Scratch Building Gormo 'Bamford Coal Stage'

Back in August I offered to Gormo a scratch built coal stage for his layout, Great Chesterford Junction, more so the end of the branch line at Bamford.

Looking at various photos on the internet, I decided to build this as a timber design, although a brick design could have sufficed. It is always good to mix up the building techniques/modelling materials with structures.

I drew this image up to show what is possible, which featured in his layout thread and Gormo liked the idea.

I sent Gormo a photo of the area and asked for the relevant measurements shown as A, B & C.

Gormo supplied these as well as letting me know the coal stage should net exceed 36mm in height, which equates to 9' in scale. The reason being is that the brick wall he has installed around the edge of the layout is set to that height.

Tonight I went through my stash of styrene and then followed up with drawing/plan on how I will assemble this.

So, here is the plan drawn up to scale...

Yes, it is an odd shape, but that's all the room Gormo has on the edge of his layout !

So the materials I'll be using is as follows :

Posts : Evergreen Styrene #186 (3.2mm x 3.2mm)
Bearers : Evergreen Styrene #165 (2.0mm x 2.5mm)
Cross bracing : Evergreen Styrene #134 (0.75mm x 2.0mm)
Decking : Evergreen Styrene # 4080 V-Groove sheeting 2mm spacing
Wall Planking : Evergreen Styrene #4125 V-Groove sheeting (3.2mm spacing)
Wall supports : Evergreen Styrene #165 (2mm x 2.5mm)
Stairs : Evergreen Styrene #146 (3.2mm x 1.0mm)

Some of you may ask 'why are you using styrene instead of balsa or bass wood ?'.
Simple answer is I can incorporate a few scratch building techniques in the material and the whole lot will go together quite easily !

I have yet to decide on the stairs although I would imagine I will use 2.5mm deep treads and 3.2mm or 4mm deep stringers. All this will come at a later date.

More to come, stay tuned !

Cheers, Gary.

 

Moving along with the build, I took the 3.2mm square strip and textured it with the razor saw. As this strip is for the posts and can clearly be seen, it needs to be textured.

Close up...

Once all the strip had been textured on all four sides, it was time to cut them down to 19mm, and then lightly files so all were exactly the same length.

These were put aside as I began on the actual deck of the coal stage. here I used the V-Groove sheet (2mm spacing). This will represent 6" planks.

To get the angle correct, I squared up the widest end with a steel rule, then traced the angled line with a scalpel and another steel rule. The angle on this cut meant that I only had to square off the front edge with a steel rule and scalpel. Lastly, I cut the narrow end of the decking.

Each piece of decking was treated with the razor saw to create the worn wood grain. The front edge (lineside) had vertical cuts made so that each plank was prominent.

Here is a close up of the graining...

The bearers were next on the agenda and several pieces of 2mm x 2.5mm styrene strip was treated with the razor saw.

I first glued the leading (lineside) strip on first and allowed it to cure before adding a spacer and lining/gluing up the next bearer. There are bearers each side of the posts. All three pairs of bearers were glued in place.

Now back to the posts I trimmed up earlier. These were marked out according to my plan above and slotted between the bearers. The Lego pieces you see in the photo below was used to make sure the posts were vertical.

For the diagonal bracing, I textured the 2mm x 0.75mm strip. Each piece was cut accordingly with angle ends. The outside (facing) posts were completed first, followed by the back side of teh posts. These were arranged in a criss-cross pattern.

Close up. Here you can also see the edge of the planks...

I sat this aside for 30 odd minutes before I started on the bracing running 90 degrees to the first lot. You will notice in the photo below, that I have not added any outside bracing on the wide end. The reason being that I will be attaching vertical stays to the posts. These stays will support the wall of the coal pen.

Next up will be constructing the walls and stairs. Stay tuned !

Cheers, Gary.

 

For the walls, I used the V-Groove (3.2mm spacing). Strips were cut to 16mm or 5 x planks wide. There is the back wall, small end wall and wide end wall.

Two pieces for each wall was measured and cut to the correct length. I laminated the corresponding pieces together so that each section had a face of scribed planking.

Close up showing the textured surface and the ends of the planks...

Whilst the wall sections cured, I cut a few wall supports from the 2.0mm x 2.5mm textured styrene strip. I beveled the top edge and glued these to the posts.

