Scalefour Forum

3 projects part built, 3 part built projects scrapped...........
The 3 projects have been a steep learning curve as far as track construction, wagon building etc. As I got deeper into the projects and lessons were learnt I thought 'That can be done much better'. Perhaps the projects were a little ambitious in their size.
Then when Ian made a suggestion of a 4 foot square challenge I decided that I would build something small although not 4 square feet .
So back in January of this year I made a start on a section of the fictitious Manston Brewery Ltd.


The track


High Level RSH fresh out of the paint shop with a Bill Bedford 5 plank.


A couple of buildings, paintwork yet to be finished. The granite setts are cast in resin and individually laid allowing curves to be followed. Beer barrels are also cast.....there will be loads of them.

Lovely buildings, Rob. Can you tell us more about the origin of them?

Ian

Very, very nice Rob!

I really will have to get on with mine

clecklewyke wrote:Lovely buildings, Rob. Can you tell us more about the origin of them?

Ian

Loosely from 'Brewery Railways of Burton on Trent'............Industrial Railway Society but now sold out.............
Rob

Armchair Modeller wrote:Very, very nice Rob!

I really will have to get on with mine

Richard,
We'll have to meet up seeing as we're only a few miles apart.......
Rob

Very nice Rob. It can be great fun shuffling a few wagons around but this looks like it will form a very nice scene.

John

sulzer27 wrote:It can be great fun shuffling a few wagons around.

John

Especially with some appropriate sounds - engines chuffing, whistling and clanking, safety valves popping, buffers clanging, pigeons cooing, workers shouting instructions - as long as they cannot be heard from the next exhibit (with due deference to a previous thread...)

Oh yes, you must also have some appropriate smells. They are very evocative, even if almost subliminal. I cannot pass the current Scottish Assembly building in Edinburgh without remembering the warm, malty smell of the Youngers brewery which it replaced. I did consider having a kipper on the table below Humber Dock but was dissuaded.)

Ian

RobM wrote:

clecklewyke wrote:Lovely buildings, Rob. Can you tell us more about the origin of them?

Ian

Loosely from 'Brewery Railways of Burton on Trent'............Industrial Railway Society but now sold out.............
Rob

And also the methods/materials used to reproduce the brickwork, please?

Nice work Rob.

Ealing wrote:Nice work Rob.

Thanks but don't look too closely............
Rob

sulzer27 wrote:Very nice Rob. It can be great fun shuffling a few wagons around but this looks like it will form a very nice scene.

John

Thanks John..........in the book Brewery Railways of Burton on Trent there is a timetable for the workings at Worthington's Brewery one day in June 1964 and there were loads of movements so plenty of scope for shunting.

RobM wrote:

Armchair Modeller wrote:Very, very nice Rob!

I really will have to get on with mine

Richard,
We'll have to meet up seeing as we're only a few miles apart.......
Rob

Sounds almost romantic.............

....just let me know when the brewery goes into production

martin goodall wrote:And also the methods/materials used to reproduce the brickwork, please?

I use South Eastern Finecast embossed brick sheets.........I have in the past used another manufacturers but for the last few years the vertical joints have run way out. The walls and floors are all constructed with 60 thou plastic and the roofs are made up from the left overs of wooden louvre blinds.
I build up the individual walls with windows and detailing as far as possible and partially paint them before the final assembly. All 90 degree joins are mitred.
The roof tiles are from York Modelmaking.
I'll post some photos shortly of the building I have started today.
Rob

Thanks. The brickwork looks impressive. Hence my question.

I agree that the Wills embossed brickwork is superior to other embossed styrene brick sheets.

Next annoying question - painting methods and paints used?

Martin,

South Eastern Finecast and Wills brickwork are not the same thing. I have sheets of brickwork from SE Finecast which come in quite large sizes compared with the small sections from Wills so no problem with the joins.

Tony Comber

martin goodall wrote:Thanks. The brickwork looks impressive. Hence my question.

I agree that the Wills embossed brickwork is superior to other embossed styrene brick sheets.

Next annoying question - painting methods and paints used?

As Tony says S E F embossed is not the same as Wills and the sheets are 350mm x 240mm x 0.6mm
Painting is by brush and or airbrush and I use both enamels and acrylics. Must admit that I do prefer to use acrylic as it dries so much faster. I also use sable brushes, cast offs from my day job.
Rob

shipbadger wrote:Martin,

South Eastern Finecast and Wills brickwork are not the same thing. I have sheets of brickwork from SE Finecast which come in quite large sizes compared with the small sections from Wills so no problem with the joins.

