As mad as an Englishman - The Locomotive Works Diorama

[danpickard]

Nick,
Would hope you had a few good drops while down on the visit.  Beer is listed as an Australian past time and leasure sport, so there are plenty of good and interesting beers to be sampled, all be it slightly colder than your tongue may be used too 

Cheers,
Dan

[Bexley]

Hey, City Center! I've been in there.

Dan I just went through your SBS of the brick casting again(sober) and something you might want to try that I used on the Minneapolis City Centre Model that I did commercially 32 years ago. I used some RTV moulds to create the curved precast look of the towers http://www.ask.com/wiki/33_South_Sixth?o=2801&qsrc=999  this reviewer doesn't have much positive to say about the main tower. but from a model building point of view it was extremely challenging. I cast the tower in sections out of a mixture of casting resin, and  auto body putty (white Lightning) and micro balloons (don't go there) This casting stood about 36 inches tall and then the plex windows were slipped inside as a box fabricated from a translucent plex sheet. Skidmore were good guys to work for as a contract Canadian Model Building Company back in those days.

Anyway what I want to get to is the casting in the rubber moulds I poured the mix into open face moulds just like yours but instead of screeding them the way you demonstrated I squashed a sheet of glass that had been sprayed with a release agent I cannot remember what at the moment. But it created a very fine casting with little flash and I could see that the mould was completely full and the backs of the sections were absolutely flat.

Here is where I am going, If you had a sheet of translucent poly that you could squash down onto your open face mould say 6mm poly with a sheet of 1/4 plate glass you could get bricks that were absolutely the same and the back would be the same as the moulded sides they would fall off the poly but be smooth as glass.

A long winded comment for sure but I thought that you might find it useful.

Michael

[Franck Tavernier]

Dan, great job! I love the rendering, the bond style bricks is random or you use a typical Australian (common) style bond?

Franck

[danpickard]

Hi Franck,
It's a Flemish bond pattern, in a slightly rustic fashion.  Have actually restarted the build for this wall.  Got to about 18 courses high, and was experiencing some noticeable sag in the wall, especially where the wall met the pillar.  Not all is lost though, as I was able to run a blade between some courses and salvage the current wall as a lower garden fence for a future project.  I have not printed out some paper template sheets to build the wall over again.  It will still be two sided, but the header bricks will be halves on each side of the paper print, instead of running right through the wall.  The pillars are being built around a timber centre.

Cheers,
Dan

[artizen]

The sag could be caused by the glue soaking through the paper templates you are using as mortar courses. Try using pieces of throwaway styrene such as butter or yoghurt containers. I print the wall (brick pattern) onto address label and stick it onto a piece of scrap PVC foam board (available from outdoor sign makers). This is relatively waterproof. Building the wall both sides of this piece of plastic creates a rigid and waterproof model. Using plastics as a mortar course will also reduce the whole wall from changing shape when you add the mortar or spray it with varnish etc. I use a printed template (lines spaced 2.5mm apart and the length of the wall) for creating mortar courses that fit without being seen after the wall is finished.

[danpickard]

Hi Ian,
There were sags and twists happening in a few different directions.  Glue was minimal, but may have contributed.  I think trying to build the without really using much form work was pushing things a bit (and wasn't using formwork just because it would have been too difficult to actual assemble the bricks into the wall I wanted, so pillar was twisting and leaning, and wall was sagging, which might have looked right for lots of the aged walls I have seen, but looked wrong in this instance).  I had some time on my break at work tonight to start gluing up the brickwork on the timber spine of the gate pillars with the paper template attached.  That went together much quicker and straighter than the previous attempt.  Don't need to put mortar spacers in doing it this way either, because the edge face of the brick is the part that is glued, not the top/bottoms.  My bricks are about 1.4mm thick, so my template spacing is 1.75mm, which is...about an inch-ish of mortar between courses 

Cheers,
Dan

[shropshire lad]

Hi Ian,
There were sags and twists happening in a few different directions.  Glue was minimal, but may have contributed.  I think trying to build the without really using much form work was pushing things a bit (and wasn't using formwork just because it would have been too difficult to actual assemble the bricks into the wall I wanted, so pillar was twisting and leaning, and wall was sagging, which might have looked right for lots of the aged walls I have seen, but looked wrong in this instance).  I had some time on my break at work tonight to start gluing up the brickwork on the timber spine of the gate pillars with the paper template attached.  That went together much quicker and straighter than the previous attempt.  Don't need to put mortar spacers in doing it this way either, because the edge face of the brick is the part that is glued, not the top/bottoms.  My bricks are about 1.4mm thick, so my template spacing is 1.75mm, which is...about an inch-ish of mortar between courses 

Cheers,
Dan

  Dan ,

   I have the answer to your problem ... change to 1/35th scale !

