Wombat Creek Tramways

Have you ever tried to work with ‘spherical geometry’? Well, if you have to construct a dome you certainly have. Triangles have curved sides and the sum of the interior angles exceeds 180 degrees. It is even possible to construct spherical triangle with two right angles! Great fun and difficult to get right.

The bank is now ‘crowned’ by one large and two small domes. The photo illustrates how the larger dome is supported by 8 curved ‘beams’. The drawing for the beams was done in OpenOffice Draw. Since the curves originates at the corners of the octagon they do not follow a circle but are slightly ‘elongated’. This will create semicircles at the middle of opposing walls.

PVA glue, clothes pins and a lot of patience helped getting 8 segments in place. They don’t not match up as well as I wanted, but the domes will be covered with copper panels from Scalescenes.

Just waiting for Covid-19 restrictions to be lifted and the printing can be done. Until then the work on the Bank has come to a halt.

Just a small up-date on the progress with and around the Bank. Windows are now proper framed.
Next to the bank a department store is under construction. It is a card-board kit from Metcalfe. It is low-relief and was intended as such, but due to its depth the building will not fit along the back of the lay-out. Instead a rear wall will be constructed and the store will eventually sit nicely next to the bank.

Until it is possible to get printing done at Officeworks (still out-of bounds due to Covid-19) the interior of the Bank and the back of the department store will have to wait. Likewise the pavement in front of both buildings. Instead the attention will be on the roof. I can do some work but again some printing has to be done.

The flat roof has been cut and the construction of roof details can commence any time.

The gaping window holes have also been filled. The window frames were drawn in OpenOffice Draw and printed on transparent self-adhesive labels. Each frame has been done in two copies -one for the outside and one for the inside of the building. The frames were stuck to a sheet of clear plastic before glued in place. The are slightly opaque but less than shown on the photos. The front windows still need some panels and posts, before they are finished.

The back of the Bank will not be visible once the building is in its final position in Wombat Creek, but I still want it to appear as well done as possible. At least I know it is done right!

For the time being bits and pieces are sticking out at the ends of the wall because I don’t know, how wide the adjoining buildings will be. Part of the wall features may be extended to the two walls at the end of the building.

The construction will continue with the flat roof, which will be detachable. That will give me access to the interior of the building, which will be visible through the front entrance. Window frames are also high on the agenda.

We are still on strict lock-down in Melbourne with a nightly curfew and only allowed 1 hour of daily exercises less than 5 km from home. That makes life a little bit difficult, but thanks to the Internet I have be able to keep modelling the Bank.

It is no secret it is modelled after the grand facade of Flinders Street Station. I have been able to google a floor-plan, which has given me the length of the main entrance. In addition to this I have a drawing which is no to scale, but still a great help getting the dimensions right. The main source of information though, is Google Street View! In short – the model so far has been done without a recent visit to the station.

Since my last post the facade has undergone some progress. The walls are almost finished. The dentils (small squares at the top) are numerous, cut and glued in individually.

The stain-glass window is taken from an almost front-on photo. To get the size and shape right I scanned the cardboard cut from the opening and with Photoshop adjusted the photo to fit the scan. Two copies (one reversed) were printed on a transparent self-adhesive label, cut out and stuck on each side of a lid from a take-away container. Perfect fit first time! I will use the same method with the flooring. Scan the odd shape of the floor and get the tiles to fit.

Next my attention will go to the back of the building. Even it can’t been seen from a ‘normal’ viewing point, it must be done up nicely.

During the last three weeks or so columns and ‘cladding’ have been added to the front of the Bank. The ‘cladding’ is made of narrow strips of paper towel of the type you buy on rather larger commercial rolls. It took quite a long time to glue in place, but ended up with the right texture. The paint is acrylic and a home-made mix of white and ‘yellow ochre’.

I spotted a nice photo of Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, on the internet. After a make-over in Photoshop it came out like this:

It will be positioned towards the very back of the layout, so was it really necessary to improve the front. The shadows give it depth already. Anyway I made a few extra copies, cut out the columns, glued them to 1.5 mm cardboard and finally glue them in place on the front. Spot the difference.

I think it was worth the effort.

The sidewalls will be extended and a proper roof added. It has to wait until the hard lock-down in Melbourne is over and I can purchase a board for the the background. The market is in front of a curved ‘corner’ making the back part of the roof some of a challenge to get right.

An unexpected day off from work gave me the time to do the signs for the shopfronts in Church Street. By temporary removing St. Ursinus Church it is possible to do a photo of the entire row of shops.

From left to right you find:
An antiques store – it is in real shopfront somewhere in Melbourne
LJ Hooker Real Estate – perhaps not the only ‘hooker’ in the street!
TAB betting – Church Street is probably not as innocent as you may think
Church Street Spirits – well, it is after all Church Street
Town and Country Vet – an existing veterinarian clinic somewhere in Australia
Burke and Wills Surveyors – an unfortunate name for such a business (if you are not familiar with Australian history, they got lost whilst exploring the Outback)
Pet Shop – making sure the vet will stay in business
The Black Cat – perhaps another name could be ‘Gentlemen Club’. Definitely not related to the Pet Shop!
‘Shop to Let’ – honestly ran out of shop names. Anyway it appears pretty run down
The Toy Shop – you should be able to buy to model trains and trams somewhere
The Rug Shop – again a real shopfront from Melbourne
Sputnik – selling clothes for the young adults. The year is 1963 and the owner got inspired by the latest Space craze

I am still working on Queen Victoria Market located adjacent to the shops and of course the long-time project with the Wombat Creek Bank and Gold Exchange.