TFW’s workshop

[Tim Watson]

The individual potato warehouses at KX featured offices, many of which had a stove to heat them, so there is quite a forest of chimneys coming out of the M roof sections. These were made as a stick, by laminating the brick styrene around a solid core of the appropriate size. The sides were made over-width and then pared back with a scalpel and dressed with a file.


They were then cut to length and let into the relevant rooves with extra details added in layers as required. The corners of the stacks were notched with a fine saw to soften the edges.

These are a little crude at the moment, but are improved with further painting and chimney pots. These are from strips of white metal pots set into the flaunching: we had these made for the layout and they have been a boon, as our buildings need industrial quantities of chimneys. They are simply cut to length and bedded in with some epoxy adhesive.
The ground around the yard was the next to be sorted. This was made good with a sheet of 1.5mm thick steel, in much the same way as I did for the tube station. The steel sheet will also be held down by magnets, as before.


The styrene sheet cobbles are dead flat in this area as the whole will be covered over with a canopy, supported on some 3D printed Handyside stanchions. The ‘out door’ bits will have drainage represented. The baseboard joint is now at the bottom of the retaining wall and will be completely invisible to the viewing public. Slowly but surely, the buildings are beginning to show the right colour, but there is a lot of detail painting and weathering yet to come; especially around the ramp and retaining walls. Some of the potato warehouses will have name boards. I will need to get some artwork made up and printed off: I expect Jerry Clifford’s grocery empire will be represented.


Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

The Goods Sheds and Potato warehouses are now roughed in, but awaiting further detailing, weathering and the addition of further skylights and ventilators on the main building, nominally, the Eastern Transit shed.



On the prototype, at the northern end there existed the “Kings Cross Goods Station Refreshment Club”, eventually quite a large building with facilities for all the staff in the GY. It is give a good deal of coverage in the definitive archaeological survey of the yard by Haslam & Thompson “An immense and exceedingly commodious goods station”. The building grew from fairly modest beginnings, to the large structure visible in the middle of this aerial photo:


The Haslam book contains useful plans and survey drawings of the building remains, although I have not (yet) located any ground level photos of it.


Further posts will outline how it will be modelled on CF. It will usefully sit on the end of the Eastern Transit building and further serve to hide one of the goods through lines rather well. The hut, visible in the following image, will be replaced by the new building.

During the archaeological dig these cups found:

Does anyone think there might be a market for a modern-day reproduction?

Tim

 

[simond]

I’m in for one...

 

[Tim Watson]

After a bit of head scratching and some doodles for the ground plan the refreshment club is now beginning to take shape. I have found an image of the building but it is of the major extension made in the 1900s, which we will not have space for: useful for some architectural details though.

The windows came from printed sheets that I acquired years ago. By using two per window it is possible to make a simple sash window.

The stairs were made from the ever useful Evergreen strip and the side walls from 1mm scribed sheet. It’s always useful to pre paint difficult-to-reach areas prior to assembly.

The window bars are very fine and so to make them stand out I scored them on the back to give them a bit more presence. This had the unintended effect of slightly distorting the glazing between different panes, but that is a really serendipitous finding because it prevents that rather ‘flat’ look that sheets of glazing can sometimes show.

This arty image, sitting on the iPad, shows the side stairway on prototype and model - this gained access to the clerk’s mess rooms, which were on the first floor, guards and shunters used the ground floor entrance. The building will be well endowed with fireplaces: it was kept well heated because staff could become very cold, especially goods guards and shunters. There was a cosy toilet under the stairs.
The final image shows it held against the end of the, nominal, eastern transit shed.

If you compare it against the vertical layout view in a previous post, it is evident that it should do a quite good job of hiding trains as they make a dash for the hole in the back scene.

Tim

 

[adrian]

If you compare it against the vertical layout view in a previous post, it is evident that it should do a quite good job of hiding trains as they make a dash for the hole in the back scene.

The whole scene is developing very nicely. So is this refreshment club still 2mmFS or are you employing a little forced perspective by this point?

 

[Giles]

That interior photo reminds me so much of the few years I worked for a company out of one of the KX sheds (now the site of Central School). They were not comfortable! This was in the early 2000s and the sheds nearer the main line were in extremely poor condition.

 

[Tim Watson]

The prototype building went through about four rebuilds over its lifetime, Adrian, and this is how it might have been just before the third one. It is therefore smaller than it might otherwise be, but is built to 2mm scale, but on the small side of the estimated dimensions of the building. It is actually pretty close to the front, albeit tucked behind the York Road viaduct. So more a case of careful prototype selection, rather than diminishing scale.

Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

The evolution of a building. Can you spot the differences?




Tim

 

[-missy-]

They look the same to me.


M.

 

[Tim Watson]

Cheeky wretch!

Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

The refreshment rooms are now complete, but the side stairway does rather make it look like a dodgy London maisonette conversion.


I think it will look OK in context. Knocking out buildings in three days makes me think it’s time to have a go at something else.

