Kevin Sweeney

I think your probably right. I'm currently building my 4th GW station house in a month, but this time I'm trying to simplify the build process. My methods of building are too complex for a kit. Even if I never sold a kit, the process of thinking this out will make for faster model making.

I made my offer yesterday. it was declined but it was an interesting exercise for me. Without the advise I got here I would pitched the price a lot lower. The whole process of thinking out the work involved and costing it was a useful learning experience. And I now have a set of drawings of Dungannon Station. Attached is the plan I sent to the client.

I will keep playing music and will do a few small choice gigs near home, but I don't want to go back to it full time. Playing informal sessions with friends, playing what you like to play and just pleasing yourself is all fun. Once you get paid to play, you have to play what the venue want, deal with the drunks, and the venue owners trying to renegotiate the deal at the end of the night. Also at 61, the late nights catch up with you really fast. As Darius points out making models for money brings its own stresses, I guess it's a case of choose your poison. I have promised my potential client an answer today. I estimate 80 hours work to complete the build, with about 10 done already, the drawings are nearly done. I will price those hours at a reasonable rate, one that will give me a good return on my time, but which allows for the fact that my overheads are almost zero. If he says yes good, if he declines good too. I've being doing a lot of time and motion studies in the last month investigating the practicalities of selling finished models and/or kits. As you can see in the photo I'm building up quite the collection of OO GW buildings. I also have three complete crossing keepers cottages not in the photo. The second and subsequent build in each case take a fraction of the time that the first one required. With this way of working I could sell a whole station, station house, signal cabin, goods shed, water tower and platform shelter for the same price as a single once off building. Either way my main advantage is that my kids are reared, I own my own home and I'm debt free. What ever I decide to do i won't have to work very hard at it to keep my little ship afloat.

Thanks Darius for that comprehensive answer, lots of food for though there. especially your advise about sticking to your guns. I can really appreciate your point about how doing what had been a hobby as a job can knock all the fun out of it. As a musician I'm very well aware of that problem. For the last eight years I had been a fulltime carer, but that has now run its course and I'm embarking on the next chapter. I have two major skills, model making and guitar playing. I have too choose which one to do for money and which one for fun. The attraction of model making is that I can work in my kitchen and be in bed by midnight, no long journeys or late nights.

If I might impose on the community by asking for some help. Someone based in the UK has asked if I would make them a OO card model of Dungannon station. I am very interested in this commission and getting into that line of work, but I have no idea how much to charge for that kind of job. They have supplied me with some oblique photos. I have already spent nearly half a day studying them and am still at least a half a day away from having a complete set of drawings. The model is further complicated by the fact that the ground is sloping, being about 2 foot higher roadside, than trackside. There are canopies on both trackside and roadside, I would be worried about them being damaged when the model is being shipped so I'm thinking I need to make a custom made wooden box with some kind of internal card structure to hold the model in place. This in itself will be an other major job to design and build. Any advise on how to price this job and any other issues I need to consider would be very much appreciated.

I'm building up a nice collection of OO buildings.

OO certainly feels huge. nice to work with thought, much bigger margins of error than in n scale. i have a hankering to make a big building in OO, time will tell\

Making good progress with the Ballyheelan diorama. I've been trying out different possibilities with ground cover. Almost finished making my Great Grandmothers shop. In a new departure for me I made my first OO model, of the crossing keepers cottage just south of Ballywillan

Making good progress with the village. Just three small buildings left to make. I've had my first go at static grass, happy enough with the result. I created a field of ripe grain and a field of tall grass, ready to cut for hay. I'm also experimenting with making lazy beds. Potato gardens were a common thing in that era. There is also an overgrown area next to the bridge. So I have the chance to create many different kinds of ground cover. I've also been applying powered pastels to the house walls, and using a diluted acrylic wash to darken the thatch. But more of both are required.

Amazing work. i love the way it all looks so battered and worn out. It sets a very high bar for the rest of us. Inspirational stuff.