I then turned my attention to the stairs. I used the 3.2mm x 1.0mm styrene strip for the treads and stringers. The treads were cut to 13mm wide and individually glued to the first stringer, making sure the gaps between the treads were approximately the same distance.

I sat this aside and glued the walls in place. Both short walls had to be sanded so that they would match up the rear wall. Once this was all done and set, I added small pieces of the 2.0mm x 2.5mm styrene to represent the wall supports.

Twenty minutes later and after I knew I could handle the treads and stringer I assembled earlier, I secured the second stringer to the treads. I let this cure for about 20 minutes before I sized it up against the coal stage. A little fettling was needed to make sure these two married nicely.

The last tread has a larger 'step up' than the others. The reason for this is so Gormo can bury the coal stage into the scenery, bring soil and weeds etc up to the base of the steps.

Three more tasks to do and they involve painting and weathering and then mounting the model onto some 0.5mm thick clear styrene sheet.

More as it happens.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thank you kindly. I do prefer the 'traditional' scratch building.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Paul.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Well it was back to work today so not a great deal completed on the coal stage...

I took the semi completed model and clear styrene base across to Gormos home tonight so I could make sure it fits and to check clearances.

On the model I had added the rear wall supports, which were approximately 4mm long sections of 2.0 x 2.5mm styrene strip. These had to be removed, which was an easy task with a craft knife.

Once these were removed, I placed the coal stage in place and Gormo ran a selection of locomotives up to the stage. We had a maximum of about 3mm between the front edge and a large tank locomotive. Gormos little diesel switcher is a tad wider, yet we still had about 1.5mm clearance. I was stoked to see it fit and clear most locomotives. Evn Gormo's 9F fit up alongside the coal stage, although a 9F would need to back in to the coal stage due to the locomotive and tender length.

Now I know it fits snugly into the area, I can get on with painting and weathering the model, paint the base accordingly and glue the stage to the base before adding a good pile of coal.

More as it happens.

Cheers, Gary.

 

The painting began this afternoon on the coal stage. I chose 4 colours from the SMS (Scale Model Supplies) paint range and they are :

Advance Charcoal
Ocean Grey
Sand
Carc Black

The whole model was air brushed with Advance Charcoal to simply give the wood texture that dirty blackened look. After allowing this to dry, a few light applications of Sea Grey was applied. The grey was applied to the top of the wall planks, the outside of the walls, along the front edge of the deck planking and over the posts and cross bracing.

Small amounts of Sand was air brushed from the bottom up the posts, just to high light where rain has splashed the soil/dust up the posts.

The last application of paint is the Carc Black. This is a nice flat, although reasonably light black and was applied where the coal will be situated in piles. This will give the coal itself (when applied) a nice darkened black dusty base.

The next stage involved adding colour to some of the planks.

I chose to use Tamiya XF57 Buff as a light wash, just to highlight some of the timber planks that are much more worn from foot traffic and sun bleaching.

A small amount of Mr Hobby #72 Dark Earth was applied the same way as the Buff to pick out a few planks that still retain a little natural wood colour. This was also applied to various wall planks.

After this had completely dried off, I carved up some foam as a base to the coal pile.

The coal will be added tomorrow as well as some more weathering using powders.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks for your kind comment Paul.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Gormo. As you can see below, it's almost done and soon it will be sitting on the vacant spot !

Cheers, Gary.

 

I got around to gluing the foam in place after painting it black and once that was dry, it was giving a nice application of PVA.

I do have a lump of coal in my spares box (guess who was a naughty boy last Christmas...? ), and that was grated down with a kitchen grater to produce various lumps of coal and coal dust. This was sprinkled all over the wet PVA and allowed to dry. Some dust was also blown down and secured against the rear wall where it narrows down to the left. I feel I need to add a 44 gallon drum and a grease pot here, afterall, oil and grease was essential in keeping the motion gear working smoothly !

So, these few photos below show how the model is looking now. The first photo is a little dark, then again, coal is black !

Left hand end...

Right hand end...

I am about to secure the coal stage to the base which was also airbrushed with the SMS Charcoal. Once this is secured, I will attach the steps.

More to come...

Cheers, Gary.