Hopefully, a few of my card and paper adventures with as little plastic as possible....

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to stick to YMR only stuff, but this is my kitbash of the Scalescenes cottage row.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/83509-a-village-shop-from-a-scalescenes-cottage-row/#entry1383675

If not acceptable, mods please delete link and PM me.

 D

PS There is a reference to problems involved in scratching glazing material when lifting the self adhesive lable paper used for window frames. I have now decided the best, least deletarious method is to use sharpened 2B pencil tip. No scrathes, any markes wipe off with a cotton-bud and eraser. I have since realised the raised panel on the shop door is over thick, but I am 'frit to try altering it. I might try sticking a newspaper headline poster and some fine wire mesh on it to make it look intentional.
D
 

Hello Doug,
                  I find the tip of a wooden toothpick is ideal for removing the self-adhesive label to reveal the window pane beneath.  No scratching of the window surface.

Regards,

Terry

Superb work on the shop and cottages. Im a fan of Scalescenes and your detailing really has made them stand out and they are very realistic.

Thank you, Ian, the credit must go to John's textures though.
D

A few thoughts on 'Slates'.




Herewith a photo I took on the W.S.R. some time ago, showing how thin the slates were. The rough edges lead me to believe they are older hand trimmed slates, probably from over the water in Welsh Wales.



It's possible to do a reasonable likeness [below] using Scalescenes TX 18, laid to give a sqaure appearance, like these below, where a line has been cut with a Stanley knife between each slate and then the whole treated with scraped black artists' pastel which I rubbed in with a short stippling brush to [a] generate a nice shine and  to colour the edges of the cut paper and [c] brush away any excess PritStik adhesive The same trick can be used with an appropriately coloured pastel on red tile roofs. I find it much less messy than trying to colour the egdes of a single thickness of paper with the much vaunted felt tip pen.




Laying with less overlap gives the impression of longer 'Queen' tiles like my old Plymouth terrace in St Budeaux, shown below in an 'in-build' station roof for the old Bear's End, I believe a style primarily used on more steeply pitched roofs.





Here, a double row of slates was used under the ridge, to support the weight of the decorative ridge tiles, shown on an in-build copy of Wallingford engine shed. Note the odd slipped slate, all adds to credibility.
.



To be sure that your strips of slates can be well stuck, you need a strong supporting layer to which they may be  firmly pressed once they have been smeared with stick adhesive.



A viable alternative is to print the slate texture onto self adhesive  label paper [SALP], then stick that whole sheet to another sheet of SALP  befor cutting the strips [see the gable end below] giving a thinner edge appearance as in the gable end below.

You can also leave a thinner look at the edges by laying single thickness slates slates on a  piece of thin card [Packeto Cornoflako] to show the narrow thickness like the edges of the lean-to roof below.




Finally, two tips I think are worth repeating, [1] Consider printing slate papers in grey-scale rather than colour, so that you can use your own weathering tones if you wish. [2]  Cut all the  horizontal lines of  sheet of TX 18, leaving the left hand side of the rows attached to the sheet, then cut off the right hand border of the sheet down the edge of the slates, before snipping off the strips one at a time. This ensures that the bond and the printed 'weathering' pattern stay aligned and consistant as they are applied.

I hope that this has been of interest to some members, and that the old salts amongst you will not think I am trying to teach you suck eggs!

Douglas

Ultra Low relief backscene downloads


I found these two whilst searching for something else, and thought they might be of interest…..

By clicking on the PDF file link below, you can download a printable  version of this picture, ready scaled to reproduce it in 4mm - 1/76th  scale.




The pictures of windows and doors are designed to be cut out around  their white window frames and sills and stuck onto a suitable brick  patterned texture paper, for my example below I have chosen Scalescenes  TXO3 Cream Brick.






Have a close look at your sheet of texture paper, it may have a course  of 'soldier' bricks, aline of bricks printed standing on their ends. Cut  out and pasted to card as a separate layer they can add a subtle touch  to your model, see below



You will need an 80mm wide strip of thin card, as long as your chosen  size of building covered with texture paper. If you are using  'Cornoflako Paketo' then glue your paper to the dull side, the glossy  printed side will help resist the tendency of the card to curl as the  glue dries. I prefer to use 'Pritt-stik'. Allow to dry, preferably under  a heavy flat weight.

Whilst your glue is drying, cut out as many doors and windows as you  need, roughly cut out the blue roof strips and glue these to the same  sort of thin card. If you choose to incorporate a soldier course  underneath your roof overlays, cut and paste these at the same time and  allow to dry thoroughly before you attempt to cut them out. If you try  to cut the strips whilst the glue is damp there is a very good chance  that you could tear and drag the soft paper.

