Thoughts on the little people (part 2)
I’ve been looking at little people again. This time a rough mock-up of groups straight from the packet.
The first thing I have found is that I don’t need as many as I think. In the 2 scenes above, with the exception of the front row theres approximately half as many people in the second image and yet the ‘crowd’ looks pretty much the same.
The second thing I have discovered flies against the perceived wisdom of figure painting that has been transferred over from the military modelling field.
I have written before about my dislike of the military style. To me it’s over exaggerated and looks almost cartoon like. In my distant past when I was doing illustration as a job the more real you wanted something to look the more delicate and subtle your technique had to be. In the above image I have simply desaturated the image by 50% and reduced the contrast a bit. To my eye, at least it looks closer to how people should look. I would welcome your thoughts.
Give them what they want.
I had a request for some more pictures of AC loco’s under the roof. Actually under the roof is perhaps the only place I can take a half decent photo of electric locos and units as you can’t see the missing overhead. Previous images have either used the plank, been cropped less than ideally to hide that the overhead isn’t there or have just relied on the viewer to fill it in for me!
New year, same old same old!
I do promise that I will get bored with taking pictures under the roof at some point but a few more that I am quite pleased with.
Using the Brassmasters Bogie with Sprinters
Although I didn’t design my bogie with sprinters in mind they can be made to work with them. It’s simply a case of cutting off the outer end level with the bearing holder and using the inner brake shoes instead of the outer ones to control the bogie.
If I were to design a sprinter specific version I would move the fame down to be hidden by the main bogie frame (and adjust the brakes for the smaller wheels) but a spot of Matt black paint will help hide the frame. Below is the view of the underside.
31st December 2013
Just a short post to thank all those who have followed the site over the last year. While i thought the comment-able workbench would be nice to have I never imagined it would take off the way it did so thanks to everyone who has taken time to read or comment on what I’ve been up to over 2013, its very much appreciated.
For those who like stats you can view the yearly totals by clicking here.
Time for my 2013 year review.
Well 2013 is nearly over and its time to look back on how much of my to do list got done.
To remind you all the to do list was as follows.
- Finish my class 303, 310, 312 and 317 EMUs
- Finish the platforms
- At least get started on the Pallisades
- build the next 2 boards
- Make a start on drawing up my class 116 etches
- Finish a half started rake of BBA and BAA’s
- Start working on rakes of coaches.
- Do more buses!
- Add the wagon section to the site.
Starting from the top, the class 303, 310 and 312 havent been touched but the 317 is done. The platforms still aren’t finished but good progress has been made with board 3 all but done (just smaller details and people to add). While I have nothing to show for my Pallisades building a lot has been done behind the scenes with a collection of parts to be laser cut and window frames to be etched. No progress on baseboard to report but I have been drawing up my replacement sides for class 116 DMU’s. I havent looked at the BBA and BAA’s but I have done some wagons and started the wagon section. No progress on buses to report either but there are a few more lorries and cars complete. I have been busy on coaches and although it’s a small dent in what I will need it is progress. Overall then much better than last year in terms of sticking to the list!
As usual though I have been off topic somewhat with more class 50s, and 86’s rolling off the workbench as well as my class 100/105 hybrid. On the shows front its been quiet but Moor Street has been to a few shows and put on its usual good performance. Calcutta Sidings II debuted at Expo EM north and to be fair for a first show it was really rather good. Yes there were a few niggles but considering the size I think a very positive performance.
So into 2014
More of the same really. I want to get the things on the 2013 list moving along with a firm effort to get the shopping center done (I’m bored of the 3 boards I have been working on to be honest). Also I have an itching to get track building again so here goes…
- Finish my class 303, 310, and 312
- Finish the platforms
- finish the Pallisades
- build the next 2 boards (london end)
- build the 2 none scenic boards that will attach the wolves end to the fiddleyard boards
- Get building on my class 116 fleet
- Finish a half started rake of BBA and BAA’s as well as one of my engineers trains
- Keep working on rakes of coaches.
- Do more buses!
Time will tell!
Looking the other way
So far most of the pictures of the layout look away from the station. Most pictures people take at New Street look inwards. Problem is that while there’s no shopping center in place the common views of the real station don’t really work on the model. Having said that the opportunities are slowly opening up. Below is the latest ‘new’ view of the layout.
