A few years ago, I borrowed some Jigstone moulds from a friend, made some small buildings and returned the moulds to their owner - I enjoyed the opportunity.
Recently, when another local member was getting rid of some moulds, as he had a clear-out ready to move house, I decided to buy them and make more buildings. As I haven’t got a layout, or even a garden, my family wondered why. The fact is, I enjoy making them and have already found homes for some of these shown here. Some of my earlier buildings are on layouts of local members.
Jigstones cast in sand and cement can be heavy and need a solid base. I have used roof slates in the past and these are appropriate as my moulds are Welsh Slate profile as against York Stone.
In the past, I have built small stations, utilities buildings and small halts. This time I fancied a row of cottages, but the size of base and the weight limited the terrace to just two. This can be repeated if a longer terrace is needed
Both the cottages and the warehouse are low relief to reduce weight and both still need some final detail.
At the moment, I am working on a blacksmiths shop and a medium size station.
The amount of planning needed to work with the fixed dimensions of the blocks is surprising, and I draw out each layer of blocks to achieve what I want. I do like to paint individual slates rather than giving an overall wash, as I think the effect is much better. There are some really good and well detailed buildings available as kits or ready-made. These six buildings cost less than £80.00 in materials but took lots of time and effort.
September 2022
