Platforms

The Platforms were made in situ because none of them are straight (just like in real life they have shuttle curves). I place a pencil on the side of a carriage and draw the clearance lines also checking the clearances near the point's ant the ends so loco's can be reversed around carriages. Then the height of the platform is calculated tacking in consideration the cork base under the track. Once this is done the basic frame is built up using thick foam board glued in place using a hot glue gun, which is excellent for tacking it into place and then checking clearances again. Reinforcement ribs are added being careful to think about where posts/canopy supports are going to be.

A standard brick arch was drawn up in AutoCAD and textured in Photoshop. These where then printed of in mass and for the visible platform edges I glued on cardboard version of the arches t give a better relief, but on the other edges I simple glued them in place.

The platform top is cut from a textured plastic (I used a paving slab version), I thought long and hard about how I was going to cut the shape and after I can up with a good idea. First I lightly glue down a piece of paper. Then I glue down the edge strips (still checking clearance) let that dry completely, and with a Sharpe knife cut out the paper. I taped this template on the sheets of plastic and cut around the edge. And glued it in place. I also filled the voids in the platform with scrapes of card and foam board to ad more strength to the platform surface. The whole top was painted with a dark grey and dry brushed with brown and black whilst wet (I find this makes a nice variant in the colour, as no surface is just one shade of grey).

I will get more photos when I build the last platform

Last Updated (Friday, 12 February 2010 10:53) Written by Calvin Streeting Saturday, 06 February 2010 01:38