Since getting back into the model railway I’ve been doing new things that I never did when I had a layout when I was young. For example I’ve been playing with DCC control, wiring point motors and building control panels. However while cabling I’m very happy with, it’s the modelling side that is where I’ve really tried new things.

The first things I built were a couple of Scalescenes card models for the engine shed (parts 1, 2 and 3), the viaduct (parts 1 & 2) and a retaining wall. This year I’ve pushed into something that I did a couple of times as a child with only mild success and that’s building a plastic model.

My childhood memories of this include applying liquid polystyrene cement with the bush built into the top of the pot. The result being that it went everywhere and ended up with glue marks on it. Painting the models was not much better using the Humbrol enamel paints was hard work, required a precision I struggled with and were a pain as the brushes had to be cleaned each time with white spirit.

So it was with some trepidation that I decided that I wanted to give this another go as there are a few models which caught my eye that I was interested in but required construction and painting. One of these seemed the perfect place to start as it is a signal box interior kit, so any imperfections would be half hidden by the signal box itself. So it just needed to be good enough that I could put a light in the signal box and give the impression of an interior rather than an empty shell.

There are a couple of things that have changed since I made this sort of model as a child (apart from me getting older) – the glue has changed from the polly cement applied with a brush, but I’m using the Revell contact adhesive for modelling. This comes with a really fine needle point style applicator, so makes getting the glue where you want, and only where you want it, much easier.

The second change has been to move from the enamel paints to acrylic ones. This removes all the need for messing around with white spirit as the brushes can be cleaned in water. I found the coverage a little more variable – some colours covered really easily with the first coat, where one or two were much thinner and needed multiple coats. Either way I found them much easier to work with, however I need to be aware they are not waterproof.

Here are a couple of photos showing the initial assembly of the model:

The Hornby Skaledale Signal Box model (R9838) that I have for the layout matches the other station buildings in the same range and is typical of the Yorkshire style that my layout is loosely based on. The model itself is really interesting as it’s really nice resin model on the outside, however the inside is completely blank with nothing at all. I’m pairing this with a Peco/Ratio Signal Box Interior kit to try and improve the look.

Once I’d built and painted the different elements of the kit I think had an interesting challenge of how to actually put it inside the model. The signal box is completely empty inside with no upper floor and plane inside walls. So in the end I had to resort to a card insert to fit inside the signal box to create both an upper floor level and also a back wall for things to be mounted on. This has an advantage of being completely separate from the model, so if I decide to change things in the future it’s completely flexible.

The other thing I took the opportunity to do was to mount a couple of small LED’s onto the card frame so that I can light up the inside of the signal box. This will hopefully make it not only look more realistic in low light levels, but I’m hoping will make the interior more visible from the outside. To know for certain I’m going to have to wait until it makes it onto the layout and is wired up.

A few more photos showing the card inner and the kit elements coming together to create the finished model. Note the LEDs are attached to the card inner rather than the actual signal box.

The final stage will be to put everything together on the layout and wire in the LEDs to make the signal box light up from the inside. This requires me to finish the main station platform and get the level crossing to a stage where I can at least be certain of where the elements will be located. Both of these thankfully are have started, however with the speed at which I progress they may be a while!

So in the mean time, one last photo using another light source to try and get the impression what there is now something inside the signal box. Hopefully the proper internal lighting will give a better result when I get there!