Locomotive Works

[michael mott]

As per your request Russ, here is a pic of the model

regards Michael

[michael mott]

I have a lot of pictures of this layout/model I have been working on it for a couple of years on and off, I know that Marc has seen some of it before, Hello Marc. It is a model of a Locomotive Works and a figment of my rather warped imagination. It is basically an experiment learning and trying out all of the amazing model tecniques that I have read about from the likes of Marc,  Chuck Doan, Gordon Birrell, Mic Greenberg, Marcel Acker and others like Gerald Wyngrove, and many others that I have difficulty remembering their names. The model includes some of my own experiments and is an ongoing work in progress. I have torn up and rebuilt parts, reworked some of the design and reworked some of the stuctures. When I look at some of the critiques of the work on this site, I go back and revisit some of the things that I have done, and wonder how I can improve them.  I have made a lot of mistakes as things progress, these are great learning opportunities, and sometimes they are unexpected bonuses.     

regards Michael

[marc_reusser]

Hi Michael,

Yes I remeber seeing and enjoying your work on this before. Really glad to see you continuing on it, and posting it here. I like that how you have been able to try and use so many different techniques on this...really great to watch.


Cheers,

Marc

[finescalerr]

Post more photos, Michael, and please keep us up to date as you finish new models and scenery. Outstanding! -- Russ

[michael mott]

This is a close up of the staircase on the side of the foundry building. It is constructed from evergreen styrene and expanded aluminum mesh for the treads. The corrugation is crimped printed coverstock. and the rust stain on the asbestos corrugated is from prismacolour pencil. The weathering and painting is all preliminary at this stage, as things progress i will be doing finer detailing, as i learn new tricks.



The big nail is a 3 foot mother and boy are they hard to come by, what with the cost of steel these days

regards Michael

[RoughboyModelworks]

Michael, impressive work. I too would like to see more photos of this project. What scale is this? Overall dimensions of diorama?

Paul

[michael mott]

Hello Paul The model is 24 x 61 and depicts a 15 inch gauge Locomotive works line works line. The scale is 1/24 using 16.5mm gauge code125 track for the 15" track and 2 5/16 gauge code 210 to represent standard gauge.

here is a shot that depicts the overall design of the model



This early planing shot gives some sense of scale between the standard gauge and the 15" gauge. the locomotive on the well wagon is a Bachmann GE44
and the little red loco in the background is a Bachmann Percy(heavily modified to represent a Horwich well tank loco)

Incidentally I am looking for a decent drawing of the well wagon should anyone know of a source.

The idea is to have an overhead crane above the loading area and dock.



Then I can load locos onto the rail line or the back or trucks.



These pictures represent different times and configurations of the main buildings over the last few years and now they are pretty much finalized and are mostly card and paper. with the exception of the brickwork which is watercolour paper bricks glued to 1/4 inch MDF. The overhead beams are made with evergreen strip and sheet. the rivet detail is embossed with a homemade rivet tool. The works gate is made from flattened electrical copper wire beaten on a piece of rusty rail track as an anvil.



.

Probably enough rambling for now.

regards Michael
 

[finescalerr]

Remarkable modeling, Michael. Thank you for giving us a little better idea of what you are building. Did you apply the bricks one by one? I would assume you did the stonework in the same way, right? -- Russ

[michael mott]

Hi Russ, yes the bricks were applied individually it took a long time to do the little bit of brick work that you see.



This particular section of brickwork did not survive the changes in the model's design however it clearly shows one of the the ways I eventually developed in placing the bricks. First I drew the brick sheets in Autocad then printed them on 140 lb  Arches watercolour paper(tough on the printer) then cut the courses into strips, I used a toothpick to spot the glue under the next row, the next strip was then placed and the watercolour paper was cut almost all the way through but not quite. Once the sections were glued and set I lifted out the sections between the courses and between each brick with the point of the #11 blade to give the gap between the bricks. I used watercolours to get the initial washes of colour, this is where they are still at at the moment. There needs to be more work done on finishing the weathering and detailing of the brickwork but it will come eventually.

.

The sandstone building has gone through a period of change as well, the first "stones" were done from strips of MDF but I was not happy with the results, so started over with corrugated card foundation with archival matt board scraps to lay up new "stones" out of card.




The windows in the sandstone building were made of wood frames with slide glass after reading Chuck Doan's postings about the backscene for the 1/16 scale tractor. The glass was glued in first with acrylic matt medium then white modelling putty was used as a "putty" for the glass.



The wood was cut from a salvaged maple window blind that I picked up ar the local landfill. a dog had chewed the corner of the blind, I saw it as a source of thin maple slats.

.

The picture of the window shows it installed in the MDF stone which I abandoned in favour of the card one at the begining of this thread. The door in the building is made up of real wood as well but I'll leave it there for now.

regards Michael

[finescalerr]

Very good information. Your little "mini-clinics" are of inestimable value. -- Russ

[michael mott]

Thanks Russ. I have always thought that these forums were an invaluable way to share ideas and learn from each other, Books are great too but there seems to be an imediacy in these forums that is not possible from a book. It is great to be able to have a piont or idea clarified pretty much right away when one has a question. These same questions often come up for me when I read a book or magazine(which are great) but I cannot just ask the question and get an answer in as timely a manner.

regards Michael

[RoughboyModelworks]

Thanks for posting the additional photos and information Michael. I really like the spatial relationships you've created between the various structural elements and the railway equipment. I hope you continue to post pictures as you progress with this project.

Paul

[Ray Dunakin]

How did you do the lettering over the gate?

[marc_reusser]

Michael,

Any progress on this wonderful project??


Marc

[michael mott]

Marc, I have not been able to do anything on the model for a while, I moved to the country and built a house. I do not have a workshop yet and am managing to do some modelwork at the computer desk. I did build a garden loop for some larger scale stuff. I am presently having some fun learning how to make figures.

I have not checked in to this forum in a while so I am sorry for the delay in answering your question.

Ray the method that I used to make the letters was by folding up some of the flattened copper wire with some needlenose pliers, I laid the letters over the drawing to guide the bending. I had a few rejects along the way.

regards Michael