Garden Railway Forum

Hi all.
Had a play with some of my leather today. Pushed a dressmaking pin through a small piece, through foam and into a piece of ply. Got mixed results. Looked very realistic but the pin head pulled down through the leather a couple of times, maybe due to the firmness of the foam trying to resist the pinhead from forming the sunken button. I might try again but before tapping the pin down i will put a dab of superglue on the pinhead to attach it to the leather before touching with a drop of black paint. I would be upset if i finished a seat pad to have a button pop through and spoil it.
Was at the GCR in loughborough today, on a Santa special, and noticed many seatpads without buttons and they looked fantastic too in old smooth leather.
D.

Funny the things we notice as modellers. I bet most people around you wouldn't be able to tell you the colour of the seats if asked.
Grant.

I am sure you will have solved it soon David, it will be brilliant when done, please post some photo’s when it’s done.

Latest.
So that i can make up the seats in 3 parts more easily i have decided to make up a frame for each complete seat unit out of thin ply for the back and sides and mahogany for the front rail and legs. The seats can then be made out of the coach and dropped in when complete. I have included for the seat pad to fit inside the frame and sit on small brackets. The lower back pad will be at a slight angle and the headrest held flat to the back of the frame.
The photo below shows me using the wooden box again. I glued one leg in place 10mm in length. Then laying the seat frame on its back and touching one side i was able to glue the other 3 legs in place, all touching the 2nd side allowing them to be glued in the correct position. Legs glued in place and surfaces that may show have been stained mahogany. Prior to varnishing.
Armrests will also be mahogany and glued to the ply.
D.

Wot "no webbing and springs in the base".
Only joking!, these are going to be very sumptuous looking first class seats I suspect.
Grant.

Looking good David.

Hi all.
Now i don't know what to do.
First things first. Below is a photo of the firm 5mm packing foam and a piece of the 'leather' i am using. I don't want to use ordinary soft foam as i want to have a realistic curve to the cushions for the model and i think it would be too soft to give that.
First i made a base from 3mm ply, 4mm less in length and width than the seat box to allow for the thickness of the leather and a piece of the foam of equal size was then glued on the top. A piece of the leather was then cut for each base, 15mm larger all round to allow for gluing down the sides and underneath. The leather was then glued to the top of the foam and allowed to dry before gluing down the sides and underneath, cutting to fit as appropriate.
Now comes my predicament.
I love the finish of the smooth leather and the foam gives it a lovely firm 'squash'. Because this is only a small model, i think that to apply a realistic number of buttons would mean i would lose the softness. If i used just a small number i would still lose some of the softness and i don't think it would look right. For now i am going to leave the cushions without buttons and work on the back cushions and make the final decision later but both myself and my good lady love them as they are.
Comments welcomed!
D.

I think they are very good as they are.
Just as a little thought. How far in do the buttons pull the seat squab in real life?
On an arm chair that I have, it is less than an inch. So how far do they need to pull the leather in on the model?

Congratulations on the superb finish to the corners... far better than I expected in that scale. Leave well alone!

Nice job, well done...I agree with Peter and Jim..leave them.

I think they look fine as they are.
Although I can totally understand why you want to complete them with the buttons, I think there is a danger of trying too hard and ending up spoiling them.

Hi all.
Thanks for your thoughts. The seats are to be left plain. At least until i decide otherwise.
No work done today. Packed my son off back to London before the snow got too bad. Took him 6 1/2 hours to do 100 miles by M1 and M25. Spent the rest of the daylight hours playing with my young grandchildren in the snow. Pulling sledges is fun but tiring.
Back to making seats tomorrow.
D.

River Lin wrote: ↑Sun Dec 10, 2017 10:15 pm Took him 6 1/2 hours to do 100 miles by M1 and M25.
D.

Indian 2'6" gauge speeds then! If I remember correctly, the fastest narrow gauge trains averaged about 18 mph after dieselisation, whereas your son and heir managed 15.4mph on the motorway albeit due to there being some weather!

Peter in Va

IrishPeter wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2017 3:58 am If I remember correctly, the fastest narrow gauge trains averaged about 18 mph after dieselisation, whereas your son and heir managed 15.4mph on the motorway albeit due to there being some weather

That's about normal for the M25. When someone breaks down in the carriageway or goes greasy side up in the ditch everything stops. I spend a lot of time going nowhere on the 25. About 15 miles in 1 hour 30 mins on Thursday night.

Seasons greetings all.
I decided i need to push on after the festivities and thought i would try seat buttons afterall. If it didn't work i have enough leather to remake the part.
For a seat back i drew and cut a paper pattern for the button spacing. I laid the pattern onto one of the seat backs and tapped dress making pins through the pattern and into the seatback so that the pin point came out through the back. I repeated this for the other pins. I then turned the seatback face down onto the workbench and pushed down enough to squash the foam by small amount. When turned over again i could judge that i was happy with the depth the buttons had been pushed in. When i was happy, i put a spot of superglue at the base of each pin at the back and clipped the points off as low as i could get. I then painted the pin heads black to match the leather. Hopefully none of the pins will pull through the leather. This seems to have been successful and i am happy with the result so i think i will also button the seat pads but leave the headrests plain.
D.

David, you should enter this into the MOTY in April, this looks great!

They look great!

That has turned out well, gives a good representation of studded seats and will give exactly the right impression when they are grouped together.

Hi you have done a lovely job on the studded seating.

I always thought you would at least try the buttoning David, and of course it has turned out perfectly as usual. You should be very pleased with that result.
Grant.