Beautiful!

i always wonder if the drafting and design takes on a new whole dimension in the hobby when working with a laser. What you have done is clearly well thought out and looks representative of stations of the period (if it isn't patterned after a real location). 

The cost of the laser seems to put these ideas out of my head but I love the design portion if there are guys out there willing to work with me on line weights, colors, or whatever is used to control the strength of the laser. 

It never occurred to me that even the roofing could be done this way - awesome. Add the fancy cut shingles and layered double hung windows and you have created a beauty. 

Neil Erickson, Hawaii

Excellent work. First

Excellent work. First attempt? imagine what things will look like after you get good!

Is This An Outdoor Railway?

Your models look like real life!

New station at Tumbelle

I figured that I would move this section to a new comment so it doesn't appear at the top of every page.

The latest progress on the R&T is the new station at Tumbelle. As some of you know, I've recently bought a laser cutter and am having a blast with it. The first real "thing" I have created for the layout using it is the station.

Pretty much the whole thing is "lasered" out of chipboard and MDF, bricks, clapboard, shingles and windows.

More on this later.

Thanks guys

Neil

The laser certainly isn't an inexpensive toy, at least for me, but I've always wanted one. All my design work is done in CorelDRAW, and as far as laser control, there is a program called Retina Engrave that comes with the machine that lets you set the speed and power of the laser beam and setting up jobs for both raster and vector cutting.

Rob

I always suspected that a laser and I would get along well... only took 5 grand to prove it!!

Mustangok

Nope. The railway is definitely in my basement, if it were outside there would be a whole bunch more snow on it right now.

The next building takes shape

After my initial success with the station at Tumbelle, I decided to move right on to one of the smaller buildings in town. It's a small commercial structure (possibly residential on the upper floor) that sits on a street to the west of the station.

I figure I'd show you all how I accomplish things over here on the R&T.

The building started with several rough sketches. I try to get the proportions as close as possible on these. Once I have one that I like:

I start to draw it to scale in CorelDRAW.

This tells me exactly how big the thing is going to be as well as the overall proportions. I use this drawing as the basis for wall drawings, with brick, to send to the laser as well as the artwork for the windows.

This is one of the two window drawings, ready for the laser cutter.

If there is room, I usually fill the "sprue" with extra windows. You can always use them in other buildings.

Here are the basic windows. The sheet with the "glass" still has to be inserted into the frames to complete the windows.

Seeing as how I haven't really lasered anything brick yet I did a few test pieces to get the feel of it.

Here is the first wall I finished:

It turned out not to bad. I managed to goof a smidge on the size of the bricks, however, and I wasn't quite happy with the way the mortar lines looked so... Round two.

I'm happier with this one. I experimented with beating up the wall a bit before cutting the bricks to see if I could impart the look of older bricks that have seen better days. I think I may have overdone it a bit to the left of the lower window. Oh well, it's a good place for a sign.

Gonna' start work on the front of the structure this evening, if there's time. The other sides of the building aren't seen so they'll just be blank walls. I don't like to waste time on things that nobody will ever see.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

Wow

Great opening picture of #28 and beautiful design and modeling work. Looks like  michaelrose55 has some compitition in the laser fabrication area. Nice to see more creative modelers getting involved with the technology.

Yes, indeed ...

... it looks like you got the "hang of things" pretty darn quick!  Very nice work.  Thanks for sharing.  

The project continues

Thanks guys.

I've cut out all the parts I need to finish the building and have started to assemble them

The basic walls:

a close up of the "fancy" front of the building:

I had enough time tonight to glue the walls together, I'll rub some plaster powder into the remaining mortar lines tomorrow when everything is dry and work on assembling the windows.

Rick, you are doing beautiful

Rick, you are doing beautiful work!

I Like It

Great structures, Rick.  I'm enjoying following this.

A slight bit forward

Thanks Michael, high praise indeed coming form "Mr. Laser" (I'm sorry if that sounds like a Bond villain)

And thank you Rob, I always enjoy your blog. I think we have a similar outlook on the hobby, Namely; none of your models have to be perfect and super detailed, but if they all have a similar "feel" and work well together they can portray a layout as stunning as the WP.

I had a few moments to rub some plaster dust into the walls this afternoon and I think I learned something. One the first wall I lasered the brick and then went about colouring things. On the subsequent walls I thought I would try spraying the MDF a brick colour first and then splotching on some random variations with acrylics before I rastered the brick. I was concerned that doing something different with these walls would make it impossible to match the first one I did... but luckily these sort of "common sense" concerns pass quickly with me!

It worked a charm!

