Building a station - a winter project

planty · Post by **planty** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:05 pm

This winters project has been to start work on a station for the Methley Joint Railway. A few bits and pieces have been acquired at Warley (roundhouse station laights) and at the local model shop (plenty of plasticard). And work has now begun on the platform shelter for Stanley Station.

Stanley Station closed in the 60's but my aim is to recreate the Pontefract bound platform in time for summer.

I'll post up some work in progress soon, but this is roughly what I'm after. A question though for modellers in plasticard, what's the best thing to use as a filler? I've some gaps in joins I want to fill and sand before I paint a base coat, just wondering what people have used?

Picture is linked to the excellent Stanley History Online site where you can read more on this station - http://www.stanleyhistoryonline.com/Sta ... ation.html

Narrow Minded · Post by **Narrow Minded** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 9:08 pm

I use milliput ("normal" for general filling and "superfine" for finishing)

SapperAnt · Post by **SapperAnt** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 12:53 am

Drawings for Stanley in 4mm appeared in Railway Modeller. Its a biiiig building!!

I started knocking up the old Westgate building in 2mm and that was impressive...espsecially the clock tower.

FBGR · Post by **FBGR** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 9:32 am

Dear planty,

I have avoided the need for the using any filler on my external plasticard buildings. I would not be confident that the weather would not find a way into such gaps, no matter how well they were sealed and painted.

With careful and accurate cutting, and fitting some parts together by making them slightly oversize and filing to fit, you should not end up with any gaps to be filled.

Considering some of the details of construction joints and the order-of-erection / putting-it-all-together at an early stage should also help in avoiding gaps.

Prototype construction details could also be considered, where fillets or cover strips are used to cover joints on buildings.

Where I have ended up with a gap/hole (nobody’s perfect), I have filled with epoxy glue (Araldite or similar) and filed it back once it has cured.

JOhn

planty · Post by **planty** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 7:43 pm

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm using a mix of MDF and plasticard, using some advice from Garden Rail 207 and using a resin/car body filler skin for the MDF for weatherproofing.

I've done a lot of my cutting already John and for the most part I've copied your advice ("followed" the advice would be wrong as it was by luck that this has happened, rather than following your advice John!

), but for the small gaps that are left I will try the milliput. Will let you know how I get on!

SapperAnt, yes got that issue! The building is the main Leeds bound platform, it is big and one of the reasons I went for the smaller shelter on the other platform!!

For the roof I'm going to try making the slates from roofing felt and apply them to a plasticard base. Hopefully this will give the desired effect.

Sean C · Post by **Sean C** » Sun Jan 08, 2012 7:43 pm

My fillerof choise is Humbrol model filler. It is very fine grained indeed, is easy to use, sticks to plastic like something to a blanket and is easy to sile and sand when dry, just make sure it has enough time to set properly.

Sean C

planty · Post by **planty** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 10:30 pm

Progress so far.....

So the base was created using MDF, the wooden paneling added using plasticard so I could get some of the detail by layering the card.

The MDF was then heavily coated in glass resin to add waterproofing and then a layer of car body filler applied! There is method to this madness which will become apparent later.

Then I've added the entrance detail

That's pretty much where I am now, next steps are to finalise the detailing by adding guttering. Then fill in some small gaps with milliput before spraying the whole lot with an undercoat.

Mrs F Controller · Post by **Mrs F Controller** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:52 pm

FBGR:64389 wrote:Dear planty,

I have avoided the need for the using any filler on my external plasticard buildings. I would not be confident that the weather would not find a way into such gaps, no matter how well they were sealed and painted.

With careful and accurate cutting, and fitting some parts together by making them slightly oversize and filing to fit, you should not end up with any gaps to be filled.

Considering some of the details of construction joints and the order-of-erection / putting-it-all-together at an early stage should also help in avoiding gaps.

Prototype construction details could also be considered, where fillets or cover strips are used to cover joints on buildings.

Where I have ended up with a gap/hole (nobody’s perfect), I have filled with epoxy glue (Araldite or similar) and filed it back once it has cured.

JOhn

I have to agree with all of the above and to be honest when we made or diesel (which is the only expreience of plasticard) we just filled the gaps with more plasticard and cememnted it on till it was able to be sanded.

planty · Post by **planty** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 9:07 pm

Story so far....

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MDLR · Post by **MDLR** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:18 am

Isn't it surprising how much better it looks when it's all the same colour? It's certain;y coming together nicely. Are you putting lighting in it?

planty · Post by **planty** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:42 pm

MDLR:65489 wrote:Isn't it surprising how much better it looks when it's all the same colour? It's certain;y coming together nicely. Are you putting lighting in it?

Funny you should mention that I was just on the maplins site looking at battery cases.

You'll notice the bracket above the door, that's for a wall lamp (from Roundhouse) which will go with a couple of their standard station platform lamps. I'm thinking though of maybe some interior lights too, but not sure as yet.

I was going to try powering by solar lights (pulling apart a few garden lights) but the solar panels are poor at charging in this weather, so I think I'm going to go for battery power (my railway being steam and battery, the track isn't powered).

Anyway back to the Maplin site to find some suitable battery holders...

METHSSNIFFER · Post by **METHSSNIFFER** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 8:30 am

Dont ruin it by putting an oversized out of scale lamp on the outsize make sure the lamp looks proportional to the building. You have a skill with the knife and its easy to mock up a lamp with plasticard

planty · Post by **planty** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 9:35 pm

METHSSNIFFER:65547 wrote:Dont ruin it by putting an oversized out of scale lamp on the outsize make sure the lamp looks proportional to the building. You have a skill with the knife and its easy to mock up a lamp with plasticard

The look I'm going for with the lamps is less like the picture at the top, that I believe is BR era just before closure. I'm after an earlier L&Y look, similar to the pic below:

The lamps here are on the corners, but I thought two would overwhelm and have gone for one in the middle. Will see how it looks.

Pendo Pilot · Post by **Pendo Pilot** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 9:59 pm

Thats a lovely looking station building, you have done wonders with it. Look forward to seeing it finished..

planty · Post by **planty** » Thu Feb 02, 2012 10:30 pm

Looking at doing some roof detailing, first off some "lead" (ok tomato puree tube) flashing

and then a test piece for the tiles. using roofing felt cut into small tiles and roofing felt adhesive, seems to work OK.

MDLR · Post by **MDLR** » Thu Feb 02, 2012 10:44 pm

Those materials are very sensible and waterproof - important for a roof!

SapperAnt · Post by **SapperAnt** » Thu Feb 02, 2012 11:46 pm

Awesome!

planty · Post by **planty** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 9:31 pm

The painting is underway and the roof is on. I think the tiles look alright (if I do say so myself

), the camera flash shines up some of the adhesive but under normal light this blends in much more with the tiles themselves.

Narrow Minded · Post by **Narrow Minded** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 9:36 pm

Looking very nice (as does the selection of beverages to the right of the photo!

)

MDLR · Post by **MDLR** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 9:46 pm

Narrow Minded:66686 wrote:(as does the selection of beverages to the right of the photo!)

Do you include the Polyfilla in that??

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