Wombat Creek is a H0 (1:87) scale model of a fictional town situated somewhere in the Victorian Goldfields, Australia.
The time is 1963. Geelong wins the VFL Championship against Hawthorn (109– 60). John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. ValentinaTeresjkova is the first woman in Space. The men behind The Great Train Robbery get £2.6 million from a Royal Mail train heading from Glasgow to London. The town consists of several buildings. The “Wombat Creek Bank and Gold Exchange” is a prominent building in the town centre. You will also find several other commercial buildings; among them the daily newspaper“W.C. Chronicle”(colloquial known as the "Toilet Paper") and “Wombat Creek Brewing Company” (Famous for the “Wombat Bitter”). “The Big Nugget Gold Mine” is situated at the Western outskirts of town near the small Chinatown. The War Memorial is in a small park along East Street. The town’s mayor Alfred Campbell together with his son David Campbell owns several businesses, including the bank, the pub and the newspaper. AC/DC basically run the town and make most decisions on behalf of the rest of Wombat Creek’s residents, who, on the other hand, are too busy with their own businesses. The mayor’s latest initiative is Wombat Creek Tramways. Wombat Creek doesn’t really need a tram system, but AC reckons tramways will improve the town’s reputation. Partly because of limited funds the tramways' construction and rolling stock depend heavily on second-hand requirements from other Australian and overseas tramways.
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 back of the Bank
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.
Wombat Creek Bank and Gold Exchange under construction
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:
Queen Victoria Market, Wombat Creek
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.
Queen Victoria Markey, Wombat Creek
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.
Church Street, Wombat Creek
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.
During the weekend a team of bricklayers went to work at the Bank.
Wombat Creek Bank under construction
In fact the bricks are printed on a photocopier and later glued on. Looks very ‘substantial’ for the time being, but I hope some ‘trimmings’ will enhance the look of the building.
Until recently my main focus has been on the buildings in Church Street and the Market. The next task is putting up signs for the different shops and businesses. The signs are ready to be printed on 300 gr. paper, which I can’t do at home. Unfortunately the printer at my local Officeworks doesn’t work, so I have to wait finishing the buildings.
Instead I have put forward the construction of the Wombat Creek Bank and Gold Exchange (for now on just called the bank!). It will be the most challenging construction so far and I don’t plan to see the finished building in the near future.
Wombat Creek Bank and Gold Exchange – parts of the facade
The walls are constructed out of 2 mm mount board. The first photo shows the parts making up the front of the building. Everything will be cut by hand, which has been time consuming, but the current lockdown here in Melbourne gives a lot of time at home!
The facade of the Bank
The second photo illustrates the assembled front and end walls in its future position at the intersection between the Main Street and the Golden Mile. The proportion between the bank and the building to the right of the photo isn’t quite right, so the latter of the two may need to be repositions further back on the lay-out. Fortunately it is not a major challenge to move a 4 storey building in scale HO!
It has been quite a while since I have posted an update from Wombat Creek, but here is some news.
Even with two weeks of holidays the progress has been rather slow. Not due to lack of time, but because the tram room also serves as an office for my wife, how has to work from home due to COVID-19.
During the last few weeks the main focus has been on the shops along Church Street and the church itself. The shop-fronts are made from photos of real fronts from Melbourne streets. They have been through Photoshop to remove unwanted features like parked cars, tree branches and people. The depth of the houses varies from less than a centimetre to 5 cm. I still have to do awnings and signs.
Church Street, Wombat Creek
The church is a second-hand Hornby model, which I purchased a while ago. I plan to change the colour of the walls and of course install the stained-glass windows. The railings are made from thin plastic card and green stem wire. I think they came out quite well.
Hopefully I will get more work done in the weeks to come. Who knows – we may unfortunately soon be under stricter lock-down here in Melbourne.
