Friday, February 26, 2010

What a paine

Just a quick post as I'm about to head out to make more trackwork at a friends place (S scale unfortunately, but we can't have everything now can we).

The signal boxes were feeling a bit neglected and drafty so i have put the windows in. to do this I've gone down the easiest route and just scribed clear plastic. the main problem was working off a scaled down S plan where for some odd reason the window spacings were not quite right. How do they manage in that scale. Instead I just went back and relied on simple maths to work out where the bars should be. I then scribed the lines onto the plastic sheet. white Acrylic paint was then applied and, while still wet, was wiped off with a cloth. the paint stays (sort of) in the scribed lines, giving the appearance of window bars from a distance.


The results are nowhere near as good as Kiwibonds, but they will do until someone comes up with a set of etched windows.

5 comments:

anonymous muir said...

thats a really nice looking piece - whats the colour? is this for the pastellised royal tour in the 50's?

I trust you're going to be mechanising and interlocking the scale levers?
:)

Anonymous said...

That looks nice - are you sure the drawing was wrong though? Presumably there will be an elenment of sliding frames and that can throw out the symmetrical spacing. That said - never rely on a drawing unless you back it up with photos. A drawing is what the draftsman intended the guy with a 12 lb lump hammer, a hangover and a mk1 eyeball to build rather than what actually turned out in practice.

Kev

Amateur Fettler said...

Personally I dont know if etching could do any better than the "scribe and paint" method you have used, especially in the context of a layout model (i.e one built to be part of an overall picture, not a subject in its own right).

Kiwibonds said...

I'm amazed how well those window frames have come out - I would have thought a scribe and paint would have left a tiiiiny line, which is all i've been able to get. Did you do anything special? Maybe its the white paint that makes it show up so well. Gives the model quite a sparkle doesn't it?

Word for the day is ennessoli, but I can't think of an entertaining Italian Dessert that quite fits the bill. Anyone? Bueller?

Motorised Dandruff said...

I used a very small screwdriver to overscribe the lines, but it did wind up bending the plastic as well, which made everything harder to get in. In retrospect, a sqawrker of some sort moight be a better bet.
Oh, and ennessoli; an expensive Italian shoe insert.