Tony Comber

Sorry. Sloppy thinking/writing on my part. (They used to be the same firm but split some considerable time ago). I did indeed mean South Eastern Finecast. Wills do moulded scenic sheets which are very different, though also good in their own way; they don't do brickwork in embossed styrene.

RobM wrote:I use South Eastern Finecast embossed brick sheets.........I have in the past used another manufacturers but ...

I have also been using this stuff and generally I like it - BUT one tip which I discovered the hard way:- you cannot mix their Stretcher bond and English bond sheets - the pitch of the courses is completely different. Even worse, they do a rather nice "Arches" sheet which includes some very useful corner courses. This is in English bond but, again the pitches differ from the English Bond plain sheets. This effectively limits the usefulness of these sheets which are otherwise very nice.

All a bit frustrating really!

Looks excellent Rob, colouring is spot on - as we would expect from an artist!! Hope you will be bringing it all to NAG and telling us how you mixed the colours!

Cheers,

Howard.

JFS wrote:
I have also been using this stuff and generally I like it - BUT one tip which I discovered the hard way:- you cannot mix their Stretcher bond and English bond sheets - the pitch of the courses is completely different. Even worse, they do a rather nice "Arches" sheet which includes some very useful corner courses. This is in English bond but, again the pitches differ from the English Bond plain sheets. This effectively limits the usefulness of these sheets which are otherwise very nice.

All a bit frustrating really!

Looks excellent Rob, colouring is spot on - as we would expect from an artist!! Hope you will be bringing it all to NAG and telling us how you mixed the colours!

Cheers,

Howard.

Howard, just got back from a NAG meet, you missed a good natter night and yup, I found out about the various bonds a while ago having done a load of brick counting then marking out on the English bond.......no way were they 3" bricks......more like 2.5".......continental???? Anyway, compromise and so I just use the Flemish bond. The stretcher is only used for the chimneys (built but not yet added) so no mixing of bonds is necessary.
The art is one thing but painting models has been a different kettle of fish (well for me anyway)........
And yup, I'll bring it along to a NAG night........it is far from perfect and it would be good to get some constructive crits.........
Rob

RobM wrote:Howard, just got back from a NAG meet, you missed a good natter night ...

Did I ever mention that work can be a complete pain at times? Looking forward to seeing your work at the new venue though!

Just a bit more on the brick sizes - here is a quick pic of my signal box and you can see that the Locking room windows are bricked up in Stretcher bond - I can get away with it here because the bricks are supposed to be different BUT...



I wouldn't care so much if I had not already bought several tons of the stuff!

Cheers,

Howard, I am not a structural engineer, so I don't know, but should the opening for the operating rods not have a lintel or intermediate brick pillars? My understanding is that the mortar joints in brickwork are insufficient to support much vertical loading, and the front wall would sag or even collapse without support. Looking at "The Signal Box' [The Signalling Study Group, OPC, ISBN 0-86093-224-9] most brick boxes seem to have old rails used to support the front brickwork, although wood beams, RSJs, multiple brick pillars and concrete beams also appear.

Noel

Noel wrote:... should the opening for the operating rods not have a lintel ...
Noel

Hi Noel,

And yes you are quite right! However, when the box is finally positioned, there will be a walk way over the rodding and this will conceal the fact that one is absent!

John Hinson's pic of Longhedge gives the idea

http://www.signalbox.org/gallery/s/longhedgejcn.php

Best wishes,

The cooperage is in full swing.............



The barrel was turned from aluminium bar then a rubber casting mould made......

That all looks very clever, Rob.

If you want inspiration for details, there are one or two interesting sites on the Web, like this one........

http://www.seppeltsfield.com.au/the-vil ... cooperage/

Nice to see the barrels ther Rob, I do like the look of the cooperage. I must admit that your layout has really given me some interest in building a similar layout on the SGW. I will have to finish the RSH first.... Then I will get distracted by something else... I had not really considered a brewery as a layout. Though it really has some interesting traffic, hopps and barley, barrels in and out. Coal to fire the boilers quite a collection of wagons... Let alone some small loco's running around to disassemble and reassemble trains both in and out. Ummmm starting to really look like I should do some research into this as a small layout.