The initial work consisted of black painted timber boarding, fixed to and hiding the fence lower aris rail. Behind the loco shed area were stuck some vacuum formed stonework sheets to this timber - this only covered a low portion of the fence, what was wanted was something higher. Anything made had to be in sections suitable for taking to the railway on the bus, as I live remotely from the FBGR and gave up my car in order to be able to afford to go on holidays.
In line with the general continental look of the railway, we fancied some houses/shops like the POLA low profile buildings. Gaugemaster had PolaG Number 331770 is in stock and ready to ship at £158.90 (last year). This is 42cm wide. With the total length of fence is in excess of 6 metres this would cost a total well over £2,000, and as there are only 5 different models in the range they would all look a bit repetitive unless they were hacked about a bit. The fence posts would also have been a bit of a problem.
- 02 Blds in Pola Catalog.JPG (237.07 KiB) Viewed 3635 times
I thought about copying the general shape, size and form of these units, but soon realised that all that timber decoration, widows and other details was going to take a long time to replicate. So I started to look round for something a little simpler that would still be in keeping with the general theme of the FBGR.
What I found were a couple of pictures taken while on holiday in Austria in 2005. Since the advent of digital photography I am more likely to take general views of places when out and about. This was the case with in Bludenz where I took a few street shots.
- 02 bludenz 2.JPG (141.19 KiB) Viewed 3635 times
- 02 bludenz 1.JPG (139.91 KiB) Viewed 3635 times
The proportions and colours are what I was looking for, as well as something not too complicated.
Plasticard was used throughout, mostly 1 mm thick fully stiffened and braced. First I made the windows (including painting, glazing and internal ‘picture’) and other openings, and then the roof with sky, fitting them all into or onto the wall. The details of the windows with small mouldings on both sides, a window sill and a large moulding across the top made it useful in hiding the edge of the window recess. In the first instance I didn’t notice that there were blinds on the windows that did not have shutters, so the first house built doesn’t have these - next time look more closely at the photos.
For the plain part of the fence, each individual house/shop is 29 to 36 cm wide wide, 49½ cm high and 4 cm plus the gutter deep, and are hung from the fence with brass screws. The Hotel Post was made to fit round one of the fence posts and the Rathaus (Town Hall) round the other.
The inspiration for the industrial building that overlooks our Engine Shed also came from Austria. This time it was in Landec, a Calcium Carbide factory that happened to have its own railway siding and locomotive, although it was the brickwork details that first attracted me to it.
- 02 Landec Factory 1.jpg (258.27 KiB) Viewed 3635 times
- 02 Landec Factory 1.jpg (258.27 KiB) Viewed 3635 times
After a few buildings were made and fixed it was realised that the black painted or plastic stone covered boards along the bottom of the fence were just not good enough, so an arched retaining wall with parapet and small bit of paving was made. This had to cover the fence lower aris rail, the power cable to the shed and had to be set back a little to avoid the track at its nearest point. Again this was made in 1 mm Plasticard, and again had to be made in short sections suitable for transport to the railway. The initial portions were rather repetitive, but the later sections facing the Station Yard were used as an experiment and to further the development of my plastic skills. These are fixed to the fence via home made brackets from 10 x 2 mm flat aluminium strip with brass screws.
For some picture see my Introduction – www.gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/about4682.html
All that remains to be done on this project is a few more houses on the left hand end overlooking the Station Yard and then make some sort of filling sections for the gaps between the buildings – perhaps sky going into mountains into trees into fence or wall.
Things are progressing well, and I hope to be able to complete everything this year. The buildings cost under £20 each to make, this being about half in plastic and half in paint (Humbrol). The retaining wall portions cost a little less than this.
- 02 South Arches 9 Sep 11.jpg (170.63 KiB) Viewed 3635 times
only the first two houses in this street fitted at this date.
More pics will follow as I finish it all off
JOhn