Arrange your windows and doors in a pleasing fashion. Mark their  positions lightly with a soft lead pencil, or, use Post-it notes to   mark the particular line of bricks they are to be placed on. Soft  [2B-4B] pencil lines can be erased with a soft rubber. It is worth  buying a Windsor and Newton Medium Kneaded Putty Rubber for this sort of  job, it also cleans fingerprints and grubby marks off of paper without  being too aggressive, and can be used to 'dull down' papers to help them  regress into the background.

When all glue is dry, you may consider adding telephone wires on the  face of the wall with a sharp grey/black pencil, burglar alarms etc and  weathering the paper. Consider drawing a fine black line under each  window sill to accentuate the shadow and add to the 3D effect.

 Good Luck!

Doug


Attachment: Forum freebieamanded1.pdf (Downloaded 163 times)



With a bit of luck, the next attached file should print out as elements to  make an older fashioned building 'Flat-scene', exactly the same way as  the one above.

I think this would look good pasted up onto Scalescenes TXO1 red brick or TXO6 aged red brick.

I'd cut out the opening for the roller doors to whatever size or height  you fancy [or leave them this size], then cut out the doors to match,  glue them to a separate piece of card and stick that behind the wall  opening. The small doors and windows I'd stick straight on.

Enjoy!




 Attachment: oldfactory roofand doors1amended.pdf

Here's one done by Stubby…was it really 10 years ago????


 

Doug

Weathering with Watercolours







Following a request to explain how I weather Scalescenes papers with  watercolours, I have decided to show how I have weathered a kit-bashed  version of John's arched bridge. Much easier to build now, the latest  version includes a fully printed arch which obviated the tiresome and  difficult method of cutting a strip of individual bricks before  'bending' it around the opening.
 
I shall show some weathered-out soft bricks that plants have gained a  foothold in, some lime washing down from the mortar, some mould and  green partly obscuring the lower bricks and some dented bricks done by  lousy drivers. My aim is to make it look 'dirty' yet still transparent,  something watercolours does admirably.
 
WARNING - I am using genuine Epson 'DuraBrite' inks which have a  reasonable resistance to water, the printed paper is wetable, but the  inks don't run. Before you try this on your masterpiece, have a little  trial splash somewhere out of sight. All is not lost if you are using  cheapy inks, a VERY light spray with Lidl waterproofing spray, sold for  suede shoes and anoraks [O.K. here then…] may help, but too much will  make it too impermeable for these techniques.

The colours I am using are Windsor and Newton 'Cotman' colours, very  reasonably priced and available in a huge range of colours. I've chosen  Burnt Sienna [a brown], Ivory Black [a less inky black colour], Cadmium  Yellow and Paynes Grey. The latter, though a 'grey' is based on a very  dark mix of blues, as you will see, when mixed with yellow, it  makes…yes, green!
 
You'll need two brushes, a Number 6 soft for splashing on watery  mixes, and a Number 1 for putting little blobs of colour here and there.  Synthetic are fine, but neither will cost more than £2-£3 for a  really good one, and well looked after will last years and years.
 
Don't mix up a great dollop of whatever colour you think you need,  put two colours alongside each other on a white surface like the inside  of a margarine tub lid or an old saucer, and 'draw' them together with a  moist brush. Then, each time you go back for more you'll get a natural,  subtle difference in your colours.







You'll also need some tiny scraps of foliage stuff, I keep all my waste bits……and some PVA




Right! Cut out some brick shapes…




and with the side of your larger brush dipped in clear water wet the  cut-out area and the whole distance from there to the 'ground' .  Everything else happens while the paper is still visibly wet, so with  the little brush, blob some white paint into the cut-outs and quickly  draw it down the wet stripe to the ground.










Mix some blacky-brown and dab a little in the wet white cut-out, add a  tiny bit of PVA and stick on the plant material of your choice…




Now for the dirty area at the bottom where earth slashed up has gone  greenish [this works all round buildings, too] wet up about 1/4"- 6mm




and as we are adding a 'bushy thing' which in turn will attract moisture  and dirt, do a big splash, add a dollop of your green and watch it  spread out naturally without any unrealistic brush marks.





Add some more 'bush' and allow to dry.
 
The finished result is a subtly dirtied finish with no deliberate  brush marks. The original printing shows through, and the Chinese white  has sedimented on top of the paper like efflorescing salts really do.  All the white stains have been applied 'wet-in-wet' as a watercolour  artisit would say, and looking at the joins of the wing walls and  pillars the dark staining has been added in the join by the same  technique.
 
