Structures

I always prefer to start with the structures as these do take time but are easily stored. This minimised the length of time that baseboards dominate the scenery! The station building will be made using Wills plastic sheets. I have some scale drawings produced by Chris Ashmore. These are produced to a scale of 7mm/ft and will have to be reduced down to 4mm/ft. I also Have drawings produced by Chris Leigh for 4mm/ft.

The station walls were constructed using Wills random stone sheets, Wills industrial arches, Ratio gutters and down pipes and Wills and Ratio windows and doors. I also used various thicknesses of plastic sheet. The Ratio windows needed a bit of butchery by moving the horizontal glazing bars. They were then spray painted cream and the doors, green.

One thing that I see over and over again, are Wills brick arches glued to the surface of building sheets. This leaves them standing out proud rather than being flush with the building sheet. The arches are supplied marked only with alternate bricks. The intermediate bricks need to be carved out using a scalpel. The arches are cut to size with two being glued together to increase the thickness. The lower edge is carved to show the brick courses.

This procedure takes more time but the end result is far better.

The corners of the walls are mitred. These are glued together using Plastic Weld while being assembled around a pre-cut floor of plastic sheet. Once the paint is dry, the windows are glazed using the clear plastic sheet from the Wills packaging.

Before the widows and doors are fitted, the stonework must be painted. I now only use water based acrylic paints and first paint the blocks a variety of browns. While the paint is still damp, I apply brown weathering power. Various greys are then dry brushed over the surface. Once dry, I damp the walls with a mister (detergent added) and run dilute white paint into the mortar gaps. This runs most satisfactorily down the walls representing mortar, although more than one application may be needed. The surface of the stones is then dabbed with paper towels until a realistic finish is obtained. The brickwork is picked out in a variety of colours as required. This process considerably lightens the stone finish, so this must be allowed for during the initial painting.

Interior wall were then added with whatever detail I chose to include.

The windows and doors can then be fitted, being supported by square section Plastistrut on the inside.

The roof is built using 1mm thick plastic sheet. As always, hip roofs are more challenging and care is needed to ensure that the pitches are correct. The roof has a considerable overhang. This is why I built the walls of the building so high so that they support the roof at the correct height.

The unusual diagonal slates were added only where they would be seen (due to snow slippage) and ridges were fitted. This building has ornate ends to the ridge tiles which were carved out of solid plastic. The single chimney was added at the rear.

basic structure of the station completed

with the hip roof completed, the first coats of Woodland Scenics 'snow' is added

Barring some details, the building is finished and snow applications continue. The climbing plants must also be affixed to the walls.

the completed snow application using microballoon.

the bridge

The bridge is still extant. Construction was again in plastic.

the completed snow application using microballoon.

the goods shed

With only one known photo of this structure, a lot of the model is guesswork.

the goods shed under way.

 The snow bulk is made up with Woodland Scenics 'white gravel' Many further treatments will be needed to have 'real snow' .

the completed snow application using microballoon.

lighting up

There are three lamps at Bratton Fleming and I spent some time searching for good representations of those used. As we are modelling day and night, these lamps have to work, of course. Head and shoulders above all others were from DCC Concepts based in Oz. I later discovered that they are supplied in the UK by DCC Supplies.

SR gas lamps were ordered and arrived in a pack of three with extension posts and a circuit board which allows you to adjust the light intensity. The quality of these things is better than anything else I have seen (UK white metal caters take note).

The colour seems to me to be a tad lurid but this was easily put right by some very careful painting. A word of warning: use water based acrylic paint as enamels, for some reason will not dry matt. One lamp is mounted on the Gents wall at the station and therefore has no pole. This I removed by sanding it with a Dremel. In the centre is a very fine brass tube in which are the two thin power wires. Handle these carefully to prevent damaging the insulation. Once the pole was removed, I continued to carefully sand the brass tube until it nearly cut through. It then very easily breaks off.

The small copper wires were cut short, the insulation scraped off at the ends and soldered to thin insulated multi-strand wires. The toilet wall was routed to half thickness and a small hole drilled in the floor of the loo to let the wires through. The lamp was then epoxied in and snowed up. A further lamp was modified to become a wall mounted unit, while the third was fitted as the stand alone lamp near the footpath entrance to the station.

Warm white LEDs were also installed in the building using 3Kohm resistors to maintain the lights dim.

the station with lamp attached - click on image to enlarge