It’s not just the camera that is looking towards the building. I plan to use a combination of Laser cutting and etching for the repetitive bits of the main building. Work has started on drawing parts up with a view to creating something solid in the new year. With it comes decisions though.
The above picture (© Andy Thompson and used with his kind permission) shows where I plan to start. Namely with the ramps at the Wolve’s end. The picture also shows the effect that I am still considering with regard to making the layout ‘wet’ (see an earlier post). First decision concerns the sign above the nose of the 87. My era depicts the changeover from the Birmingham Shopping Center to the Pallasades Shopping Center. in this instance that means the above sign or no sign at all.
Before laser cutters the sign would have been quite tricky but now it’s probably the easier option. I’m drawn to the image above though as it appeals to my ‘urban grim’ tastes. I’ll probably go for the none sign version I think!
To see more of Andy’s pictures click here.
15th December 2013
With the completion of the platform canopies for board 3 I can finally start taking pictures that really sum up New Street. I do feel the layout is really ambien starting to get an atmosphere now. For more pictures like the one above go to the class 101, 50, 56 and HST galleries in the stock section.
There goes another angle!
As progress continues on the layout the angles available for photographs get reduced as more stuff gets put in the way. The biggest killer to this will be the overhead line equipment but as all of the track has to be built and fully tested before it can be added that’s an awful long way off yet.
At the Derby end of the station the station approach will cover some of the tracks and these are held up with concrete beams. It’s these concrete beams that are the latest thing to ruin the view.
these are made from wood except for 1 leg on platform 12 which is evergreen square tube. There will be a signal mounted to that beam so the leg needed to be hollow. The basic structures were sprayed with multiple coats of Halfords filler primer to lose the wooden texture. The structure nearest the camera is freelance as the real road is supported by a wall which I have left of the layout to allow people to view the station throat.
Close up of part of the beams on platform 10/11. The camera had picked up the wood grain a bit more than you see in real life but perhaps i should have done more coats of the filler primer. Texture comes from good old Plasticote Suede paint and it is weathered with enamels.
How to model roads
This is an older article that you may have seen on some forums before however its something I am asked about quite often so i thought I’d reproduce it here.
First up the basic structure. I thought long and hard about the camber of the roads but in the end decided to do them flat. The reason is partly ease but also looking at large vehicles they sit level on their suspension and to me a model leaning over doesn’t look right.
The kerbstones are cut individually from 80thou square microstrip, the paving slabs are scribed onto plastic sheet. Don’t forget things like dropped kerbs.
Birmingham had a lot of large kerbstones that were cut from stone, a lot have gone now to be reused in posh buildings. To model them I softened Evergreen strip with liquid poly before attacking it with sandpaper and a hammer. Once I have a suitably distressed strip this was cut into lengths and laid individually.
When ready spray everything with plasticote suede paint. This gives a texture to the surface. When dry spray everything black and then a light dusting of grey primer – you are aiming for a tarmac look to the paint – don’t worry about the pavements for the moment.
Using thinned enamels block in the pavements – you can see how some of the pavement is tarmac.
When dry paint the road with neat thinners and then paint ‘wear’ onto the road. I use browns and blacks for the area where wheels go or not. Pay attention to how dust collects where vehicles don’t go such as arround the pavements, the gravel you get can be represented with pepper at the end. Use the paint neat and using a large flat brush blend it into the wet thinners. You will see I have picked out some paving slabs with a lighter grey – For darker slabs the fastest way is to use grey markers.
Road markings are added using paint markers – I cut templates to help me keep them neat.
These will need a little more weathering to tone them down a little. Once dry spray everything with matt varnish
Its worth considering when your road is set as the time of the year affects the colouring – for example in the winter the roads look much whiter due to salt being spread on the road. In the autumn there are leaves in the guttering etc etc
Due to health and safety people are not asked to lift as large slabs as they were, modern paving slabs are much smaller than they were 20 years ago.
Not all roads are tarmac though, this is how I did concrete
First up paint the area to be concrete with PVA glue – allow it to dry for a bit. When it is dry enough to hold a shape use a nit comb (I had to buy one specially – honest!) to draw lines through the surface.
When set use the plasticote suede paint to give the texture – I needed my concrete browny grey but if you need it grey-grey overspray with primer. Once dry cut in panels with a scalpel and then weather as before. The black tar was added with a fineliner.
