Chuffnell Regis

[Andy Keane]

4 hours ago, Graham T said:

Here's how the Tamiya sand effect paste has turned out.  Just a thin layer onto the plasticard, smoothed with a spatula.  Masking tape worked well too, so I think I'll use that for where the edging slabs go.

 

Hard to gauge the size - how wide is the bit of card?

And I guess weather the colour down with a thin wash of some dirt?

[Graham T]

The gritted (?) area is about 10 x 25mm.  I'll definitely be painting it, but I think the texture is what I'm looking for.

[Graham T]

Here it is on the platform, nearly completed.  Looking forward to being able to tone the colours down!

 

Smoothing the paste with a spatula is tricky, as sometimes you get a piece of grit caught that leaves a track in the surface.  I'm also thinking that perhaps I should have added the edging slabs first...

 

[Andy Keane]

Looking great over that area - will you spray this or use a brush? Not sure how brushing paint over the texture will work. Following with much interest.

Andy

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by Andy Keane

[longchap]

1 hour ago, Andy Keane said:

Looking great over that area - will you spray this or use a brush? Not sure how brushing paint over the texture will work. Following with much interest.

Andy

 

 

I would have thought a test with a suitable grey wash would confirm if capillary attraction would spread it effectively across the surface. Maybe use the test strip of texture? Otherwise break out the airbrush or ratler. 

 

Is the surface going to be cinder or tarmac?

Edited May 1, 2022 by longchap

[MrWolf]

I had the same issue using the more traditional chinchilla dust , which looked more desert yellow than cinder grey..

 

 

Sanded down with a bit of Emery cloth and much paint later, it looks more like cinders.

 

 

The darker stuff in the foreground is stretcher bond brick plasticard to represent blue Staffordshire diamond tread bricks.

[chuffinghell]

This type of finish is something I chickened out of which is why I used paving on mine.

 

personally I think you’ve done a cracking job!…👍

 

….and I suppose @MrWolf’s is kinda okay too 🤪

[Graham T]

Thanks for all the comments chaps, much appreciated.  I'm going to use various washes of acrylic to paint the platform surface, aiming for a cinder finish similar to the one the @MrWolf has achieved (which looks top notch I think).  The surface will probably need rubbing down before paint though, as there is the odd ridge here and there that I'd like to get rid of.

[MrWolf]

Thanks both, admittedly it's a ***** terrible photo and I can't get at the platform to take another at the moment.

[Graham T]

Here's a shot of the platform ramp, that exposes all the snurglies  🙂

 

[chuffinghell]

8 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Thanks both, admittedly it's a ***** terrible photo and I can't get at the platform to take another at the moment.

a terrible photo? You’ve clearly not paid much attention to my photography skills (or lack there of)

 

sometimes I wish I could take better photos but then my poor photography helps to hide any errors

 

but seriously I think you’ve both done a grand job, I was tempted to do my platform surface with wet n dry sandpaper but I abandoned the idea in favour of embossed plasticard

[Graham T]

26 minutes ago, chuffinghell said:

I was tempted to do my platform surface with wet n dry sandpaper but I abandoned the idea in favour of embossed plasticard

 

I considered very fine wet and dry as well, but thought it would be very difficult to hide the joins.

[Andy Keane]

It is al lookin g really very good but maybe go easy on the rubbing down? It can I think leave a polished look and it may well be that the washes will anyway hide the other blemishes and also matt the surface down at the same time.

I am guessing it will have to be by brush though unless you want to do a lot of masking. I am wondering if some of this painting may be better done on the bench before installation too where that is possible.

Andy

[Graham T]

I think I'll give a first wash of light-ish grey before I do any rubbing down Andy; that should show where needs doing - hopefully there won't be much, if any, that needs correcting!

 

Building the platform as a separate unit, then finishing it before installation might have been a good method.  But it's quite a big assembly if all in one piece, so working out the clearances might have been tricky.  It seems to be working out reasonably well so far anyway.  Here's a photo of an unusually busy Chuffnell Regis!

 

 

[MrWolf]

50 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

It is al lookin g really very good but maybe go easy on the rubbing down? It can I think leave a polished look and it may well be that the washes will anyway hide the other blemishes and also matt the surface down at the same time.

I am guessing it will have to be by brush though unless you want to do a lot of masking. I am wondering if some of this painting may be better done on the bench before installation too where that is possible.

Andy

 

That's why I used engineer's Emery cloth, 80 grit.

It's meant for use on steel, so rather than the polished concrete bogus marble shopping mall floor look as you rightly say could ruin the effect, it basically smashed off the high spots and left plenty of scope for a base colour, washes and finally dry brushing.

 

I did paint the whole thing, including the walls, before fixing down, it was much easier to get at from all directions.

[Andy Keane]

50 minutes ago, Graham T said:

I think I'll give a first wash of light-ish grey before I do any rubbing down Andy; that should show where needs doing - hopefully there won't be much, if any, that needs correcting!

 

Building the platform as a separate unit, then finishing it before installation might have been a good method.  But it's quite a big assembly if all in one piece, so working out the clearances might have been tricky.  It seems to be working out reasonably well so far anyway.  Here's a photo of an unusually busy Chuffnell Regis!

 

 

Is that a Mogul in the platform?

[Graham T]

It is indeed - one of my favourite locos.  Very nice runner.

[Andy Keane]

12 hours ago, Graham T said:

It is indeed - one of my favourite locos.  Very nice runner.

Is that the old Bachmann split chassis or the more modern Dapol? I have an old Bachmann but was thinking of a Dapol from the batch due out soon.

[Graham T]

It's the Dapol one.  

[Graham T]

I've now finished adding the edging slabs, using scored .005 plasticard, and added a first splash of grey acrylic.  Pleased that the surface doesn't seem to need any sanding down at all, which is good news.  I will have to paint the edging slabs again, as the paint didn't cover very well on the first pass, and I think I might make the platform surface itself a shade darker.  Some of the point rodding between the platform end and the lamp hut needs retouching as well, where the Das got on it!

 

[Andy Keane]

3 minutes ago, Graham T said:

I've now finished adding the edging slabs, using scored .005 plasticard, and added a first splash of grey acrylic.  Pleased that the surface doesn't seem to need any sanding down at all, which is good news.  I will have to paint the edging slabs again, as the paint didn't cover very well on the first pass, and I think I might make the platform surface itself a shade darker.  Some of the point rodding between the platform end and the lamp hut needs retouching as well, where the Das got on it!

 

Looking really good. 

[Graham T]

Thanks Andy.  I think I'll make the cinder surface a bit darker though, would you agree?

[Andy Keane]

14 minutes ago, Graham T said:

Thanks Andy.  I think I'll make the cinder surface a bit darker though, would you agree?

Yes I would. Or maybe make the flags lighter? They are often very pale grey. But certainly edge lighter than middle, But light is always better than dark in my view.

An extra would be to float some darker into the pointing between flags?

Edited May 2, 2022 by Andy Keane

[MrWolf]

59 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

Yes I would. Or maybe make the flags lighter? They are often very pale grey. But certainly edge lighter than middle, But light is always better than dark in my view.

An extra would be to float some darker into the pointing between flags?

 

That's definitely the way I would go. Much easier to change if you don't like it. 

Lighter colours always work better in the smaller scales to give the illusion of distance rather than small size.

[Graham T]

You read my mind - I was planning to both make the cinders darker, and the edging slabs lighter 🙂  

 

A darkish wash to show the scoring in the slabs is also on the cards.  Here's some pics of the darker surface; I'll do the slabs tomorrow, if I have time.