Recent Stuff on the FBGR

Anything related to the garden railway world that is not catered for in another board
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Recent Stuff on the FBGR

Post by FBGR » Sun Nov 15, 2015 3:15 pm

The original three arch bridge was made of plywood in 2008. I took a lot of care in treating the timber before priming and painting it, finishing off with varnish. But still the damp got in and made a mess of the paintwork, and it has started to rot the timber. Some may say 7 years is not too bad.

A couple of pics to show the state it was getting into. I used to use it as a stage to take photos of rolling stock.
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The replacement is made of Foamboard with stone joints pressed in, painted with B&Q stone paint sample pots. Looks quite bright at the moment, but I expect that it will tone down in time.
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John de Havilland
Last edited by FBGR on Fri Jun 30, 2017 12:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Big Jim » Sun Nov 15, 2015 3:20 pm

That viaduct looks very good indeed and as you say I am certain it will tone down a bit over the next few months. You could try and help it with a wash of very dilute black paint, but patience is a virtue as they say, let nature take its course.

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Post by planty » Sun Nov 15, 2015 4:50 pm

Looks good. I had a similar problem with wooden based buildings, no matter how hard you try to seal it water gets in.

What is foamboard and where can you get it?

I tried perspex which is fine for smaller buildings but looking for alternatives for something bigger.
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Post by FBGR » Sun Nov 15, 2015 6:20 pm

The Board is Foamed PVC – used a lot for signs and displays.  There are other Foamboards, some of which have a paper surface, not suitable for outside, and not so easy to glue together.

I have been getting mine from http://www.foamboardonline.co.uk/5mm_Fo ... oam_PVC_A3
at a cost of £18.00 for Ten A3 sized sheets, plus postage, which is a lot cheaper than using thicker Plasticard which I used to do for my buildings.

I have been using mostly the 5mm thick material, building up thicker sections by sticking it together.  You can then file it, carve it, or press into the surface with knife or screwdriver or whatever.

I normally stick it together (and to Plasicard although you have to be careful not to melt it too much) with the plastic pipe solvent sold by Wickes (behind the counter and not on display due to the solvents).

I have also used Delux Material Foam2Foam adhesive, although this is not as good.

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Post by FBGR » Fri Nov 20, 2015 9:30 am

After playing about a bit more with this Foamboard material, I started to use it to pave over the rough timber deck of the FBGR Station area, starting with filling in the space between the Arches and the Back Siding with what looks a bit like a cobbled street.
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Here is a bit of a close-up to show the ‘cobbles’.
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I have a screwdriver set, one handle and dozens of blade inserts, as the main tool for pressing into the surface. It can get a little boring, but seeing the surface develop as you go does provide some encouragement to keep going.

An early effort to see what I could get brickwork to look like was this little weighbridge hut in 7mm scale, done for the Fareham & District Model Railway Club’s Fairhaven Town layout. Its a bit rough, but it was interesting to work in a smaller scale just for a change. The brickwork behind is embossed plasticard.
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Post by Peter Butler » Fri Nov 20, 2015 10:08 am

I guess you mitre the corners so that no exposed core is visible? Also, it makes a big difference to the overall appearance by showing rising damp and algae on the lower part of the walls...... very realistic!
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Post by FBGR » Fri Nov 20, 2015 11:29 am

No Peter I don’t mitre the corners, I just stick together in a butt joint, although I do scratch the butting surfaces in order to improve the ‘grip’. I can just about manage to get square edges, but me doing lot of 45° angles would test the amount of board I have in stock. I also think that getting the external corner of the mitred joint to look acceptable would be a problem for me.

I make what was the end/edge of the board a little proud of the adjacent face, and file/sand it down to match the adjacent surface – this is done after the solvent glue has completely gone off, generally the next day. By little I mean about a fingernail thick or less.

The cut with a knife edge of the board looks very similar to the face of the board. The cut and sanded edge or core does look very similar to the lightly sanded face of the board – I go over the all the faces with a foam sanding block prior to painting anyway. After painting, most times, you can’t see the joint – as with most things, it gets better with a bit of practice.

A lot of the surface indentations (dents) etc. are done before sticking the panels together, it is easier to work on a flat surface and it also reduces the amount of stress this puts on the joints when finishing off later.

