Category Archives: Westhill Road Ramblings

Buildings, Painting & Decorating, Techniques, Westhill Road, Westhill Road Ramblings, Workbench, Workbench Witterings

Workbench Witterings #23 Bonnet tiles, roof plumbing and painting putting the finishing touches to Westhill Road’s station building

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The station building for Westhill Road is now nearing completion, since my last Workbench Witterings#20 post here, with a little help from my friends I have added the bonnet tiles to the hipped ridges, the roof plumbing and details such as downpipes along with completing the painting.

The all too often birds eye roof view

I believe it is important to get the roof details of buildings prototypically correct, as the viewing angle means we tend to look down on models (that and my Dad will tell me if it is wrong…), yet often some modellers go to great lengths to achieve the finest level of detail on locos and rolling stock etc., but do not pay such attention to building details. Such details can be easily observed / referenced by looking up when walking around.
These details include the correct style of ridge tiles, and roof plumbing; the term for use of lead flashing and lead lined valleys etc., (the Latin name and origin of Lead’s chemical symbol being Pb is Plumbum, that also is the origin of term plumber).

The round topped ridge tiles, for the horizontal ridges, along with decorative finials were already added with  3D printed versions from Smart Models. With hipped roofs the angled ridges often used the same style of ridge tile, however many, like at Alverstone (the inspiration that my mirror imaged model is based on), used the more decorative ‘bonnet’ style curved tiles that give a distinctive serrated edge look.

The 3D printed bonnet tiles, thanks to Simon and Matt, also the yet to painted valleys can be seen

As I was not able to locate any proprietary source of suitable bonnet tiles, I called on a couple of friends for help, firstly using the dimensions of actual bonnet tiles Simon Paley very kindly drew up in Cad suitable sized bonnet tiles, adjusted to match the Wills SSMP211 plain tiles sheets, in a strip 70mm long.

A number of these strips were then helpfully 3D printed for me by Matt Wickham of Vectis 3D Models. Thanks guys!

Simon has detailed the design process he used on his own blog here, so well worth a read.

The hipped ridges were filed to create a flat edge and the bonnet tile strips cut to length, glued in place and painted to match the surrounding tiles.

The stages of applying lead flashing and painting the valleys

The lead flashing around the chimneys is formed from four parts, the section across the front & bottom of the chimney, the two side flashings zig zagging down the brick courses, (noting that the vertical edge of the zig zag leans inwards to the bottom), also overlapping the bottom piece and finally the piece across the top overlapping the sides. I carefully cut and folded 100 gsm paper to represent the separate pieces of flashing per chimney and painted dull grey with a little metallic aluminium paint to achieve a ‘lead’ look. I mentioned how I formed the valleys between the main roof and the two gable in my last Workbench Witterings#20 post these valleys were carefully painted to represent the lead lining.

A view of the front of the building. The left hand door is the entrance to the booking office

The windows have been glazed using 10thou clear plastic simply cut to size and held in place on the inside with the versatile Delux Materials ‘Glue and Glaze’ that has the benefit that any slight seepage of the glue dries crystal clear.

With respect to the painting, for the Brickwork and tiles I painted as per my usual method that I detail here,  I used Precision Paints P952 Light Brick Red as the predominant and top dry brush brick colour and P953 Dark Light Brick Red for the roof tiles.

For the upper rendered walls I stipple painted using P88 SR Buildings light stone paint with the almost dry brush also dipped in talcum powder to give both some further surface texture and ensure a very matt finish (as adding talcum powder to any paint will create a matt finish).

The end and rear of the station building

The main window frames, doors, guttering and downpipes were painted using P93 SR Middle Chrome Green with a little Humbrol Matt 101 randomly mixed in to give a slightly more faded look especially on the end extension door.
Some light weathering by dry brushing, to the roof to represent moss and rainwater streaks and similarly to the walls beneath the end of window sills etc.

The finishing touches to the exterior has included guttering and downpipes, from the useful Peco LK-78 Peco Building Kit 1 and also a typical Southern timetable notice board from Tiny Signs. I still need to add the Booking Office sign, being obtained from Sankey Scenics, above the left hand door. The fire buckets and wall brackets are white metal castings from Dart Castings.
Once eventually bedded in with the ground cover on Westhill Road the drain surrounds for the downpipes will be added.

The station building interior and its lighting will be the subject of a future post as this one is already quite long…thanks for getting this far!

 

Buildings, Techniques, Westhill Road, Westhill Road Ramblings, Workbench Witterings

Workbench Wittering#20 Out on the tiles and going potty with chimneys, Westhill Road’s station building continues to take shape

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The build of the station building for Westhill Road continues, since my last Workbench Witterings#18 post here work on the hipped roof and the characteristic chimneys of the mirrored inspiration of Alverstone, for this build.

