05-05-2014, 03:06 AM
An update.
I think to describe my modelling itinerary as 'random' is probably an understatement. To the casual observer there certainly doesn't appear to be any logical order to the build of late.
To emphasise this, may I present to you my latest dabblings in my attempt to model this postage stamp size scene from the environs of downtown L.A. in the late seventies.
This is my humble attempt at weathering the few ties which appear on the layout and are those of the switch to the right hand side of the model as you look at it. Made from a laminate of a couple of veneers I had at the time, they seem to have taken on some extra terrestrial properties in as much as they can almost withstand any punishment I could administer in my rather feeble attempt to weather them with an old wire brush. Having resisted any attempt by me to inflict even the slightest blemish (apart from pricked fingers in the process!!) I finally gave up and took an old scalpel blade to them. This proved rather more successful, however, apart from the odd gouge and several slashes to faintly resemble splitting timbers, I soon had to prevent myself from getting carried away as they's already begun to look like something more akin to an old logging line than ageing wood in the dusty earth of late twentieth century L.A..
Anyway, at this stage of the process, they've received an acrylic primer coat and first coat of Humbrol slate green enamel paint, thinned almost to oblivion with copious amounts of thinners, so as to form the first of several washes. Slate green ties? Have I really lost the plot? Well, I am working from a limited palette here (limited to what's on my modelling desk) and perhaps if I'd been blessed with a more generous range of colours I'd have chosen something possibly more suitable (although not being even slightly artistic - more autistic - I've no absolutely no idea what that would have been
). Anyway, hopefully it'll turn out to be nothing like green. Fingers crossed.
I started this brief update with reference to my apparent random and rather illogical approach to this build, and to continue in this vein, I propose to start building a 'cross buck', which will stand adjacent to the alley way to the left of the model, on Industrial Place as I'm calling it. Why? Dunno really; apart from to say I saw a rather decrepid looking one a while back in an old photo near Vigners Street(?) and as I adore decrepitude in all its gory forms, I've had the urge to just get on and build one ever since. This is really my approach to modelling: if something appeals and enthuses you, do it; a change is as good as a rest as they say and it all adds to the sum total eventually. I'm already hunting round for some thin fuse wire and nickel/brass for the arms (I think plastic of prtotypical thickness could prove too flimsy) and although I'm tempted to solder them to a post of brass of appropriate thickness, weathered brass still looks nothing like weathered wood; somehow, the balsa section of that size that I have is likely to warp in the long run, so the search is on amongst the cob webs under my modelling desk for a more hardier wood section. Incidentally, I found a suitable 'rail road crossing' sign to adorn the arms on a (US) highway code type site, so all I need to do is to ask my techno minded children to amend it electronically to a suitable size, so that I can simply print it out and stick it on; or something like that.
If anyone has bothered reading this far (and I don't blame you if you've given up the ghost after looking at those rather uninviting photos above) you may have wondered why I don't just go out and buy them, afterall, they're only a few dollars. Well, quite. However, even though they're available from specialist model shops over here in the UK, none is near enough to the enclave of Liverpool, and therefore subject to the dreaded postal charges which equate to the price they're being sold for. And, having just forked out fore something rather special from Texas (
an update soon, hopefully) the cost of postage and taxes is already exceeding what it's cost to build the rest of the layout thus far. See what I mean?
As you see, I''m rather tight- fisted.
Regards,
jonte
I think to describe my modelling itinerary as 'random' is probably an understatement. To the casual observer there certainly doesn't appear to be any logical order to the build of late.
To emphasise this, may I present to you my latest dabblings in my attempt to model this postage stamp size scene from the environs of downtown L.A. in the late seventies.
This is my humble attempt at weathering the few ties which appear on the layout and are those of the switch to the right hand side of the model as you look at it. Made from a laminate of a couple of veneers I had at the time, they seem to have taken on some extra terrestrial properties in as much as they can almost withstand any punishment I could administer in my rather feeble attempt to weather them with an old wire brush. Having resisted any attempt by me to inflict even the slightest blemish (apart from pricked fingers in the process!!) I finally gave up and took an old scalpel blade to them. This proved rather more successful, however, apart from the odd gouge and several slashes to faintly resemble splitting timbers, I soon had to prevent myself from getting carried away as they's already begun to look like something more akin to an old logging line than ageing wood in the dusty earth of late twentieth century L.A..
Anyway, at this stage of the process, they've received an acrylic primer coat and first coat of Humbrol slate green enamel paint, thinned almost to oblivion with copious amounts of thinners, so as to form the first of several washes. Slate green ties? Have I really lost the plot? Well, I am working from a limited palette here (limited to what's on my modelling desk) and perhaps if I'd been blessed with a more generous range of colours I'd have chosen something possibly more suitable (although not being even slightly artistic - more autistic - I've no absolutely no idea what that would have been
). Anyway, hopefully it'll turn out to be nothing like green. Fingers crossed.I started this brief update with reference to my apparent random and rather illogical approach to this build, and to continue in this vein, I propose to start building a 'cross buck', which will stand adjacent to the alley way to the left of the model, on Industrial Place as I'm calling it. Why? Dunno really; apart from to say I saw a rather decrepid looking one a while back in an old photo near Vigners Street(?) and as I adore decrepitude in all its gory forms, I've had the urge to just get on and build one ever since. This is really my approach to modelling: if something appeals and enthuses you, do it; a change is as good as a rest as they say and it all adds to the sum total eventually. I'm already hunting round for some thin fuse wire and nickel/brass for the arms (I think plastic of prtotypical thickness could prove too flimsy) and although I'm tempted to solder them to a post of brass of appropriate thickness, weathered brass still looks nothing like weathered wood; somehow, the balsa section of that size that I have is likely to warp in the long run, so the search is on amongst the cob webs under my modelling desk for a more hardier wood section. Incidentally, I found a suitable 'rail road crossing' sign to adorn the arms on a (US) highway code type site, so all I need to do is to ask my techno minded children to amend it electronically to a suitable size, so that I can simply print it out and stick it on; or something like that.
If anyone has bothered reading this far (and I don't blame you if you've given up the ghost after looking at those rather uninviting photos above) you may have wondered why I don't just go out and buy them, afterall, they're only a few dollars. Well, quite. However, even though they're available from specialist model shops over here in the UK, none is near enough to the enclave of Liverpool, and therefore subject to the dreaded postal charges which equate to the price they're being sold for. And, having just forked out fore something rather special from Texas (
an update soon, hopefully) the cost of postage and taxes is already exceeding what it's cost to build the rest of the layout thus far. See what I mean? As you see, I''m rather tight- fisted.
Regards,
jonte