Now the plaster "mortar" sticks in the newly cut MDF, with great tenacity, and washes off the face of the brick, now sealed, readily. I managed to get the same look as the first wall without having to wipe off the surface of the brick carefully and repeatedly.

Here's the front of the building:

If I were to do it again I would take the time to paint some of the edges of the laser cut pieces a brick colour before I glued them on. (what can I say, I'm impatient) It is not very apparent in real life but it seems to show up rather drastically in photos.

When I cut out the three pilasters for the front of the building I made them taller than I thought I needed, they are taller that the first sketch I did. But as I was assembling structure I liked the look of the pilasters crowning well above the top of the building. This looks good from the front, but from the side...

They seem to thin for me. They would work out to a 6" thick wall about 24" high which might be prototypical for something that is entirely cosmetic but it looks weird to me. I think I need to make them deeper.

Any suggestions?

Also, if you look closely at the last photo you will see that the mortar lines on the front of the building do not line up with those of the side. This is not the fault of the laser, or the guy who drew up the files (me) but the guy who glued the building together, late at night. (also me) Luckily the building is near the back of the layout, behind another structure so... Good enough.

Anyway...

I've some windows to assemble...

adn I od taht bteter tahn I tpye.

Brick at the top...

This page shows lots of thin brick at the top of structures.

http://www.texasescapes.com/SouthTexasTowns/EaglePassTexas/EaglePassTx.htm

This one is from: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/small-subtractions-and-big-addition-at-puck-building/?_r=0

Search for "parapet", "battlement", & "merlon"

Also check some drawings here:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=parapet

I think I would just thicken them up by one layer on the backside. - which could just be a concrete slab.

Thanks Bill

Thanks for the pics.

I tend to think out loud when I post stuff... Instead of just Goggling it. Your post was most helpful.

I learned a new word. "crenelation" .

I might make the offending bits a tad thicker, just to make me happy, or... I just might leave it, and if anybody asks about it I'll tell them to study up on masonry crenelation during the turn of the century.

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.

words to live by...

lol!

Starting to take shape now

Getting close to the end of this project. The walls are basically finished, need to put some tar paper and flashing on the roof yet, not going to get to fussy about this as you can't see much of the roof once the building is in place.

Still want to add a few small details yet, some more signage and some flowers in the window box.

I used the laser to cut out stencils for the painted signs, I think it turned out well. What could look more like a sign painted on brick than a sign actually painted on. I've used this technique in the past but cutting out the stencils with an Exacto knife was mind numbingly tedious, the laser took about a minute and a half!

ttt

Parapet Pilasters

I have been enjoying following your thread as well. Aside from having a natural sense of architecture, these are just nice models. What you are doing still fascinates me. 

This brick columns would have been "double width" or about a foot deep so another layer would do the the trick. 

Neil Erickson, Hawaii

You know how lucky you are to

You know how lucky you are to model in On30? Try doing the same in N scale...

Thanks

I think I will thicken up the tops of the pilasters a bit, but not right now, I have to finish setting up for an operating session later this afternoon.

Michael, you were always in the back of my mind when I was contemplating buying the laser. I figured, hey, if Michael can do it in N scale, I should stand half a chance of accomplishing something in O scale.

Outstanding modeling

Rick,

Your work is outstanding.  I am completely awed by it.  I hope you post the finished building in the layout setting. You and your laser make a great team.  Thank you for sharing.

Jim Scofield

"Finished"

The building is basically finished now. I want to build some simple interior details to place in front of some of the windows so the structure doesn't look derserted, and add some lighting yet.

Here it is in place on the layout:

There will be a similar type of building that will run from the left side of this one back to a series of flats along the backdrop. I need to fill in the scenery between the side and the track yet, and ballast that bit.

The building in the foreground is "Morningwood Organs" One of the railway's customers in Tumbelle. It is just a paper mock-up right now.

Nice Looking

That building has a nice look to it.  I like the subtle detailing, not overdone.

Installed the interior today

Was a short day at work today so Decided to whip up some interior scenes for the hardware store. These "interior boxes" are rather crude, giving just enough detail so the rooms don't look empty. Especially when lit up at night.

Most of the details are just paper textures and photos downloaded from the internet. I usually glue these things together quickly using hot glue as I am anxious to see the finished building.

The lighting is pretty crude as well. I spend little time on things that won't be seen.

I squirt a bit of black caulking into a syringe and use it to fill around the windows so no light leaks out between the window frame and wall.

Here is the store in place:

And here it is all lit up at night:

Other than installing a smoke jack somewhere on the roof, I'm going to call this one done.

It's a beaut