My sketch and cut parts

Hipped roofs, and the gable windows, can be quite complex to work out the correct angles and lengths to cut roof materials to, in my case for this model Wills SSMP211 plain tiles sheets.
There are now online hipped roof calculators that along with a little trigonometry can be used to work out the relevant measurements, but I make use of the trusty pencil and graph paper to draw the roof to the model scale in plan and elevation, I also kept the main hips at 45 degrees to keep things simple, and the cutting dimensions can then be taken straight from the sketch.
Remember to ensure you always cut the sheets the correct way up so that the tiles overlap each other correctly. I always double check using a finger nail feel the upper tiles overlapping the ones beneath it.
The internal support frame is made from off cuts of 40 / 60 thou plasticard, the advantages of keeping the main roof angles 45 degrees makes this frame quite quick and easy to create.

The roof takes shape, showing the internal frame and filets

Once the edges of the cut Wills sheets were filed to an acute angle to give the closest possible external edge joint, (but not too critical as these joints will be covered by ridge and bonnet tiles), I started to assemble the roof sections on an internal framing along with fillet sections underneath to strengthen the joints.

I always take time when assembling, letting each joint harden fully before adding the next panel and handling too much, otherwise it will keep trying to return to its constituent parts (don’t ask me how I learnt that…).

Once the roof assembly has fully hardened, very carefully with the the end of the triangular needle file  I created what will become the lead lined valleys between the main roof sections and the gable roofs.

The Chimneys, that were quite  large, characteristic and overly ornate at Alverstone,  were made from Wills SSMP 226 Flemish Bond Brickwork sheets, cut to size and the edges mitred to give a close external corner edge joints.

The gulleys, chimneys and horizontal round topped ridge tiles have been added

The unusual sloping tiled decoration was added using offcuts from Wills SSMP211 plain tile sheets. White metal Dart Castings L78B chimney pots, once the inside of the pot was drilled out slightly to ensure they look hollow, were added to complete the look.

The round topped ridge tiles, for the horizontal ridges, along with decorative finials have been added after I sourced the correct style 3D printed versions from Smart Models.
With hipped roofs the angled ridges often used the same style of ridge tile, however many, like at Alverstone, used the more decorative ‘bonnet’ style curved tiles that give a distinctive serrated edge look.

I have not yet been able source suitable bonnet tiles in 4mm scale, and other than trying to make from individual curved tiles cut and folded to shape, I am looking at alternatives and might have a plan, with the help of a friend to draw up and 3D print some suitable ‘bonnet’ tiles, so watch this space…

For more details on valleys and ‘bonnet’ ridge  tiles, see the diagram left taken from the “Architectural Building Construction” bible by Jaggard and Drury (courtesy of my Dad who assists me as a building consultant / critic…) click the image to enlarge.

The overall building is now taking shape.

The small side kitchen extension to the ground floor as also been roofed and gained its more functional less ornate chimney using similar methods.

The next stage externally  roof wise, as well the ‘bonnet’ ridge tiles is to add the soffits (the horizontal boarding under the eave of the roof back to the wall) and rain gutters whilst internally the upper floor ceilings will be added to the underside to complete the roof assembly.

The building as a whole still requires furniture to be added to the ground floor living room and the kitchen, the internal room lights added and then painting can commence before glazing the windows.

Further progress will as always be documented in future Workbench Witterings posts,

 

 

 

 

 

Buildings, General, Techniques, Westhill Road, Westhill Road Ramblings, Workbench, Workbench Witterings

Workbench Witterings #18 Not a pane yet, Westhill Road’s station building takes shape

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Has it really been August since my Workbench Witterings#16 The Foundations of the Westhill Road station building? I have at last been able to do some more work on it today, starting with a the upper floor windows.

Making the window sections old school…

As I have been unable to find any proprietary windows from the usual sources, including from laser cut suppliers that were the correct size for these distinctive upper windows (the ground floor window are from the PECO LK-78 building kit-1), I resorted to the old school method using various sizes of microstrip.
I have actually used the centre section of some Ratio signal box windows (whispers quietly GWR ones…) that were the right height, but too wide, so have reduced their width and added new edge verticals. To aid production I make up little jigs from the versatile wooden coffee stirrer screwed to a piece of MDF.

