Andy's Modelmaking Misadventures

[Reynard]

Function over form matters here imo.

The front of the building will be facing in a certain direction because it matters - so maybe the sign should be parallel to the front of the building.

^^^ this IMHO

Good work tho

 

[Andy in Germany]

Sign now firmly affixed parallel to the front of the roof. Thanks for the thoughts...

 

[Andy in Germany]

Another quick project this week: control desks for the shunting locomotive:

These are showing a certain "chunkiness" associated with tabletop games; fortunately they'll be largely hidden inside the locomotive cab.

For size comparison, the squares on the mat are 1 cm each.

 

[Andy in Germany]

After putting off the inevitable, I decided to actually try and make the mass of railings around the shunting locomotive, on the basis that when it went wrong I’d at least know what didn’t work.

This is optimism.

My experience is that something quantum happens when I’m soldering attempting to solder things, and previously inert objects move mysteriously in defiance of gravity. To try and reduce this I decided to make a set of jigs to hold everything in place and discourage it from misbehaving. Being me I made these jigs much more solid than I needed to, and it took much longer to make these than it took to actually do the soldering.

I was even more surprised that I managed that I also managed to solder all the joins without burning the apartment, making holes in the furniture or melting the model into a stinking lump. On the other hand I did manage to melt about a metre of solder, some of which inevitably found its way onto my clothes, and don’t ask me how much filing was needed to make the rather ugly joins even vaguely respectable.

Still, it generally went far better than expected and didn’t even get stuck in the jig, so now I’m looking for more interesting things to solder together…

 

[Andy in Germany]

I’ve been adding details to the tabletop game control tower this week. Some are pretty small, like glazing in the windows, steps out the back, and a cable to the aerial mount. As usual I realised too late that I couldn’t use wire without having to repaint the whole roof, so I cobbled a paper one together out of decorative string and a lot of stickiness.


I also added some more obvious details,, like the Really Big Sign, which is finally fixed:

Just in case there’s some confusion, perhaps, or a Swashbuckling hero is in danger of mistaking it for a lifeguard hut or furniture showroom.


I was feeling pretty pleased that I could read this sign from the other side of the apartment until I realised that was 4m or 15′ away, which is barely the length of a Zeppelin in this scale.





There may be a lesson in that somewhere.

Before someone asks, I'm not planning to make a scale length Zeppelin.

Probably.

 

[Oldhippy]

I think a scale length Zeppelin is just the thing to do. You may need to move though. 😁

 

[Reynard]

Is that the, erm, outhouse, at the back?

 

[Andy in Germany]

I think a scale length Zeppelin is just the thing to do. You may need to move though. 😁

It's would take a heck of a lot of cornflake packets, but as someone on another forum pointed out I could make a bit each week and it would then be a cereal project...

 

[Andy in Germany]

Is that the, erm, outhouse, at the back?

Of course: the Royal Navy Airship Service spares no expense in offering its staff the most modern and comfortable working environment...

 

[Reynard]

Of course: the Royal Navy Airship Service spares no expense in offering its staff the most modern and comfortable working environment...

You do realise you want to hang some cut up newspaper on the door...

 

[Andy in Germany]

I’ve yet to develop a consistent method of applying green to models; the colour always seems to go on garish and blotchy, or dull and grey. As green is the main colour for the Körschtalbahn, this is somewhat embarrassing.


This time I mixed a “light” green that I thought would look modern and smart, but which turned out to be seriously garish, and went on so blotchy the model looked like it was painted by someone who had been sampling interesting fungal substances. I cleaned it off rather than give you all nightmares and after very carefully priming the remains, tried again.


A green/grey mix covered the model better, but it was a bit… gloomy, as if the painter, having slept off the fungal substances, was feeling decidedly morose. In desperation I tried to mix something lighter, which would be described in a paint catalogue as “Toxic goo, visible from space” and dry brushed it on. Remarkably it worked.

I added a gentle brushing of white and a tiny bit of silver, then toned it down gingerly with black wash, although before I get accused of competence, this process was repeated half a dozen times before it managed to look vaguely acceptable.

Still, nearly there now: just the grey and yellow stripes to go… and the rust effects; brake pipes; interior; windows; weathering powders; varnish…

Oh yes, and putting all the bits together.

 

[Reynard]

I know you use acrylics - you might want to try layering and glazing techniques to get the greens right. Green pigments (like red ones) tend to be translucent, so maybe try a grey or brown base layer, and then glazing with thin washes of green.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I know you use acrylics - you might want to try layering and glazing techniques to get the greens right. Green pigments (like red ones) tend to be translucent, so maybe try a grey or brown base layer, and then glazing with thin washes of green.

I suppose that's what I accidentally did: the base was grey/green with a thin wash over the top of very light green to compensate. This also had the happy result of creating highlights on corners and details.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I've been combining my two interests this week: my touring bike will make an appearance on my model...

Watch this space for a Bakfiets and an Xtracycle....

 

[Andy in Germany]

Well that’s a relief, the buzz-bee stripes are finally done. I don’t know what it was this time but they were a right headache to apply.

It started well enough; thin strips from masking tape, mark out lines on the buffer beam and apply tape… and then it all went wrong. The buffer beam was in an awkward place on the model with all kinds of details glued to the surface, so it was often a matter of painting to the tape for most of the way, then freehand from there. This which took several attempts, which it turned out were all wasted because the grey ran under the tape.

After a great deal of trial and error, some sanding and repainting, and making several jigs of various shapes and sizes, the stripes were straight enough that it only took a bit of touching up, and some weathering and “rust” application for them to look straight at a distance. Of course, being me I can still see a couple of mistakes on there.

I’m not going to point them out though.