Page 10 - May June 2010

Scratchbuilding from the Web!
Twomey’s Mercantile and Train Stop
I have constructed a fair number of craftsman style kits in my time. Over the years many of these have been entered in the NMRA Convention Contest with a fair degree of success.
For the 2009 Swindon Convention I decided to set myself a far harder test and try and scratchbuild a diorama of a yet to be released craftsman kit from pictures downloaded from the web. The kit in question was the new Fine Scale Miniatures offering – Oatman’s Mercantile, which was released mid­November 2009. You can see the same pictures that I used to build my model at www.finescaleminiatures.com.
Fine Scale Miniatures (FSM) is owned by George Sellios whose famous beautifully detailed masterpiece of a layout, the Franklin and South Manchester, has been featured many times in railroad magazines. George divides his time, so it has been reported, fairly equally between work and play, for he spends six months of the year developing and making limited edition structure kits and then the balance of the year working on his layout. Selling 800 or so copies of one kit a year at $265 seems to suit him. His kits sell out fast every year and for the majority of people are the very essence of “Americana”.
Construction
The diorama took six weeks to construct with an average of 2–3 hours’ work a day.
FSM do not indicate either the size of the footprint of the buildings or the size of the diorama on their website. Having downloaded the pictures, the only way I could size the buildings was from the track spacing. Working with a HO scale rule I was able to determine the size of the diorama as about 16" by 13". I then sized all the structures from this formula.
Main building – Twomey’s
From the pictures it was difficult to size the right­hand wall of the building (staircase side) and I decided to build the two­ storey tower as self­standing and then fit the four walls around it before determining where to cut the right­hand wall to fit accurately. Like the FSM kit, I used a mixture of clapboard and board and batten wood for these walls. The rear sheds were made of off­cuts covered with plain paper painted to represent tarpaper. The roof is thin card covered in Campbell’s corrugated aluminium chemically etched with Archer’s etchant. The panels were cut to 3­ft widths and attached to the card with double­ sided tape. To the roofs were added billboards, water butts, walk­ ways and a scratchbuilt ladder. The false front of the building was laminated from two pieces of clapboard placed back to back. The front window was a Tichy casting to which I added acetate glass covered with signs to disguise the lack of an interior. All the doors had to be scratchbuilt from wood.
Mike Carter
Loading dock
Water tower
I added a water tower to the model. The FSM kit does not have one, but I think they add a certain charm to the American buildings. Because of the size of the roof I had to keep this on the small side. I used balsawood to form two circles. I used an 8 × 8 glued between them to which I added weathered 2 × 8 staves around the edges. The roof was cut and formed from card and the bands were made from self­adhesive paper. I added rafters and made a simple timber framework to attach the water tower to the roof.
Train canopy and platform
I originally made the passenger platform from plaster. I did not like the look of this and decided to use this as a base, covering it with scribed wood. The canopy supports are made from 22 individual pieces of wood. I drew a vertical and horizontal line on a piece of card. I used a lap joint to attach the 4 × 4 horizontal to the 6 × 6 vertical. I added 2 × 4 and 2 × 2 wood to replicate the picture downloaded from the web as closely as I could. Once I was satisfied with my support (third attempt) I used it as a template to construct the two other supports. The roof is card covered in paper painted to represent tarpaper with full framing. The canopy is made from a total of 111 pieces of timber. The “Twomey’s” signs were made on my computer, colour­matched to the canopy supports.
Forge/blacksmith
The FSM kit features ordinary board and batten walls with full framing. I thought it would be far nicer to use board on board construction for walls. From the pictures I drew my own frame­ work plan on paper and then built the frame. Then I glued a mixtureof2×6,2×8and2×10boardstotheframeworktobuild the walls. I left gaps for the windows and doors. The different size boards give the building more character. The interior floor is made of 2 × 12 timber (coffee stirrers). The detachable roof is card covered in Campbell’s shingles. I braced the roof to prevent warping and added rafter rails. The rafter rails fit very snugly and there is definitely a knack to fitting the roof without damaging the rafter rails. I added a workbench scratchbuilt from scale wood plus a full interior. The blacksmith equipment and tools were manufactured by Western Scale Models and were purchased a few years ago from a bring­and­buy table for £10. There is a toilet to the side with interior detail. I constructed a wooden fence from wooden boards. While the FSM kit would have included metal castings for doors, I had to make my own using board on board construction. I added handles/knobs and hinges to complete the detailing. The small storage shed has a metal roof made from the corrugated metal panels.
Details
I used a dowel to represent a power pole, to which was added a transformer; power lines linked to the buildings and petrol sign. The petrol pumps, oil boy etc are from a whitemetal kit by JL Innovative Design. There are 14 figures, two dogs, four horses and four vehicles in the scene. Over 30 metal details were added as appropriate. The horse/cart and Model T Ford are plastic kits by Jordan. I added seven pigeons to the roofs and horse dung on the road by the waiting horses.
Ground cover
The road itself was made from Durham’s Rock Hard Water Putty, which I painted aged concrete and weathered with my alcohol/ ink wash and chalks. Elsewhere I used a mixture of Woodland Scenics fine turf and Silflor grass clumps over a base of finescale grey ballast.
Signs
I created the colour signs for the billboards, store, blacksmith and canopy on my computer. The billboards advertise make­ believe products named after friends, one of which is Vernon’s
I determined the loading dock was a scale 12 ft wide reducing to 6 ft. I made this by constructing a framework of 8 × 8 wood to which I attached 2 × 8 and 2 × 4 horizontal and vertical planking. All the wood was stained with an alcohol/ink mixture to produce a nice weathered look. Instead of replicating the FSM kit exactly, I decided to make the higher loading dock wrap around the building to the side door, even though this would make the staircase construction more complicated in the process. The dock was constructed using a simple framework of 4 × 4s to which I attached 2 × 8 planking. I made my own risers for the stairs and used the finest wood I had in my scrap box, 2 × 2 and 2 × 1, to give the staircase a light, delicate look.
Front and side porches
These were constructed using scale wood and cardstock covered in tarpaper. I drew my own plan for the supports and constructed these over paper. There is full underframing underneath the roofs of the porches. The wooden porch was constructed from stained 2 × 12 strip wood (coffee stirrers).
10 ROUNDHOUSE