A snapshot in time. A glimpse of the Plettenberger Kleinbahn in 1/22.5 scale.

[fspg2]

Hello Volker,
it's a pity that your house has so few floors, otherwise we could certainly see many more great ideas from you here!

[Hydrostat]

Russ, Bill and Frithjof, thank you.

Let's turn to something else: bedtime stories!

First, the hardware: in this case, it was made from four-ply cross-glued veneer and 1 and 2 mm thick pearwood boards. As always, I had very precise ideas about which models would be suitable for the desired degree of period atmosphere  .




A particular challenge was creating the curved front edges of the bed. To do this, I soaked the veneer and wrapped it around a 3 mm thick brass plate with a tube of the same diameter attached to the side. I placed a layer of 2 mm thick wet offset cardboard on top, and finished it with another layer of veneer. After drying, it looked like this:




Now the component had to be weakened by a few tenths at the bottom. A clamped brass angle served as a guide for the file, and the curve was then created freehand:






The feet were made from small pieces of pear wood, which were glued and filed accordingly:






The four-layer glued veneer is clearly visible on the rear bed wall:




For coloring I used a translucent mixture of Vallejo Still Water and Mahogany Brown in several layers.




And with software, sorry, bed linen, it looks like this - oh God, I could write about that too, but who cares.






Best regards and good night
Volker

[Peter_T1958]

Seeing this, I immediately recall my childhood. Our living room sideboard was made in that manner – the same curved edges, the same color hues...
That was the state-of-the-art in those days!

[finescalerr]

I am amazed at the breadth of your skills. Okay, enough compliments. Now build the same thing in HO scale. -- Russ

[Bill Gill]

Very cozy and comfy looking, so, now waiting for the 'bedtime stories'   

[Hydrostat]

Seeing this, I immediately recall my childhood. Our living room sideboard was made in that manner – the same curved edges, the same color hues...
That was the state-of-the-art in those days!

Peter, same with me. I remember this kind of furniture mostly as already worn out parts, then used for guest bedrooms or bedsits in the 1970-80ies.

I am amazed at the breadth of your skills. Okay, enough compliments. Now build the same thing in HO scale. -- Russ

I wouldn't be able to get to reasonable results. Please ask Bill or Darryl. Or simply downsize the pictures.

Very cozy and comfy looking, so, now waiting for the 'bedtime stories' 

Bill,
I really do appreciate your invaterateness, but I'm afraid you have to read between the lines for adult content. Maybe Russ can help out with this thong bikini thingie.


The next bed, intended for the children's room, is made entirely from 1 mm thick offset cardboard and 1.5 mm thick MDF, while the crumpled bedspread is made from an unused tissue and a few other ingredients. And this is where we finally get to the software: I really liked the texture of the pillow and bedspread, but they weren't available in pure white—the difference to the mattress is clearly visible now. However, the paper used there doesn't crumple as effectively.






I find that apparent mistakes or inadequacies can lead to unexpectedly good results, so I made a virtue of necessity and placed a set of fresh bed linens on top – the pillows and duvet, in their slightly yellowed shade, look very much like unupholstered items. This gives the essentially static object a narrative layer it didn't have before.




The next two beds will find their place in the attic rooms. It was obviously laundry day, and the beds need to be remade there as well.




Representing fabrics and linens is rather difficult in my opinion, although the mattresses were among the easier parts. The basic shape is cut from 3 to 8 mm thick soft Forex, depending on the bed frame.




Once the corners are rounded, a layer of wet paper is wrapped around the core. I use a paper with almost no grain.




The pillows are more difficult to make, so I've tried various things, starting with pre-made covers filled with cotton, from real silk to wet paper to dry-filled paper.




Even the finest silk is too coarse. It's more likely to pass for a terry cloth towel.




A handkerchief filled with cotton and then secured with a matte acrylic binder works well, but results in the slightly yellowed appearance of uncovered blankets and pillows.




And here's another dry-filled handkerchief pillow. This stays significantly whiter, but I don't know how white the white stays this way, you know?




For the bed linens, I wanted the same shade of white and texture as the mattresses, but with a bit of color. I found a good example, although it's purple. I implemented and printed it that way, but I couldn't control the inkjet bleed, and the paper has to be wet to shape it, otherwise it just looks like what it is: folded paper. Solvents (e.g., turpentine) don't have the same effect on the cell structure of the paper as water. However, I noticed that the blue toner is quite penetrating and unruly. For the final version, the purple printout was simply submerged in the sink for a few minutes until no more color came out. The remaining blue matches perfectly - problem solved. Since handkerchiefs can't be printed with an inkjet printer and I wanted pure white as the base color, I first made handkerchief blankets and pillows filled with cotton wool. I then glued the printed and bathed paper onto them, wet-on-wet, and shaped them to create realistic drapes – here it is still soaking wet:




Best wishes, sweet dreams, and sleep well
Volker

[finescalerr]

It is clever, beautiful, and perfect. In other words, most satisfactory. Next (since you mentioned it) model some beautiful girls in thong bikinis, each eager to cater to our every whim. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Excellent work!

