Black Country Blues

[2ManySpams]

Looking just the job Jason.

 

Once it's bedded in I can see a bit of ivy growing up over a little of the roof.

 

Nice.

[Stubby47]

Just hope the BCB roads are big enough for these lorries !

[2ManySpams]

Just hope the BCB roads are big enough for these lorries !

 

I've initiated a major road building programme Stu. In true BC tradition I've ripped up the track and laid a by-pass!

[Arthur]

A cracking model Arthur.

 

Crusaders, 3 line brake systems, chains rather than ratchet straps, you are bringing it all back to me.

 

Another fad at the time was lengths of rag tied on the mirror arms that flapped over the mirrors and kept them clean. 

 

Thanks Dave, if it's creating a sense of the times it's doing it's job.  

 

One of the benefits of so many of us working on, and reading and posting on, these threads, is the amount of knowledge and research which is being pooled. From three line braking systems above, Paul finding out the cost of fish and chips in the 70's, and a host of other things, just to get the little details right.

[Arthur]

Just hope the BCB roads are big enough for these lorries !

 

er, yeah, when I looked at that last photo I did wonder.....

 

I've initiated a major road building programme Stu. In true BC tradition I've ripped up the track and laid a by-pass!

 

Steady, next you'll have Stubby demolishing Millwards and building a Starbucks on the site.

[DonB]

Sorry to be pedantic, but the colour of the girder load on the flat-bed lorry just does not seem right, (my immediate impression was that it was a load  of wood) such steel sections would normally be a dull-blue-grey colour IIRC. Or possibly a lighter dull silvery-grey if freshly shot-blasted. The bronze / light brown colour showing in the pictures (particularly of the uncoupled trailer on my screen) could be taken as a Red-lead paint I suppose? Red-lead was still around in the 60s, 

As others have said, super bit of modelling.

[Arthur]

Thanks Don.

 

Interesting what you say about the colour as they are a blue/grey, that’s the colour the Humbrol metalcote (polished steel) dried to, and there’s no hint of red or brown about them in the flesh.  I’ve looked at the photos on both my laptop and iPad screens and, to me, they look essentially blue/grey, unless I’m seeing what I expect to.

 

If anything, I need to kill the sheen on them, hot rolled sections do have a matt look to them with just a bit of gleam on the edges, and they soon pick up a bit of surface rust.  Here’s a modern example;

 

[Stubby47]

Are the side uprights a more modern convention, as you've not added them to your trailer ?

[DonB]

Strange! my screen renders the modern image picture to the colours I would expect.

Not sure if all modern trailers have the uprights, but they all now have the lower "side fenders"

[Adam]

I can't think of a period picture, either of an eight legger flat or of an artic, with side strakes like that for steel. Timber, certainly, but not steel. The bars under the trailer are a function of later legislation. Since I generally model the '60s exactly when doesn't bother me but I think it was post 1980? You still see red cloths, rags, or whatever hung off overhapnging loads on occasion. As a cyclist they're very helpful.

 

Adam

[Jason T]

The roof has now had the ridge tiles added and had a coat of paint. It came out quite dark (or looks it in my attic) so I took it outside to get the photos in natural light (not much of that today in Oxford, unfortunately). There are a few spots of white still showing through and I plan to revisit the whole roof to pick put individual slates before having a bash with the weathering powders, but I thought you might want to see what it looks like with a roof on and in grey (if you see what I mean).

 

 

[keefr2]

What a great looking building, I really like that! And I can't get over how quick you guys on this project can build such superb looking models. I started a Wills 'grotty sheds' kit about 3 months ago & so far I've only managed to get it into primer!

 

Keith

[92220]

Superb Jason. I can just imagine a Fordson Major with perished tyres sat there with weeds growing out of the moss collected on the seat, not having moved for a decade.

 

Iain

[Stubby47]

You'll need to have a stack of tiles somewhere, those that have fallen off the roof.

