Bernhards Random Ramblings BACKUP

 [ Untergroeningen posts ] [ part 1 ] I've constructed the station building shown in part 1 in Tinkercad , which is a very easy to use online 3D CAD tool. I know it mostly as a tool for users that want to send the resulting model to a 3D printer. Tinkercad makes exact sizing of the model very easy. Measurements of elements are readily accessible, and changing values is trivial. Developing a 3D model from photos and drawings is interesting. Especially the roof geometry remained a challenge, though at last I finally figured out what the geometry actually must have looked like, based on how the roof lines develop from the walls and what I can deduce from photos taken at eye level from the ground.  I didn't want to 3D-print the station building, but rather wanted to build a paper model. Much more economical than springing for a 3D-printer and filament. There are many instructions and tools to unwrap 3D models. Dedicated payware like Pepakura (Windows only), Unwrap3D, plugins to ...

 [ Untergroeningen posts ] [ part 10 ] The outbuilding is now completed. I added windows and added more weathering. This was a fun build and gave me confidence that I can tackle the larger challenge of scratchbuilding the main station building. If you want to read the whole story of constructing this outbuilding, start here .

 [ Untergroeningen posts ] With the outbuilding mostly completed, I'm starting to work on the station building of Untergroeningen. I have photos. I have an aerial photo . What I don't have are reliable measurements. I made drawings and a mockup from paper, but I felt that the building proportions were not quite right. A couple days ago, I started constructing the building in 3D from the drawings I made earlier. The idea is to replicate viewing angles I have as a photo and see what the 3D model would look like. This is not perfect, since lens distortion and other optical effects get in the way, but I'm hoping to get closer. Here's me first try. Not too shabby, but the proportions are indeed not quite right. I think I might have made the building a bit too deep, but it's hard to tell on the screen. If only I could make a paper model from the STL 3D model ...

 [ Untergroeningen posts ] [ part 9 ] We're coming close to the end of this build. The Outbuilding is basically done. It's missing only the windows and the foundation. The windows will come when I have decided whether to scratch-build, kitbash, or 3D-print them. The foundation will be part of the final installation in the Untergroeningen module, so will come at a later time. Meanwhile, I have completed the garage doors, added the gable barge boards, a venting pipe, downspouts, and the concrete "Schamwand" in front of the restroom doors. That wall likely used to be made from wood way back when the restrooms were built, and replaced with a concrete wall as the old wooden wall was falling apart. I assume the building got a refresh in the early seventies. Hence, the relatively new roof and mostly spotless garage door, too.  None of the prototype photos I have show the outbuilding in the early seventies, so I took some artistic license here. [ finale ]

 [ Untergroeningen posts ] [ part 8 ] It's time for the roof. I cut the roof from a Kibri sheet, air brushed with a mix of red, yellow, and brown and accentuated with a alcohol / india ink wash. The gutters are from an old Auhagen roof details set. I made the peeling green paint effect on the gutter with an Aquarell pencil. The gutters are a bit too long and will need a new end piece fitted later.  I always have some trouble determining the proper length of roof pieces, and often cut the first piece a little bit too short. Getting this right on the first try is not really that hard, but I usually only notice it when I glue the piece to the building. So far I've always managed to mostly disguise my inability of cutting properly sized roofs. Once the gable barge boards are fitted, you won't be able to tell that one roof sheet is a bit taller to make up for the shortness of the other one. [ part 10 ]

 [ Untergroeningen posts ] [ part 7 ] With the base color done, it was time for some detailing. I don't have the right colors to faithfully replicate the colors of the prototype, but I was after a believable brick structure that has some life in it. I experimented with various different approaches on a test piece -- visible behind the outbuilding in the photo below -- and then settled on a technique using Aquarell pencils. I first highlight individual bricks using various Aquarell pencil colors. Of course, the bricks are pretty small, so I usually hit more than one brick at once, and also don't color all the bricks. That's ok. I'm after variety here. For the color palette I chose various dark orange, red, and yellowish tones, as well as gray and black.  Once the bricks are highlighted and the Aquarells are dry, I flood the mortar lines with an alcohol-based wash made from ModelMaster Flat Cement, plus a couple drops dishwashing liquid. I apply the wash with a fine bru...

 [ Untergroeningen posts ] [ part 6 ] It's amazing how buildings get transformed once you paint them. This afternoon I airbrushed the outbuilding with Vallejo ModelAir Mud Brown (71-037) as a base color matching the base color of the engine shed. Once that was dry, I brushed a first coat of leather brown on the timbers. The colors are not where I need them to be, but I really like how the paint brings out the texture and character of the building. The garage doors are missing, hence the feature-less area behind the guy. [ part 8 ]

 [ Untergroeningen posts ] [ part 5 ] It's time for doors! Making straight cuts and filing 90 degree angles is surprisingly hard when the opening to be worked is only 3 mm by 6 mm and every tool at your disposal seems too big. In the end I managed, but this is pushing boundaries for me both in fine motor skills and eye sight. The door arches are cut from a sheet from The N Scale Architect . The sheet comes with several different arch styles. The bricks of the one I picked felt too long in comparison to a prototype photo, so I cut a slightly narrower arch. I shortened the arches so that they fit over the doors and pinned them in place with CA, so that I can mark the outline with a sharp knife. This would have been much easier had I not assembled the building already (Stop whining, Bernhard, you mentioned that previously). I used a cut-off disk in the Dremel tool to cut away most of the wall that was in my way. This looks much worse than it really was. After more cutting and filing...

