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P4NewStreet - modelling Birmingham (UK) in the 1980's - 1:76 scale

Started by jim s-w, May 20, 2010, 08:45:13 AM

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jim s-w

Hi All

While I was outside this evening I took a quick shot of one of my buildings.  Things always look nice in natural light.



Regards

Jim
Jim Smith-Wright

eTraxx

Jim. If you Photo-Chopped that into a real street scene it would be hard to tell it was a model. Can't get much better then that.
Ed Traxler

Lugoff, Camden & Northern RR

Socrates: "I drank WHAT?"

finescalerr

The modeling itself is excellent. The molded bricks, however, suffer from the rounded edges common to most smaller scale injection molded brickwork. To my eye, that's a major giveaway and, unfortunately, there's nothing to be done about it at this stage.

Let me encourage every contributor and visitor to this site (since we set our standards higher than the Great Unwashed) to find more convincing materials for bricks. Dave's laser cut brick walls (Vector Cut) are one possibility. Nick's individual bricks are another (for larger scales). In cases where you don't see a corner, carefully scribed cardstock might work. Or do-it-yourself plaster. Or anything but injection molded plastic with rounded edges.

Russ

jim s-w

#33
Hi Russ

Thank you for the comments

Bricks do round off as they get older.  This brick is South eastern finecast and isnt as crisp as the Slaters bricks.  I did give them a little sand down first to square them off a bit but as this building is part of the original station and thus well over 150 years old I didnt want bricks that look too new.  Also as a wall ages the mortar shrinks or rots away which also affects the rounded look of the wall. 

Sadly the original is all but gone now - with just the front wall left last time I was there.  The station is being re-built and the building (the last of the original station) was dangerous.  If they didnt pull it down it would fall down!   It has been boarded up for at least a decade.  Shame.

Regards

Jim

Jim Smith-Wright

jim s-w

Hi All

A few evenings along with some contents of the scrap box has resulted in this - I managed to frost the windows when I stuck them in but a coat of Klear (Future for you guys) and the fact the the glass was actually polycarbonate on the real things which reacted badly to sunlight and I kind of like the result.

Rather depressingly this represents 3 square inches of scenary for the finished layout.  Eventually there will need to be 450 square feet so while it would be great to go to the levels of details you guys do I only have one life to build the layout in!  ;)

Regards

Jim


Jim Smith-Wright

eTraxx

Rather like it myself. Predator came out in 1987 so that pretty much sets the time-frame - which is kind of strange as I remember where I was in 1987 (went back in the army) .. but not anything about the movie being shown at that time.
Ed Traxler

Lugoff, Camden & Northern RR

Socrates: "I drank WHAT?"

jim s-w

Hi All

Been messing around with the plank again!  Some experimentation with long exposures and a single white LED





Cheers

Jim
Jim Smith-Wright

Hauk

Quote from: jim s-w on September 28, 2010, 07:04:59 AM
Hi All

Been messing around with the plank again!  Some experimentation with long exposures and a single white LED


The first shot is rather spooky, add a couple of figures and you could have a very interesting and very different MR scene.

The second looks like a modern British version of an image by O. Winston Link!

Regards, Hauk
--
"Yet for better or for worse we do love things that bear the marks of grime, soot, and weather, and we love the colors and the sheen that call to mind the past that made them"  -Junichiro Tanizaki

Remembrance Of Trains Past

JohnP

Hey all that stuff is in the Link museum here in Roanoke, VA. I live close by. If any of you are planning a trip send me a message. Some of the photo sites are still recognizable, and all the mainlines are still busy.

I have a camera like one of those too. Not the flash set up though!

John
John Palecki

RoughboyModelworks

Those are great photos Jim... very evocative.

Yes John the Link photos are wonderful aren't they? I always figured he owned a flash bulb company as well. He must have gone through thousands of them.

Paul

DaKra

Those are some very nice night views, Jim.   I've made many attempts to get this sort of lighting with my camera, failed every time.   I'm interested in the technical details of how you did it, camera type, etc if you don't mind taking the time.

Winston Link, one of my all time favorites.  I have two books of his work which I never grow tired of browsing. 

Dave

jim s-w

#41
Hi Guys

Thanks for the heads up about Winston Link.  He was also mentioned on another forum and I am somewhat embarrased to say I had no idea who he was.  I will go and educate myself!

Dave, the lighting is actually just a single white LED powered off a watch battery!  The room was in complete darkness otherwise.  I used a Canon 300d on ISO 400 and a 30 second exposure at F22.

HTH

Jim
Jim Smith-Wright

Hector Bell

Just found this thread and I totally disagree with Russ about moulded brick sheets.  Bricks are not rounded like cobbles but all brick sheets whatever scale are very rounded and need to be sanded back to remove it or the thousands of tiny brilliants when photographed ruin the effect.  It's even worse when the moulding itself is irregular as is the case with some of the sheets you've used.  As Russ says, the modelmaking is excellent, but the materials are letting you down.
I always sand brick plastic down to within an ace of its life and it still takes a mortar colour. It will also take any paint better as it will be keyed up by the sandpaper.

Bricks don't go rounded with age, only with wear and a flat wall will take no wear and only in small parts even if it does, and even then it will be more damaged than worn.  I've lived in a Tudor house  (15th Century), preWar houses, early Victorian and Edwardian.  None of them had brick wear or damage except by frost spalling (an interesting effect, btw).
Hope this is taken in the constructive vein in which it was intended.

Martin

jim s-w

Hi Martin

Thanks for your comments, the wear in Birmingham up until recently was acid erosion from rain.  Compare pictures of buildings now to even as recent as the early 90s and they are much, much cleaner.  Some walls have next to no mortar left in them which is where the plants take hold and lead to the mortar looking darker than the brick not lighter as it originally was.  For the ultimate example of acid erosion rounding objects have a look at the body of the sphinx.

It's interesting you mention the irregularity as laser cut materials are quite new here.  One thing that let's them down is they are too prescise.  After all bricks are hand laid and in this case were not machine produced.  Try it yourself, find a brick wall and look along one of the courses and you will see it's very irregular.  I wonder if etched bricks but with the artwork drawn by hand not on computer might be the ultimate answer?

The ultimate irony of this is that the building in question is hidden behind a wall and road junction on the finished layout!   

Keep the comments coming as they are making me think and ask questions which is the point isn't it?

Cheers

Jim
Jim Smith-Wright

Hector Bell

Jim, I somehow typed the word "disagree" instead of "agree" back there, so apologies to Russ and for any confusion caused. 
I do think that moulded bricks should be sanded down.  The regularity problem is removed by careful colouration of the individual bricks, not all of them, but odd ones here and there and by playing with mortar colours, varied across any large expanse, but it all comes to nought if the bricks are rounded off like cobbles and that's how they come from the manufacturers in sheet form and is the single most obvious telltale of a lack of care.  Considering the enormous amount of excellent work you've put in to the model, a few minutes sanding a sheet BEFORE you make anything from it would pay massive dividends.
I hope you take this as a constructive criticism in the friendly way it's meant, but it is one of my little hobby horses!

Cheers,
Martin