Since I wrote this an excellent book, Modelling Grassland and Landscape Detailing by Gordon Gravett has appeared which also deals with roads and especially older worn tarmac. Well worth getting a copy (ISBN 978 1 908763 06 8)
Ready to Plonk
I do understand the simple pleasures of Ready to Plonk stuff (RTP). The idea of opening a box or packet from your model shop and adding to the layout without anything to do. It’s where we all started from I guess. Building New Street RTP had been a rare occurrence on the scenic side and actually comes down to just 2 instances so far where I have used something as supplied without having to modify it or scratchbuild.
On the left the Bachmann traffic bollards and on the right GPO relay boxes from Unit models. In last years new releases from Bachmann I thought there might be another opportunity for some more RTP activities with the announcement of the humble grit box. With no rush on these but knowing I needed some I decided to wait and see but sadly what emerged seems to be a design I havent seen before and certainly not the sort found on the platforms of new Street. (hey there was a chance it might have been, admittedly a slim one!) Bachmann’s commercial skip bins were another potential but the design is too new sadly.
So armed with a few bits of plasticard and some yellow paint and some dimensions from the website of a company that supplies the real thing. I set to work to make my own. The results are below.
Volvo FL6 part 3
Well that’s another lorry all but finished. I was quite pleased with how this turned out considering the castings that greeted me when I opened the box. You sometimes get a better sence of achievement building a poor kit than one that just falls together. Still to add are the windscreen discs, a driver, number plates and the mirrors.
Volvo FL6 part 2
I have to admit I’ve quite enjoyed getting to grips with this. The beauty of a white metal kit is that you can tweak it with low melt solder used as a filler. You don’t have to wait for it to dry and it doesn’t break away when you attack it with files and filler. I decided to do a solid sided box and do away with the windbreak in the end. I also replaced the marker/indicator lights and added the rainstrips from wire. The front panel, below the windscreen was filled with solder, sanded smooth and the panel re-scribed so that it was the same height at both ends! Below is where it is now.
Volvo FL6 from BW models
In the mid 1980’s Volvo developed a new medium sized lorry, the FL6 and a slightly lighter counterpart the FL4. the FL6 cab is quite a familiar shape and many were produced as Fire engines. For a long while I have been aware that BW models do a kit for the FL6 with a curtain side body and on hearing that they are planning to wind down the business in 2014 I ordered one.
Previously white metal road vehicle kits I have built have been very good. With the likes of ABS, Doug Roseman and Langley Models all setting the standard quite high. Sadly the same cannot be said for this kit. 
This is the kit as supplied. The parts all fit reasonably well although there’s a lot of flash to be tidied up and some parts (main floor and roof) need to be bent back to shape. I replaced the front axle with a straight piece of bar as it sat too low as supplied. I soldered the kit together.
Close up of the cab. While the bumper is pretty cleanly cast the cab itself is pretty awful as can be seen. I decided the best approach was to assemble the kit and then set to work on tidying it all up rather than to try and work on separate parts.
The canvas is not much better with a load of imperfections in the kit. To be fair to the manufacturer I did nt contact them with regard to replacing the parts I was not happy with so I don’t know what their customer service would be like in this regard. The side is held in place with blue tag for the picture. Options are to replace it with adapted sides from the Hornby Curtain sided van (which you can tell is how the master was produced) or do a solid sided version.
FAQ Part 1
One of the most common questions I get asked when I tell people I am going to model the shopping centre is ‘What will we actually see?’ So far I have had to try to describe that the intention is to leave off the rear wall of Platform 12 to give the viewer the impression that they are standing on the platform. With work complete on all of the canopies for board three I can now just show you what you will see if you ever come to see New Street at a show somewhere.
This is the view from just under the roof at the Wolverhampton end, looking into the station.
The view from the middle of the platforms looking towards the Wolverhampton end
A few signs of life!
Hopefully these views demonstrate why I felt I have to have the roof on as it just wouldn’t be New Street without it.
At last, the sixties.
The title for this entry comes from a late 80s advert for the humble Mini. Perhaps “a mini adventure’ would get the point across easier to the current generation and might be a bit more apt given that’s kind of what its been!
At the start of the process there were several routes to a model mini, the Springside kit, a HO version (under size), the Cararama version (over sized) or the Corgi one. Since then the Corgi one seems to have disappeared and there’s a version from Oxford Diecast. Sadly both Oxford and Corgi chose to do the earlier version which surprised me a bit. I feel Oxford missed a trick not doing a later one. I’m not talking about the BMC verses BMW type here either.
