Grahame's N/2mm bashes

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grahame

Western Thunderer
I'm part way through making a, hopefully Victorian style, warehouse for the next structure along (from the vinegar brewery) in front of the viaduct. I've test placed it on the layout to check it all goes together okay (pic below). The walls aren't attached (hence the gaps) as doors need to be made and fitted. Then they can be glued to the carcass. Finally, details, like the hoist jib, down rain pipes, chimney pots, etc., can be made and added.

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grahame

Western Thunderer
I've been slowly working my way along the front of the layout (from right to left/east to west) with the biscuit factory, vinegar brewery and now the old warehouse buildings all recently modelled. None of them are fully finished or fixed down (to allow them to be moved for the viaduct construction). The road behind them and in front of the viaduct is getting closer to the layout baseboard edge towards the left and the remaining narrow triangular site will become a waste ground/slum or bomb damage clearance area.

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That site is bottom left at the baseboard edge in the photo above. I'm planning on taking inspiration from Kier Hardy's Hornsey Broadway waste ground modelling as outlined in this 'EM gauge in the 70s' update: EM Gauge Layouts, Models & Projects
 
John57sharp

John57sharp

Western Thunderer
That link was very useful in other ways too, thanks Grahame and looking forward to seeing this develop. You don't half work quickly, by my standards anyway!

Cheers
John
 
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grahame

Western Thunderer
Before embarking on the potentially fun modelling of the waste ground, I thought I ought to make the buildings on Bermondsey Street that occupy the same block as the warehouse (that I'd always planned to include). I've made a start, as in the pic below, but obviously much still to do including the frontages. They will be roughly based on actual buildings including a café currently called Chapter 72, see here: Google Maps
And I still need to make the rainwater hopper heads and downpipes for the warehouse.

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grahame

Western Thunderer
Some progress on the shop frontages. No.72, a cafe called Chapter 72, is still to be completed - the windows, door and anything that can be seen inside. The other property seems a strange secretive affair with frosted windows and blinds. And I've still to make the hopper heads and downpipes for the warehouse, and now for the shops.

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grahame

Western Thunderer
No modelling of recent as I've been away (last week) to Venice by train, stopping over in Switzerland. Back now, but not in the swing of modelling yet, so yesterday I wrote and submitted an article to Model Rail about my gasholder kit bashing based on one I published in my magazine a while back. I'd adapted the kit from an above ground water tank type to a subterranean type with the tank made to represent the bottom holder lift. It looks a lot better and more appropriate IMO. And here's a couple of gratuitous pics of it currently in place on the LB layout. There's still plenty to do on the gasholder station site though:

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grahame

Western Thunderer
The next scenic vignette along the baseboard front from the Victorian warehouse will be a bomb damage/slum clearance site as mentioned earlier. It's a narrow triangular shaped site. There's plenty of photos on the web of such sites and building demolition to provide inspiration and research. I've started by cutting holes in the baseboard to allow a lower level for cellars, etc, to be modelled and provide undulation.

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I've put together a removeable sub-board for the scene to built indoors. This includes lowered sections that drop in to the holes. It's only rough as, hopefully, there will be a lot of detail to cover it. This is only a beginning and there is much modelling effort to carry out so it may take some time.

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grahame

Western Thunderer
I drew a very rough character sketch to give me an idea of how it could look and marked up the terraced properties outlines/boundaries on the sub-board. Then I tentatively started adding in some brick plasticard - doubled up so the embossed bricks were on both sides - in the lowered cellar areas to represent the party walls. The plan is that those on the left end are almost completely demolished while it is only a couple at the other end of the terrace that will have any resemblance of a house - just a few external walls and chimney stacks but no roof.

Then I made and added the basic gable end wall in place - it will be the only 'complete' wall of the row/scene - and have given everything a coat of grey primer. Next will be the remnants of the front walls and the front yard walls. The view will be from the rear of the building showing the innards so the inside walls will need to be dressed (plaster, wall paper, etc) rather than just brick, meaning more modelling effort. I'd already included a smooth plaster representation for the inside of the gable end wall except the loft area.

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grahame

Western Thunderer
I've added some filler over the card and wooden spatulas to form the undulations and disguise the sharp angles. This will form the basic more gentle landform that will need decorating with old brickwork, building materials and vegetation that has grown through it.

I've also given the filler a coat of 'earth' coloured paint that I purchased yesterday. Oddly it looks very similar to the desert yellow that I sprayed the brickwork in (my go to colour for the base of London yellow stocks brickwork) and I needed to darken the 'earth' with some browner colour.

I've also now got some rough and ready paint on the inside section to represent old internal decoration. It needs detailing and touching up. And making and adding all the rubble, bricks and timber. As well as adding chimney pots, and doors off their hinges, and broken window frames, and stairways. Such a lot to do.

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Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
grahame said:
Such a lot to do.
Click to expand...

When I’m fiddling around with landscape elements, or corners of rough ground, the detritus of human life that’s left to its own devices, that's when modelling becomes closer to the art form it should be. I find it enormously enjoyable. You have an idea in your mind's eye, and you set about trying to create it on the model.
 
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