Clumsy drivers have dented the arrises either side of the entrance,  shown by pressing the edge of a steel rule against them into the  underlying card. The width markers were in fact made from steel strip in  the pre-plastic age and as such show rust marking where the fastenings  go through them. The signage is chipped as little boys knew very well  that they gave a satisfying 'clang' when hit with a stone from a  catapult…..tee-hee!



I hope this will encourage some of you to try watercolours as a means of weathering texture papers,

Douglas

Douglas

On the subject of slates, I have just found out (as part of my planning application) that a slate roof should be set at a minimum of 18 degrees whereas clay tiles can be set onto a 15 degree slope.

Minor factoid for slate roof users.

Barry

I've found the laser cut tiles by York Models to look the best, - self adhesive strips which you lay overlapping. Plain tiles and decorative, various colours

N gauge Laser Cut Model N-TILES01 Slates / Tiles (choice of 4 colours) - York Model Rail

00 gauge Laser Cut Model Tiles, Slates and Ridges - York Model Rail

0 gauge Laser Cut Model Tiles, Slates and Ridges - York Model Rail

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

I've found the laser cut tiles by York Models to look the best, - self adhesive strips which you lay overlapping. Plain tiles and decorative, various colours
00 gauge https://yorkmodelrail.com/product-category/00-scale-ho-scale/tiles-slates-and-ridges-00-scale-ho-scale/

 

Very nice, Mike, but 'AAAaaagh!' The prices… they bite deeply into the S.L.W. fund….

Doug

rail-scale-models.com over here do OO scale tiles (shingles) in many designs/shapes and colors (yes, OO)..
Even slate adhesive-backed laxer-cut ones (2 sheets of 4.5 x 12 inches). $8.95. Gives 45 square inches of coverage with 50% overlap.

Nigel

Thanks Nigel, looks interesting, esp in OO! Duly saved.
D

Low relief industrial building - A 'How to'

See

http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=3290&forum_id=14

D

This is a great "How to" and one I have referred back to many times because it is full of great tips.  It is really helpful having these in a single thread, will make my search times much quicker!
Michael

Minor point, I too use Scalescenes papers, but I print them onto A4 size labels which are adhesive backed, I also use a plotter cutter which saves a lot of time and cuts more accurately than my aging fingers and eyes can, however I'm working in N gauge so use lighter weight card than Doug.

For corner strengthening I  use off cuts of plastic angle and often also fit "floors and ceilings" to keep things square.

Well I'm going to have a go at designing and building as an 'Owididt' a small cottage to fit in a particular space on Ursa Resurgit. The premise is that it started out in 1760 as a two two-roomed rubblestone cottages for labourers built on a small plot by the Monastery of Saint Grissel, the Patron Saint of black pudding makers. Later it was sold off, knocked into one house, a bay window and a clapboard scullery added.

So….[that'll annoy Gastwo  ] here goes. First a few sketches, the a plan to scale from which to take off sizes straright onto the card, 2mm Finnboard, with dividers. As a cheap rubblestone building, sharp corners have no place, so the exposed corners window and door reveals are sanded over deliberately roughly.
In order to make a seamless wrap with Scalescenes Limewashed stone TX 50 on the viewing sides, the front is glued to the texture paper then the end walls glued on leaving a succinct fold gap so that the front and end walls can be laid out flat for working up, and installation of the bay window. The windows will be glazed with leaded glass, made by printing a simple 1.8mm grid onto O.H.P. sheet.







Aligning end and front walls using the texture paper. The join between the wall elements remain unglued at this stage, as seen below.




Showing how the rounded corners are covered by the single wrap.




This allows the walls to be opened flat to allow the fitting of the bay window,  some flashing to add in due course.





Next I'll have try at putting in the other windows.

They are coming on very nicely. 

More great tips!   The bay window looks great, and very neatly done.
Michael

Chris, Michael, Thank you!!

Before I show you the windows, here's my top tip for accurately cutting  window reveals. If you have a window opening or any other opening you  want to fit with a parallel edged 'liner' then place the required  material underneath the opening, and run a pencil around the inside  edges. Obvious? Well, if as in this case I want a 1mm wide inside edge  to represent the wooden frames, I place the tip of my pencil lead in a  spacer, in this case a 1mm nut, and draw around the inside. The line  can't help but follow the exact outline of the opening. The same method  can be used to mark a border edge for a wavy component, or when you are  DIYing, using a penny washer and a big pencil to scribe a worktop to fit  exactly the profile of a less than straight wall….

Simples!




Windows below



When the window sill glue is well and truly set I'll beast over the  lower edge to  ensure the card is well and truly pressed in to represent  a beam of wood.

Door is next, need to find a good example to model. Poop-poop!