Rendering model buildings

Some of the buildings are rendered with much the same stuff as a real building - plaster. 

The material

Normal Polyfilla is used, simply because it is readily available and is easy to use. It is spread onto model with an artist’s palette knife, not particularly small as it needs to carry up to half a teaspoon of filler.

The method 

If required, use masking tape to protect areas, spread the filler thinly like butter. 

This is an ideal model to learn the process, the Wills SS30 Barn is cheap and easy to find. One consideration is the paint the building before applying the filler, it is easier to remove the wet filler than the paint from the dry filler. 

First photo

Once applied, let the filler harden for at least 24hrs

Second photo

Smooth the filler with rough abrasive paper until the necessary finish is achieved. Please note I had forgotten to paint the building…..

Third photo

Apply a wash of a suitable dilute water colour, I use yellow ochre to replicate lime or sandstone. Weather the entire building with a dusting of off-white poster colour powder, WW Scenics offer Desert Yellow. 

A loco shed

Other than the station, the other major railway building is the locoshed, the first is a simple single road wooden shed from MBZ

 

 

And another half-timbered shed that was rebuilt from a very old Pola kit 

  

 

 

 

The locoshed has a small coaling stage and a water crane.

 

Details such as a water tap outside the locoshed and inside the lean-to

 

 

 

The water crane is a Spitzner type, copied from the examples that once stood at Kempten, Bad Neustadt and similar to the one at Miltenberg

Grey Primer

 

98 812 receives water in the morning at Bad Neustadt station to be prepared for the next (return) trip to Königshofen, on 01.07.1968.

 

Older style, unknown location, possibly Endorf
 

 Some inspiration was gatherered from the old loco shed at Kößlarn as that branchline shared many features with other Bayerische nebenbahnen. The loco shed was at the opposite end of the station yard and was surrounded on three sides by long grass, it still survives despite being abandoned by the DB.

 

The cottage

On the latest version of Pottendorf there is a small cottage for the farmworker, it has a couple of fruit trees, vegetable garden and chicken coop.

 

The Faller cottage has a vague similarity to the Häcker family house from Ergersheim preserved as building 12 at the Fränkische Freilandmuseum in Bad Windsheim. Rather scratchbuilding maybe just the removal of the lower level of fachwerke?

 

Adding the Polyfilla render

These archive images show the original building and its original proportions.

The building is a timberframe built around 1706 and an external stucco finish on the lower section of the walls .

Link to the museum's description click here and in the book below. 

 

The cottage, below is a new kit that was reworked. There really wasn’t too much scope the lengthen the building as the sub-base of the scene is finished but it has lost the fachwerk (timber framing) below the top of the ground floor windows. It has been carefully stipled with AK Interactive Terrains acrylic, a texture normally used for roads etc.

I am fine with its actual size although it is about 30% too short compared to the Häcker family house but all other dimensions are 1:87 moreover buildings of this size were once common until the '70s when living in a two down one up became unacceptable. 

 

Although unfinished, the result will be acceptable

 

 

 At the bottom of the cottage garden, there are some chickens

 

Tim

Goods for Pottendorf

Timber 

The goods traffic is based on a small terminus in Oberfranken, logs were loaded in the yard. The sidings would have been used for shifting other actual local products, timber but 50 years ago loading was achieved with ingenuity and man power as the only methods. 

 

A few choice images:-

 

 

 

64 031 with exUSATC wagon on the branch
 

 

 This is the Preiser Hanomag R55

 

Type: Hanomag R55 Build: 1955. HP: 55. Weight: 3600 kg. Hanomag R55.

Scenery

Fränkische Schweiz, the hills and the valleys 

Pottenstein Castle

Around the region

 

Trees  

 

 

Trees make all the difference to a layout, they add height, interest and structure. There are over ten trees available to Pottendorf, most made by MBR. They will be 'planted' in groups of three (one large, two small) with the last single tree behind the barns and hiding the exit.

Two of the smaller trees in the farmyard

 

 

Rocks 

 Fränkische Schweiz is famous for its rocky outcrops such as Pottenstein at the top of the page or little rocks at the side of a field.

 

This is my rock, just after it was given a base coat of matt white

 

The same rock after a simple treatment

 

It has received a thin wash of Yellow Ochre watercolour mixed with some matt medium and water. The wash is migratory and runs into all the crevices, whilst scenic scatter is added because nature will encroach every where.

  

For comparison, these were the rocks on the previous version of P'dorf

 

 

And these are the rocks on the new P'dorf, please note that they need a great deal more work. There is total of 100cm of rocks available to use and they certainly add a feature that defines the location as Fränkische Schweiz.