that I don't need to add a thin wash of paint or ink (and wipe up the excess) to the scored grooves in the clear plastic in N scale, they stand out well enough on their own and the paint, IMO, was too heavy.

As for THOSE window frames…

There has been some serious research done by the CME into 3D printing from digital CAD models. Further progress will be reported if the new technology is accepted into the workshops.

A plotter cutter may be needed in addition and I'm following the trials and tribulations of those testing them with interest.

Presenting a viable business plan to the CFO will be another matter!!!

The trees from China appeared to me, from your photos to be quite small, I may be mistaken or you may be hoarding the bigger ones for later use. The purchase of a selection of them as understory or newly planted hedge has certainly been considered and will probably happen but I do enjoy making trees and am keen to have the railway surrounded by it's landscape and prototypically sized trees.

I feel that as modellers on the whole we often under estimate the size and impact of trees in our layouts. Just my opinion and it does depend on a whole heap of different factors in the surrounding environment.  Having battled your way through the NE journey you now know this of course.

Many of the trees I saw on my trip to West Wales towered over two storey houses… I hope to portray the same… And I'm still to perfect the mass production technique… Maybe this antipodean summer.

Slow but steady…. And most appreciative of any other thoughts that you may have.

Cheers

Marty

"we often under estimate the size and impact of trees in our layouts"

Agreed.

Ah-ha, nice to know I'm not out on a limb here.

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

Ah-ha, nice to know I'm not out on a limb here.

Are your sure you are barking up the wrong treequest: