VESPA Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 How many of you actually make anything from scratch anymore?How many of you keep bits and pieces in case you can make something from them eg card tubing?How many of you make kits and enhance them with detail?Howmany of you are brave enough to add bits of detail or weathering to you £150 locos?How many of you would like tips to detail or enhance anything on your layout?Answers please ...............................................
RB51 Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 Hi Vespa - I now make nearly all my buildings etc from scratch. I have a couple of plastic buildings that I have modified and/or weathered. I have only weathered (badly) one loco, Lord of the Isles, as it was too toy like in appearance. It now looks like it hs spent it's entire life in a tunnel (!). I wont be doing any more. Any and all tips are welcome, but I have nothing in mind to ask about at present. R-
CornishJim Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 I don't know enough about the locos yet to do much detailing so I leave them alone! But other things on my layout I will and do have a go at doing myself, I have had a go at making my own trees from sratch with varying degrees of success, I have just bought an airbrush and am practising with it a lot before I go near anything too expensive!! I will be making my own signals, have made my own station platform too.I am always om the lookout for hints and tips, either on here or on YouTube.
VESPA Posted December 12, 2014 Author Posted December 12, 2014 Hi Roger, I am going to chop into two Dapol ex Aifix cottage kits soon to make one building. I am lso going to make hedges and other items of landscape from things like green pan scrub and mangled coloured foam from those pan scrups that combine the coarse with sponge. Nothing to loose at about a pound a pack. If they are no good thay will be used in the kitchen.
RB51 Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 I have used the pan scrub things - very quick and I think realistic. And as you say very very cheap. Will be interested to see how your building surgery turns out. Will you take before and after shots? R-
RB51 Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 This was one of my conversions - red roof is how it started life (hopefully that is obvious, otherwise......)/media/tinymce_upload/IMG_1148.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/IMG_1138.JPG
VESPA Posted December 12, 2014 Author Posted December 12, 2014 I don't know enough about the locos yet to do much detailing so I leave them alone! But other things on my layout I will and do have a go at doing myself, I have had a go at making my own trees from sratch with varying degrees of success, I have just bought an airbrush and am practising with it a lot before I go near anything too expensive!! I will be making my own signals, have made my own station platform too.I am always om the lookout for hints and tips, either on here or on YouTube.I have a tip here from another site. If you have bright valve gear on the side of a loco, that needs blackening down, use a permanent marker pen that is supplied to label CD/DVDs. Dusting powder are useful for weathering and can be cleaned off if not quite right. To seal this use a matt spray held about 15" from the model in short bursts. I made an Aifix saddle tank a while back (still available under Dapol) and weathered it with dry brushing. That being having almost dry paint on the brush and building up the weathering required starting very sparingly. I also did a "Penydarren" kit and used a matt black to finish it from a light dusting as in the method above re the varnish.
VESPA Posted December 12, 2014 Author Posted December 12, 2014 I have used the pan scrub things - very quick and I think realistic. And as you say very very cheap. Will be interested to see how your building surgery turns out. Will you take before and after shots? R-I shall try that and with a how I did it. It will be after Christmas though.
walkingthedog Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 Ooh Vespa you old romantic. I use a marker pen to blacken connecting rods and the sides of the tyres if the are silver. Works a treat.
LCDR Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 I certainly do. I also make a lot of kits. Parkside wagon kits contain spare alternative parts which I sort and keep in component boxes to use to make other wagons. This way I can resurect broken RTR wagons with new underframes made from leftovers.I get through a lot of plastic card. I have built two SECR 'Dance Hall' brake vans out of this material, using ex Hornby spare GWR brake van chassis. I also built a SER single end 6w brake van the same way but using Peco Wonderful Wagon axleguards and wheel sets.Some time ago I completed a SR weedkilling train using six Tri-ang tender undeframes with former Airfix/Dapol tanks mounted on top. The Spray van and chemicals vans were modified from Parkside SR PMVs and the guards van was a Cambrian SR 15 tonner.I have made a rake of APCM Swanscombe chalk tipplers using recyled RTR underframes with plastic card bodywork. A train of APCM Cemflos were created using Tri-ang wagons with modified running gear, and added detail.A Maunsell diagram 2666 Buffet car was created from Plastic card on a cut down Hornby carriage underframe.,My 'piece de resistance' was two SECR 'H' 0-4-4T each from a Hornby Dublo R1, a Airfix 14xx and a load of plastic card with whitemetal details. See attached -/media/tinymce_upload/Hs_and_2Hal_0011.JPG
37lover Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 I build a lot of Scalescene structures, is that from scratch? I'm sending some phots but it may take a while for them to be approved.Corner of my layout with scalescene factory with scratch built mesh fence, in the foreground a retaining wall yet to be covered in brick paper. Another showing my kit based Hornby footbridges to extend across my three platforms, I'm thinking about extending again to the Car Park. Platforms all built from cardboard, not kits. Other end of my layout with more scratch built footbridges and Dutch Barn in background. Final photo with my river gorge and all scatch built road bridges; cardboard based structures clad with plastic facings./media/tinymce_upload/Mesh_fence.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/Footbridge.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/Dutch_barn.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/Gorge.JPGAh, found another. Te mimic panel I built with push buttons to throw the point motors and LED's to show route selected, wasn't plugged in when I took this photo so not illuminated./media/tinymce_upload/mimic_panel.JPG
VESPA Posted December 12, 2014 Author Posted December 12, 2014 Good quality coloured pencils are great for making different shades on red brick. Blues, yellows, blacks and green gently randomly rubbed over the brick surface gives a better effect that just plain red brick that some ready mades and kits are sold. When making buildings look more realistic look at the real thing and see what colours can be there. An example is say the usual engineer grey brick and grey steel upper. These usually have white staining running down and green moss in areas along with black marking up to about a foot at the botton fror example. The upper steel structure will show signs of dirt and rust. Here is an example of a stone bridge in Paignton with growth on it. This could easily be reproduced with a similar kit or even a Skaledale model./media/tinymce_upload/CNV00001.JPGAll the stonework colours here can easily be applied to a model bridge along with the plant growth. It adds much more for realism.
