Modelling a platform - 1

It turns out I posted many of those photos of Kings' Vale already, so I must remember not to post so late at night.  Or perhaps it's a sign of early dementia.

Here is a bit more detail on how I went about modelling the platform for Kingsvale.

The platform itself is a piece of 19mm ply.  I glued a piece of 3mm balsa on the top which I shaped using sandpaper to represent the slight fall from the station building to the platform edge for drainage.

The ground also seems to fall away under the station building, and I presume that the building piers are slightly visible from the road side.  You can see the gap on the right edge of the photo.

The brick face is Keiran Ryan's etched brass English Bond, while the strip along the top is from one of the European manufacturers of styrene brick sheet (Kibri, Noch, etc).

There is a visible edge where the balsa joins the ply, so this was blended out with some polyfilla and sanded smooth. 

Not a great photo, but it shows the polyfilla applied to blend in the balsa

Another lousy photo, but the contour of the platform is just visible.

This one is another photographic masterpiece, showing the filler used to smooth the edge of the balsa

I've been finding a bit of time and getting into it lately, so I should have more posts to come in the next week or two.

Cheers

James.



Kings' Vale photos - 2010

Whoa, three posts in three days; I'll never keep this up.

Not sure I ever got around to fulfilling my promise of posting photos of Kings' Vale, so here they are.

This is a view south along the goods siding from the catch points.  You can see the platform and loading bank in the distance.  The middle road (the loop) was removed when the yard was "rationalised" in the 80's.

This is a view in the other direction, showing the cutting at the north end of the yard.  I am in the process of recreating this geological feature at the moment.  There is polystyrene foam everywhere.

Here is what's left of the station - but at least the platform face is still there.

The grain depot was built in 1964, so this won't appear in my layout.  The loading bank was extended around the same time, but I'm going to employ a little licence here and depict the bank as shown. 

The floor of the out-of shed

Here is the view of the yard looking north.

The platform and the cutting at the north end.  The short climb out of Kings' Vale can be seen on the right. A similar view to the photo at the top of the blog 50 years hence. 

The station master's house which has been unsympathetically modified over the years.  Fortunately, my model will not have to replicate that disturbing lean of the posts and house.  I just need to learn how to hold a camera straight.