4mm From an unpromising start - shop around

[Neil]

Trapdoor for beer barrels into the cellar at the rear, hence the passage…?

An interesting suggestion Simon but the pub will only be a little bit higher than the estuary so I'm not sure that it would have a cellar. Years ago (late seventies) I was taken to a pub in the lakes where a little old lady dispensed beer from a barrel set up on a trestle table in what looked to be her front room. I imagine my pub to be not much more sophisticated than that. The passage will be just for access to the rear; I'm hoping that the composition will look something like this but with rails in front leading to a low timber jetty.

 

[Rob R]

Ravenglass doesn't look so pretty from the outside does it?
Rob

 

[oldravendale]

We lived in such a converted ale house for quite a few years in a hamlet called Great Gap near Ivinghoe, Bucks. I can't find any photos of the bar area, but locals remembered the pub still being open and that the beer was dispensed from the far side of a stable door in what was, when we took the place over, the kitchen. If I find a photo of the bar I'll post it but for now here's the outside and some historical ones from when it actually was a pub.

Brian

 

[Heather Kay]

Ah, now the origins of a user name become clear.

 

[Neil]

Today I had a trip to Machynlleth and while there picked up a baseboard kit (including full enclosure) for fifteen quid; bargain. Once I get it assembled I should be able to make progress on several fronts, not just individual items on the workbench.

​

 

[Simon]

Cripes, that's quite a lot for a cardboard box!

You are looking very healthy!

 

[steve1]

You are looking very healthy!

Not sure about the milk bottle legs though.

steve

 

[Neil]

Not sure about the milk bottle legs though.

steve

I'll have you know I specialise in pale and interesting.

 

[Neil]

Cripes, that's quite a lot for a cardboard box! ...

Yes that's what I thought but then I started to consider value rather than price. Compared to the alternatives (baseboard kit or raw timber) it's cheaper but more importantly it'll give me hours of fun faffing about trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. I know big, strong cardboard boxes can smetimes be had for free but I don't need a new fridge freezer or more Ikea furniture.

 

[Neil]

In between buying cardboard boxes and topping up my tan in the glorious sunshine over the last week I've also been battling with the un-halftimbered cottage build. I started overlaying the roof with Slaters tiles. The first sheet I tried was ridiculously brittle, a problem I've had recently with their brick sheets, fortunately I had a small section of old stuff which behaved itself.



The ridge tiles are from some small diameter plastic tube, scraped and filed flat then cut into short sections. I spayed the windows (easier than brush painting) which I attached to a block of wood with double sided tape to stop them blowing about.


Because access was tight inside the cottage I glazed the frames and added curtains on the workbench before sticking them in place.

 

[Heather Kay]

The cottage has turned out lovely. I’m enjoying this jaunt back to the days of kitbashing and scratchbuilding. Useful skills, even today with all the 3D and CAD available.

 

[Neil]

Thank you Heather. I've come to realise that I just enjoy making things. I know that CAD, 3D printing and the like are valuable tools but I sometimes wonder if some of the joy of construction isn't lost in the machine made perfection that they enable. That's not to say the whizz kid at the keyboard is any less skilled than the bodger chest deep in bit's of plasticard at his or her workbench, it's just that it seems a degree more remote from the process of building.

 

[Captain Kernow]

Thank you Heather. I've come to realise that I just enjoy making things. I know that CAD, 3D printing and the like are valuable tools but I sometimes wonder if some of the joy of construction isn't lost in the machine made perfection that they enable. That's not to say the whizz kid at the keyboard is any less skilled than the bodger chest deep in bit's of plasticard at his or her workbench, it's just that it seems a degree more remote from the process of building.

I couldn't agree more, Neil.

I've long admired the perfectly executed models that have resulted from laser-cutting or 3-D printing and that modern ilk. Such lovely models and true to their prototypes to a fraction of a millimetre, no doubt. I would certainly be happy to possess such paragons of miniaturisation, but how much happier I would be, had I produced something like that using Slaters plasticard and a sharp scalpel.

 

[simond]

MODE (philosophical) [/ON]

I rather like both.

I absolutely love the capability that CAD & laser give me, and I simply could not have built my loco shed without them. (And SLA likely to join the toolbox)

equally, fettling a bit of nickel silver fret waste into point levers with file & soldering iron is simple and satisfying. (and very cheap!)

happily, space for all in our hobby

MODE (philosophical) [/OFF]

 

[Neil]

....happily, space for all in our hobby ....

Absolutely and the hobby is all the richer for it.

I almost added to the original that given card from a cereal packet, glue and a pound shop paintbox and I'd still be happily making models. I suppose that the whole unpromising start thing has an element of this pared back simplicity about it. I guess that's what motivates me at the moment but all other approaches are equally valid, horses for courses and all that. Mind you with the cost of living crisis maybe we'll all be cornflake carton creators in a year or so.

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Absolutely and the hobby is all the richer for it.

I almost added to the original that given card from a cereal packet, glue and a pound shop paintbox and I'd still be happily making models. I suppose that the whole unpromising start thing has an element of this pared back simplicity about it. I guess that's what motivates me at the moment but all other approaches are equally valid, horses for courses and all that. Mind you with the cost of living crisis maybe we'll all be cornflake carton creators in a year or so.

Will we be able to afford cornflakes?

 

[simond]

I stopped eating breakfast cereals a couple of years back, as the waistline was in danger of catching up with the height. I kept cornflake packets for years, and still have a few, they are #1 go-to for trying stuff out on the laser!

 

[Neil]

I may come back to breakfast cereals later but for the moment it's back to plastic. After a bit more cutting, sticking and blathering on of filler I've with this.





It's in grey primer just to check how awful the pseudo rendering is (a few spots to touch up) before it gets a spray coat of whitewash.