Tuesday, June 10, 2014

How I made some noticeboards

Having found or created posters, timetables and notices and printed them out (see How I created period posters, enamel signs and notices), I decided that some of them needed to be mounted on noticeboards.

A piece of 1.2mm (50thou) thick black plasticard was trimmed roughly to the size of the poster, plus 3-4mm on each edge.

3mm wide strips of 1.4mm (55thou) thick black plasticard were then glued to the edges using liquid poly adhesive. The strips were deliberately cut to be longer than needed and overlapped at the corners (but not glued).

When the glue had set sufficiently to grab the strips, a craft knife was positioned diagonally across the overlapping strips at the corners and pressure applied to cut through both strips.

This helped to ensure that the mitres for the corners matched exactly. Liquid poly glue was then flooded into the corners with a paintbrush and left to set.

The frames were then rubbed-down with fine abrasive paper before being given a couple of coats of acrylic paint. The virtue of using black plasticard is that the insides of the frame do not need to be painted. As can be seen from the photo below, some of my edging strips were not quite 3mm in width, I'm sure those who have more precise cutting skills than me (or those who purchase microstrip) will do a better job.
I've found in the past that a light coating of matt or semi-matt varnish prolongs the life of the posters, however, even with this precaution, it seems that slugs and snails enjoy feasting on any form of paper and so, from this year onwards, I am tending to remove my buildings from the garden when I know the railway is not going to be used for a few days.

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