Platform edges are an absolute bitch. OK if you have a nice straight Superquick attitude , but with the usual curly variety - nightmare. The edge on
Edge is no exception with the rail forming a gentle reverse curve. Add to that the lack of big bits of card in stock and needing a smooth top surface, I ended up using an A4 sheet of advertising board out of Mrs F's special clothes shop which is made from a plastic substance which is like plasticard , but not. I seem to remember one of the Scandinavians that Nigel speaks to raving about the material at Eurotrack last year. After much swearing I got it roughly right with the use of three bits and some left over. It's only about 80 thou so even with a low-ish narrow gauge platform, needs jacking up a little and facing with brick or stone.
It's at this point in a build that I start to lose heart as it just looks like a pile of shite.... press on.
Shouldn't NG railway platforms look like this? http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1929940 Admittedly, my last model railway platform was Superquick some 35 years ago, but if I was doing it now for a narrow gauge layout I'd make the platform face and edge stones from individual pieces of card, wood, or plastic and then backfill with modelling clay or similar.
ReplyDeleteColin
I had the opposite problem on Compass Point. As I only wanted a rude platform I used the Wills readymade jobby. Trouble is, it's designed for STD gauge so was way too high. I had to cut the spindly support legs down and it was a bit of a swine to get them all level. I resorted to using a pair of scissors, not ideal but it did the trick.
ReplyDeleteChris OD
I had a similar problem when cutting out the embossed plastic for the inset track on the tram pizza.
ReplyDeleteI got round it by rubbing the rail top with a soft pencil (a graphite stick beloved by some for helping with electrical contact might be even better) then laying a sheet of clean paper on the rail and pressing down on with my index finger (other digits are also available).....slide the finger along the rail and then turn the paper over and, hey presto, you should have a cutting template.
Cut along the line with scissors, this then can be used to mark out the edge nice and parallel to your bendy bit of rail......although if you're like me, you'll forget which way up the ******* thing should be and have to do it again the right way up.
Obviously if the radius of the bend is tight, you'll need to mark a line an appropriate distance from the rail to take account of this, a good old-fashioned compass from a school geometry set makes a good stand-in for a set of odd-leg calipers, or a compass cutter or similar will be easier to use.
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean about that stage where it all looks carp......that's why my little test track in 009 still isn't finished 15 years after I started it!
Stig