Roofing details (louvres, bargeboards, ridges), painting cobbles, & a door
Every modelmaker knows there are some jobs that often get put off indefinitely. This isn't necessarily because they are hard tasks, but could be because the tasks are fiddly, laborious, or we're just unsure how to tackle them. Whilst I have made relatively solid progress with Sandy Shores ahead of its 2nd exhibition in late April, there are a considerable number of jobs that I've been putting off for years. Today, I decided it was time to tackle some of them!
First up on my list was to add some louvres to the clerestory of the loco shed. I had been putting this job off because I deemed it to be too fiddly. I wasn't wrong! Thankfully, the clerestory is tiny, so only one layer of louvres was needed. In retrospect, they are perhaps a little too wide, but it was hard enough gluing them in place to begin with. The rafters had a bit of flex in them, making my life even trickier, as any movement whilst adding one pair of louvres would risk the first set pinging off. Eventually I got them all in place, and it's fair to say I no longer cared how neat they would be (not that it matters as it's obviously a loco shed that has seen better days!). Anyway, the second photo shows the roof panels having been removed for three reasons; one, to make painting easier, two, to distress the edges of the roof panels with a wire brush attachment on the Dremel, and three, to add an extra panel onto each (the originals were too short).
With the loco shed roof drying/being glued together, I turned my attention to two of the other buildings on the layout; the platform shelter, and the kiosk. Both roofs received the same treatment with the wire brush attachment (pictured above) on the ends of each panel. This not only creates a distressed look, but also helps thin the edge of the sheets. Any white that shows through will later be painted over, although to be quite honest, it could quite easily be left more or less alone in some circumstances.
Whilst I had the two structures on the cutting matt, I decided to construct a door for the kiosk, and "metal" ridge strips for both buildings. The ridges were simply cut down from offcuts of the vacuum formed corrugated iron sheets; these edges would normally be thrown away, but they're perfect for things like this. The door was a more complex construction; made of 5 pieces! The door frame with door, a facade for the door (both pictured above), two thin strips to form the door jamb, and a rain strip to divert rainwater away from the top of the door. I've not built a door in this way before, but I'm actually surprised by the results:
With that done, I turned my attention back to the loco shed. Whilst I haven't shown the original state of the loco shed floor, it was simply made with embossed pieces of printed card; only the piece between the track was glued down, the rest were loosely in place. This didn't match anything else on the layout, so it was time to replace it with something else. Happily, I found some remnants of Wills sheets that match the existing cobbles adjacent to the shed, so these were cut to fit; using the existing card pieces as templates. After a bit of adjustment to ensure a snug fit within the loco shed, a leftover section was glued onto the back of both sides to get it up to rail height. The section between the tracks was simply glued in place with PVA without need of a packing piece.
With the cobbles now glued with PVA, and with weights on top to make sure they don't move while it sets, at this point I actually went off to paint the ridges of the kiosk and platform shelter, but that's not worth photographing, so fast forward a while, and let's get painting the cobbles!
Despite these being plastic cobbles (as opposed to my usual DAS clay cobbles), I still treat them in the same manner when painting them. I've skipped ahead a bit in the photos below, but the first step is to give them an overall cover so that there is a base colour to work from. I went for a light-medium grey colour, and also took the opportunity to paint the original cobbles adjacent to the loco shed in the same base colour. The next step is to pick out random cobbles in various shades of the same (or similar) colour. I try and only mix in one or two colours to keep the effect coherent and subtle.
Once this is done, and the paint dried, I then gave the whole lot a quick watery wash of a colour. In this case, a sandy colour to match the other DAS cobbles on the layout. The process is shown below. I work in small sections whilst applying the wash, then immediately dab it with a paper towel and wipe it to try and remove as much of it as possible. This allows a little to remain on the surface which helps tone it down, but also allows the paint to stay in the cracks to produce a light colour for the mortar. The end result of this is stonework that more easily blends into the rest of the layout.
So I'll finish off with one final photo given that it's now half past midnight! Two more additions may also be spotted below. Firstly, a window sill has been fitted both internally and externally on the loco shed. (There's also a new internal window surround to smarten everything up, but it's not visible in any of these photos.) Secondly, bargeboards have been fitted to the loco shed in an apparent effort by the railway volunteers to spruce up the station area!
It may come as a surprise, but these little jobs have taken all day! It goes to show why these tasks are often ones I put off for a long time (if indeed they ever get done). That said, it's still been worth it, and it's these little details that bring about a surprisingly big difference to a layout. Sure, it may not be perfectly executed, but I'm happy enough with it, and besides, it entirely suits this ramshackle railway!
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