Bonus Corner Shop..................

Over the past couple of weeks during my dinner breaks and weekend work, I've tinkered away making a T022c Corner Shop from Scalescenes. This will go nicely with the row of eight terraced houses that I'm currently building.

Now you may notice that the shop is boarded up,
I have a confession to make. I made all of the fittings, counter, fruit stall and the like to fit the shop out with, but with a typical school boy error, I glued the shop to the base board without putting the fittings in place first.
It was a couple of hours after I'd done this when I noticed and the glue was set fast. The best option I could come up with was to board up the shop and make it for sale.

The dividing wall that is missing, will be added once it is married up with the row of houses.











                                      Until Next Time.....................

New Terraced Shops........

As you know, while we have been having the work done in the house, my craft table (the dining table) was pack away and out of use. So not been beat, I've been making a version of the new T022a Terraced Houses into shops with the T022c add on from Scalescenes at work, during my quiet weekends. They are built as the terraced house kit, but instead of a normal façade, the front is cut away using a template to accommodate the shop fronts. An insert is made and slotted into the front room, to make the interior of the shop. Not many pictures to show you of the build, but here are the finished pictures.
 

 
 
The chimney pots are fashioned from what is called an orange stick. I believe that women do something with their nails with them. But I find them just the right size to whittle chimney pots.
 
The table is back to normal now, so the row of eight houses are coming back out, to get finished.

Until Next Time........

Revised Terraced Houses...................

Right, this is the last model that I’m going to build, before I get myself up into the loft and start my layout. These are the new revised T022a Terraced Houses from Scalescenes. I’ve built the old version a couple of times already, including a row made up into the shops, with the burnt out chippy. I’ve not built the row any longer than four houses up until now. I’m going to make the row eight houses long. I may even put them together on an incline. Time will tell.
They are of a total new construction method, and in my opinion, much better than the old version. There’s the addition of back yard walls with outhouses and front garden walls. They are built in two houses per section, and as I said earlier, could be easily configured to be installed on a bank.

First I like to cut out and mount all of the windows onto acetate, ready to be fixed to the relevant walls.
 
Now here is where the walls and floors that make up the interior structure come together. They are much better than the old version. Inter-locking sections, that’s much stronger and stable. Top tip, keep a small piece of 2mm scrap card to use as a gauge and check that the slot is wide enough when cut out. This makes it much easier to fit the sections together without damage to the walls, if the slots were too tight.
 

  
Gluing the interior walls to the main wall in sections, again adds rigidity and strength.
 
The small sections of the exterior walls come next. Two sections, with one of them having an interior wall incorporated.  
 
When the main wall is added, there is an extra layer which is slightly wider than the outer wall, and this layer has the drain pipe on. So when glued together, the drainpipe can’t be knocked off.
 
Now to build the front wall. Exactly the same as the rear walls. I have to ask you to look at the curtains. On a previous build, where there were curtains, I put them all in place all random and uneven. My wife informed me that “No self-respecting, house proud woman, would have uneven curtains.” She would straighten all of the curtains on a morning when they were opened. So I did as I was told and straightened all of the curtains. That’s me told!!
 

Once the walls are in position, it’s time for the ceilings, incorporating the guttering.
  
The end gable wall comes together at this stage. Again with incorporated drainpipes.
 
That’s as far as I want to go with this section. I want to build all of the sections to this stage so I can run the roofs in one go.    

Time to crack on and build another three houses.
Until Next Time………..  
 

 
 

1930’s Semi Detached Houses…………

Well it finally arrived, after many delays in the design stage, the To13 1930’s Semi Detached Houses from scalescenes. And I must say, it’s been well worth the wait. This style of house has evoked so many memories for me, as it was this style of house that used to belong to a Aunt and Uncle who lived just outside of Nottingham, over forty years ago. I went  onto Google maps to check the address and it is almost the same house, spooky! We used to visit  a couple of times a year, and to see this house again has brought it all flooding back. Happy memories. Thanks John.

Before I start with the build, a couple of things to tell you. I promised in my last post that I would show you the vast range of marker pens I have at my disposal. These are courtesy of my wife Jak who designs for the craft industry. I know that this collection is a little bit overboard, well a lot overboard, but I have found that a good selection of colours comes in very handy when touching up raw edges.

The second, is this new knife I’ve found. I don’t suppose for one minute that they are new, but I’ve just found them. What with our Grandson Jack growing fast, I thought it was a good idea to get this retractable Swann Morton craft Knife. All my knives are retractable apart from the Swann Morton and I’m always terrified he puts his hand into my tool tin and cuts his finger on a exposed blade. Plus the body of the knife more comfortable in your hand, as it is a little bit thicker. I find I have more control of the knife.

I was hoping that I might have had all the Easter break building this model but, as usual like all of the best made plans, it didn’t happen. At least I got a good start. First job was to print the glazing onto a sheet of OHP (Over Head Projector) film. My laser printer thankfully takes OHP, but check your printer before you use any OHP because if it is not compatible it can cause some serious damage to it.  The detail is so fine and authentic  Next, print the frames, cut the out and bring the two together.

         

The middle interior walls sandwich a thinner layer which makes up the drain pipe. So clever.

         

The upper floor and lower ceiling join together with some spacing pieces. These then join the interior walls by simply interlocking.

         

When bringing the walls and floor/ceiling together if you haven’t cut the slots out wide enough, and they are stiff putting them together, instead of trying to cut the out a little more, I have found that it is easier just to use one of my wife’s nail file boards to file the slot a little wider. It makes a neater job.

Well, that was my weekend done for. Back to work tomorrow. I should have a couple of nights free this week to get some more done on this project. Once I’ve got some progress to show you I’ll post it as soon as I can. Promise.

Until Next Time……………

Outbuildings and Walls………

Those very generous people at scalescenes  have come up with a free add on for the T008 Low Relief House Backs. The kit already come with walls in the download, but I found it odd that the back walls had no gates, so there was no means of access to or egress from the property. I mean, how were you going to put your bins out! So I contacted scalescenes with my concerns and they replied stating that these houses were designed to back onto a railway line, so it wouldn’t be wise to have access to the railway line.

Anyhow, they took on board my suggestions and along with other modellers comments and they came up with the free add on pack with back gates and even coal houses. Not only do these fit on the T008 Low Relief House Backs, they also fit on existing T022 Small Terraced Houses.

Well I had to build a set for my existing set of T022’s.

Please excuse the colour of my walls. These pictures do not give a true representation of the product. I am having a little problem with my printer and is not printing true colours. But they will have to do for now.

       

    

What I like about this add on is that it even has coal house hatches.

       

I know that these are not yet permanent, but I had to have a look at what they might look like.

Well I suppose that I’d better get a  start  building the T008 Low Relief House Backs.

Until Next Time……………

Chris