Can of Peas

Canopies...

Well the original building I based the station building  on, West Worthing,  in the fifties had a double canopy at the front, and as of present day, it only retains the single canopy over the main entrance at the top of the steps -  the gabled canopy over the steps having long gone:

Image courtesy of google maps

So I decided to model it as it is now, being as the model is based loosely at the end of steam and the beginning of Diesel, those terrible denizens of railway bureacracy having decided to strip out the more ornate aspects of Victorian ironmongery.

Having looked at the prototype, it looks like there's only a single canopy bracket in the centre of the wall, so I began by scratch building the framework from Evergreen Microstrip having made a printed template and laying each part over said template, trimming to fit.

In this not great photo, you can see the canopy bracket and the  supporting framework made from 1mm square styrene strip. I sprayed these with primer before gluing to the structure.

The framework was next, and at this stage the canopy was starting to take shape. Further sections of 1mm square styrene were added at intervals for the supporting structure, glued at either end of slotted into place

I then painted the framework cream in preparation to add glazing

Glazing was then added in a single piece, and sections of 10thou x1mm strips were glued on to represent glazing bars.

At this point I realised that I was going to run out of microstrip for the glazing bars, so in tis photo, although you can't really see it, there are two bars missing.

Next stage is to make a valance and weather it all - its all looking a bit too clean -so watch this space....

In addition to canopy work, I've also added a few downpipes to the front. Additional downpipes are waiting until I finish the canopy...

Forgive me Blogger, for I have Sinned...

...It has been 7 weeks since my last Blog-session...

...but then again, I have been rather busy on other non-model related activities..

Right, Where were we?

Yes, the infamous never ending station building...

After a couple of false starts regarding the colouring and the roof warping, I've finally got something I'm happy with and I could start with fitting the windows back in. The technique was still the same with regards to the frame, but this time I decided to paint the windows rather than just leave them plain white (having since found out that white pigment was hard to come by in the late 50s/60s)

Once I'd constructed the 3 ply frames out of self adhesive cut vinyl, I then treated them to an undercoat of the Pound Shop's finest grey primer (the vinyl it impossible to paint on untreated) Once dry they had a couple of coats of Humbrol cream acrylic for the inner frame, then with a 000 brush painted the outer frames with crimson. They need a bit of touching up here and there, and a wash of grime to take away the "just painted" look, but I'll do that later under the final touches stage.

The windows were then fixed to a piece of 1.5mm acrylic (beautifully clear and scratch-free). A bit on the chunky side, but as the interior is not modelled or seen, it isn't really an issue.
These were then superglued in from the reverse, not without the usual issues of getting glue where it shouldn't or even your intrepid protagonist managing to stick his fingers fast to the roof... luckily I managed to extracate myself with only the minimal damage of losing one roof tile. I also managed to do the same thing with the trackside wall and pulled some paint off when unsticking myself... darn it!

so, it's almost done...

Just the chimney pots, the downpipes and the canopies to sort, and then I can start on the platforms....