Most of the scratchbuild structures on my layout are built from cardstock.
The train shed is framed in bass and balsa with mattboard side walls and a foamcore end. The stonework is SuperQuick paper. The parcels wing is mattboard covered with DAS, scribed to resemble granite blocks. The goods shed in mattboard and SuperQuick slate roofing. Inside the station the balcony and stairway railings are from Langley's fire escape etching. The Wyman's bookstall is a cut-down Ratio model.
Most of the structures currently comprising Penzance are temporary -- just to fill the gap. I'm working on a set of Langley Models structures, and plan to scratchbuilt a few others in the future.
Added October 9 -- Two Langley buildings are done -- The Railway Arms and the Police Station. The third, which will become Ravenstone Hobbies, is under construction. I'm really impressed with the quality of these kits. These are currently framed with two of Metcalfe's low relief shop/bank. You may recognize Fitzgerald's Bar on the right. Yeah, I know, it should be in Avoca, Ireland, but I just had to have it in my railway. I'm also planning to add a set of Langley houses.
The scenic background is also temporary -- it's German. I do have Vollmer's clouds and hope to have some digitized images of the real Penzance skyline to display.
Now in November I've finished Ravenstone Hobbies. Here are all three Langley buildings together. My next project is a set of terraced houses with front gardens. I plan to have one garden under renovation by the Ground Force team!
All of the structures are made from Metcalfe heavy brick cardstock, with assorted plastic windows, and other bits of odd castings, wood strips, etc. The roof of the coaling shed is actually a metal tape stuck on cardstock and scribed to resemble (loosely) corrugated metal.
The Penzance box at the station is scratchbuilt from mattboard with acetate windows. The Ponsendane box is the Hornby plastic kit with Metcalfe brick cardstock substituted for the plastic wood sheathing.
The turntable is the Peco kit with the addition of bridge sides from the Dapol turntable.
The baseboard is primarily a 2x4 open frame covered with 1/2" plywood and 1/2" homosote on top. It's about 30" deep along most of the length except by the station where it widen to 34". The fiddle yard is also 1/2" plywood and 1/2" homosote mounted on heavy-duty drawer slides. A simple nail-in-hole is used to align the tracks. There's a rotary switch to power individual tracks.
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