Buildings
Buildings
I needed a station building and a signal box to house MEDUSA . As I am better with wood than plastic it made sense to me to make my buildings from wood. The major problem you have with this wood constructions outside -is the fact that they rot -rather rapidly.... However modern paint technology and the fashion for wooden decking have come to the rescue of the wood building!!! I use a treatment called ENSELE which is used to paint the ends of cut lengths of tanalised decking, This I then cover with two layers of exterior grade polyureathane varnish, spray with epoxy primer and paint with masonry paint.
I needed a source of "period" wooden buildings and I came across Chris Leighs books on GWR buildings -although the temptation to build some of them was nearly overpowering -I settled on two simple wooden structures:
Adlestrop -for the Station building
Savernake -for the Signal box
Adlestrop is the only station to have a poem written about it by the Poet Laureate... I chose it because it looked simple and easy to build(!)
BUILDING ADLESTROP
The drawings from the Chris Leigh book, (which handily enough were drawn at 4mm to the foot...), were then translated into sheets of 3mm marine ply at 16mm scale. The UK size 15 foot in the following shot is mine.
The next shot shows the rough assembled panels wrapped around the book.
The internal frame was constructed of 25mm x 50mm Meranti and 25mm x 25mm Deal -they were handy at the time and there is no structural relevance to their use in those positions!
The panels are then glued and cramped into positions with a boat building glue -it resembles white jelly and is vile to get off your hands!!! Support x members and bracing triangles made from scraps have been added to strengthen the building.
The roof is simply cut from two sections of marine ply and the remains of the roof apex sections simply grafted into the centres to make additional supports.
The windows are punched out with a fret saw and the notice boards and door frames added -these are simply lengths of 5mm sq pine around off cuts of 3mm marine ply.
Here is the building just prior to gluing on the roof.
The roof is now in place and has been plated with spatulas and trimmed with lengths of pine... It all looks very pretty -but this is not to last long -what the ENSELE and polyureathane varnish do it is -tragic....
BUILDING SAVERNAKE
Savernake is a pretty typical GWR signal box and could be said to be found just about anywhere...
Here the sides of the signal box have been cut from 3mm sheet marine ply. The sections for doors and windows have been pencilled in -as has some of the exterior woodwork.
The edges of the building have bee re-enforced with wood L section ( more Ramin offcuts) and the inner corners braced with Deal offcuts.
The external wood frames (5mm sq pine) are now fitted and the nameplate for the signal box applied (it is made from a spatula and Slaters letters!)
The window frames are now pit in and the roof apexes fitted with more Deal offcuts.
The ply framework is then planked with lollipop and spatulas and the roof capped with another Ramin offcut. The entire assembly must then be left to dry rock solid for a week... THEN you can apply the ENSELE preservative, initially this looks like a bright blue gel that you smear, (I cannot say paint!), over the assembly. After a couple of hours it turns green and you can then apply the next coat. Then after a further week you can apply the coats of exterior grade varnish. The end result is not very pretty -but weather and rot proof....
Fortunately the next step is to paint this with epoxy primer! This is a brown primer -recommended for automotive use. The exterior wood work has been painted with black masonry paint and the roof with terra cotta. The window in the front is made from a sandwich of 60 thou ABS and clear sheet.
The penultimate shot shows the completed Savernake in terra cotta, black and cream and ready to be planted on the layout
Finally here are the two buildings in their location on the railway in front of the raspberries.
