Wednesday 6th December 2023

Worklist:

Review Stephens homework on the office and house.

Progress pipework structure.

Fit angle brackets to hold the buildings down.

The primary homework was to weather the two buildings replicating Geoff's work on the workshop. With great trepidation, a slurry of plaster filler was applied to the buildings. Under the misapprehension that the wet slurry should be 'worked' into the painted, embossed plastic, this was started, but almost immediately some unexpected patches appeared. After letting the slurry dry a bit, the effect was better, so it was decided to let it dry-out completely. At this point, further rubbing down with paper towel evened the effect out, although the overall appearance had taken a beaten. However, the new 'down-at-heel' buildings might just suit the proposed location better, so the verdict was out for now.

Guttering and downpipes were made from umbrella struts and 2.5mm stripped power cable. All windows were initially painted white and the front doors green and brown, but the office windows and door frame were later painted green.

Dropped onto the layout, the 'shabby' appearance fitted well in their surroundings, and got the thumbs up.

Stephen turned to fixing the buildings over the 'tunnel' down using old aluminium brackets from one of Geoff's old LT projects. As per the cottages, the angles were fitted to the plywood base using 6mm bolts fed up into captive nuts from the tunnel ceiling below. With plastic sheet 'isolation' squares in place, epoxy glue was used to fix the buildings (and nut) to the angles.

Meanwhile, Geoff returned to the pipework structure at the board end. Brass and steel pipes were bent to the required shape. Brass cradles were made and the two pipes soldered to them. The printed flanges

had to be fitted prior to bending and therefore had to be moved around to avoid melting!

A third cradle was also soldered in place where the pipes come down onto what will become a concrete anchor base.

The wooden block was cut down and the void filled. 

A timber casing will be fabricated for where the pipes enter the building. A tree will be made and planted in front of the base, to a method Geoff had recently admired on YouTube. We await the outcome of that with interest.

An unusual view of the buildings from the fiddleyard end.

Extra windows needed to be printed for the house and office for Stephen to finish them off, but the part of the garage where the 3D printer resided was too cold, so the printer had to be brought into the 'warmer' room before it could be used. An interesting comparison of old and new technologies!

Stonemasons signage:  Geoff also ran a trial on applying waterslide transfers onto our corrugated iron sheets. A small proprietary transfer was applied and covered with Microsol. It appears to hug the contours well, but we'll see how it dries out next week.

Wednesday 29th November 2023

Worklist:

Fit pipe support bases with magnets.

Paint brick buildings with flecks.

Remake pipe support frame bases.

Geoff had glued rusty steel strips to the pipe support frame ends so that magnets in the bases would secure the frames, but also allow them to be easily removed. 2mm diameter cylinder magnets were epoxied into holes in the bases. However, on testing stability, the layer of rust separated from the steel plates and stayed glued on the frames. The issue would be looked at in due course. 

Geoff made-up a palette of suitable brick shades and daubed dots and flecks all over the brickwork. He had used this method on the workshop and it worked well (See later). Once dry, fresh repair filler will be rubbed over the surface to add the mortar joints, but at the same time, the brickwork colours are also 'merged' with the basecoat. 

Stephen had made up gutters and downpipes for the roofs, which were offered-up for a size and alignment check. The gutters will be joined into a single, central downpipe.

Stephen cleaned up the rusty steel base strips and made plasticard strips the same size, which were superglued together. Plasticard sections were also added to stiffen the plates.

Geoff bent two lengths of steel and brass rods to the required arrangements. One is designated for light sludge and the other a water supply. He cleaned-up some 3D printed pipe flanges printed last week and tested them on the two pipes. 

The pipes will be bent down to the 'concrete' base and run off to the flooded quarry. A new tree was discussed for in front of the base to obscure the future hole in the back scene.

A long time ago, when the stonemasons building was just an idea, Stephen went through a reconstituted stone manufacturers website and produced a selection of standard stone components as 3D drawing files. Some typical garden items and some gravestones were also produced. At this time, Geoff only had a filament 3D printer and the objects came out a little on the crude side, requiring a fair amount of fettling. Over lunch, the files were located and a set run-off on the latex printer, with a much improved surface finish. A trial packing case was also included, but although this didn't come out so cleanly, it should be possible to rectify the problem.

A better view of the foliage on the side of the derelict cottage, which hides the rear track to the fiddleyard. 

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The workshop walls after filler-scrub treatment. The daubs on the new buildings are more in the red/orange range.

Brickwork bonds for the managers house and the office

The last meeting was cancelled due to other commitments, but research into possible brickwork bonds continued, with a view to purchasing embossed plasticard sheet.

What are the likely bonds? English, Flemish and Stretcher are the first that come to mind, and all are available from Slaters. As previously mentioned, English and Flemish bonds require closers at corners and openings, but do offer an interesting elevation. However, inserting those closers would require immense patience. It is possible to omit the closers with English and Flemish bonds, with 3/4 bricks, but the opening width pitch increases from 110mm to 170mm, and are they authentic? Stretcher bond gives a cleaner, less-fussy look, possibly more suitable for smaller scales, but is it correct for the period the buildings were built?

    

Traditional left and modified right. The two headers on the jamb of the English option can be replaced by a full brick. 

Stretcher bond is often associated with modern cavity wall brickwork, but it has been in use for some time. These two adjacent houses, built in 1896, are in Epsom, Surrey and brickwork bonds alternate down the road between Flemish and Stretcher!

Stretcher bond

Flemish bond

Stretcher bond

The red brick detailing is also very appealing, and simple to achieve. The lack of fiddly closers and its simple elegance might just sway the argument towards Stretcher bond.

Wednesday 1st March 2023

Worklist:

Land Rover re-test.

Water tower.

Cottage interior.

Cottages footpath.

Factory sub-roof.

Stephen had worked on the Land Rover at home and now gave it another test run. It was better, but some adjustments were needed. The main problem was the fact that on the test rig at home, the road surface was level with the track surface. On the layout, the road surface was lower, meaning that the pickups were working harder, being depressed further and hitting the bodywork. The pickup arm extensions were trimmed shorter, to great effect. The vehicle smoothly ran up and down, comfortably pulling a couple of wagons. A repair and possible redesign of the coupling hook is needed.

Geoff gave the water tower columns a coat of black paint, then moved on to making the tank roof. This comprised an inverted 'T' section framework with 6 drop-in wooden panels covered in bitumen (he used masking tape for texture).

He then cleared a nearby scrub/grass area and created a very realistic loco ash pile.

Stephen made sure that having previously epoxied the nuts in place, the cottage holding down bolts could be un-done. The chimney breast was fitted into the derelict cottage. Following careful use of the PVA bottle, he then applied another layer of plaster to the building side of the footpath, to reduce the gap to a minimum.

Finally, he glued the remaining two sub-roof panels on the factory building. 

Brick bond choice for the two 'residential' buildings was discussed. Not having clad a 7mm building in brick plasticard before, Stephen explained his concern about how to form the correct brick bonding around the openings. Flemish and English bond would require the insertion of bats or closers, which would be fiddly to insert. It might be possible to omit them, with some cheating, so investigations will be undertaken. Sheets of the chosen brickwork and the factory corrugated iron would be ordered.

Brickwork details