Having got over that attempt and prompted in part by this old photo (click here), I decided to have another go. This time I’ve gone for No 28 Elizabethan Cottages which was probably the first of the models I made as a young teenager. During this process I realised once again that at 12 years old I must have been a much better modeller than I thought because this was devilishly hard to put together and has taken me the best part of a week.
I’ve made quite a few mistakes and the resulting building is rather crooked (perfect for a crooked man, cat and mouse to reside in). I decided to leave off the chimney assembly because it looked rather tricky and anyway would undoubtedly come tumbling down the first time I reached across the table to move some troops.
I’m not planning on making another one for a while.
17 comments:
Very nice, perhaps the Faller models are not so tricky now?
Rob - you may have a point!
Very effective looking - I remember doing something similar for my old train set (well actually it was mainly Dad but I did help with the cups of tea!)
It's built a lot better than the one I did in 1979.
I can't quite remember - can this set be used as two separate cottages, or do they have to built as a terrace like that?
Matt - I was trying to remember but I don't think my Dad helped me with mine, God knows how I managed to put it together!
WM - these have to be built together, there used to be a separate cottage in the range as far as I remember. This one is not in production now so this kit came from eBay.
Card buildings are daunting and fall into the category of DIY around the home. If you do repairs abd improvements a lot you get used to it, assemble the right kit and all the little dodges and helps. If you do it infrequently it becomes lije the handyman sketch on the Kenny Everett show. I find this patricularly accurate with anything to do with glue. PVA wont hold and slides around, whereas supeglue is only good at joining thumbs to index fingers. This even goes for modern MDF cut out buildings.mI craftily prepared some by pre gluing the crenellated joints with PVA ready to just slip them i
together. Then I found the glue had swollen the joints and they would not fit! A nightmare.
Your effort looks absolutely fine...taje pride.
Roy - these card buildings would test anyone's modelling skills, presumably they called them SuperQuick as a joke!
That’s a lovely little building...
Like many, I remember building them in my youth... I think I used UHU glue or something similar... most of it ended up on the outside of the thing....
Going by what is available for ‘download ‘ card buildings are still quite popular.
All the best. Aly
That has turned out to be a very nice building Ian, I like it. I remember seeing these in model railway shops, I'm guessing it's all MDF these days? I had a go at making my own card buildings back in the day, I guess late 70's to use with my then ECW armies (Hinchliffe and Minifigs), I used heavy 300gram watercolour paper, drew out the buildings with those little folding bits for glueing and then painted them with watercolours, mostly half timbered. I was quite proud of them at the time, they took ages. I think when the figures later went to John Tunstil at 'Soldiers' in Kennington the buildings went in the bin. Great to see these Ian.
Aly - I think I probably used 'Bostik' which is all I would have had available in 1970!
Lee - this is an original card model from eBay as this design is no longer in production. SuperQuick still make some of the kits and they are all cardboard - no MDF!
Now is not the time to give up on SuperQuick. I made some a few years ago for a new OO train layout. The first one is slow progress but once you get used the instructions and using many Bulldog clips a rhythm develops and they take less time to assemble.
I used balsa wood rather than assemble the chimney for the roofs.
Well Ok, I'll give it another go as I have one more model left!
It might be worth having a look at the European Buildings book in the Peter Dennis series of paper soldier books. They are scaled for 28mm but as you photocopy them from the book onto card it is easy to reduce them and once you have invested in the book the buildings are, in the words of the Orange Duke, “cheap as chips”
You make a wonderful building like that in a week and reckon that it's not very good? It is bloody superb! Do more Ian!!
Thanks James, I do have one more SuperQuick house and also an Airfix Windmill to make but I may have a break from buildings for a while!
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