Construction of the station building Part II

Small update. I have cut out window frames and roof from foam underlay floor sheets. The window frames stick out about 5 mm. so they come at the same level as the concrete plaster when applied. At first I tried to make the frames as straight and neat as I could but I gave up on this along the way. Some imperfect window and door frames could give it a bit of dilapidated look that I like more than a neat and perfect building. Lets see if this work.

I forgot to cut out the holes in the roof for the solar lights. That must be done later, when the glue has dried.

-o-

The little mansion

The little mansion was build around 2012 for my previous garden railway. 
It was my first building using styrofoam covered with a cement / concrete mixture and in fact it formed the base for my later buildings that were constructed in the same way. It was a very nice learning process. The building itself was loosely inspired to mid-European countryside houses, like those in the Ardennes / Elzas regions.

The construction does not differ much from the little lineside building so I won't good too deep in the details. I'll just mention the differences and some techniques I used, like the roof ornament.

At the bottom of the article you will find some pictures of the condition the mansion in February 2019, some 7 years after it was build and in which the building was outside all year round.

Construction

The first main difference is that I used much thicker pieces of styrofoam which make the base very solid. Here you can see some pictures of the very start of the mansion.

Base formed by styrofoam blocks and sheets

Applying the first layer

The stonework pattern of the walls was scribed in the half-dry layer of concrete mixture using all sorts of high tech tools, like an old screwdriver, a rusty nail, a piece of iron wire, tooth sticks or whatever else I could find and worked well. It was a lot of fun to do and you hardly can go wrong. But if you somehow do, just erase the scribe line with your finger gently and try again. 

Window sills, corner stones, settings, foundation stones and several the stones were painted in different kinds of grey to give it more variation and detail.  I used acrylic hobby paint from the DIY store. 

A plastic funnel that had the right size and from which the tube was cut of, was used as base for the tower roof. On the plastic I used a thick layer of construction glue to shape into roof tiles. This works about the same as scribing in the walls stonework, though you have to work a bit quicker as the glue dries faster. I also used a thick layer of construction glue on the main roofs, applied on the dry layer of concrete. The roof was painted dark grey and lines between the tiles were accentuated using black paint.

Stonework

Painting

Funnel and balsa bridging roof

Construction glue used for roof tiles

For the construction of the window frames I used (balsa)wood. This later turned out to be NOT a good choice, weatherproof wise. This is the same for the little bridging roof between the main roof and the tower, which base was made from 2 pieces of balsa. I'll come back on this further below.

The windows were not really cut out like the line-side building, but there was a rectangular space left open at the places were the windows were planned, as you can see on the picture below. 

The styrofoam in the window openings was painted black. Between the window frame and the styrofoam a thin transparent sheet of plastic was placed as glazing. Curtains were painted on the inside of the glazing using the acrylic paint.

Construction of the windows

The chimney was made from a piece of styrofoam, glued with construction glue to the roof. Stonework was scribed in a layer of concrete. Two plastic tubes formed the smoke channels.

Chimney

The roof ornament on the tower roof was formed by a piece of iron wire stuck in the top and three nice looking beading beads that were later painter black.

Roof ornament from beading beads

On both sides the roof got a roof molding made from styrene plastic and a piece of wooden 4x4 mm strip, painted with acrylic paint. This covered up the styrofoam at the roof sides, but looked a bit out of scale.

Roof moldings

Situation 2012

And the three pictures below shows was the building looked like when just finished in 2012, on the old layout:

 

 And be aware that this building was outside, the whole year round, year after year...

Situation 2019

And the pictures below shows how it looks like in February 2019, seven years later.
Although it looks nice from a distance a closer look quickly reveals several damages.
Some damages are caused by moving to another home but most of it was caused by weather influences. But besides the damages the overall condition of the building is not bad, considering it is outside the whole year!

Damaged roof and windows but overall not too bad

Some windows still in place

The most to be expected damages were the parts made from balsa wood. Almost all the balsa window frames came loose and disappeared or have rotten away. Some styrofoam chipped away at the bottom of the roof, above the windows, most likely due to transport. But the walls still look great!