[Hydrostat]

It is clever, beautiful, and perfect. In other words, most satisfactory. Next (since you mentioned it) model some beautiful girls in thong bikinis, each eager to cater to our every whim. -- Russ

Russ, you're in need of more hotties? Wait for it.

Excellent work!

Ray, thank you.


And now to the hotties: I was pretty satisfied with the printed parts of the tiled stove, but coloring them like glazed tiles seemed a real task to me, especially because the prototype shows a shimmering colour gradient at each tile.




I started with a layer of black primer and then airbrushed a base colour mixed from red, yellow, white and ocre colour shades, resulting in a somewhat indefinable pig-pink ochre. I had the additional parts printed separately: The insert for the warming area and the frame for the furnace and ash pan were added to the openings after coloring was complete.




To achieve the colour gradients and the gloss of glazed tiles I used Vallejo 26.230 water texture acrylic, mixed with a bit ochre and yellow for the basic tone, and another mixture with more opaque red and brown tones to create the color gradient. While waiting to be put on Vallejo's payroll I applied that tile by tile with a brush. Finally I added a layer of very thin greyish water color to reduce the gloss a bit and to highlight the joints. That's going to be the visible side within the room...




... and that's the back side, where a piece of stovepipe will be added to the wall.




The bath stove is also nearly finished. Again the printed parts came out quite well.




The piping was made from brass tubes and rods; only the fittings themselves are printed. To give the whole thing a bit more stability, I had to drill out the shower pipe holder. With little foresight, I had provided the printed part with tenons instead of a hole, but with the help of a small tube attached, the tenons could be converted into a hole. The whitish dust is a remnant from drilling, it's not part of the print.




The building only had a few years or even months left of use – I imagine the furnishings were correspondingly run-down. That's just a test mount on double sided adhesive paper, there are some more pipes to come.






The taps should actually have "hot" / "cold" labels on them, but I've avoided decals so far because it's too expensive for me to order them from service providers for such small quantities. Does anyone here have experience with self-printed decals (inkjet) and would like to share their experience?




By the way: I'm still waiting for that payroll thingie, but meanwhile my publisher decided to halve my book's price. So whenever price was an obstacle (instead of language, lack of thong bikini girls, poor modeling or bad quality) - here we go: "Vollendete Baukunst".

Cheers,
Volker

[Bill Gill]

Awesome, Volker. The tiles, the bit of corrosion on the plumbing, the wear on the bath stove!
I don't know what the hot & cold labels ought to look like, but but could you use tiny alphabet decals for individual letters?

[Stuart]

Exceptional work Volker. Very nice all the way around.

Stuart

[Rail and Tie]

Noble Job Volker!  Absolute Top Drawer!

[finescalerr]

You could quit your job as a modeler and become a plumber! Your work is most professional. -- Russ

[Stuart]

With regard to creating your own decals, I have had some experience with that.

First, you will need to create your art work/graphics.  I have access to Adobe Photoshop for what I do but most any graphics program should work so long as you can send it to your printer.  You can also prepare your graphics the old fashioned way by cutting, pasting, drawing and using any variety of art media then, photocopying it down to an appropriate size.  I have also found graphics, clip-art and images on the internet that match my needs.  At any rate, find or make the graphic image you want, set it to the size you need and prepare it for printing.

Be aware that decal paper comes as either white or clear.  If your graphics includes white in the design, you will need white decal paper. Neither ink jet or laser printers are capable of printing white.  I purchase my decal paper sheet from Micro-Mark located in New Jersey, USA.  Shop online: www.micromark.com.

Next, set your printer to print on high gloss material.  There will be instructions with the decal paper which will assist you as well.  Once printed, handle the sheet with care being careful not to touch the printed images.  After a few minutes of dry time, spray the decal surface with a clear coat of some kind.  Ink jet ink will wash away if not protected when you place the decal piece in water for application.

Hope this helps.

Stuart

[Ray Dunakin]

The ceramic tiles on the stoves, the slight corrosion on the faucets, and the stains in the tub all contribute immensely to the overall excellence!