I chose the Corgi ones and first step is to strip the caked on pain off. For such a small model the paint all but destroys what is some quite nice detail underneath. It also suffers from the same problem as a lot of 4mm scale cars – oversized wheels.
Sticking with one original one this was a simple repaint with replacement wheels from the springside kit (as are all except the orangy one). From left to right numbers 2, 4 and 6 all have new grills again from the springside kit and new rear light clusters (from microstrip) they also have wider back windows and have had the door hinged removed. Number 4 has the original wheels turned down and wider wheel arches added from scrap brass strip added to the inside of the wheel arch and filler.
Number 3 was a bit of a challenge as I was given a springside Mini Clubman kit and try as I might I couldn’t get the kit to look anything like the real vehicle. In the end I just used the front of the nose and grafted it onto a corgi one. The same goes for number 5 (the estate) which started life as a van.
The result is a fleet of minis more suited to a late 80s layout. Still to do are the number plates and tax disks.
This show was rubbish!
Anyone who has ever frequented a forum devoted to playing trains will no doubt have seen comments like the above. Some of us that stand on the less pretty side of layouts at a show may have heard it in person. What seems to be the most common reason for the above? It doesn’t have something of specific interest to the visitor.
Lets think about that for a second, someone spends a day or possibly 2 and some of their hard-earned to go to a show with the expectation that they want to see something they are interested in. If they are truly interested in it they probably have something very similar to what they want to see at home. Why go to such effort to see what you already have. Another one is leveled at magazines – we want to see views we might get at a show! Why? A show is a show – a magazine is a magazine surely anybody with any degree of creativity (and lets face it if you are into model railways you must have some) would use the different ways of presenting their work to showcase different things. I certainly think that a layout article populated with the same sort of pictures you can take yourself at a show is a complete waste of time. What, as the person behind the layout, am I really offering the readers that justifies why they should by the mag or pay to get into a show?
Sadly this inward looking approach is deep rooted in this hobby of ours, so much so that we prioritise models on our own layouts in order of what we like. We all like loco’s so we put a lot of effort in to those, coaches, well yes we need some and the look a bit odd out of the box so we might want to weather them a bit. Road vehicles? Oh god no, we are RAILWAY modellers not car modellers – anything that just happens to fall out of the box will do!
I was at a show the other week and one layout featured a nicely modelled road with a bus depot but all the vehicles where straight from a box – I even saw another layout while setting up taking them from their boxes and straight onto the layout. Why? Why bother doing a nicely modelled road if you don’t care what you put on it?
But it’s not unique to us – not at all. I was a member of a truck modellers forum and the stuff they churned out was magnificent. One example was a virtually entirely scratchbuilt low loader with a tipped from the box Lima 0 gauge tender dumped on it. It looked awful! The point I am getting at is we all do things differently, Railway, aircraft, vehicle, military modellers we do our thing and rarely look at what our counterparts are up to because it’s not what WE are doing. It pays though to look outside off model railways now and then as it can sometimes redefine your preconceived idea of what good is.
The above model (yeah it IS a model) is by Chuck Doan, features no railways and is in a scale most people would never have heard of (12 inch scale) Chuck mixes traditional materials and good old trial and error with modern approaches like 3D printing etc. He’s probably too modest to admit it but his threads are always well documented (including the failures) and its nice to see a true master at work.
Image © Chuck Doan and used with permission
By contrast the above is by a chap called Ali Alamedy who lives in Iraq and only has access to basic tools and materials.
Image © Ali Alamedy and used with permission.
Images like the above really do have an effect on me, they change my ideas of what is achievable and make me want to do better. However I have no interest in the subjects (other than they are run down prototypes). Because there’s no trains that are in BR Blue should I really just pass stuff like this by without a second glance?
Of course not everything other modellers do is automatically better than what we do. I’m going to pick on certain types of military modellers here in that, possibly due to a similar inward looking approach that we railway types have, they have gone down a route of style over reality. I have never liked the over exaggerated skin tones of their figures and their pre-shading approach to vehicles and buildings just doesn’t look like reality. It’s almost like a cartoon. That’s just a personal opinion and there’s no doubting the work and skill that goes into it but it’s just, stylistically, not for me. They probably think my stuff is bland and lifeless and that’s fine too.
