Croft for Lochdubh (N part 51)…

Above the fireplace in my lounge hangs a moody photograph of a Scottish croft, black and white, clouds gathering, a Loch behind and mountains rising in the distance. The three holidays I’ve taken in recent years north of the border have all been based out of Crofts (Uigg, Brora and Crieff). Quintessential yet never cliché, and missing from Lochdubh…

Modelling friend Brian McCulloch (Braeside Models) has rather a nice line of crofts in his range, crafted by his fine hand they are wonderfully neat and so full of character. Rather overscale for my N gauge cameo, I asked for a little help with approximate dimensions and he produced some rather lovely scale drawings, thank you Brian.

 

Brian’s drawing of the single storey Croft lacked the dorma windows I was keen to include, so I modified them in Graphic on my Mac, printed them out and mocked it up on the layout. It was a touch too large so I shrank it all a little, it is towards the back of the scene after all. Perfect, so out came the styrene and a fresh blade and the parts were cut and formed quickly whilst enjoying some music one evening last week (Tip: Windows are formed by drilling a hole in each corner and cutting between the holes and then squaring the corners up).

The roof was layered up with paper, secured with glue and glaze strip by strip whilst enjoying a catch up call with good friend Chris in Canada, and perhaps overscale in this structure as I forgot to scale them down, the effect is generally pleasing.

 

Textures were built up as with the farm house, Matt 27 for the majority of the roof, dry brushed with 28 in vertical strikes, built up around the chimney pots. The walls were gloss white, touched in with some grey to introduce some variation in tone, whiter under the dorma and dark staining down from the chimneys, and whilst still wet liberally dusted with talc, producing the texture you see above. Windows are drawn with a bow pen on 40 thou clear styrene, the door and gutter added in styrene. 

Sat on the layout the model looks as I hoped, Scottish, lending a further sense of place and familiarity. A quick job, full of the character I hoped, not as neat as the farm no, but hopefully in position it will play a supporting roll to the best of its ability. I can picture myself there, calling it’s thick stone walls home, the faded red front door feeling comfortable to my hand as I push open the door to the warmth of the fire in the kitchen and the smells of my supper on the stove, pausing just a moment I turn to take in the scene before me, the 37 just about to leave, it’s revs increasing and a plume of exhaust announcing its departure and the harbour returning to quiet and the call of the seagull.

Until next time, more soon…

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