   Glad to be of help ,

    Nick

[Franck Tavernier]

Hi Franck,
It's a Flemish bond pattern, in a slightly rustic fashion.  Have actually restarted the build for this wall.  Got to about 18 courses high, and was experiencing some noticeable sag in the wall, especially where the wall met the pillar.  Not all is lost though, as I was able to run a blade between some courses and salvage the current wall as a lower garden fence for a future project.  I have not printed out some paper template sheets to build the wall over again.  It will still be two sided, but the header bricks will be halves on each side of the paper print, instead of running right through the wall.  The pillars are being built around a timber centre.

Cheers,
Dan

Hi Dan, thank you for these explanations, great job!

Franck

[Belg]

Dan, has this project ever been completed? Or did it send you over the edge? Thanks Pat

[danpickard]

Hi Pat,
Not completed, and has had a bit more progress from last reports.  A cobblestone road has been done and some concrete footpaths laid.  I need to get into casting a few more rounds of bricks.  I am sort of leaving work on this as "exhibition jobs" at the minute, since it is small and easy to carry to shows to work on. My next exhibition is in October, but have a heap of house chores to take care of in the mean time.  Not to mention the other bigger distraction, like starting work on a new layout.

Cheers,
Dan

[danpickard]

Should update where this one is at.  Cobblestone road has been pressed in.  DAS clay roughly squashed onto the road surface, and then stamped with a square brass tube stamping tool thingy.  Primed, painted, given a few different washes and highlights, then dusted and glued in some fine dirt to fill the gaps.  Still need to come back over this with leaf debris and perhaps  some small rubbish scraps collected in the gutters.  The concrete sidewalk and gutters have been done using Monster Modelworks cracked concrete laser cut sheets.  They are actually HO, but I think the cracks scale out better in O.  Once cut to shape, they have been given a couple of washes of some of the AK gear.  Again, still a bit of surface detail to go in once the wall joins up with the path.












Here are a couple of quick shots of the changes made with the brick construction as well.  Ended up using a thin styrene sheet to mount the wall onto (just means header bricks need to be cut instead of just being placed across the wall).  The gate columns have been built around a timber centre.  I printed out paper templates with guidelines on them for the brick course spacing, and glued these to the styrene and timber first, before gluing on the bricks.  Building up the columns was much quicker (about 1 hour per column), and was a matter of glue up in face, and then rotate the column to keep filling up the gaps in the jigsaw.  Much straighter and stronger results.









I am leaving all the mortar work until the brick work is complete so the is some colour consistency in the mixing.  Initial colouring of the track work has been done as well, but that's about it.  A couple of parts on the "to do" list for the next exhibition session, such as a timber fence, paint the gates, work on some scrap detail parts etc.

Cheers,
Dan

[Ray Dunakin]

Nice stuff! I especially like the cracked sidewalk, really looks terrific!

[Chuck Doan]

Those cobblestones look great! Gad, I can't imagine pressing all those in.

[1-32]

hey dan
i really like the concrete curb and gutter,there is something about the cobble stones a bit like bread in a bakery that throws my eye out.great job with the bricks.
kind regards kim

[danpickard]

I think some spots on the cobblestones, the stamp was staring to clog a bit, which resulted in a bit of a rounded top on the stones.  I've certainly seen cobbles that are a bit rounded from wear, but some of these do a that slight not quite right look.  I intend to come back over the road with a second layer of fine dirt filler, and some of the spots (like the one framed perfectly in that photo  ) will probably get some of the leaf debris over to mask any issues.

Cheers,
Dan