Bomen Station –construction part 3

A modern view from Bomen station looking north - compare this with the picture on my last post. There have been a lot of changes with the signalling, and track arrangement.  But even this picture has some details that can be useful for the 1970s - the lineside poles for instance.

Finishing off the walls required firstly painting the concrete platform, then attaching the lower “barge board” and window sills, which you need to pre paint.  Don’t do this the other way around, as you are almost guaranteed to get the paint where you don’t want it.

Finishing the walls on the rear veranda

Front awning support posts.

Front awning support posts.  

"Tree" of diagonal bracing above each front awning support posts.  The ceiling looks worse for wear

The support post against the wall.  Only 2 of these posts (one at each end) are used.  Note the tap position, compared to the tap position at the other end.

These posts are possibly the most exacting  part of the entire station build.  Not only do they have to be the right height, they also need to be installed perfectly perpendicular, and at equal platform spacing.  Any variation is going to be very obvious to the eye.  And to make matters more awkward, the posts have decoration that needs to be applied before installation.    I thought about all this for some time, and decided on construction as a sub-assembly, and finish it prior to adding to the station building

The real posts are 6” square in cross section.  The closest size in the evergreen strip is 0.080 x 0.080 square, which is slightly bigger than scale.

8 awning support posts were cut in the chopper to the same length, and 2 posts for attachment to the wall slightly smaller, as these will not extend through the platform .  Then I made a jig to assist in the next stages

The first bit of decoration is the collar, just below the angle beams.  I attached a collar made of small styrene strips, cut on a chopper.  To get a bevelled edge, I then used a sanding disk in my cordless dremel, running at the slowest speed as possible.   Clean up with a knife

My jig made from wood scrap.  Note that the ends of the post have been whittled away to a circular cross section shape. This was to allow me to drill holes in the platform, to hold the posts firmly at this vulnerable area.

The cross braces are cut from a 0.060 thou square styrene strip, as these are smaller on the prototype than the main support post.  Each of these was made with 45 degree cuts with the NWSL chopper. 

Holes drilled in the platform from below, where the marking out will not show   Place the posts into the holes, but don’t glue yet.  A top piece of square styrene was cut to length, and  glued  to the top of the 2 end posts, then braced with 0.060 thou square styrene and allowed to dry.  Then continue with the intermediate posts, one at a time, ensuring all posts are  perpendicular, and square.

After carefully removing the posts, apply additional 45 degree braces to all the intermediate posts, and then fit the rear connection beam so the front is perpendicular to the platform

Painting is a lot easier when not attached to the model

I fitted the ceiling to the posts, before finally permanently attaching the awning to the front of the station building.  The white showing on the rear edge the styrene sheet is for ease of glueing.

Finally, the whole sub- assembly can be permanently added to the station.  I glued some scrap 0.080 square styrene onto the inside walls, and the ceiling sheet for strength.

The back veranda posts followed much the same method, although the posts here lacked the decoration, and were relatively easy.

To finish this stage of the build,  I completed the eves, and then reinforced and thickened using some 0.040 x 0.188 styrene strip.  I also tried my hand at powder weathering in the areas that will not be handled further – in the hope that the powder would accumulate in the brick mortar lines.  This has only been moderately successful.

Station front

Side view. I must point out an error - the collar decoration on all the posts is slightly lower than it should have been, which meant all the angle brackets extend further away from the post than they really should. Whilst this is too late to fix, the angle bracket in this view is not 45 degrees, as a 45 degree bracket would take up too much of the beam, and thus look wrong.  See my prototype picture earlier to see what is should look like 

Station rear

Next stage is the roof, chimneys, guttering, and the windows and doors. 

Hope this is inspiring others to have a go at building that unique model.  Happy modelling