 

Plus, inside the shed, under the hole, there'd be green growth in the gravel.

[Arthur]

 

Don, it may just be the sheen which is giving the load an odd tint.

 

Stubby, yeah, as Don and Adam have said, the side under run bumpers are a more recent item, late 80's or so I'd guess. In terms of the uprights, well firstly, that photo was taken to demonstrate best modern practice, so that's as good as it gets today. In earlier years, as Adam said, they were rare, and if fitted, were heavy steel pins pushed into the bolsters. I delivered steel tube in the early 80's and we didn't have them. Wooden wedges were sometimes pushed under the side of the load.

 

The loads were just chained down very tightly. The end hooks of the chains were hooked under the chassis rails, roping cleats would have been ripped off, and plenty of tension put on. With just a few tubes or sections the tension could bend the load. A bigger concern than the load slipping off the side was it shooting forward under heavy braking. It was always pushed up hard against the headboard if possible. After a few miles, when the load had settled, you'd pull up and re-tension them.

[Jason T]

Thanks for the compliment. I think I am the lucky one, in that I got a small building to construct. I have knocked together so many buildings over the past year that whilst it's not exactly second nature, I am able to progress pretty quickly and not spend too long thinking about ways to model certain things (e.g. doors, roofs, etc). The longest task for the shed has been the painting and I still have the roof to finish yet (I've started to colour individual slates differently as in it's basic grey, it is too uniform).

 

Deadlines help with speeding things along as well. It was when I was in Spain last week and happened to look at one of Stu's threads that I spotted the deadline and I have to say it has spurred me on a bit. Not that it was languishing per se, but I admit that I had diverted my attentions to my layout for a few weeks!

[Jason T]

You'll need to have a stack of tiles somewhere, those that have fallen off the roof.

 

Plus, inside the shed, under the hole, there'd be green growth in the gravel.

 

Either that or a puddle with a duck on it

[Stubby47]

Jason,

 

Speaking of deadlines, you've still got time to build a module for Taunton.

 

See http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=6943&forum_id=92

[Jason T]

I knew that was coming Stu

 

I'll thank you for the offer but politely decline this time, thanks

[avonside1563]

Having not updated this recently here's some info on progress.

 

The basic frames for the locks have been cut to the correct angles where they cross the board joints and the lock tail frames also made to suit. The wood sides have now had layers of 1mm plasticard added which allows for the lock gate recesses to be included and these are now being finished with embossed brick card and plain plasticard for the stonework.

 

The locks were trial fitted to the baseboards at the recent work day and 2ManySpams cut the recesses for them to fit into the foam ready for them to be inserted at a later date as part of the scenic work.

[Jason T]

I've made a start at painting different slates in different colours and then blending them all in together with washes (so that you can differentiate between them but not glaringly so). Only done the two sides facing the viewers so far and I have to admit that I am going to have a break from it tonight as I am bloody sick of grey paint. I reckon it needs another wash.

 

 

 

Edit to add:

 

I first painted a section with Tamiya acrylic and (as I knew it would be - and should have known better), it looked shiny and crap so I reverted to Humbrol Acrylics; a mix of 79 and 64 for those who are interested in such things.

Edited January 11, 2013 by Sandside

[Jason T]

I've just been looking at the photos of the original building, the other example you put up and a few of the ones on the Google link that Coombe Barton put up and it would seem that gutters and downpipes are the exception rather than the rule, in which case (and I dread to say this just in case I am tempting fate) it would seem that I am very close to finishing. Are any of you guys going to be at the Leamington show next weekend by any chance?

[2ManySpams]

Are any of you guys going to be at the Leamington show next weekend by any chance?

 

That's not a million miles away Jason, we could work something out.

[Jason T]

Fantastic. I'd love to get to the Stafford show but I don't reckon I'll get the chance whereas Leamington is pretty much a dead cert and was a decent enough show last year. 

[Coombe Barton]

That's looking good, Jason. SWMBO is impressed. Which day are you going to Leamington?