Queensland Miners Cottage 1:24

[Ray Dunakin]

Nice work! I too am interested in how you stretched the sprue -- it really looks great. Until reading that it was sprue, I thought you had used some natural plant material.

The leaves look great too!

[JohnTolcher]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Volker you may be right, if I understand you. Perhaps I'm trying to do too much with this project, in the way of portraying a piece of local cultural interest and indulging my passion for old dilapidated things. It's a fluid process, I'm not averse to stripping and repainting so if it looks overdone I can go back. Hopefully it won't come to that though I've already done it with two parts of it.  

With stretching sprue, I've found that some styrene is difficult to stretch. So if you're having trouble you could try a different kit from a different manufacturer. Tamiya was used here.

I use a candle with a steady flame, holding the sprue perhaps 1/2 inch or 12mm above the flame. I spin the sprue slowly as it heats up, trying to evenly heat the area. I take the sprue away from the flame to stretch it.

If not hot enough, it will be harder to stretch and likely to break. If too hot, stretching it will produce a really fine thread. So I just wait till it's quite soft and try to stretch it a little, if too soft wait a couple of seconds then stretch some more. A little practice always helps.

[JohnTolcher]

The good thing about stretched sprue is the taper, and it's easy to glue. You can bend it too.

[JohnTolcher]

Another image.

[JohnTolcher]

The trick is to support the branches until the glue dries, say 2 or 3 minutes. Tamiya Extra thin worked well.

[JohnTolcher]

I will probably add a few more twigs and branch stubs but that's the basic method. Then primed and painted using similar techniques to the old wood, with a bit more colour perhaps.

Cheers
John

[Hydrostat]

Volker you may be right, if I understand you. Perhaps I'm trying to do too much with this project, in the way of portraying a piece of local cultural interest and indulging my passion for old dilapidated things. It's a fluid process, I'm not averse to stripping and repainting so if it looks overdone I can go back. Hopefully it won't come to that though I've already done it with two parts of it.  

John, I think there's no need to strip everything ... but if so I'd appreciate you'd restart from the very beginning. If you send the failed items to me I'll look if I can shelter mankind from it  . What I tried to say: there maybe is a difference if you're modeling for photographs or for own sight at an exhibition (what I called the "philosophy" with dry brushing and highlighting structures and so on as a kind of additional "impressionistic painting", which leaves the pure modeling behind). For my taste the point of changing between those both paradigms was between this and the next picture.

Hope confusion's complete now  .

Cheers,
Volker

[Bill Gill]

John, Thanks for the how-to on sprue. I think my past experiments might have been with one of the difficult to sretch styrenes that seemed to have a phase shift from 'breaks when attempting to stretch' to 'liquid' with no range inbetween. But now can try different sources of sprue, and perghaps a bit more patience too. Thanks!

[finescalerr]

As clever and skillful as your method is, aren't the resulting trees terribly fragile? Also, why do you prefer that method to finding a few appropriate twigs from the backyard or a park? (If the reason is simply that it's fun, I would understand completely.) -- Russ

[danpickard]

Wow John,
Great subject choice.  Styrene timber result is beautifully executed (nice SBS as well).  The gum leaves have spot on colour, with nice mottled variety of greens, browns and oranges in the mix.  I might be slightly partial to the subject as an Aussie, but the excellent modelling result is a pleasure to view.

Cheers,
Dan

[Ray Dunakin]

The gum leaves have spot on colour, with nice mottled variety of greens, browns and oranges in the mix.  I might be slightly partial to the subject as an Aussie, but the excellent modelling result is a pleasure to view.

I see enough of them here in San Diego too, to really appreciate the accuracy of his model! Over here we call them "eucalyptus" trees.

BTW, they were first introduced to southern California by the Southern Pacific RR, in hopes that they would provide a good source of ties that would grow well in our dry climate. Apparently they didn't work very well for ties.

[JohnTolcher]

Thanks folks for your feedback.  

Sorry for my misunderstanding Volker, actually I didn't really like the drybrushing in that instance and went over it for the next shot with some more washes to subdue it. In armour modelling circles, dry brushing is often considered a superseded technique and I rarely use it, but I thought it might lighten and highlight the really sun bleached areas. Thanks for your comment I think you confirmed what I already felt.  

Hi Russ, when I used Mr Cement S (which is usually my favourite) it was fragile and joints broke too easily. Tamiya Extra Thin has been much better; it dries significantly slower (normally a drawback) but seems to really melt and weld that joint.

Theres no twigs this fine or in scale round here. You can buy them but in my humble opinion this looks better, and is quick enough to do. The trouble is they don't look like Gum tree branches, so they will be generic leafless or dead plants round the house, I will have a go at gum branches though. Because it's fun  

I suspect aussies call them Gum rather than Eucalyptus because it's a shorter word, easier to say, spell and remember...  

Cheers
John

[Mr Potato Head]

Excellent!  Fantastic Thanks for the inspiration I love it It helps me with my current project,
thanks for sharing!
MPH

[BKLN]

Excellent styrene work! Thanks for sharing.

[marc_reusser]

Nice SBS John. Thanks.