Got a hair up my caboose to build a passenger train platform with match sticks. This is my first scratch built anything. I made some mistakes but have learned and enjoy my self. For some reason I enjoy sanding? Guess it was from running body shops for 20 years. One of the things I learned is just like 2 X 4’s there is no such thing as a straight match stick! After I got started and found this problem I started to sand them with a sanding block and 80 grit paper, it helped a lot. Tested fitted the planks, rapped with rubber bands, added alcohol to the wood seams (and my self[:-^]) and then used deluded white glue.
Sanded with 80 grit, then added more planks to make it wider yet. By the time I got to 1 3/4 inches wide the rubber bands worked well. After that it became problematic. Still made it work but took more effort.
Here where I am now, glue is still setting up, so I have tape holding one side of the roof on.
1 Now for the first question, I am thinking about adding a chain link fences to the platform. I bought some Floral wire to use for the post. I all so read about using laces, after painting do you think this lace will look right?
2 Next is the roof, I was looking at shingles on the Walther’s site and to be honest I don’t have the funds. I have used construction paper to make a tar paper roof but not quite the look I am looking for. Any tips on making shingles from cons
Would pinking shears work for you? - the resultant shingles would be ‘diamond’, not the standard asphalt, but that could work for a passenger shelter room.
BTW, would basswood be a better choice for the passenger shelter roof eaves? Or any scale milled lumber, you don’t need that much…
You can use acrylic paints. Even though they are water based, you’re not soaking the glue joints in the stuff, you’re only covering the surface. I’ve stained and painted several projects with acrylics.
For the gables, you can use several ideas. Balsa slabs from a hobby shop would work, some come already scored. You could also use scored styrene. Another approach would be individual boards supported by the roof frame. You’ll also have to put facia boards and soffitt on the roof edges. Good luck. [:)]
For fencing i use wedding veil material looks more realistic just stretch it a little and on cardboard and pin it and spray it with what ever color you want and strait edge it to the size of the fence you want it to be, got mine at Pat Cattans
Nice work, so far. I would suggest more support under the platform, though - loaded baggage carts will be busting through that platform in a very short time… [:)]
When my son got married, my daughter-in-law gave me a leftover roll of tulle from her wedding dress - enough for about a mile and a half (scale) of chainlink fence… Your poles need to be at least 1 1/2" in diameter - 2 would be better. About 0.020" brass wire - floral wire is too soft.
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2 Next is the roof, I was looking at shingles on the Walther’s site and to be honest I don’t have the funds. I have used construction pape
Gave up on the cuda for match sticks intrusting.[(-D] My spelling isn’t much better and I got the degree’s to back that up. its been a while for me to be here been converting to DCC by your suggestion. But a nice job so far. Like to see the finished product later.
On the roof, I looking to make shingles not a tar paper roof. I think I can find a gray constitution paper that is close to the color of my passenger station roof.
On the platform floor, I looking to use a dark gray, then sand through in spots to show ware. Not sure on the gable and roof and post as far as color yet.
Far as the floor supports, I will add one in between every one that I all ready have. That will make them 7.25 scale feet a part.
I picked up some O scale ladders that would run up a side of a silo. On there sides, they might make a good guard rail / fences. Here in a little while I will compare them to the HO people I have.
I wanted to go to the train show here in ST Louis today with Simon 1966, but I was feel all stuffed up. With any luck, Simon will find me a few benches and trash cans.
Still stuck on the gables, tried to make one last night and did not turn out well. Back to the old cutting board.
As for water based acrylic paints… I really like them. On wood they can tend to be absorbed into the top of the wood (bit like a woodstain) so sanding to get “scuffed” areas might end up with a bit of a hole before you get to unstained wood. It would probably be easier to mix in a little white to pale down your basic colour and weather the boards same as you would weather a boxcar. You might use grey rather than white to tone the colour down. You’d only want a tiny bit.
Rowney (from artists shops) does a whole range of whites, can’t recall the name but one is “some metal name or another [titanium???] white” and really good for use on its own to take the brightness or hardness out of any colour… you use a thin flat brush and leave extremely little of the paint on the work. This is brushed on not a wash (never tried it as a wash - haven’t needed to). Sorry, don’t know how to describe it better. I guess that it’s a kind of very extreme dry brushing.
Rowney (I think) also do “water based oil paints”. These are very like acrylics and work the same… but thicker… can be much thicker if you want.
Hope this helps.
Just thought… as to the use of elastic bands to keep the job pulled together… when laying “planking” on a long deck like a platform I try to find two bands of about the same pull and use them side-by-side… as the deck gets longer I have pieces of (1/2" or more) square brass bar (any metal will do) that I slide along between the bands to keep everything held down flat… it’s no good keeping the boards squashed up together if you later find that the whole deck has become an arch [banghead] Guess how I know that? [banghead]
Yes, that’s right. Just find a bar that’s just heavy enough and sit it flat straight down the middle. It may be worth doing a bit of experimenting… check that the bar doesn’t keep it flat while you’re working but then the boards curl up as soon as you remove it. There’s no science to this just trial, error and [banghead]. You could use another length of bar or thick flat stuff to make you a nice easy straightedge along one side… but I’d only usually use one side. Most important thing is to arrange you straight edge and check often that it hasn’t shifted… guess how I know this one? [B)] You can get some very nice short straights between changes of angle… [banghead]
Lemme let you in on a good technique that I like to use before starting a wood project. Either spray primer or stain the wood before you begin. (The glue will hold even though there is stain or primer on the wood.) It will keep the wood from warping in the next few years once the moisture and humidity in the air takes hold of your structure. I like to use bass wood that is realitivily cheap from hobby lobby instead of match sticks. They are a lot straighter too…chuck
Googling seems to just brings up various debates on Balsa vs Basswood in modelling, so instead start w/ this quote from a different forum:
So, go with bassword where the wood will be visible (no real grain helps when finishing, I think) or where you need strenght, and maybe balsa for out of sight pieces (like gussets or corner blocks)
Oh, better add this from the wiki link for completeness:
Tilia species are large deciduous trees…They are generally called lime in Britain and linden or basswood in North America.
I believe chutton01 answered the question better than I would have. The benefit of basswood over balsa is that it is harder than balsa and is easier to make grooves in with a de-stressing tool without all the fuzz that balsa wood creates. It’s also cheaper than balsa wood.
Hobby Lobby should have a good selection of it in sheet and strip form in the back of the store next to the poster and matte board. One side of the bin is balsa and the other basswood (Well that’s where it’s at in our local Store.) Look for a display that has a lot of slots with small pieces of wood protruding from them. They usually come in 3 ft sections and range from .29¢ to .79¢ a strip. The sheet basswood is just under a couple of bucks to a fiver per sheet depending on the size of the sheet…chuck