If this has spurred a bit of interest in looking ‘outside of the box’ so to speak then you might want to have a look at the following sites
Chuck Doan’s site, Ali Alamedy’s facebook page, Randy Hague’s Flickr page, Anders Malberg’s site, Emmanuel Nouaillier, Stefano Marchetti’s Facebook page, and finally Marc Reusser, modelling with paper
Sounds like history repeating
This is 00 track. It’s what 4mm scale RTR is designed to run on and its never going to go away. It’s a shame as most people will know its wrong but many wont see it as a problem (thats fine as it’s all toy trains anyway). While the subject of ‘better 00’ crops up on an almost monthly basis on forums I strongly doubt it’s ever going to lead to anything. I am all for better 00, not that I would ever be tempted to use it, as anything that gets modellers thinking about and looking at track is a good thing to my mind. Despite standards for better 00 being laid down years ago no one seems able to agree on what they want better 00 to be. Ultimately it’s not going to be any ‘better’ anyway – just wrong in a different way but RTR P4 as a system you can walk into a model shop and buy is just never going to happen. The problem is that 00 has legacy, it’s a standard and things have to be backwards compatible. This is an insurmountable problem and the only way its ever going to happen is for someone to invent a time machine, go back to the early days and change it then, before it got its foothold.
Thing is history is actually repeating itself right now. We are in this golden moment where we can change the future and not end up being discussed on whatever replaces forums 50 years from now as to why did we ever do it like that? It’s not track this time, its sound!
Dont get me wrong, sound got me too – back in the early days when South West Digital and figuring out how to fit it was your only option I was hooked. We were one of the early exhibitors of DCC sound with Amlwch and I wrote about the subject for MRJ. It was great – it was just like the real thing. It slowed shunting down to something closer to reality and the play value was immense. Then after a year or 2 and 6 loco’s the bubble burst. It wasnt enough, something was missing. The problem, it’s too loco centric. Yes locomotives make noise but so does everything else, sound kind of drew my attention to this and the reality was completely shattered. The investment in DCC sound has become my only real regret of my time in the hobby.
Imagine the scenario, you turn up to a show and I am there exhibiting New Street. I am running all of the right services as per the timetable, I am doing all the right loco moves such as loco changes and reversals as per the station working book instructions. Everything is completely as it should be except there’s no stock. EMU’s only have the power cars running, passenger trains have no coaches, freight trains have no wagons. It would be completely unacceptable from a visual point of view to do this but from and acoustic point of view that is exactly what we do with DCC sound. On top of that fans of DCC sound will argue that a model is better for doing it. They argue that as time goes on things will only get better.
Imagine another scenario – the evening parcels train arrives from Derby – It has a 47 on the front and is made up of 10 coaches. I would want the sound for the whole train to be accurate. The loco uncouples and shuffles of to Saltley, I would want the sound to be accurate for a light loco. An 08 starts up from a dock and attaches itself to the rear of the train. I need the sound of an 08 running light. It removes 1 van and parks it in the dock. I need the sound of an 08 and 1 van. A class 31 arrives from Saltley – Light loco sound required, It attaches to the train and departs so I need the sound of th same train with a different loco and one less van than I started with. The 31 is having to be worked harder now too. Taken further the curves from New Streets Eastern end are tight – you get wheel squeal. The train sounds different in the tunnels and going over the bridges.
When you think about something like the above a sound decoder in a loco which responds to movement and some additional functions is never going to be able to get anywhere near what I want. It’s an evolutionary dead end. But as sound takes hold and takes us in the direction it chooses right now we are repeating exactly what happened with 00 track. There will become a point when DCC sound has legacy and it will become impossible to change. We are not there yet!
New book on New Street
Recently released is this neat little book on the History of Birmingham New Street by Mark Norton and published through Amberly Publishing. Its 96 pages of a bit over a5 size and it pretty much all photographs. The book follows New Street’s evolution in chronological order ending with a short piece on what the current rebuild promises. Much of the content from the late 40’s until the mid 60’s was taken by the authors late Father and this is perhaps the most interesting part of the book. The periods either side having a very slight feeling of padding but to be fair, and certainly with regards to the 70’s onwards, this timeframe is my interest so the book provides little in the way of new material of info. (im sure im probably unique in finding it that way). Well worth the £14.99 asking price in my opinion.
ISBN 978-1-4456-1095-5
What is down those ramps?
