The GnATTERbox

[Simon Andrews]

The stone blocks really look the part. Nice work Ian.

Simon.
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[Ian-IoM]

Thanks for all the encouragement folks ,

I'm still here Andi - just a bit busy with real life stuff recently. Looking in on the forum every day though, and following the top and bottom yards with interest, and I'm sure I'll be stealing some ideas from them for my layout

Ken - Yup, I felt like a bit of messy fun: after the fiddly stuff with track building playing with sludged newspaper made a nice change

To be continued...
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Ian K
We're all pawns, m'dear.

[Ian-IoM]

A spray with grey primer, a bit of balsa, and a play on the kitchen table:

Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum...
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Ian K
We're all pawns, m'dear.

[Ian-IoM]

Harbour wall somewhere near now...


The stonework was sponged with a bit of browny grey (matt emulsion match pot), then given a wash of black, and some green on the lower half (both from a cheap kids poster paint set, 32 colours for £1.49 )

The balsa was attacked with a wire brush, painted with the same match pot emulsion and given a wash of black and a patchy wash of green, again more on the lower half. Here's a close up:

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Ian K
We're all pawns, m'dear.

[Glen A]

Good job!
That green is so subtle I didn't even notice it until I read it your notes and went back and had a second look at the pics.

But it makes it look very convincing!
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Glen Anthony.
Christchurch
New Zealand

I survived the Christchurch 7.1 earthquake, 4 Sept 2010.

"The Stamping Ground"
http://www.trainweb.org/nzgr/Gn15/Gn15.html

[dieselwater]

Beautiful work Ian.
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Little old lines to somewhere.

David.

[Kevin]

Ian,

I like that harbour wall very much. I have just started building a stone quay for my 7mm layout 'Dilligaf Quay'.
Like you, I was going to use egg box card, but now I'm going to steal your method.
I really like the heavy look of the stones using this method.

Just one question,
If you press the paper mixture between sheets of newspaper, how do you stop the newspaper soaking up the water and becoming part of the mixture?

Kevin
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Please follow the 'WWW' link to my Photobucket pages with pics of some of my Discworld miniatures and dioramas.

[Ian-IoM]

Here's a bit more detail:

The newpaper above and below the shredded stuff does become part of the finished thing. What I did was cover a piece of MDF with plastic sheet, lay a few sheets of newspaper on this, then spread the torn up paper mix on this, then put a few sheets of newspaper over the top. I pressed it all down well and the water/pva mix soaked in to all the paper and bound it all together. I used a block brush to tamp it down a few times while it was drying, and it took a few days to dry sufficiently to handle. I cut it up while it was still damp, and it took a bit of cutting - I wasn't joking about the plasters! At this point it was still soft enough to round off the edges of the blocks by squidging with the fingers. A bit more drying time, then I stuck the blocks onto the backing - a few fell to bits - perhaps I should have used a bit more PVA in the mix, so I then brushed a coat of slightly diluted PVA over the whole lot to bind it together.

Hope that helps
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Ian K
We're all pawns, m'dear.

[gfadvance]

Thanks for the additional info Ian ......... another idea that may well be borrowed
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Gordon F

[teetrix]

looks great...

Michael

[Kevin]

Thanks for the tips Ian.
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Please follow the 'WWW' link to my Photobucket pages with pics of some of my Discworld miniatures and dioramas.

[michael]

looks good Ian, just catching up on the forum.
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Regards Michael
If you believe you can make something, you can make it.

http://users.xplornet.com/~macton/index.html

[Ian-IoM]

Thanks Michael, I'm echoing Andi & Gordon, but good to see that you're still about.

Credit where it's due and all that - for the wooden bits on the suitcase layout Michael's postings on the crane challenge thread have had several coats of looking-at. ( http://forum.gn15.info/viewtopic.php?t=5908&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=225 , and scroll down a bit). At the moment I'm busy with the jetty, attacking bits of wood with wire brushes and things...
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Ian K
We're all pawns, m'dear.

