The Artists Studio.

Following on from the previous post about the artists residence, heres some construction shots of the the artists studio. Built out of similar materials to the residence, the trickiest part was the outside verandah. It was constructed from balsa wood and Mt Albert Scale lumber and some grandt line bolt details. I sort of had to ad lib a bit to make it fit the site on the cliff edge.

The basic shell. Stone work scribed into modelling clay with various scribing tools. Theres about 3 hours work in that from scribing to painting. Make sure you have on an  interesting talk or enjoyable music to provide healthy distractions to the fairly tedious process. The floor mats are printed images of rugs from the internet.

Paintings and easel are images printed on card and scribed to give the frame of the painting some 3 dimensionalness. The walls are scribed with brown coloured pencils. The stained balsa sheet for the floor boards in foreground ready for cutting into planks.

Roof painted and waethered. The chimney yet to be coloured.

Beginning the verandah timber work. Timbers where given grain with small cutting blades and wire brushes, Stained with water colours and isosopropyl India ink washes then dry brushed with off whites and greys to bring out the grain.

The main pieces.

Test fitting and the screen door in place.

The Painting and weathering table..well some of it.

Bulding the supports for the verandah which will will go down to points on the cliff face. The studio is lit with 2 LEDs.

'Nother view.

Building the veranda railings.

Gluing the building in place...yes that is a mini mallet on the roof holding it down until the glue held it in place.

The scene basically finished . There are many more other little details I want to add when time permits.

 Ther'll be more soon.

The Artist Residence corner scene.

This model is loosely based and inspired by Hans Heyson's residence at Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, SA. I just love visiting the place. I've taken a number of photos, but also used NEARMAP to get some approximate dimensions across the front. The measuring tool on NEARMAP is a great resource.

I built this model in S scale to help with the forced perspective of the scene. The artist studio to the front of the scene is O scale.

The materials used where card stock, Grandt windows, modelling clay, styrene, VR corrugated sheets from Railcar, various brass tubing and wire and acetate for the glazing.

I built this models over 4 days early in the mornings before the exhibition. It was at a stage of just pushing through to get the scenes built. CA adhesive and hair dryers really help. The building is internally lit with yellow glow LEDS and printed interior walls make up the inside detailing.

Heres the process shots.

The basic structure after adding the bay windows roof and beginning the stone work using the modelling clay. Note the paper triangle templates used for getting the angles and shapes just right.

Close up.

Starting to add the interior fore shortened walls.

Overall footprint of the structure. The walls helped straighten the front up.

The PCB for holding the LEDS. From DCC Concepts.

Ready to Paint. The upper walls have been stuccoed using the modelling clay appyed with a dampened brush. So easy.

First coats of paint on stone work. Dilute artist acrylics. Burnt Umber, Sienna, Reds. and Indian ink washes

Roof panels added.

Nother shot.

And again.

From the back.

Little details.

Tap

Alcove with ajar door

Placement in the corner of the module to test fit. The black behind will be covered by the gums foliage.

The perspective happening well.

Iron added and beginning to paint up and weather. Curtains added.

Weathering roof with white dry brushing to bring out the corrugation highlights.

'Nother shot.

Placement.

Beginning to add the front garden. Pot details and foliage from scenic express. The little trees are small fine branched twigs with static grass added. Gives a nice whispy effect.

Other photos on the blog  show the overall effect of the finished scene. It was a good fun project. The gums behind really settle the building back into the backdrop scene. And, when you visit Hahn Dorf, the Hans Heyson Gallery is a must visit.

The On30 Bachman Baggage Combine Modification

The conversion of this Baggage Combine into a working member of the BR Railway roster involved pulling it apart and adding interior details, improving the lighting with LEDS and anti-flicker kit from DCConcepts, canvasing the roof and adding a new paint job. The article from the Sept 2011 Model Railway Hobbyist Online Magazine section "The Lite and Narrow" proved very helpful. Visit link to download.

 So here goes on documenting my effort.

Pulling the Combine apart required some prising apart of clip lugs and undoing bogie and floor screws. The roof came off first giving access to floor screws.

The position of the interior light.

Removing the window took some effort as they are fastened with some good contact adhesive. I resorted to using the Dremel and cutting blade and then the mult-tool to cleanup the glue deposits and broken window tabs.

The wire for the lighting is screwed to the bogie.

The front bogie.

Weathering of the Body: I used an undercoat of dark brown spray paint. I then let that dry over night. The next evening I sprayed on a coat of TreSeme Extrahold hairspray and let dry for 10 mins. Then I brust on a thinned coat of mixed flat red and red brown tamiya paints and dryed with a hairdryer, Then, suing a stiff hogs bristle brush, working in downward strokes I wore away section of the thinned mixture or remoed more with Isosopropyl Alcohol. This gave a more weathered, peeling paint look. Then I finished of with various shade of weathering powder after a shot of Testors Dullcoat.

The overall look with the frame having some weathering.

Painting up figures and the interior seats.

Some of the passengers after painting up. They are a little oversize to fit in the combine apartment, so some removal of body parts was needed.

Adding details like luggage into the baggage compartment. Items are from the Tamiya 1/48 army baggage kit for army tanks. Good bed rolls and bags. Also a puppy.

You can see on the window that I have added cracks for extra interest and painted the toilet widow white.

The roof was covered with tissue paper applied with diluted PVA. Then weathered with washed of acrylic paint and weatherd black paints and some greyish weathering powders.

Another shot.

 I was pleased with how the combine came up. The LED non flicker set from DCC concepts really made an excellent improvement to the lighting. I used 2 LEDs soldered to the PCB strip and a 1k resister.