I've been passing this building for my whole life and yet I've only really noticed it recently. There were seven racing stables in the vicinity, so it's a fair bet that it was a smithy. Hemmed in by Victorian bow windowed terraced houses on one side an a faceless 90s house on the other it looks out of place pre-dating both.
This is a quick phone shot from a week ago, but looking at again now it's a study in brick colour. We tend to hit this from the same point every time (and I'm notoriously crap at it) but this shot has 4-5 basic brick colours and then variations within those. It's a simple scene, but there are probably only a few modellers that could get the subtlety in the finish of this 40' of street front.
The old smithies around this way tend to be single story structures. Why would a smithy need an upper storey with a goods entry?
ReplyDeleteIt looks more like a small industrial/manufacturing building to me. Have you tried the local archives for information?
ps If you are the Chris Ford of OO9 books - Thank you. Very good books and got me started on a new, for me, hobby.
Or it could be a mews/coach shed like the one I used to live in, which had once been part of the local vicarage.
ReplyDeleteAs well as variations in brick there is also the variation in mortar colour, and the damp at ground level
Indeed a great number of subtle colours throughout the structure, and there is the rub. Subtlety!
ReplyDeleteIt is also the sort of building that is so easily overlooked, with an;"I'll take a picture of that one day." Only to find it has been demolished over a weekend, or modernised out of all recognition. I missed two characterful 1930's buildings in Worthing this way, I used to drive past twice a day, and then....
Unknown, otherwise Andrew Knights
And a green colour that I suspect would be fiendishly difficult to make look realistic on a model
DeleteI agree with James...the green is the sort of colour you look at and it changes. I can see blue in there as well as a yellowy brown towards the bottom and at the edges of the doors on the ground floor though this doesn't seem to be present on the upper floor doors so perhaps it's due to rainwater splashback from the pavement. I'm surprised given its location that it hasn't been "repurposed/upcycled" to a bijou residence...
DeleteSimnon, That is funny to start with, I as seeing subtle changes in how luminescent the green is, but it is only when you mentioned it that I noticed the blue element. But it seems obvious once you do. The other thing with a colour like that is it will change based on the ambient light and what is surrounding it, but I think my first step would be to use pre-shading (is that the term) underneath any coat of green.
DeleteThere is so much going on when you look at this for too long, for instance how the colour changes your perception of how large the bricks are, and how different the brickwork is in the adjoining buildings.
James, I'm now viewing the photo on my phone rather than a bigger screen at work...oddly, the colour seems more luminescent on the small screen although that may be due to the screen I suppose. I seem to remember an article in MRJ some time ago about weathering a Class 50 in NSE livery...some of the fading techniques (especially on the lighter blue) might be of use.
DeleteIt's a good modellable building and would look attractive on a small layout in a big scale, 1/32 or even 1/24, as is. No need for selective compression.
ReplyDeleteI took a few pictures of the same building some years ago, I think the green has been repainted since my photos. It never made it onto Tarring Neville.
ReplyDeleteThe town has loads of nice/quirky buildings that I'd like to model.