Pendon looks amazing. I'm planning a trip to the England in the next few months. Pendon is definitely worth a visit for some inspiration.

I used a pound shop clear glue for the water. The base of the river is mountboard. On top of that I put a layer of toilet paper soaked in PVA glue. While the glue was still wet I worked it with a brush to create ripples. Then I poured the glue on top. It took about 48 hours for the glue to dry. I'm happy enough with the result for a first effort. Another layer of glue or two would add more depth to the water.

I've decided to add to my Ballyheelan diorama and make the whole village, as it was in the early 20th century. The village is gone now, there are only two houses now. In the early 20th century, there were 8 houses, a grocery shop, a butchers shop, a post office, a slaughter house, a mill and kilns, a forge and a shebeen. I've had a life long interest in local history and am really taken with the idea of making models of buildings and scenes that are gone. I've been experimenting with a bit of weathering, I will need to do lots of it, as without it the village will look like a pristine theme park. I'm also creating my first water feature, the Ballyheelan river. I will be adding vehicles, people and livestock to the diorama, another first. I have the terrain elevations correct, I found a really good and simple to use, contour map generator at Contour Map Creator (urgr8.ch). See screen shot below. The baseboards are made from 1.3 mm mountboard, the boards are quite rigid and surprisingly strong. To test their strength I stood on them and they bore my 70 kgs without problem.

Making good progress on this diorama. This was my great great grandfather's house and farmyard. Unfortunately it is all gone now, demolished about 10 years ago. The aerial photo below was taken in the 1980s, but my model is based on the 1901 OS map and a video made in the 1950s.

Over the last four years I've accumulated a large collection of unfinished projects. I've resolved to try and get some of them finished rather than starting anything new. The first result of this policy is the stables at Lough Key Forest Park, which I started about 4 years ago. The textures used are all scalescenes, as at that time i did not know how to make textures. Some day soon I might even get around to finishing Ballywillan.

Bellmont House is finished.

I finally got the Cathedral finished. Next job is to finish Cavan Town Hall, which is well on. Looking for future projects, I really like the look of these two, Kinsale Market House and Bray Town Hall,

Back doing some work on Kilmore Cathedral.

Scalescenes have a gantry crane kit. T032 Gantry Crane – Scalescenes

More progress with the cathedral Romanesque doorway.. Made with 5 layers of photos, stuck to 160 gsm card.

I learned the sticky label method from this Chandwell video. You print the windows onto sticky labels, stick them to acetate and cut out the openings. The Xs on the glass are printed on acetate and added as an addition layer behind the main window.

Making good progress with Kilmore Cathedral. About 45 hours work done so far. I've used the sticky label method for the windows.

Funny you should say that, but this has piqued my interest in larger scales. With this method of construction it would be easy to make and fit out interiors.

I got distracted again, and as so often before it was by Michael at Chandwell on youtube. Over the last few weeks he has been building an Indian restaurant on his layout. Because he was making an interior in the building, he made it from the inside out. He started with a floor plan and then created a wall plan, and then built a carcase. Then he made the walls to fit the carcase. I have always made buildings by making walls first, then making the structure to fit the walls. I have always started at one end, with a gable wall and worked the building out as I went along. This is a very inefficient way to work. Why not try the Chandwell method I thought I started on Friday morning with a plan of Kilmore Church of Ireland Cathedral, this is where I'm at after about 35 hours work. I lost a lot of time in that 35 hours, learning as I was going. But even so I am very happy with progress, as of this evening. I have cut all base layers with the cutting machine, done all the wall textures in Inkscape. I have a lot of slates left over from the distillery. I have all the drawings done now. I am making serious progress in a very short time, just by changing my working method. The first pieces. The wall panels are being held in place with blue tac. . The tower wall panels have been added The buttresses were cut with the cutting machine.

They are Scalescenes slates. TX18a Slate Roof Tiles – Scalescenes