Parish Church - Part 2

I read an article in the June edition of BRM where the author had resin cast the barge boards for a station building.  I had wondered how to make the ornamental stonework running along the top of the walls of the church and this looked like a solution (as well as being something new to play with which is a bonus). Making the short section out of styrene strip for the latex mould was very fiddly but the final casting is pleasing.  I have probably saved no time at all - each cast takes 30 minutes to dry - but am very glad I do not have to handcut the rest of the stonework.

Meanwhile, the nave and tower are in progress and some of the buttresses are partly completed.

What an educational, absorbing and fascinating build this is turning out to be.  Always the pessimist, I am gloomily anticipating the day it is finished.    

 

Parish Church - Part 1

What a challenging project this is turning out to be.  I have no idea how it will turn out but here, anyway, is a report on progress, warts and all.

The kind vicar had allowed me to take pictures and measurements and I found a brilliant android app which allows measurements to be entered onto a photograph. Now that's clever. I think so, but that sort of thing pleases me.

Of course, without incredible rubber man arms and a very long tape measure, estimating the height of the roof, tower and steeple (or anything above about 12/15 feet for that matter) is really hard because of foreshortening (if that's the right word) and the stone blocks being of variable size. In the end I have settled for something that looks about right for the nave walls and roof and will have a go at guessing the heights of the tower and spire once the nave is done.

So, beginning with the nave and after gratefully received comments on a previous post, the sides are of 30 thou styrene sheet.  The stone surrounds for the windows were cut out separately and scored - the window frame is slightly larger than the window aperture.

Onto the walls I added styrene strips at the bottom for the plinth, at the top for the whatever it's called and between the windows where the buttresses are.  (I haven't decided how I will make any of those yet).  The walls have been braced with Evergreen 10mm "I" sections.  That might be excessive but I took a guess that that this would be sufficient to stop the walls warping when the DAS was applied (as I have read can happen) and it seems to have worked.  The DAS was applied with PVA adhesive, rolled using a wallpaper seam roller (an idea I pinched from Iain Robinson), allowed to harden, sanded then scribed.  The stonework isn't quite right when I look back at the photographs of the real thing but I can correct that later.  I'm impatient to get on.  I did wonder whether 30 thou of DAS might be too thin but it seems to have taken fine.  Perhaps I will come down one morning to find it in little heaps.

The end walls followed the same process but with extra styrene sheet where the chancel and tower will attach.

Before sticking the whole lot together, Squadron filler was applied to smooth off the step between the window apertures and the stone surrounds.  I tried Milliput but the quicker drying Squadron filler was more satisfying for an impatient person.

Now, windows.  I don't know what to do.  From the inside, the windows are beautifully detailed 19th century stained glass.  I'm not going to add the protective screens but how best to represent the real thing?  

The Old Workshop - completed

I have been absorbed over the past few days working out how to construct the parish church (I'll make it up as I go along) so have neglected the old workshop. It's now done though. I have very much enjoyed the project - there's something appealing about modelling old and neglected buildings.

I have, at last, been weaned off using proprietary roofing slates thanks to the method Iain Robinson describes in the comment at the end of the post in his blog.  In case this helps someone else, I used 3x3mm squared graph paper from the web, printed on 100 gsm paper, cut into 6x3 rectangles, stuck down with PVA, painted with what I guessed was an overall slatey sort of colour, then picked out individual slates in different shades.  This first attempt is not perfect but much more pleasing - and satisfying.  It makes me think I may have to revisit the roofs of earlier models now though. (I bet I won't.  Too lazy).  The ridge tiles are strips of paper laid over a piece of string glued to the ridge, with thinner strips applied for the joins.  I copied that idea too.  I copy everything.

Here's a nice roofing example too on the lnr models blog.