It will be predominantly hidden by York Road viaduct, but CF is all about making the viewer look hard to find interesting corners.

Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

That’ll do for the time being: it’s a bit impressionistic, but then aren’t all models?



Tim

 

[Grahame Hedges]

Nice, and the construction of that building seemed rather quick for CF developments. Keep that rate up and the layout will be finished before the end of lockdown.
;-)

 

[Tim Watson]

God forbid Grahame! It is at least now nearer the end than the beginning. I can’t wait to see how it all hangs together when we can get the layout up. It will be interesting to see when the first exhibitions kick off this year. Perhaps there might be a case for imaginative use of Keen House, say, opening it up for booked layout tours. When will LB be ready to show - not necessarily to the wider public?

Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

I thought there might be some interest in my painting techniques for London buildings. The first coat is Farrow & Ball ‘London Clay’ to give a dullish background, and ‘Downpipe’ for the slates.

The yellow brick colour is then added with a wash of ‘Afrika Corp Tan Yellow’. More care was taken with the chimneys and window/door lintels painted in a red oxide colour (‘Picture Gallery Red’) and the chimney flaunching and the windowsills in ‘London Stone’. The sloping roof was given a wash with the Lifecolor ‘Roof Grey’.

The brickwork was then darkened in places and given some richness using Lifecolor ‘Sleeper Grime’ mixed in situ with the tan yellow colour. some individual bricks were picked out with either colour and any dodgy brush-marked areas painted out. White and ‘Weathered black’ were mixed and used for the lead flashing, whilst the sloping roof had further coats of ‘Roof grey’ mixed with Lifecolor ‘Weathered black’ and F&B ‘Downpipe’ - which was also re-applied on the main roof.

The final weathering was achieved with some feint washes of ‘London Stone’ to ‘bring the whole lot together’ and, most importantly, the use of ‘Dunkel grun’ washes to darken areas with rain run-off and add mosses & lichens.

In the this close up photo, the potato warehouse roof furthest away has had a wash on its north face, the one nearest hasn’t - the effect is very subtle, but it really brings the model to life.

Finally, the thing that brings the layout to life is colourful advertisements, figures and vehicles. The advertisements help massively in this view: the wall and pavement have recently been weathered.

The use of bright red patches is an excellent way of drawing your eye into a scene.

All of the colours are applied in washes, rather than discrete colour blocks, it is an impressionistic way of painting, rather than slavishly painting brick by brick: that is needed occasionally for decorative patterns, but I tend to favour letting the eye see what it thinks it sees.
I hope these ramblings are of some help, I would strongly recommend that people give the dark green washes a try around areas that are north facing, damp i.e. near the ground, or where people rub.

Tim

 

[oldravendale]

Thank you Tim. That's so interesting in helping understand how you get the characteristics of the area so prototypical.

I'm really sorry to see that you found no use for F & B Elephants Breath

Brian

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

That’ll do for the time being: it’s a bit impressionistic, but then aren’t all models?

That's what it's all about - just enough detail to suggest - the viewers eyes and mind will fill in the rest.

Excellent modelling to create the bygone scene and it's good to see other painting and weathering techniques.

The final weathering was achieved with some feint washes of ‘London Stone’ to ‘bring the whole lot together’ and, most importantly, the use of ‘Dunkel grun’ washes to darken areas with rain run-off and add mosses & lichens.

On a pedant note it would have been unlikely mosses and lichens would take hold the buildings in the time period CF is portraying as they are sensitive to sulphur dioxide pollution. SO2 would have been quite high given the prevalance of steam locomotives, commercial and domestic coal fires. It's only since the 1956 and subsequent clean air acts we have noticed mosses and lichens in central urban areas. Pedant mode switched off .

 

[Tim Watson]

On a pedant note it would have been unlikely mosses and lichens would take hold the buildings in the time period CF is portraying as they are sensitive to sulphur dioxide pollution. SO2 would have been quite high given the prevalance of steam locomotives, commercial and domestic coal fires. It's only since the 1956 and subsequent clean air acts we have noticed mosses and lichens in central urban areas. Pedant mode switched off .

I fully agree regarding pollution and mosses, Dave, but there is always that background natural growth of algae and other species that will out, even in the harshest of environments. The effect on the buildings is quite noticeable, they look like representative models before the treatment, afterwards they look part of a scene. The dark green is actually pretty subtle, almost like an ‘invisible green’ and I doubt that anyone would notice unless it was pointed out.

Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

I'm really sorry to see that you found no use for F & B Elephants Breath

Brian

Having checked it out, Brian, I’d say it was within a squeak of ‘London Stone’. Their paints are very high quality (colours can be a bit posy, tho’) and the little tester pots are excellent for modelling.

Tim

 

[oldravendale]

That's a good description, Tim - posy! Must remember that. Mrs D loves the F & B stuff, though, so that's what we have. Well that and Little Green Paint Co. I keep threatening Dulux and that's enough to get me out of decorating.

Brian