Tracing familiar lines…
Remember when we were children? ‘Brass rubbings’? Sheets of thin paper and a wax crayon - taking imprints of textures from tree bark, walls, stones. We even had ‘toys’ with dinosaurs in relief that were for rubbing over…
So when I place a sheet of paper over the rails of the latest layout project, to act as a simple template for cutting a road surface in card it isn’t just the mindful practice of craft, but a nostalgic salve, a Time Machine to feelings and a simplicity of youth. Not melancholy, but purer nostalgic, a warmth and familiarity.
Technically, this is straight forward and powerful. Mark your rails, draw on your road, cut out. Mark 1mm flangeways on the piece between the track and cut that down. Turn these upside down and stick them to card or styrene and cut out with a new blade. Perfectly aligned to any shape of track first time…
Artistically this works too, it’s more natural and flowing, it allows us to sketch with pencil rather than all rulers and straight edges, more like nature.
So Gerald Road takes another step forwards. Until next time, more soon…
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Dear James,
ReplyDeleteGerald road is looking amazing. I love the composition of buildings and the level crossing. I also love how it looks at industrial Bristol an often overlooked area in railway modelling. I am currently building a model of a bath area light railway with Bristol harbour railway saddle tank engines “Henbury” and “Portbury” and the “western fuels” loco pulling ballast wagons. Based on the rebuilding on an Irish branch in the mid 2000s which hired in steam locos from the railway preservation trust of Ireland as there were no Irish gauge locos available from the mainline. There are some great photos on the railway preservation trust of Ireland website. Keep up the good work
Thank you Ben - sounds a great concept!
DeleteYep, done this (on my H0m continental tramway pizza). I also added thin nickel silver strip in a reasonably successful attempt to make the result look like proper tramway rails. As you say, it's a really simple and enjoyable way to do something that could be a colossal PITA.
ReplyDeleteI also remember making a trammel from stripwood, a brass screw, and a hole drilled for a pencil to mark out the track in the first place. Very much harking back to school days.
Even more basic, perhaps a bit barbaric even, was kneeling on the pieces of MDF to make the circular baseboard; I only had the use of one leg at the time, (so knelt on a trolley I'd been given to aid getting around the flat) and was living in a small flat. To minimise dust inhalation I spread a mask and also used the vacuum cleaner to extract the dust from the jigsaw. What, as they say, could possibly go wrong?
Basic, simple, lo-tech but satisfying and empowering.
Hi Simon, memories hey, the things we do for our love of little trains!
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