Damaged and disappeared window frames

Not surprisingly the small balsa based bridging roof was damaged too. The balsa was completely gone. However, the ridge of this roof (sculpted from construction glue when the roof was still in place) still holds up, while the balsa is all gone!

The construction glue applied on the funnel that formed the base of the tower roof is peeling off.

The styrofoam from the chimney has partly disappeared. It became a bit hollow...

The walls that were on the north side turned green nicely. I actually don't mind the look of it.
The smoke channels from the chimney are gone. Both doors were made from styrene and looks still very neat. The acrylic paint on parts and roof has not faded. Some paint chipped off at the underside of the roof (where it was painted directly on the styrofoam). 

Love the look of the aged wall

Little damage above the door. Still the stonework looks great!

Some valuable lessons were learned during the build of this house but also seven year later while evaluating its condition.
- Balsa wood is going to be absolutely out of the question for other buildings; better use styrene instead;
- the concrete / cement mixture on styrofoam is a very endurable construction;
- details in the concrete (stonework etc) are still in good condition;
- parts made from styrene holds up very nice;
- the acrylic paint keeps it color reasonable well, especially on the stonework;
- the construction glue keeps up great when applied on the concrete but peels of from the plastic parts.
  
Somewhere this year I will gave this building some well deserved overhaul. Actually, I guess when I had bothered to do a quick check-up once a year with some little maintenance this building would have been in a better condition. So the final lesson: check and maintain on regular base prevent a lot of work later!  Just like an ordinary house ;-)

Construction of a small lineside building

A small lineside building

I have builded this little lineside building out of styrofoam sheets (from package material) and
covered it with a ' concrete'  mixture. The building has a solar powered LED as interior light.

Walls and roof

The walls and roof are made from styrofoam packaging material. I made a quick and somewhat vague sketch in my railway notebook that served as a 'building plan'. I used a figure (Torrence) as measure for the door (I found the standard LGB figures somewhat tiny and I like to sculpt my own figures).
I used woodglue (for outdoor use). Wooden tooth-sticks are used to reinforce the attached parts. The building was testfitted on the desired spot on the layout to see how it would appear.

Construction of walls

Right on the spot!

Concrete

When everything looked fine, the glue dried and the openings for the windows and door were cut out, I applied a 5 - 10 mm thick layer of 'concrete' on the walls. This concrete was a mixture of Portland cement and fine sand. The layer gives the walls a plastered appearance and also reinforce the walls.
When the layer is dried out a bit you can easily (but carefully) remove excess concrete using a knive. When dried completely you can do this by using an old chisel or file or some sandpaper.
The concrete is water resistant and weather proof. My buildings are normally out in the garden all year round.

Concrete layer

When wet you can scribe some details in the layer (like I did on the mansion and the shop) but I kept it straight forward without any scribed in details. I will apply some corner stones later, using 2 component putty.

It seems Torrence have to go somewhere...

Solar powered interior light

Next I made a square hole in the roof for installing a little solar panel. It comes from a cheap solar garden lantern. The top of the lantern houses the panel, the electronics including an on/off switch and the battery.
I always prefer so called "warm-white" LED's because the "white" ones give such a cold and almost blue shade of light which I found very unrealistic. These are also not easy to tone done or to 'color' to a more normal light shade.
Cheap garden lights are a very nice source for indoor lights but have often the white LED's. So make sure the box mentions 'warm white', or if possible check it in the store.  

Solar powered LED unit

I replaced the wires to the battery holder with longer wires. The unit will be fixed in the roof and if I kept the original wires it will be difficult to replace the battery when needed because it will be still in the building. Replacing the battery will be difficult because of the limited space for my hands (actually only my fingers) in the building. With longer wires I can pull this section out of the building (through the open underside) and replace the battery outside the building with more space for my hands.

Extended wires and testing the LED

The solar panel was fixed in the roof using woodglue. Next a layer of concrete was applied in which I scribed in lines to resemble roof tiles.