On the surface the ramps towards the western end of New Street were used for transporting mail and other services between platforms. If you ever visited the station when BRUTE trolley’s were in use you could often see trains of them appearing from the gloom. Its one of the reasons that the more common 3 wheeled Lansing Bagnall TOER platform tugs lost out to the more heavy duty Reliance Mercury types as depicted above. However the story goes a bit further than that in that there was (is) quite a subterranean underground system under the city centre. From the platforms of New Street mail could get directly to the mailbox without ever seeing daylight via quite a substantial tunnel. Occasionally this is opened to the public and more can be seen here
What is Anchor?
As kids we all thought the ramps led to a top secret nuclear bunker and that’s not actually all that far from the truth as there is indeed a hardened facility under Birmingham, built in the event of an atomic attack. Its one of 3 during the 1950’s, designed to house and shield communication systems from a Hiroshima sized atomic weapon exploding nearby (although it would never have survived a direct hit). It was called Anchor after the hallmark of Birmingham’s Assay Office. The other bunkers were Guardian in Manchester and Kingsway in London. Anchor is the largest of the 3. There is a rumour of a 4th facility under Glasgow but no evidence that it ever existed has ever come to light.
It was built under the cover story of Birmingham’s underground railway system and cost £4 million pounds. The public were later told that the underground system was not viable and had been abandoned but Anchor was completed in September 1957 and was soon automatically handling 250,000 calls a day. The main site is located underneath the BT tower on Newall Street. The construction site entrance for Anchor was located opposite Moor Street station and later became public underpass.
The main tunnel at Anchor was roughly the same size and shape as those used on the London underground and went out to Hill Street and then to Essex Street passing under New Street station. It is not clear if the anchor tunnels and the Post office tunnels are actually linked together but some ex postal workers have stated that they could get from New Street to the other post office at the top of hill street via the tunnels. It is also claimed that the mysterious heavy duty and strangely small, door that was part of the LNWR stables building at the end of platform 1 was also linked to a tunnel that took you to Hill Street. 
Anchor had its own water supply in the form of a 300 ft deep well under the site as well as the obvious air filtration systems but it was only ever designed to keep communications running and not as the site of the salvation of the Brummy masses, the idea of some huge facility that can house the population at the end of the world, anywhere in the world is probably nothing more than Hollywood myth and wishfull thinking. Indeed the air systems were as much to keep the air cooled machines running as anything else. The main entrance was via a lift at the back of Telephone house (between Fleet street and Lionel Street) and the entrance was protected with blast doors.
Anchor was only ever put on full alert during the Cuban missile crisis and was officially declassified in the late 1960’s with various members of the press being allowed to visit the site.
Such was the pace of Nuclear weapon development that all 3 exchanges were obsolete before they were even completed but Anchor continued to remain operational until the late 1980’s. Its is now, reportedly, abandoned and suffers regular flooding from Birmingham’s rising water table (the result of the decline of heavy industry in the area)
So whats left?
The main site is still there unless the recent closing of the underpasses was a cover for somehow removing it or filling it in, unlikely givent the timescales. There is still some evidence of its existence above ground. 
On the left one of the ventilation shafts which can be seen from the A38. On the right a mysterious but very secure looking BT doorway virtually opposite the entrance to Snow Hill station which is sometimes said to be an entrance. I have to admit, that while i know no better the concrete looks far too new for something supposedly built so long ago. There is also a goods lift still visible on Lionel Street.
Building the platform canopies
I know it sounds a bit odd as the station was under a giant slab of concrete but New Street did have canopies in the traditional sense, although typically utilitarian. The ones furthest from the front of the layout are the easiest by the virtue that they are straight so that seemed like the logical place to start.
Above shows the top side (that you wont be able to see) but demonstrates the construction which is standard 6mm foamboard. The outer edges are 30 thou plasticard scored at 30mm intervals to represent panels. The reason for the 2 rows per side of foamboard is its easy to drill a 3mm hole through the inner one and pop an LED through (I use cheap strings of Christmas tree lights to save a lot of soldering).
This is the underside. The ribs are just evergreen board and batten sheets, the whole lot was sprayed black and then sanded to get back to the black and white pattern. The cutouts are for pillars and structures on the platform which will need to support the shopping center above. By using foamboard you can position it on the platform and then press down to get an imprint of where the holes need to be. Below is the finished result which I feel captures the feel of the place before its facelift in the early 1990’s.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Given the recent appearance of some of my images in a recent magazine, which were a bit of an embarrassment if I am honest, it might seem strange that I want to touch on the subject of photography but never the less…
My first job was as an illustrator. Illustration is a very proactive thing to do, you have complete control over the end result. My second job was as a photo finisher. Photography is a very reactive thing to do as you have to make the best of what is in front of you. Finishing even more so as you have to make the best of what someone else thought was the best they could do. I am no photographer I can assure you but given that I have finished literally hundreds of thousands of images that are taken by professional photographers I do at least know the theory.
