Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

G`day Folks,
Today I have set up the card roof over a former so that it will hold a curved shape very close to the shape of the arches on the Timber Merchant`s building.
The card was mist sprayed with water both sides and then eased over the former and secured with rubber bands.
I will let it dry for at least 24 hours.




Meanwhile the last end wall has been completed and all walls have been glued into place.





The racking has also been secured





I then made a jig to cut strips of Balsa that will simulate lengths of timber of various shapes and sizes.
The jig is simply a snap off blade that is hammered into the end grain of a piece of scrap timber.
The jig is secured in my bench vice and then a fence was added and secured with clamps......to adjust the width just move the fence.
The Balsa sheet is pushed along through the blade whilst being held against the fence





An assortment of thickness and width yet to be cut to length and assembled into stacks.
The stacks will then be airbrushed to a suitable colour.




More as it happens
Gormo

 

Thanks Gary,
It`s getting there step by step
Gormo

 

Thank you Paul....
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
I haven`t been about for over a week due to having a bout of Covid.
First time for me and has knocked the stuffins out of me.
I am in the recovery stage at the moment, but dealing with an overwhelming tiredness sometimes which means I just have to stop what I`m doing and sit down for a while and take it easy.
But I am determined to push through it until I reach full recovery.
The last couple of days saw me back out in the shed for a couple of short development sessions on the Timber Merchant model before the oppressive heat sent me back indoors.
You may remember from post #3302, I had the corrugated roof card drying over a former to create the desired curved shape.
Well the card finished up staying on the former for a week.....so it well and truly dried.
It was cut to it`s final dimensions and then the colouring process started. I did a number of experiments with colours and methods on some scrap card until I decided on a process.
The process was to colour the roof initially as brand spankin` new corrugated iron. This was done with a paint pen. You occasionally see these turn up in Aldi Oz in packs of Silver and or Gold.
They are quite handy for painting buffer heads and or doing Brass detail.
Below the roof painted but not fitted until interior detail is complete.




Then I added rust coloured chalk pastel powder in two colours and sealed each colour with a mist of hairspray.
Then some Green to simulate moss and then sealed again.
The whole lot was given a dry brushing to blend it





Prior to painting, I put in two light score lines along the length of the roof to simulate joins in the corrugate iron.
These also act as guides when introducing more colouring of the roof in an attempt to show various roof panels in different states of weathering and wear.
The dark areas were achieved by running an HB pencil along the corrugations where required.









Then made up a couple of signs.........the Timber Merchant is named after my Father in keeping with the tradition of the railway.









Then some testing with Balsa bits to test how they look in the racks.





Started creating some multi layer stacks of timber and fitted them into the racks.





Then how they look with a roof on.




So quite a few more stacks of timber to create........some for the racks and some to be stacked on the floor.....this job is really best done with the roof off, so the roof will have to wait patiently until it`s time is right.
More as it happens
Gormo

 

Thanks Paul and Andy.....
Well folks.......more timbers and stacks of timber have been added in various poses, plus the saw table and a pile of saw dust ( real ) on the floor









Then glued the roof on......the only way to clamp it in position was to go back to the big rubber band system that was used to hold it`s shape in the first place.
















That makes it 99% finished once the rubber bands are released
Gormo

 

Thanks Brian,
Yes block and tackle sometimes or even a gin stick and sometimes a Y pole and rope
Gormo

 

G`day Paul,
Don`t be sorry, you`re not interfering because that has been the plan for some time now.
It has been the plan due to lack of space in the sidings.
What I intend to do is have a brick wall running parallel with the siding behind Vincent`s shed and butting up to the end of the shed. The back wall of the shed will be a continuation of the brick wall in effect. At the other end of the shed, the wall continues slightly and then makes a right angle towards the front of the layout, effectively creating a small enclosed yard at that end of the shed. There will be a gate at this end giving road access to Vincents. The road also gives access to the Coal Merchant next door
The entrance to the siding, at the left hand end, will have brick wall either side of the track with a gate across the track to separate it from the main lines.
A further brick wall will be added behind the second siding beyond Vincent`s area to close off the Coal Merchants area.
Vincent`s yard at both ends of his shed will be concrete or cobbled, or a mix of the two, with a yard crane at the right hand end and various stacks of timber about and other bits of odds and sods.
The entrance to the siding will not be entirely cobbled, as I want to leave a grassy, slightly overgrown, bushy area there with maybe odd sleepers and bits of rail hanging about.....maybe even an old car body..??
The cobbling or concreting of the area,including the track, will deceive the eye in regard to how close the shed is placed to the rails and hopefully will justify it `s position
Gormo

 

I like that idea Paul...
The next stage begins with ground works.
There was nothing wrong with the ground works that were in place, provided no buildings and paving were to be placed on top of them, so they had to go.
I marked out the area to be decimated and got work on the plaster bed with a hammer and chisel.
This method required vertical chisel cuts along the edge of the sleepers to encourage the plaster to break along a line rather than tearing it away randomly.
I tried cutting a line with a Dremel, but that method created too much dust, so I took the harder but cleaner road with chisel instead.





So here we are back to baseboard





A base layer of corrugated card being fitted......there will be more layers to go on top of this to build the area up to rail height.





Under weights drying off.




Some pics of the completed Timber Merchant`s outdoors













Gormo

 

Yeah Paul,
But Toto would have used a bigger hammer.......



Gormo