An Early Home for Duck in Knapford's Yard?

I wanted to make some more buildings over the winter a few months ago, so I made this shed to be placed for planed sets at Knapford or other yards around the Island. I thought it would make a nice home for Duck, as the shunting engines need a place to sleep if Tidmoth is full, or when they are covering long distances and need a place to sleep before they go back on their journey during the day.

Each building I make is made using Bazzill Basics cardstock paper, the walls drawn on the paper, then cut, taped and glued together. Now I found using strips of balsa wood, glued and painted on the corners of the walls, reinforces the building as a hard shell, so it is a much stronger structure, and doesn't get bent or squashed in tight storage! Always take good care of your models.

I was in my teens when I first tried making my own buildings. I didn't have plastic card, plastic brick patterns or metal, so I used what paper card I had found at A.C. Moore, Michaels craft stores to be a really useful material (no pun intended!). Bazzill Basics cardstock became my signature material to work with.

This shed is based on Hornby's Great Western goods shed. Fitting for Duck, right? When I model my buildings, I usually look at real life photographs or structured made for modeller companies such as Bachmann Branchline or Hornby. eHattons provide excellent photos of the models they sell, and that is where I buy my OO scale models.

Here is a shot of the shed interior. There are a few boards leaning against the wall, with the clear plastic glass glued in place for the windows.

Here, the card floor is glued onto strips of balsa wood, which work as guides for the tracks, so the ties can be covered by the paper floor, with an extra strip for the center added in later. The ballast will loosely be payed in from of the shed to make a nice transition from ballast to shed floor.

I folded and glued strips of paper together for the handles on the door, with a grey pen to draw the planks. The hinges were bent and then glued to the wall, so the doors can swing to open and close. I use acrylics to weather the building with rust, grime or dust accumulated with rain or age, even a few paint streaks from the brightly painted window panes.

I changed the style of the exhaust structures to have a peak roof, with the grades on each side to let the smoke out as the engine's smoke can escape the shed.

Here is James and some of my sculpted figures to give you an idea what the shed looks like in scale-wise. This was a nice model to make, and there is more to be posted.

By the way, James is shinning in a freshly painted coat of flat acrylic paint, with gel pen used for the handrails, stripes, and window.