 [ Untergroeningen posts ] [ part 4 ] The rough openings for doors and windows are now done. Making these cuts with the assembled building is difficult and messy. I used a combination of tools to make the cuts and clean them up, including a Dremel with the cutoff disk, an Xacto knife, the nibbler, and various needle files. When I build the main station building I will try very hard to not assemble the wall sections until all windows and doors are cut and installed. It's so much easier to do this work when the wall section can be put on a flat surface... I cut all the windows from the top edge of the wall section. There's a wooden beam that runs along the top edge of the wall that will disguise the cut. The doors to the bathrooms will get a masonry arch that still needs to be cut, so the door height as is is lower than the final arrangement. That will be the next step in this project, and is a good exercise to prepare for building similar arches in the station building. Below ...

[ Untergroeningen posts ] [ part 3 ] With the core of the building done, I cut and applied styrene brick sheets to get the texture I need. These sheets are from The N-Scale Architect . Despite the name, the company makes the sheets in HO and O scales as well. This is English bond brick sheet, which technically is not quite accurate for my needs, but much closer to the brickwork pattern used in Untergroeningen than the American bond or Flemish bond patterns. The German Wikipedia page about brick patterns calls the English bond "Blockverband", while what I need for Untergroeningen would be "Kreuzverband". I have not been able to find the "Kreuzverband" pattern as brick sheet. Thankfully, the two patterns are very similar, and most people won't notice the difference anyways, so the sheets I have are an acceptable substitute. After laminating the brick sheet to the core, I continued with representing the timbers of the wooden support structure of the pr...

 [ Untergroeningen posts ] [ part 2 ] With the drawings done and checked, it's time to go to the workbench and pull out the styrene. I first had to take care of and clean up a couple other projects that collected dust there. Once that was out of the way, I started with building the core of the outbuilding. The NWSL True Sander is very useful to get the edges straight and at ninety degree angle. Working on a glass tile helps with keeping the pieces aligned. [ part 4 ]

 [ Untergroeningen posts ] [ part 1 ] I finished the outbuilding drawing from yesterday, made copies and built a paper mock-up to verify appearance and scale. The proportions are slightly off from the original, but close enough that I'm not going to worry about it. I like how the building is coming together. I tested placement on the module. When I compared the photo below to photos from the prototype, the placement is a bit too close to the station building. However, there's enough space on the module to move the outbuilding a bit further away and still have plenty of space for the wooden shed from the prototype. [ part 3 ]

 [ Untergroeningen posts ] My next project is scratch-building the outbuilding at Untergroeningen station. As was common for lines built before and around the turn of the 19th century, the public restrooms were in a building separate from the main station building. In Untergroeningen, the building also includes what looks like a garage, or storage room. Vergessene Bahnen has several photos of the Untergroeningen station area and its author shared additional photos with me. Thank you, Herr Schruft! I'm using the photos to draw up plans for the building. The guiding idea here is to get the scale right in relation to the HO figure, and approximate the building outline and features as closely as possible. I have clear photos of three building sides. The right hand side is hidden in the shadows of the tree next to the building, so there's some guesswork involved. Next up is making copies of the drawings, putting together a paper prototype to put on the module, and checking scale i...

[ Untergroeningen posts ] I cut the styrofoam to match the platform shape visible in photos from 1973 in  Hermann Buernheim's book  "Wuerttembergische Eisenbahngesellschaft: Die Geschichte einer bedeutenden Privatbahn".  Using a very sharp knife helps to keep the mess under control. The pavement evenly rises from the paved-in track 1 to the side of track 2. However, contrary to later times, there is no platform edge, but rather the crest of the hump meets the steps of the WEG cars. The pavement slopes down to the rails of track 2. I would not be surprised if WEG crews actually shaped ballast under the asphalt to build up the platform. Once I was reasonably satisfied with the shape, I glued the styrofoam to the module with water-resistant wood glue. Next I coated the styrofoam with Scuptamold and filled the gaps between the styrofoam and the rails. I also started to build up the ground on the street side of track 1 where the station building is going to be, so that the gr...

Over the last few days I worked on a blueprint for the Untergroeningen station building based on Google Maps, and photos from the Web. Wikipedia Commons,  Eisenbahnfotograf and Vergessene Bahnen  proved to be particularly helpful. I finished a draft of the walls tonight, made a copy and taped them together. Below is my rendition of the street side photo at the link on Vergessene Bahnen. Of course, the (somewhat complicated) roof is still missing. Here's an overview as seen from the aisle with the locomotive shed mock up in the background. Quite attractive. Here's a shot similar to the lead photo on the post from last weekend . The angle isn't quite right, the lens is too high, and I should be "standing" between tracks 2 and 3, instead of tracks 1 and 2. However, what can be seen of the building and the overall arrangement matches quite nicely with my version.

[ Untergroeningen posts ] Tonight I got two walls mapped out for the Untergroeningen station building. These are drawn in HO scale. Track 1 runs in front of the loading ramp on the left. With the photo from Vergessene Bahnen I no longer need to wing it for the street side view, but can produce a fairly accurate drawing next. And the street side of the building is indeed half-timbered. This is exciting.

[ Untergroeningen posts ] Tonight I spent some time on figuring out what the roof structure of Untergroeningen station looks like. I used the satellite view of Google Maps for guidance, and filled in a couple gaps from photos. Based on my crude measurements off Maps, the building is 17 meters long and 8m wide on the one side, 9m on the storage area side.

I spent yesterday and today on turning a 8x4' sheet of flooring plywood into a nice, sturdy workbench.