VESPA Posted December 12, 2014 Author Posted December 12, 2014 I have just got some very small brush type stick to try enhancing the pipework in the cabs of locos without any detailing. I will let you know how that project goes. They are really small and like felt pens.
RB51 Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 My "before" and "after" pics of a station building are now on page 1. I also never throw anything away. I now have more boxes of bits than I know what to do with. The irony is when I want a "little bit of something" I either cannot find the box(es) or there is nothing in there to suit. Why do I do it? R-
VESPA Posted December 12, 2014 Author Posted December 12, 2014 My "before" and "after" pics of a station building are now on page 1. I also never throw anything away. I now have more boxes of bits than I know what to do with. The irony is when I want a "little bit of something" I either cannot find the box(es) or there is nothing in there to suit. Why do I do it? R-I have seen your photos Roger. Very nice effort. I too have boxes of odds and ends for the "it'll come in handy one day" scenario.
walkingthedog Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 I also have a shed full of things I might need. As soon as I have a clear out I find I need something I threw away.
37lover Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 A few pictures of my attempts at scratch building have been held for review, I forgot to mention several trees in the photos are home made using twisted copper wire with some flexible plaster covered with the usual green stuff, and lots of fencing with matchsticks and thin strips of balsa. Hopefully the photos will be released soon but it's now a bit late on a Friday!
2e0dtoeric Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 As WTD put - I also have a shed full of things I might need. As soon as I have a clear out I find I need something I threw away.I also have boxes of bits of all kinds, that might - one day - be useful for something, but I can never find the bits I want!My r/c flying machines are mostly, but not all, scratch-built, but that's an irrelevence!I have built a few bits of railway stuff, a Welsh company plastic footbridge that went horribly wrong, and now looks like a derelict one, so that's what it will be! I've got an assortment of those card kits, not yet started, and an airbrush and compressor I've never even plugged in - yet!I wouldn't dare mess up my expensive loco's, but I may experiment with some ancient fleabay trucks, to see what kind of mess I make.I've got those DVD's and books from one of the other magazines, that make weathering look dead easy, but then the guy IS a museum-piece painter, and has been practicing since Adam was in nappies! (I think you'll know who I mean!)What I WOULD like to know is how to make realistic back-scenes. I've tried the pre-printed ones in three pieces that line up and stick on like wallpaper, but they don't look real, just like a printed picture stuck to a sheet of hardboard, and I can't paint landscapes for toffee. They just look like kiddies cartoon paintings.
walkingthedog Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 /media/tinymce_upload/image26.jpgI scratch built this bridge. Side panels were off the shelf but I made the rest. There's a footbridge the other side made from plasticard.
Graskie Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 I'm afraid I probably haven't got enough life left to do these things, so I just buy ready-made stuff (with all my gold).
RB51 Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 Don't wish it away Graskie. Whatever you have left make it memorable. R-
PJ_model_trains Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 How many of you actually make anything from scratch anymore?Answers please ............................................... I have 5 children... opps sorry you didn't mean that!I built my layout from scratch ;o)I haven't actually done any scratch building but I have taken kits and changed them and got two buildings out of one kit by modifying it.PJ
PJ_model_trains Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 I'm afraid I probably haven't got enough life left to do these things, so I just buy ready-made stuff (with all my gold). Did you guys know, Graskie even has his own air space!!!And a hanger for his gold bars. (Plus a few hangers on LOL)
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