The completed 3 and 5 section main windows

Once I had made enough main six pane sections, I joined them together with additional verticals between them, and complete outer frames to make the required three and five section main windows. Once fully assembled they make up into quite strong assemblies. I also used the same technique to make the smaller side landing window. 
With the windows made, although they won’t be glazed until after painting, I was then able to complete the rendered upper wall sections (a characteristic of the mirrored inspiration of Alverstone, for this build)

The shell of the building takes shape, the two doors, the middle for the ticket hall and right hand one for private access can be seen

The shell of the main building was then assembled around the internal lower floor, that has been cut square and allowing for the wall material thickness, and its internal partition walls. The corners are chamfered to an angle greater than 45deg to get sharp corner joints and further reinforced behind with lengths of triangular section.
On the Alverstone station building being used for inspiration there is a shaped brick moulding that runs horizontally between the lower brick and upper rendered walls along with the the very bottom edge of the rendered walls sloping outwards to deflect rainwater away from getting in along bottom edge of the render. I have used half round microstrip and 10thou thin flat strip at an angle above it to represent these features.

The rear of the station building

The approximate internal layout has been worked out for both floors.  The ground floor, as at Alverstone has a small ticket hall with passenger being able to access just the ticket window via the middle door. This is one of the interesting features of this combined station ticket office / station masters house whilst not actually on the platform is one of the quirks that attracted me to using it as the basis for the station building on Westhill Road.
The door next to the ticket hall is the private station house access opening into a lounge, whilst at the rear is a kitchen that in turn gives access to the ticket office and the stairs. Two bedrooms and a bath room complete the upper floor rooms. 

A view inside with the upper floor removed

All the internal walls, fireplaces and chimney breasts etc. have been created from plasticard, representations of the door frames have also added with plastic microstrip. The upper floor is currently removable to allow access inside for painting etc. 

As the building will be internally lit, the central chimney will allow the wires to be hidden down the inside, all the rooms will have a representation of furniture etc. included. I have sourced some suitable 3D printed items to use as a basis and these will be painted and added in due course along with a few suitably posed figures.
I am still planning to make the roof as a separate module so it can always be removed if required, so watch this space for the next instalment… 

Westhill Road, Westhill Road Ramblings, Workbench Witterings

Westhill Road Ramblings#1 3B or not 3B choosing a signal box

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Welcome to the first of my Westhill Road Ramblings as I think thoughts (or why isn’t that thunk?), yes dangerous I know, to develop the concept in my mind / imagination and start to make actual physical progress on my new little scenic diorama type layout. To read my introduction to Westhill Road click here. As the layout progresses my imagination, vision , concepts and ideas board will be covered via such ramblings posts, whilst more details on some of the physical items will be covered in my Workbench Witterings series.

The three potential options for the cabin at Westhill Road

The signal box diagram for Westhill Road

Now on to the main subject of this post the signal cabin. The original thought in my mind I had for Westhill Road, with its small level Crossing and minimum signalling and only one point (plus a co-acting trap point) for the siding, was to utilise one of the lovely Kernow Model Rail Centre LSWR ground frame cabins.

However upon developing the concept for the layout further and looking at signal Box diagrams for similar locations on the Southern, and having created a signal box diagram for Westhill Road that required a 10 lever frame, I soon realised that such a ground frame and cabin would actually be too small.
I initially thought about using my scratch built model of Hawkhurst signal box that I built from scratch many years ago now, when still a teenager, but feel that using such signal box at this location would possibly also be out of character for a small wayside halt and crossing  location as Westhill Road and maybe affect the balance of buildings I intend to have on the layout, as it will located directly in front of the roadside combined station masters house / booking office.

A cruelly enlarged picture of my scratch built Type 3B ground signal box. The roof is not affixed yet whilst it awaits some final details and a signaller to be added.

A birds eye view inside the box

I decided to take a look at the idea of using ground-based signal box. The LSWR have a number of different types of boxes, as the design involved throughout the years, small ground versions of the signal cabins were quite common across the network at smaller locations such as level crossing gates and small stations and these could either be directly mounted on the ground or onto a station platform. I therefore settled on the idea of an LSWR type 3B signal cabin as these were used at similar crossing gate locations.

A view showing the knee frame

A quick snap showing the effect of the illumination, (a scratch made lamp shade hides a tiny surface mount LED)

These Type 3B boxes were introduced in 1889 and were generally located in and around Plymouth and also on the Ilfracombe line in North Devon, including wonderfully named locations such as Stoney Mill Gates, Vellator Gates and Duckpool Gates. Unlike the earlier Type 3 and 3A boxes they did not have toplights (replaced with weatherboard or any ornamental valances. As these ground level boxes did not have an interlocking room beneath the floor they utilised a raised ‘knee frame’ with shorter levers.

This slightly more plain style is, in my thinking, ideal for Westhill Road as it gives a slightly more general and not to area / company specific appearance. I have therefore knocked up a quick scratch built version of such a ground box, that is internally detailed, complete with a knee frame and each individual short lever, coloured to match the Westhill Road signal box plan,  and illuminated (as will all the buildings I build for Westhill Road). I will detail the build process in a near future Workbench Witterings post before you ask, and although I do not yet have the actual layout built to plonk it on, I already feel of the three options it will look the part.