Owning an expensive camera will most likely make your pictures better but it will not make you a photographer, just as owning a pencil will not make you an illustrator but there are a few things that you can do that will help you when taking pictures of models. Photography of models kind of crosses the boundary of the 2 disciplines as you have control over the subject and the camera. Lets start with what not to do.
The above image has several areas that are open to improvement. It’s too saturated, and its over sharpened, it looks too Photoshopped. Also it has too much magenta in it, the wall is a grey/blue in reality not purple. The loco is framed too high and there is a horrible tangent between the roof of the loco and the building behind it.
Finishing
First things first, All images NEED to be finished, what the camera gives you will never be the best it can be. Theres a lot of ways to finish an image in Photoshop but most of them are quick wins and actually go some way to destroying the image. Things like auto levels, brightness/contrast, sharpening, hue/saturation all do the job but badly. The truth is you only need to learn how to use curves as this will do all of those things with far more control and less damage. Basically curves is a line between black and white that can be bent. The other methods are more like a slider on a scale. In curves your white point will be top right, your black point bottom left. Once these are set they will not change so no matter how much you play with the curves your blacks will always be black and your whites will always be white. You can choose to lighten the image in a particular tonal area, such as towards the dark end to bring up the detail in an underframe and it wont effect the highlights. Moving the brightness up moves the whole image and you gain detail in the darks but lose detail in the lights. You can also select channels and adjust them in the same way, focusing on a particular colour in a particular tonal range. Making the curve into an S shape will adjust the contrast again without losing the blacks and whites. It’s very powerful and once learnt (aside from the camera doing something odd) it’s all you really need to know.
Sharpening
Sharpening is best avoided – get the image sharply focussed before you take it not after. However there is a way to improve a slightly soft image without it looking too Photoshopped. Using the sharpen tools in a colour image will sharpen the colours too, this is not what you want to do so the trick is to hop into LAB colour mode (which is immensely powerful but a lot of work to get your head round) select the lightness channel and only sharpen that. Result – a sharper image without affecting the colour
Composition
Having worked with an awful lot of professional photographers composition is not something they are all that sophisticated in, usually because it’s not something they have a lot of control over. Many will use the rules of thirds and that’s about it. (the focus of the picture should be 1/3rd of the way into the image). However illustrators are quite sophisticated in this regard as they do have the control they need. Ideas like leaders, lines of action etc are quite normal and can make an illustration almost move. You will be guided through the image exactly as the illustrator wanted you to be and will not even know that you are doing it. Good Illustrators and designers are some of the most manipulative people you will come across in terms of making you do what they want. With a model its more still life than anything, you set the scene and its worth thinking about how everything interacts to get the result you want. In the image above the loco is too high in the frame. If it were lower it would have more mass to it and would convince the viewer that its heavy.
Tangents
Tangents are a big problem in illustration and to be avoided at all costs. They are a big problem in model photography too but not a lot of people understand them. Referring back to the image of the 31 there is a horrible tangent where the line of the roof between the loco and the building meet. Simply put a tangent is where 2 lines of different things in the image meet. Things like a buffer appearing to join with a signal are common and are things that professionals will look to avoid. It’s what makes the difference between a professional image and one that isn’t. If I had moved the camera down a bit you wouldn’t see the roof of the building, moved it up and the roof would have been distinct so as it is its in just the right place to spoil the image.
Light and doing it badly
Light is where you can really make a difference and a lot of images are lit with little or no thought. (its worth mentioning at this stage that if you want to Photoshop a real sky onto an image of a model its a good idea to make sure they are both lit from the same direction!) This is one area where you can transform an image easily and the best way to do this is to do it deliberately badly.
Here we have a fairly typical model image – lit from the direction of the camera but slightly off set. In the real world light is not always where you would like it to be so its worth experimenting with it as a less ideal image can have a better impact
The same image lit from above (where the flood light would be) looks much more interesting even though much of the detail is lost. This sort of image would probably be a reject if taken in the real world but as a model its a bit different or unusual.
