BB`s Blog

Simplicity is The Key

My own paper card boats

After having good results on my water samples i decided to bite the bullet and get started upon the real diorama of which i started three hot summers ago,and now quite well relieved that no expensive pours need doing. Since that time i formulated the cheapest way that i found to produced good looking toy boats of various descriptions, A mid way stage in the process seen above making a Mule that was towed on behind another narrow boat in front.

After the base bent up after construction it was weighted down with heavy books,and so it had been in flat bed storage actually under a bed, and this action which stemmed from good reason upon the matter of not wishing to waste work already done and dusted was taken.

In the light of day it could be seen and avoided,but during the dead of night one cannot have large lumps of my four foot by two foot oddities loaded up with piles of books laying about the place for fear of stubbing a toe perhaps already still on the sore side from doing it before. Or perhaps tripping tip over tail over the darn thing while doing a somersault and flat pack back landing upon the floor as if a dashed defeated failure at half asleep Gymnastics.

So here we see it below

i painted what is going to be the wettest part ,
that was of course then the deepest driest part on the board.

Soon it was hoped that this desert scene will eventually vanish,and the void left will be looking like it has been rather filled up with water effects that need not cascade from each exposed end as if an integral part of Niagara Falls! No hopefully not that.

It is a simple affair as seen set out below showing a long right angles canal section with openings in the top which are needed for good reason that will be made more clear in understanding later.

The paint having been found and then brushed on was perfect for this odd job.

It was while the paint was still wet that dry kiln dried sand was well heaped up upon it leaving it looking like a filled in section of the Suez Canal that had crafty-like blown in during the night from the surrounding desert. Why? There was a join that i did not wish to show up on the canal bottom that`s why i decided to sand the base. A flat base without any joins only needs painting.

The sand was levelled off to stop to much running to the floor. We have stone floors here in the lower part of the house,and dry Silica Sand is very slippery! Be warned it`s like trying to skate without the proper kit on ones feet. So sweep it up.

Most sand was now brushed away and back in the tub for a while.On that overcast bleak day i was also working on making the supportive sides to this canal.

Which was and is a simple task of sharp cutting strips of cardboard off and then stripping one side off, as seen in the picture above___ and it was done as fast as me mitts could handle it.

filled up with a few helpful water effect samples still fresh and alert in my mind my confidence was and still is high. One sample of which to push a boat out upon is shown below. It shows the reinforced right hand side designed at the deep side where narrow boats can tie up at these mooring points to deliver goods,and take them away too. To the left of the canal a gradual sloping side descends into the water and this is where mingled marginal plants blot their feet in the mud and water.

It shows a 5" wide stretch of water that is 11" long. The depth is 1mm deep. i found two lines of spaced out drops of Mod Podge an inch or so off centre ,is enough to spread out over the entire board using my cheap brush. It goes on white ,pongs a bit of boiled Beetroot,as my memory serves to describe it and it dries well clear overnight with one thin coat. Now it seems that still lakes and rivers are quite popular in the hobby for reflective mirror like qualities,but the slightest defect in the pour sticks out like a sore thumb. Whereas moving water is less prone to show up any tiny niggling spots of blemished endeavour.

My little canal being only 6 foot long including the bend is the self same width of this sample board so i am well looking forward to creating the long a waited for water effects.

An amazing very affordable product. £7.75 Free Post on E Bay UK

i guess i used 20 p`s worth on the sample above.

Another Messy Stage of The Work

Looms in Sight

Now i need to paint these strips with enamel paint to toughen them up.

Soon After Paint Had Dried

A good sanded bed was created and the join in the board is not visible at all.

With 16 dry strips all cut peeled and painted,i began the little task of sticking them into place. i used plenty of glue brushed on thickly on both the flat side of the card,and also a spread upon the area on this section of canal to be faced.

i left the glue to dry tacky,and then applied a thin brush of glue again over the top of the tacky stuff. Why? You might ask?
i have long used this system using p v a glue, because as it`s put on and pushed onto its fixing point two things happen. One, the tacky stuff sticks like contact glue, and two the wet glue is squeezed out and seals the edges tidy like. The handle of a small paint brush is a perfect tool for pressing home the corrugated supportive sides of this stretch of water way. A tidy up with ones finger on the top is all that was required at this point of contact.

It took a while longer this way but i know each and every piece is stuck fast and will not come loose and Swan Off down river. The supportive edges holding back the banks will be lightly dry brushed in seconds later,and then the canal well flushed out in the cool waters of this long hot summer of 2016.

