As part of the development of the backsecene for my layout I am constructing 2 Metcalfe kits.  This is the first one a row of 4 low relief Victorian terraced houses in brick.  They were quite straight forward to make, although the bay windows are a bit fiddly.  I also cheated with the chimneys, by using Wills plastic ones, rather than the paper items provided with the kit.  I coloured the edges using felt pens as described elsewhere in this section.

Bob(K)

Looks a well made kit there Novice, nice one :!:

I've found these useful for my layout, but needed to leave the bay windows out, to match typical terraces (Ex National Coal Board) found locally.
Like you, I intend to replace the chimney pots with Wills ones and re-roof by tiling over the card roof fitted.
I also intend to provide gutters & down pipes, finishing off with some weathering using Artist's Pastels.

They do look good Bob! Nice job.

Will have to look at these Wills chimney pots as my attempts at the Metcalfe one's leaves a lot to be desired :roll:

Looking good as per norm Bob. Glad you mentioned the chimney,s, now i know what i can do to replace mine, cheers
Phill

Very smartly done, Bob.  Any plans to light them?


 Mike

They look good Bob.  :)

Have wonderd about these low relief kits and you could maybe answer a question I have. If, as you say, you are going to put them against your backscene, does that mean you have to paint the rest of the house ie. the reamining gable wall, onto the backscene? I suppose you could disguise it with a tree or something. :?  :?

Les

Les if I may reply to that - I haven't bothered to paint the remainder of my low relief shops onto the backscene. Yes mine look a bit odd from some angles. It's just another compromise, I guess.  Trees do help disguise them, as do more buildings - painted or printed - behind them.

 Mike

MikeC said

Very smartly done, Bob.  Any plans to light them?


 Mike

Mike

No, I am going to keep it simple.  They will just sit in the background - for the moment.

Bob(K)

Thanks Mike, I have no problem accepting your advice. if I finish up with scenery remotely like yours (and Bob's) I'll be delighted. :D

Les

I,ve also made these and found the bay windows fiddly , the Wills chimney pots look good have got some in the spares box so going to replace with those  :)

Les said

They look good Bob.  :)

Have wonderd about these low relief kits and you could maybe answer a question I have. If, as you say, you are going to put them against your backscene, does that mean you have to paint the rest of the house ie. the reamining gable wall, onto the backscene? I suppose you could disguise it with a tree or something. :?  :?

Les

If you have a look at my backscene thread (Backscenes for non-artists), you will see another idea for blending in low relief buildings against the background Les.
In my case, I've used layers of backscene papers to give the illusion of depth and treated the low relief buildings as part of the backscene. (Well they are really) The eye is then fooled into thinking that the low relief structure is a full building.

Have a look at my link to see what I mean, you'll find the first photo of a low relief terrace halfway down the initial post, which then goes into some detail on how I built it up.
Here's the link:-

http://yourmodelrailway.com/viewtopic.php?t=162&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

Jeff,

Put it down to age I'm afraid but I had forgotten just how good that post is, in fact worse still I had forgotten the post altogether. Thanks for reminding me. :oops:  It really does answer my question in a very effective way.

I hope I forgot it because I was nowhere near that stage of work on my layout so to be sure I have copied it, saved it as a Word file AND printed it out. :wink:

Thanks again,

Les

     

it would be nice if some clever person came up with a holographic backscene paper .trees or biuldings. i have seen this type of thing on gift wrapping but balloons or stars are not quite appropriate. :D

 anyone know how they do that?

Buying Wills chimney pots……?  I can hear Bob cryinging into his beer

I didn't think the Metcalfe roll-up chimbly pots were too clever, but I've found that if you use comparatively generous amount of PVA, wind on the tip of a cocktail stick, you end up with a slightly glazed looking clay pot, soft enough to 'twiddle' on the stick with your finger nail against the end to give this [below] appearance, [ a scratchbuilt LR bombed terrace circa 1900], go on, have another go!

Depending on how you cut your strip of paper, and what you 'twirl' them on, the possibilities could be endless, and you can spend the money on important things like Scottish Laughing Water :cheers

PS I know the chimneys should be laid-up in plain bond, but I hadn't got any at the time, sorry!

It's shown time and time again, it's all in the details.

Is that really card Dooferdog?  That looks like the real thing to me!

Yup, the pots are paper, rubbed with a little clear matt acrylic varnish before being stuck on. They are part of this model, a bombed terrace with a 'vacant' lot. There were still some like this in Portsmouth when I was a child, with a tar-papered shored up end.

Fantastic looking terrace - is that all card as well?

Yes, everything is card,paper [Scalescenes] DAS clay, scrap wood etc, the sash windows, however have got thin plastic strip. The card is cornflake packets and the back of an old calendar. The hardest bit to get 'right' was the rubbish tip at the end, I did it three times before it looked right.