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Brookhall Mill - A GNR(I) Micro Layout

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Patrick Davey

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been working this week on the final building (or maybe not....) for Brookhall Mill - an 'original' ie pre-GNR(I) stone building.  It will have a low relief depth of around 1.5in but will have opening doors giving access inside for covered vans, I will be adding a short extension to the baseboard to facilitate this.

 

Making quoins and window/door surrounds from Scale Model Scenery coping stones:

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Front of building:

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With doors:

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The quoins etc. were painted yellow then masked off, then a layer of DAS clay was added over a spread of PVA glue:

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Painting of the stonework begins with a base coat of black:

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A question for those who model in card! I’ve always been a plasticard kind of person but for various reasons I have been using card on this build.  The quoins are finished in card and will need painted and then masked.  Last time I tried this I was too heavy with the paint and didn’t thin it down as I was worried that too much water would soak into the card and disfigure it. But the ‘too thick’ paint looked awful. So the question is: does card take primer, or would a seal of PVA glue do the trick?

TIA!

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Interesting one. How thick is the card ? I would try dry brushing something like Vallejo stucco, or gesso, which will also give a very fine textured surface. I used it on Florencecourt and then painted over it. You could also just paint it up slowly in layers of dry brush acrylic of your chosen  shade.That will dry very fast and shouldn’t warp or distort the card. A quick waft of primer shouldn’t hurt - one or two quick passes with the can should be ok.

Edited by Galteemore
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2 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Interesting one. How thick is the card ? I would try dry brushing something like Vallejo stucco, or gesso, which will also give a very fine textured surface. I used it on Florencecourt and then painted over it. You could also just paint it up slowly in layers of dry brush acrylic of your chosen  shade.That will dry very fast and shouldn’t warp or distort the card. A quick waft of primer shouldn’t hurt - one or two quick passes with the can should be ok.

Cheers GM - it's about 1mm thick so I think I'll try the primer when I get home.

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Years ago I made a few buildings out of card and just painted them with matt paint. There was slight warping on the first one I did, so I ensured that the next had more rigid framing (wooden bars), and that turned out ok. The card was even thinner than what you’re using, so your own should be more than satisfactory with paint.

Edited by jhb171achill
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Only every painted card once and it warped.  Won't do that again.

Windows on Westland Row are gold coloured and I found some gold coloured pens and used the one illustrated.    Colour was applied in full length straight lines for an even finish.  The windows look good finished.  The attached photo of a trial piece I did might help.  Be careful that you use a pen that won't bleed into the card.

image.thumb.jpeg.8d3dfc4338627562999404ed3408dc3f.jpeg

Edited by Billycan
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Been making buildings from mounting board for over 30 years and never had any problems from paint of any kind. Humbrol enamel tarmac was great for slates before it was discontinued, so use Precision enamel now for that. For brick and stonework I use cheap artist's acrylic - usually two or three thin coasts, but have used water colours and enamel too.

 Any problems with warping probably come from how many layers the model is made from. When I first started, John Ahern's book on Model Buildings was my reference and still is. He used postcards as his main material (the book was first written in the late 1940s) and stressed the importance of using an odd number of layers - three normally like plywood - to avoid warping.

 In 7mm scale, tend to use foamboard these days, which has three layers and holds its shape well, even with another layer of DAS. However, painting the inside with watered down PVA does the equivalent of adding another layer.

 So, not the paint, but how many layers. Overall, think I prefer card for buildings as plasticard can also warp, especially if you use too much solvent. It becomes brittle with age too, while card seems to age much better and if it does warp, it is more subtle and protypical.

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My attempts at creating precision quoins using card didn’t quite end successfully…..I have admitted defeat and I’m currently covering the structure with DAS clay and will then scribe the stonework, including the quoins, once dry.  It will take a second layer of the clay tomorrow to cover the structure completely then I will leave it for a day or two to dry thoroughly.  A combination of impatience plus inexperience combined against me here but at least I should be ok with the clay 🤣

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Thanks Popeye and David - I have added a second layer of DAS clay today and will sand it tomorrow so I should be OK from here on.  The only issue with DAS is that it is much heavier than card which isn't great for a portable layout so some time invested in becoming more familiar with card modelling would be beneficial to me.  Thanks everyone for your comments!

 

IMG_8631.PNG

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I did a bit of trial and error here. I made the main structure from card, used quoins from plasticard and then gave the quoins a little skim over with a thin layer of DAS to give texture.  But there’s a number of ways to skin this particular cat….as you’re finding out. Looking good though. 

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The trials of portable layouts! The main advantage of DAS is that it means you can scribe round corners, to avoid ugly joints when using embossed materials. However, quoins (why does my spellchecker offer Wilkins????) cover that up if you use thin card and fold it round the corner.

 Weight is a real issue on portable layouts though, you build a nice set of lightweight boards and then make them heavy with wiring, scenery and buildings! One way out is to use lightweight filler for scenics. Strange stuff as compared to the ordinary mix, it feels like the box/tub is empty. Much merit in filler anyway as you can mix in pva to stop it chipping and pre colour with water colour paint too. Doesn't scribe as well as DAS, which is why foamboard a good base for buildings.

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So here is my latest attempt to get the quoins looking as neat as I need them to be.  I have knocked up a small jig from plasticard and this will act as a guide for scribing into the clay/filler surface.  This process will start tomorrow afternoon and hopefully it will work, as I do enjoy scribing, I find it very relaxing! 
 

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The nearest wall will not be seen on the layout so I haven’t bothered to smooth it off with filler.  Lazy!

Edited by Patrick Davey
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