Where i have stuff made up of untidy needful things i will be cutting out lift off bases that in themselves will have models buildings stuck into place on them.So these are actually going to be lift off landscaped lids that will hold a few surprises held in store.

The riverside edges were soon sanded by applying paint,
and while still wet the sand was spread out onto it,via a yogurt pot. Which is very enjoyable,because ones gets to eat the yogurt first and then play in the sand. Magic!

The first patterns of the railway service hatch covers are cut and placed out.
These will be reinforced ,and landscaped later.

The canal is a sea of sand at present again because work is still ongoing._____________So no need to clear it up as yet.
i can imagine a few hundred Riff gathering in this stretch of desert sand, to prepare an attack on some lone outpost in North Africa.

An overlap of boards are planed which will work well in tidying the edges of a small granite sett out access lane that will lead down to the tow path, and will hopefully look fine and dandy,and in the cheapest possible way.
i soon realised after playing with odds and ends about the place that various landscaped covers for this simplified area could, and will be made and landscaped,giving me the ability to change the look of the canal without any major changes taking place. A simple system of Lift Off,________Lift On.
So a factory,a wood yard,a coal merchant can be spaced out evenly and be as large as i like on theses sections of lift on surprise. Then various houses can be displayed on full or half view upon others intermingled with trees.Which is presently a picture only tapped out in emotive language.

Below a few Narrow Boats Nearing The Painting Stage & Dressing Up Stage

Below

Trees from my Toy Collection.

Playing with toy tree`s is a good pastime and in doing so helps me formulate fresh ideas,and using the camera is a must tool to use. Odd numbers work well in design patterns,and are more pleasing to eye, like in three`s,fives and seven`s. So is a good tip to pass along.

Those above will not be in place on the finished work.

So i could do with making a few more tree`s. i have a few fresh ideas upon the subject.

To Be Continued

UPDATE

Not to much to be excited about but i wish to show the process because i feel it could and would aid others wishing to do simple deep water effects.

Painting the canal base

Emulsion Paint Brown and Black being blended in.

The base actually used as my paint palette for mixing the paint and in doing so this will aid reflection later. A wash of dull green then a much brighter green was added marking the high water mark to all sidings,but also for adding green to the bottom itself in the hope it would look like plant life and alga beneath the surface of the water.

So above looks uninspiring true, so lets get the sluice gates open and give this thing a good wetting.

Hodge Podge Time

The long awaited for beginning of the deep looking water effect .It will cost about £2.00 UK Stirling!
It will only be between 1 and 2 mm thick when dry.

It had a good squirt down the middle then it was spread out with a little cheap brush.

It was so easy and this first layer is simply brushed toward each side sealing the base perfectly as i worked my way along it. When completely covered i gave it a duck stipple with the same brush all over then i left it to dry clear and hard.

The next day i added another thin layer,and duck stippled that,and left it to dry clear and hard.

The day after this i added another thin layer and did everything as before.

The forth layer i wanted thicker as you can see and so it was given a good covering.

It was brushed out all over very quickly,but there was no need to hurry because there`s lots of time to work with this stuff,i have gotten used to working with it.
A little experience gained by doing sample work,and my raised canal will hopefully pay off.

Once spread out thick and globby it was duck stippled with the same brush. i named it duck stippling because as the brush is pushed into the white of this stuff it forms the look of a Duck Foot.
Bellow is my Hodge Podge and using this stuff is as easy as opening the tub. i kid you not. This thicker layer will take two or three days to fully clear. Why so thick? Well i am building up a lens that will further define the look of deep water,and the thicker agitated white will certainly help me achieve this.

The Lion & Unicorn are for another project and are just cheap plastic toys.

Below the canal looks to be in full flow,a look i want in order to have dark shadows and deep reflections skipping across the sparkle of this working waterway. It is not yet completely ready for its final touch of duck stippling but i am most pleased with the look of it.

The water is clearing and it is hard enough for a narrow boat to chug along at this stage.

Not a good quality photo i will do better later with proper daylight and natural shadows.

Tunnel Update

Enjoy

i designed my patterns and created rubber moulds then cast them up saving myself a fortune by not having to buy them off the peg from the high street shelves of over priced simple things. The object was to also create the inner brick work way inside of each hand made tunnel after the stone front and backs were stuck into place onto them.

The old tow path ways are now well defined as they indeed should be.

So two more homemade puzzled pieces were slipped eye wise into place.

Simple Support Brackets

These are strong fixing points for a back board to be firmly fixed into place.

This is a bridge where a roadway will run down to the canal it will be in place where the bus can be seen in the second picture above.

With the Back Board well fixed into place it was time for a Dry Run.