Solar panel in place

Rooftiles

The rooftiles are made actually not only by scribing in some lines but also gently cutting / carving away some concrete surface in a way a nice relief is created. As if the upper part of a tile is covered by the lower part of the tile above.

Step 1; scribe in lines

Step 2; creating relief

Step 3; vertical lines

Chimney

A small chimny was created out of a piece of plastic rod. It was stick in the almost hardened concrete using a tooth stick again as reinforcement. A chimney stone (which reinforce the chimney even more and almost makes it toddler proof) was made from 2 component putty.

Chimney

Door and windows

The door and window are made from stryrene strips glued with plastic modellers glue. This will make a fairly strong and weatherproof part. I have had some bad experiences with using wood for these parts in the past.
Transparent plastic was placed behind the window openings. You can choose to use a clear transparent plastic or a somewhat blurry plastic which don't show the interior of the building but will let the light through.

Construction of windows from styrene strips

Painting and finishing

I first painted the walls in color I liked for this building. After I applied 2 layers the paint covered the concrete enough. I used 2 component putty from Bison to sculpt some stones in the corners.
The waterproof grey Bison putty smells terrible and dries very fast.
Actually I prefer to use Milliput putty which is also waterproof but almost odourless and finer of structure. It takes longer to dry giving you all the time to work on.
However I did not have it at hand at the time and Bison is easy to obtain at any DIY store.

Painted and stones in the corners

Roof and stones where painted in grey and the door and windows in a fresh green color. This all contrasts very nice but subtle with the walls.

I used a turpentine based paint for the walls because I had it left over from a home decorating job decades ago... Door, windows, chimney and cornerstones were painted with acrylic hobby paint, also obtained at a DIY store. For the roof I used grey wood-stain paint (also a left over) which gives it a very nice slightly weathered look and accentuate the tiles.

Door painted using acrylic hobby paint

   

Door handle made from styrene bits

Treshold painted in same color as door

Roof and chimney painted

Done!

The building looks very in place on the layout and blends in with the rest. It is placed on a concrete base and some small crawling plants keeps it company on both sides.
Perhaps I can ad some sign on it but for now it is just as I hoped it would be.
When darkness falls the LED turns on spreading a nice warm glow through the windows and the small door window.

Constructing the railway III - Ballasting

A little help is always welcome...

Ballasting

After all the work on the trackbed was complete I started ballasting the tracks. The method I used is very common I guess. I used a dry mix of 1 part portland cement - 1 part sand - 3 parts gravel.
I used a similar mix on my former garden railway. Although I always thought that ballasting (and fixing) the track this way was a one time thing (rail fixed in place and not removable anymore). But when braking down that railway because of moving to another house I noticed the ballast applied in this way was actually reasonable easy to remove and (most, not all) the track could be salvaged and re-used. 

Making the gravel mix. Do not add water in this stage!  Add water only after applying the dry mix in place!

1 part portland cement - 1 part sand - 3 parts gravel

Pour the dry gravel mix over the tracks and brush it nicely in place between the sleepers so that the rails is free from any ballast hindering smooth running of the trains.

Track in place

Spreading the dry gravel mix

Brush the ballast in place

Use a spraycan with to wet the concrete mix

As last step I sprayed water on the ballast to apply water to the mix so it can harden and cure. Little corrections can be made in this stage easily. Keep a small suply of gravel mix at hand for this.

Adding a drip of detergent (dish-soap) to the water breaks the surface tension of the water and helps the water to flow / mix with the gravelmix more easely. Don't use too much detergent, just a drip is fine. Using too much detergent can cause green oxide on the tracks.

End result

Alternative mixes

Off course it is possible to adjust the mix to your own needs. Just try out what works best for you. For instance, using 1 color of gravel will give a different appearance than using several shades of color (as in my ballast). 
Also it is possible to add some soil or peat to the gravel mix, or to press some soil or peat in the ballast when it is not cured yet. This will result in mosses and little weeds growing (faster) in the ballast which can give a nice atmosphere of a somewhat neglected rural railroad. Some (like me) will like it, others will prevent it.