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Post by Peter Butler » Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:52 pm

Lots of useful tips there John, thanks. As yet I haven't tried the board you use but you have made such an impression (excuse the pun!) I think it will find its way onto my line before long.
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Post by FBGR » Thu Nov 26, 2015 12:09 pm

Carrying on with the ‘paving’, I have added a little something to fill up an empty corner.

I knocked up a length of fence and this old van body to act as a store. All Plasicard except the little brick piers and the deck made of sleepers in front of the shed is Foamboard – each sleeper individually formed and surfaces dealt-with much like Plasicard.

All now lives outside – I’m using more acrylic paint nowadays, so I wonder how it will weather.
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I then extended the paving a bit further, and added a sleeper pile and rack for rails or telegraph poles.
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Post by Peter Butler » Thu Nov 26, 2015 3:32 pm

Re- the use of acrylic paint outdoors.... I have both cast concrete and Plasicard structures painted with them and they have been out in high and low temperatures as well as wet and dry conditions for many months without any sign of fading or peeling.
I find them much easier to use than oil based paints and am very pleased with the end result.
Your paving looks great, I will give it a try.
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Post by FBGR » Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:20 pm

The original painted-on bricks/stones to the three arch bridge (see top picture above) were done back in 2008 with a couple of home made rubber stamps using acrylic paint. The colour had definitely toned-down/faded a bit over the years. The FBGR is about a km from the sea-front and when a South-Westerly is blowing you can taste the salt in the air.

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Post by jim@NAL » Thu Nov 26, 2015 8:04 pm

that bridge looks great and some good tips too

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Post by FBGR » Thu Dec 03, 2015 1:17 pm

I’ve added another little point of interest, a gallows hoist in front of an arch doorway – as usual all in Plasticard but not the chains of course. These came from my parts bin and so may even have been from some of Erika’s (the wife’s) broken and discarded jewellery (‘Argos Gold’), but I painted them anyway.
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Post by Peter Butler » Thu Dec 03, 2015 3:03 pm

Excellent John, beautifully made and looks just right in that location, exactly as it should be!
I have been toying with the idea myself and have a site outside my engine shed where it would be appropriate I think? When I get round to it I will post pictures. I thought of making it with a small truck mounted on rails at the top giving the impression of greater lifting capacity. I have probably seen something similar but can't remember where!
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Post by FBGR » Thu Dec 10, 2015 9:39 am

The POLA Station has been sitting there all alone for a few years, and so I thought it was time it had a bit more platform (in Foamboard). A ‘typical’ Germanic railway building was also knocked up with Foamboard walls and Plasticard roof and details to populate the platform (plus a cast metal ticket machine – I can’t remember if this came with the original Station Kit of was obtained separately). The doors, suitable marked Damen and Herren, face the platform edge, so cannot be seen from the normal viewing side – still I know they are there, much like the internal timber roof structure which you can’t see from any angle.
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Post by FBGR » Mon Dec 14, 2015 2:59 pm

To finish up before the worst of the weather, some more areas around the Station Yard area were covered in Foamboard sheets. Mostly only 2 mm thick, this material was obtained as scrap from a local signmaker. Hammered with a small bit of paving stone to put random dents over the surface and then just a few passes with different coloured spray cans to tone the colour down a bit.. Adding a couple Locating Bases for the Water Tower and Coal Stage - these are not at left out at present, but then we have no Steam Locomotive on the FBGR roster at this time.

We have started to do some ballasting, not bad £10 for three 10kg bags from Mole. It has to be washed before spreading and is fixed down with diluted PVC.
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With Winter now upon us, the completion of the Ballasting will have to wait for the Spring, and in the meantime, I have been looking at the state of some of the Fence Buildings and Retaining Wall, and will start to take them home, one or two at a time, for repair/refurbishment and repainting.

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Post by Peter Butler » Mon Dec 14, 2015 5:50 pm

The ballast make such a difference and completes the picture. Certainly the weather is not the best for attempting this job but it will be worth waiting for Spring so you can continue.
Great pictures looking along the length of your railway, the structures set the scene beautifully.
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Post by FBGR » Tue Feb 16, 2016 8:37 pm

The repair and repainting of some of the Fence Buildings has not gone at all that smoothly, partly due to interruptions caused by holidays, weather and a succession of family matters, and what is causing me some head-scratching is the learning about Humbrol Acrylic Paints – its a bit of a long story.

