Well, it’s been a funny few days. Monday was ok as I was putting up the supports for the valances. I had to ring a friend, Brian, to come round to help put up the 10 foot lengths. We finished at just before 7pm.
Tuesday was not so good. We had looked at the depth of the valence on Monday and 9 inches seemed good so I spent 6 hours cutting hardboard, painting one white coat on the back and two black coats on the front. I then got my Mum around to help hold up the lengths and it was just wrong. We put up 4 pieces but they were just too short. I could see the lights underneath as I was standing up…
To cut a long story short, I popped out to the local builders’ merchants and got them to cut some 6mm MDF to the 12″ size. So much easier than the couple of hours I spent with my saw that morning. I managed to repaint the pieces (the MDF only needed one coat of black rather than two thankfully)!
Wednesday has been a much more successful day with my Mum round to help again (bless her as she’s only five foot tall and these are tall valances for her). We’ve got the valances up and I’ve even managed to fill the screw holes. A quick coat of black tomorrow and they’ll be the business. After 3 days of hard work I feel relieved that they’ve turned out so well and this is my holiday!
Mum cogitating on valences:
I am planning on having two sets of seating, normal chairs for the lower level and stools for the upper level so that you sit at the right height for operating, which ever level you are looking at.
Standing view point (yes, the upper level is wonky as it is attached to the underneath of my purlins which despite holding the roof up are twisted. as a result there is a 1.5″ difference between the lowest height and the highest but when I put a fascia on, it won’t be noticeable, especially as the ground and track is planned to be up and down all over the place):
Seated on a stool for upper level:
Seated on a lower level height chair (I was trying to make sure that the lights don’t shine in your eyes when you are sitting looking at the lower level):
I’m even managing to clear out the clutter although it is mostly just getting moved to the spare bedroom! I can’t wait until tomorrow as it’s tidying day. Sad as it sounds, I can’t wait to get everthing tidy.
I spent a bit of time mocking in the upper level dioramas, where they’ll fit and the height of various tracks, buildings etc. That’s the fun bit. Valances etc are essential but I can’t wait to get back to real modelling. Unfortunately there’s a lot of wiring, track laying and stuff before I get to scenery and structures!