Like most in the hobby of railroading,

space is at a premium and so my canal section was placed in the corner of the room where it was designed to go. It will eventually sit over the top of the three Honey Well Railway Lines entering and leaving by way of tunnels beneath it.

This was a dry run so to speak of just seeing if the box would fit into place without hitting the brackets that support the shelving system above it. A something needed to store my model figure collection and my scratch-built buildings as well as some of my homemade tree`s.

With the Napoleonic Toy Soldier Collection stored under the five tables that the layout rests upon,I have used all the available space in this room. Well I also have several other toy collections too stored in plastic storage boxes too. Yes I`m a hoarder of toys and eccentrically quite proud of it too.

After work is finished on casting up tunnel entrances,I will fetch this downstairs to the large table, and finish scratch-building the entire canal with buildings and boats with the backdrop fully landscaped.

Thank you for popping in for a look see. BB

The Houseboat

It still sits in its rightful place nestled quietly alongside the river bank even today,and in the long bright summer of 1956 on a forgotten hot day of the week,and month ,it was this houseboat of corrugated iron that first stirred up a little boys wide eyed imagination as if his dead keen interest were in fact a silver spoon stir, for like magic it held up a wide thicket of thatch roof. The first he`d ever seen,and with the silence that comes along with age in fondly looking back he realized then that he knew an awful lot of nothing.
From the little chug-along boat,he gazed at such a thing and thought it to be a great wonderment,at no mistake,yes indeed. "Mom.i will draw a picture of it when we get home."
( Whether he did,or not,for the life of me i cannot remember for vivid memories of pictures do not come readily for recall after years and years of hundreds and thousand of them had been drawn.)

However upon that day trip of long ago sitting alongside his dear Mother,and older Brother,soon he had dismissed it from his tiny mind,a thing that did need an awful lot of filling up with something, as there were unopened rooms a plenty inside it,but facts were taught finger wagging downwards to shallow little lads in those far off days,and in his own wisdom he thought little of them as being important to anyone,least of all to him. So all those rooms stayed shut up and iron bolted as tight as could be.
i guess being seven he needed the welcomed stimulation of interesting things most foreign to him. For him upon the green of that long winding river while trailing his hands in the water as the small boat headed downstream to Great Yarmouth, it was for certain the first real fun adventure he`d ever had. As if towering waves upon some salty sea ,his greedy ears,swallowed up whole and in double helpings,the great sound of rushing reeds. Both sides of the river were full up with sways of them. Flax comes to mind,and Fresh winds of exhilaration,they were that for sure,and he had never experienced it before,or even heard of such a thing,____let alone that word.

Fin

An Afterword or Two

My Mother Grace Liddy Howes, bringing up us two boys on her own,was invited by a friend at work to come on a day trip in her husbands small boat,and of course we my Brother and i,were included in that invitation too.There are vivid parts of that pleasant day out i do recall,but most has been forgotten on the ever shifting sands of time.

The little boat under 30 ft was moored upon the River Wensum, just past the moorings of the yacht station near the iron bridge leading to the Victorian railway Station in Norwich.

Sadly though the boat that had an engine that smoked its way up river,never made it to Great Yarmouth.So turning around it headed toward Norwich and our home.i cannot remember the name of the lady or her Husband,or Son,but i do recall their kindness to us on that first perfect day. As the little tired out boat that had chugged along for the best part of 30 miles was being docked at its mooring there was a slight jolt as the front end hit the wooden jetty. We later learnt it had been holed and sank during that night. It lay in the brown green water for ages,but was raised up later ,and was given to the Local Sea Scouts who fixed her up fine and dandy. The little boat served their needs on The Broads for many a year right up to the early 1970`s.

Sixty One Years on and inspired by Mrs B`s,memories of Mrs Triggles (Cambridgeshire.) i began to make Hillcreast Cottage where Mr and Mrs Triggles lived. i also began to pen a few unpublished story`s too loosely based upon our shared memories,and my poetic licence.

While doing that and other stuff,while surfing the incoming waves of the www web,i came across this picture of a boathouse on the Broads near Norwich. i being very young at the time have written of it,but i am not 100% for certain if it is the one i described,but i have a feeling and a warm one of remembrance that it is the same one with slightly changed surroundings from the Summer of 1956.

My Version of A Thatched Houseboat Follows

Scratch built by little o`ll me. Just follow along if you are pleased to do that.

All The Pieces Make a Something!

It`s Just A Box

It Needs The Corrugated Metal Roof

Doors will open double wide and a Hoist will lift the Boat out of the water and by way of a Overhead Rail will slide the Boat outside for Maintenance.