When I rebuilt the three arch viaduct in Foamboard (see above), I used B & Q wall paint tester pots, and I was well satisfied with the ease of use and the results of using this water based paint.

When I then started to use Foambord to make the paving that goes over the timber deck round the FBGR station area (also see above) I started using acrylic paint, squerting a little on a plastic sheet and mixing with water and different colours to get the colours and effects I wanted.

I found the Artiste range from the local Range store quite satisfactory for this - there was not a large range of colours but at £1.25 for a 59 ml (2 oz) container they were not expensive. Mixing the same colour up twice in two sessions was not easy, even when I took careful notes of quantities/proportions used.

I also used the same paint for some the Plasicard items that I was doing to go along with the paving (Wagon Body, Crane and some parts of the Toilet Block - -see above), and again found this all very satisfactory.

The next job was the refurbishment of some of the fence buildings – these were looking very tatty, having originally been finished in a bit of a hurry and being outside in the rain sea air and sunlight for about six years.

The first two buildings were taken home well before Christmas, rubbed down and cleaned and repaired as required. I masked the windows and doorway and spray primed with Halfords Grey Primer - this I have to do downstairs in my Bin Shed as its too smelly to do indoors, so this can’t be done when its too cold or too wet.

Using the Artiste paints, I found that most of the colours were so lacking in pigment, that even after four coats the base colour could be seen though. I persevered and finished the first two buildings but colours had ended up so bright that I felt that I had to try and tone them down a bit by adding weathering - something I had not done on the original buildings. I then took and refixed them down on the FBGR and brought back two more buildings.

Once I cleaned up and primed the next building and could not find a suitable Artiste yellow that would cover I decided that I would have to try the Humbrol range of Acrylics. I initially bought just the colours needed for the two buildings. These were £1.50 for 14 ml at my local model shop (Wicor Models). They are a lot easier to use but still sometimes required several coats (maybe I put it on too thinly). I also had to take two of the pots of paint back because the paint had dried out and gone either very thick or solid (these both had pop-up rather than screw lids). The finished effect when I took these back to the FBGR last week was very satisfactory however.
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Left pair repainted with Artiste Acrylic and weathered, centre pair repainted with Humbrol Acrylic (un-weathered), and right pair old Humbrol Enamel about 6 years in salty air.

I have started working on the next two buildings now, and have bought some more pots of Humbrol Acrylic, but although the colours are numbered to be the same as the Enamel range, not all the colours are produced – this meant I had to substitute some colours using as a guide the name of the colour on the pot rack in the shop as well as an indication on the background of the number label on the pot. This has lead to the following mistakes – Pot numbered 98 Chocolate turned out to be 86 ‘Light Olive Matt’ although it is really quite a dark metallic green, and 66 Olive Drab turns out to be a dull grey colour (it can’t be 99 because that is ‘Lemon’).

I will perservere.

JOhn
Last edited by FBGR on Fri Jun 30, 2017 10:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Andrew » Tue Feb 16, 2016 8:54 pm

Looking good! I'm impressed that you're making time to deal with the backlog too...

I find I'm increasingly thinking of something Peter Jones wrote about how 20% of a Garden Railway-er's time should be spent on building new stuff and the remaining 80% on repairing and maintaining stuff they've already made - I may have got the numbers wrong, but you get the idea. On a recent trip round the garden I was alarmed to see just how much repair work I need to do, including on some of the few bits of the line that I consider anywhere near "finished"...

Good luck with the rest of the work,

Andrew.

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Post by Peter Butler » Tue Feb 16, 2016 9:20 pm

From my limited experience I have found there are acrylic paints, and then there are proper acrylic paints, and you clearly get what you pay for!
I use the more expensive, but much more pigment dense acrylics from wargaming suppliers. These are so much more permanent, and with a greater variety of colour choice, they have a much longer life expectancy than any of the cheaper paints. They can be applied to any surface, plasticard, concrete, metal etc. and are superior to any other I have tried. Agreed they are more expensive initially but give outstanding results and probably cover a greater surface area than cheaper alternatives.
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