Thursday, November 20, 2014

A House in Your Hand

To some of you, the title of this post will seem familiar – most likely because like me, you supported Andy Vaughan’s project on Kickstarter (here).   Now I have no connection with Andy other than being one of the supporters as I thought the idea he had was a good one and deserved to be turned into reality.

Yesterday, my collection of etches arrived.  I had put in for the Village in a Box option along with the sheds as an extra so 11 packets arrived in a parcel with some 3mm MDF packets to protect from the posties along the way.  Worked a treat – no bent items in the set.

For those playing at home, I got 1x Kit 4, 8x Kit 7 and 1x Kit 9 along with 1x Kit 11.  I had suggested the Church (aka Kit 8) but the one Andy designed didn’t really suit any of my modelling plans.  To be honest, the rural nature of most of the kits didn’t really suit either but St Alban’s Priory’s row of terrace houses is in need of refreshing, the shop I have opposite them needs replacing owing to a broken roof and the original Manor House on the layout could do with a refresh too so I was able to find places for all of the Village in a Box options which I selected – I’m going to adapt my Kit 7s into a terrace as they seem a bit small for semi-detached to me and the 8 won’t fit unless I join them up!

Since I got them and I didn’t have any work to do last night (marking season at the school where I teach is going to hit this weekend!) I got stuck in and made up the two sheds.  Andy’s instructions are for using glue but I soldered mine.  No dramas were encountered and I’ll let the photos tell the story.

Severn Models N11 (7)

The kits all came in envelops with a picture of the finished examples on the outside.  The written instructions are generic and there is an exploded diagram on the obverse to show you what to do.  The kits are very simple and well thought out so using the pictures to build them shouldn’t cause too many problems.  The written part is a list of suggested tools, comments about safety (brass edges are sharp – that sort of stuff) and so on – nothing unusual or different about them for those with experience in the medium.

Severn Models N11 (20)

After about an hours work including cleaning it all up with my Dremel, this is what you have.  The door and windows are fairly flush – just the thickness of the brass behind.  To get them positioned correctly I tack soldered them from the front then turned it over to finish them off.  I didn’t fold up the box (as shown in the diagram under the finished model) until after this step.  I made sure it was square and then put a bead down each corner to maintain the rigidity.  Fitting the roof required a third hand because of angles but once I had two corners done, the rest was easy.  Barge boards are on the ends – they are quite small and I thought here we go but 3 out of the 4 went on with no trouble – naturally the one which was temperamental was the last!

Severn Models N11 (27)

I had only meant to do the one shed last night but since it went together so well and so quickly, I did the other one as well.  The window on the second has a fold up window sill with helped with the positioning of it.

Both kits have a couple of short comings – no guttering nor down pipes and I am pretty sure the brick one at least should have a chimney.  These are going to be added.  The timber one is going to become the fodder store on Swallow’s End (long time readers will remember this is my “stalled” 2mm Finescale Plank – however… stay tuned!) and I think the wood one might end up as a gangers hut or a coal office on same.

All things being equal I’ll get some brass bits and pieces on the weekend to put the guttering and what not on and then paint.

Now to start on the rest!

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