Black and White
Theres a right way and a very wrong way to turn a colour image black and white.
This is the wrong way but its the easiest – convert the image to greyscale. The problem is that the definition between colours is lost. I know that sounds odd in a black and white image but certain colours while very different are also similar in tone. Rail blue and Warning Panel Yellow are a good example and will appear very similar when converted to greyscale.
This is the right way and its back to using the Lightness channel in LAB mode. Theres much more definition and tonal variety.
The Photoshop argument
People are either indifferent or heavily against deliberate Photoshopping. Things like adding smoke etc really don’t bother me as the whole process of model railways is trying to fool the viewer into thinking, just for a second, that the object they are looking at is not a foot long piece of plastic but a 100+ tonnes of locomotive. Obviously using Photoshop to fix a bad model is somewhat different. It’s funny how those most vocal against the use of Photoshop usually are the first to defend using the wrong gauge or unrealistic couplings.
Of course if you are going to add a photoshop sky make sure it’s lit from the same direction as the model and if you are going to add a thick exhaust smoke to your steam locos, don’t forget to add it to their shadows too!
Next time you take a model picture think about composition, look out for things like tangents and ask yourself, Can I make this more interesting?
best laid plans
Planning is good as it saves on materials but every now and then its a good idea to check against what you are doing (if only to get a different feel for it). That’s what this picture is all about.
The string mock up shows the raft above the Eastern end of the station. The main string that crosses the baseboard is the edge of the shopping centre roof while the one that heads towards the bottom right corner shows the station approach. (the clutter on the track is the result of a few tweaks to the platform edges for clearance purposes.
The above drawing shows the shopping centre from the Western end with a class 47 for scale. You can see that I plan for the shopping centre to over hang the front of the layout a bit (which will be on the right).
This is the plan of the roof – I have decided to change the angle of the right hand end to fit with the layout of the station undereith better. To give a sense of scale between this and the real location the building in the upper left corner and marked in red is shown below.
I believe that it is the back of the Burlington Hotel. The footbridge shown in the foreground was added in the early 1990’s so it’s too new for the layout.
A few more depart the workbench
47474 is another lima model. This one coming to me from the original roster for Amlwch as 47476. I kept it as brought for years as it was obvious that quite a lot of work had gone into it at some stage. (click here to see it in its original form) However for New Street it needed a few modifications to fit in era. I didn’t want to redo the whole loco as I wanted to keep as much of the original model as I could so I focused on the front ends.
The windscreens needed changing as per my other 47’s (it definitely stood out along side one that’s been modified) so these were the customary Extreme Etches offering. I also replaced the side windows with more etched from Brian as well has the headcode box. The headlight is from Replica. In my era 47476 had lost its water tanks hence the change of identity to 47474.
Also off the workbench are 2 of the 3 class 86’s I showed earlier, the third is waiting for its nameplates and chassis. Powered by the usual Bachmann Warship 86102 features Hornby class 90 sideframes and a spare underframe box from a scrap 87.
86260 is another tribute loco being named after Driver Wallace Oakes GC. To read his story click here.
To see more pictures of these pair go to the class 86 page
Cars
Road vehicles are a good distraction from all the other projects on the layout and are also quick. By building them this way you can amas quit a lot without really noticing it. I have a 3 drawer Ikea box full so far, which as a project on its own would be quite a daunting task. The cars above are nearly finished except for number plates and tax disks. They are (left to right)
Austin Princess, from Oxford Diecast. I was concerned that the tyres looks too big but on looking at the real things, if the are, it’s not by much. Handily its screwed together so it’s a simple disassembly, matt varnish, add people and weather job. No excuse really for the tipped straight from the box onto the layout thing that (for me) ruins so many nice layouts. I also tided up the window frames while I was at it.
Mini – from Corgi but with new wheels and a more modern front grill from the Springside kit. I also enlarged the rear window and replaced the rear lights as well as removing the external door hinges.
Morris Marina – again from Oxford and treated as per the princess. Nice to see well proportioned tyres on the newer Oxford models.
Austin 1800 – this one is an old Minic model with wheels from a Cararama Mini (tip borrowed from Kier Hardy’s website). The tyres were cut in half as they were very wide as supplied.
All of these will be kind of old for my layout (the 1800 especially) and there’s still a big gap for 1980’s cars . However I believe a layout should have a good proportion of cars from at least the decade preceding the date it is set and really I probably should have at least as many cars from 1972 as models released in 1987.