[Ian-IoM]

[Little Andi.]

Excellent beginning as ever Ian. Looks very solid and notably believable.
I'm already looking forward as to how you go about dressing it.
And of course stand by to have all your bestest ideas stolen - and remorselessly ta'boot, just tell yourself it's the sincerest form of flattery - it'll sting that little bit less!!!??

Cheers for now.........
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KBO .......................... Andi.

[Moronguhl]

That wood looks great - nice and grey and weathered.

Are those Grandt Line bolts by any chance? I'm picking some up for loco detailing as they look very handy.
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Christian Summers

Great scott!

The beginnings of a brewery...

[gfadvance]

Nice work Ian, its hard to believe that is going to fit into a suitcase

Your building quicker than me!
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Gordon F

[Ian-IoM]

Thanks folks

Steal with impunity Andi, it's all stuff I've pilfered from other people anyway . Seriously, 'tis a good thing teh interweb when it comes to sharing techniques and ideas for models with like minded people, and generally getting a bit of feedback and chat about model making - when I started it was a bit of a solitary experience, just the monthly fix of Railway Modeller (49p if I remember rightly!) to see what other folk were up to.

Grandt line bolts sound tempting Christian, but these ones are hand knitted - a square of thin plasticard, a hexagon of thicker stuff then a bit of plastic rod. Cutting hexagonal pieces is a bit fiddly but they don't need to be super accurate - just put the better ones where they show most and encrust the miss-shapes in rust
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Ian K
We're all pawns, m'dear.

[Pandy]

Ian, it's improving all the time ! love the stone blocks, well done ! the timber work is turning out really well too, the nuts & bolts are highly effective and it doesnt matter if they're not quite perfect, after being exposed to salt water all year round they would soon weather beyond recognition in some cases, can't wait to see the barnacles & limpets added, is the quayside going to be kelp free or like the lump of water between Douglas sea front and the Tower of Refuge? I remember getting stuck there in a rowing boat once (gawd that was a long time ago !) depends on the rise & fall levels of the tide I suppose. Keep it up, it's looking great already !
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Dave & Lorraine, more ideas than space, time & finance permit !

[Ian-IoM]

Thanks

I do like the idea of seaweed, barnacles etc.... perhaps some mud and rock uncovered at low tide... a few crabs scuttling about (ok, I'm getting carried away now ). Actually the treatment of the "sea" area inside the case lid is causing a bit of head scratching - there is certainly scope for interesting detail but how I go about it and still leave the sea wall removable so the case can close is going to require a bit of experimentation. I do want a fairly decayed look though, the jetty should look a bit newer than the quayside as it's meant to be a later addition, but I'm not really into new and shiny so in this case "newer" probably means "a bit less grotty"...
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Ian K
We're all pawns, m'dear.

[Pandy]

A bit less grotty seems far more fitting than shiny & new, did think about crabs but thought no, better keep my gob shut ! I do remember Douglas harbour being a fantastically productive crab fishing spot when I was a kid, we did the boat trip out across the Menai Strait from Caernarfon and the landing stage for the boat, even though well used was covered in green slime and assorted marine life both animal and vegetable, will you be going for a Shearwater or two amongst the seagulls ? Eroded, corroded, encrusted and inhabited , make it mucky !
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Dave & Lorraine, more ideas than space, time & finance permit !

[Ian-IoM]

[Ian-IoM]

[Glen A]

Nice job on the seagull !!!

Its a lot better that my efforts trying to make birds.
(yeah, I know you can buy them, but its not the same as the challenge of trying to make them yourself).
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Glen Anthony.
Christchurch
New Zealand

I survived the Christchurch 7.1 earthquake, 4 Sept 2010.

"The Stamping Ground"
http://www.trainweb.org/nzgr/Gn15/Gn15.html

[Adrian]

G'day Ian
.