Scratchbuilt warehouse in H0

[Hauk]

As promised, here is a daylight shot of the model for comparasion:





Still feel that I should have chosen a red with a bit less yellow.

[artizen]

The deeper red in the real photo could be coming partly from the blue sky (your model is shot under a cloudy day). Also the real photo appears to be shot in early spring? With back lighting.

I wouldn't fuss about it too much unless it bothers you - the colours do move around during the life of the building and under different weather conditions.

[finescalerr]

I wouldn't fool with the color under any circumstances.

After playing with the image in Photoshop I think a few factors are at work:

The photo of the original building has some exaggerated or inaccurate coloration. Just look at the sky and at other areas of the photo so see the inconsistencies.

The front of the building is in deep shade suggesting the entire building may be a different color than actually is. When I adjusted for that, the model's color very closely matched the actual building.

Finally, on the left wall you can see a small patch of the wall through the branches. It is in sunlight and looks closer to the overall color of the model.

Yes, all of this is making a mountain out of a molehill but is is an interesting lesson in what you are up against when trying to match colors from photos.

Russ

[Design-HSB]

I'm sure by now the original is Sweden-red or even better Falun red is.
A main component of color is copper rock, which provides the light for this particular red color.
Try it out if you get this Sweden-red as a powder.
With the powder you could then re-dyeing the surfaces.

[Hydrostat]

Hauk,

what's all the fuss about it? Why didn't you tell us you already built that thingie?

Look what I found at the Intermodellbau:





Well, there were some minor differences between your interpretation and this one. Especially concerning everything. But in the very first moment I was really surprised to see that. You surely knew about that kit and have written of that in your thread but I didn't manage to find out so far.

Volker

[finescalerr]

You are treading on dangerous ground, Volker. For a moment I thought about sending you to the corner .... -- ssuR

[Hauk]

Well, thats life. When you choose to scratchbuild something, a kit, or as in this case, a finished commercial model will arrive.

I was a bit  p****d off when the model shown above was announced, but after seeing that the finished article was just the main facade and not much else, I shrugged it off. The commercial model is also a pre-painted one piece resin casting that portrays the building in a dilapidated state, so it would have taken a lot of time to kitbash it into an operational building.

But there is no denying that one of the attractions of scratchbuilding is to have a model that nobody else has. I tought about making a kit myself for the entire building,  but one of the reasons I dropped the idea is that it would be no fun to see the building on a lot of layouts.

Regarding the coloring. I feel that the topic of choosing colors for our models is a very interesting subject for discussion as this takes a lot of rather subjective choices. You just cant take a  scale ruler and settle the question once and for all.

So even if i rant a lot about the color of the model, I will stick to it. But as I feel that my choice is not a 100% success, I try to learn how to do better next time. Thats why I love this forum, it is one of of the very few forums where you can get some constructive criticism.

So keep the comments coming!

[Hauk]

As mentioned before, this building is a combined warehouse/aerial tram terminal. I still think that there will be no operational tram, but I think I can squeeze in a tower for the tramway.

I have no drawings for these, but one of them are preserved, and I have found a picture of it on the web:



One thing that puzzles me is that there is no sign of any wheels or rollers to guide the cable. Can anyone suggest an explanation for this? If it is just a slot for the cable to pass over, the friction would be far to high one would think? Could it be that the wheels are on the buckets/wagons and that the carrying cable is static, and there is a lighter cable doing the pulling?

I might have to do a hike and take a closer look...

But rollers or no roller, that is one damn fine tower, I really like the rivet detail and subtle rust tones!

Best regards, Hauk

[Ray Dunakin]

Hauk, I have some photos of a similar tram in Pioche, NV on my website:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Aerial_Trams.html

In this photo below, you can see that the upper cables are stationary. The buckets are mounted on wheels which roll over this cable. The lower cable is the one that pulls the buckets. This cable rests on rollers that are mounted on the tram tower. As the bucket passes the tram tower, it lifts the motion cable up.



Hope this helps!

[Hydrostat]

Hauk,

I'm glad you got me as intended. Compared to your outstanding approach to modeling this kit is simply coarse. At the very first moment I was really surprised to see that building at our neighbouring stand from a distance, but having a closer look I realized that it wasn't (a part of) yours. They had some very nice HO scale train models there and it should have been possibly your model on display.

Concerning colouring: Some years ago people started to paint their trains in brighter colors, negotiating distance between real and modeled objects. I tend to use the prototype color and brightness, which seems too dark on first sight, but matches the item in macro photography. My grooved rails look somewhat dark brownish / blackish from a usual distanc - but this is exactly the impression you get when looking in diffuse light at real rails from a distance.

Ray is right with the cable. Some of those systems provided a detachable pulling rope to have the time needed for emptying the bins. At the unloading points the bins often ran on iron tracks rather than ropes, which sometimes had switches to store bins.

Cheers,
Volker

[Hauk]

Hauk,

I'm glad you got me as intended. Compared to your outstanding approach to modeling this kit is simply coarse. At the very first moment I was really surprised to see that building at our neighbouring stand from a distance, but having a closer look I realized that it wasn't (a part of) yours. They had some very nice HO scale train models there and it should have been possibly your model on display.

Concerning colouring: Some years ago people started to paint their trains in brighter colors, negotiating distance between real and modeled objects. I tend to use the prototype color and brightness, which seems too dark on first sight, but matches the item in macro photography. My grooved rails look somewhat dark brownish / blackish from a usual distanc - but this is exactly the impression you get when looking in diffuse light at real rails from a distance.

Ray is right with the cable. Some of those systems provided a detachable pulling rope to have the time needed for emptying the bins. At the unloading points the bins often ran on iron tracks rather than ropes, which sometimes had switches to store bins.

Cheers,
Volker

Scale color is a very interesting subject, and we have a quite interesting exercise coming up with the terminal at the other end from my warehouse.

On the layout this will be a 1/500 background building. The goal is to make it obvious to the onlooker that the background building is connected to the foreground warehouse. So the color scheme for both buildings will be the same, but the background building will have a more toned down version of the color to simulate the larger amount of atmospheric haze between the observer and model.

In the background we might have room for two towers, wich will probably be built to different scales to simulate greater depth.  Scale color tones will be used for the  three towers as well. Guess we will end up doing quite a lot of experimenting!

[finescalerr]

I have some doubt that a different color will make a model seem to be farther in the background. My guess is that it will simply look like it is a different color.

For decades people have debated how to color models for indoor display or under different kinds of light. Personally, unless somebody can show me a fabulous example of success, I think adapting paint to a given light source is a waste of effort. (I also think it is ineffective to use an N scale background building on an HO scale layout to suggest distance.)

I don't offer these comments because I want to start an angry debate or to seem opinionated so, if anyone disagrees, this thread might be a good place to discuss the pros and cons -- before Havard commits to a course of action.

Russ

[chester]

I agree on both points, that altering color and mixing scales to achieve depth are not terribly effective, Russ. I do believe that eliminating shine on most finishes is. Glossy reflections have a tendency to make modeling look toy like as well.

[Design-HSB]

An example of the representation of perspective by decrease of the scale.

[finescalerr]

To me that use of three scales just doesn't work. I guess I have too little imagination. -- Russ