Laziness v Limitations?

[Patrick Davey]

Wondering if I am alone in this....

If you are following my thread elsewhere (thank you!) you will know that I am currently working on a station building for my fictional 'Clogherhead' terminus.  I am basing the structure on the recently-refurbished building at Dunleer and I have been working from a good collection of photos of this building taken on a sunny summer day last June.  

The quoins at Dunleer are finished in yellow brick:

 

and I had initially decided not to do this for the model, and instead made up 'stone' quoins:

 

Recently however I started to feel guilty about this and considered myself to be getting lazy, so I decided to attempt the 'brick' quoin route.  I glued some embossed brick plasticard to thin plain plasticard and started cutting and filing etc, and after what seemed like an eternity I ended up with one side of what would need to be a 2-part quoin:

 

As I noted that 8 of these would be needed in total, the laziness returned - I decided I simply did not have the motivation to do this seven more times, even though I was happy that the result looked pretty good.  I just couldn't face the thought of all that precision filling and cutting and making sure there were the correct number of bricks etc......

Seeking reassurance that I'm not alone in this and that I'm not just turning into a lazy so-and-so........?

 

 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by Patrick Davey

[jhb171achill]

43 minutes ago, Patrick Davey said:

 

Seeking reassurance that I'm not alone in this and that I'm not just turning into a lazy so-and-so........?

 

 

 

 

Worry not…….

You’re the last man on the planet that anyone could call “lazy”!

[Mayner]

Its challenging forming details like quoins from embossed plasticard or Wills Scenic Materials due to the thickness of the sheet, there days I usually model quoins, window frames and building details in etched brass rather than plasticard, but seldom get round to actually assembling the buildings.

Some fine scale modellers 4mm modellers clad their buildings 'one-brick at a time" using individual paper "bricks" from punched cards once used to programme computers and CNC machinery back in the day. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/110534-computer-chad-bricks/

Laying individual computer bricks was said to be slow, but calming and therapeutic and practiced by famous building/structure modellers including Alan Downes , Bow Barlow and Iain Rice

 

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Hardly lazy, more like wanting to spend more time doing more important stuff, we all do it in work and life and play. If you're lazy then I'm comatose!

[Tullygrainey]

11 hours ago, Patrick Davey said:

Seeking reassurance that I'm not alone in this and that I'm not just turning into a lazy so-and-so........?

You're definitely not alone Patrick. I imagine we've all confronted this perfection-vs-the-time-required dilemma in some shape or form at some stage. The deciding factor will be whether you can live with what you end up doing or whether it still bugs you months later. My most recent encounter involved making a mess of a paint job (as I am wont to do), spending time trying to fix it but eventually rubbing out and starting again.

As a compromise between accuracy and the time required to get there, would it be possible to clad your stone quoins (or some plain, appropriately shaped plasticard) with a suitable shade of brick paper? The lack of 3D relief might not be evident, given that the rest of your building has plenty of texture.

Cheers, Alan

 

 

[LARNE CABIN]

12 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Worry not…….

You’re the last man on the planet that anyone could call “lazy”!

Probably second to Darius, Patrick, you are amazing in your speed of production! One point no one has mentioned so far, and I think the key factor, is "my fictional 'Clogherhead' terminus". If you were modelling a real location, then no question, but as it's fictional, therefore country, seaside, minimalist building, stone quoins very reasonable! 

[Patrick Davey]

Thanks all - appreciate the reassurance!

Alan - I had considered something like that but wasn't sure if the shade of the brick paper would match the painted yellow elsewhere.

P

[David Holman]

Might be worth considering the DAS clay route, as you can scribe the mortar lines across the corners...

 The main issue with adding extra detail is that it then means you need to do the same for everything else on the layout, increasing building time even more. However, if that brings satisfaction, then why not? Our hobby caters for all tastes - builders, operators and all points in between. The standard of ready to run models is fantastic these days, so why not aim to present them against matching buildings and scenery?

 Nothing wrong with trying to improve skills and sometimes this can be about being a 'smarter' modeller. Back in the day, I used Howard Scenics embossed card for brickwork. Still available and sometimes still use it, because it is quicker than scribing a whole building. However, I long since have up painting all the bricks individually (I know!), because I learned about easier, quicker ways!I

 Perhaps it all boils down to the 'two foot rule', because if it can't be see from this distance, then is it worth the effort?