I have added a couple of ladders to my now complete depot building. These are vaey simple ladders and replicate a ladder made from available wood in the 1880’s or so. They are not like modern ladders, but a much more simple form.

These are cut from some of the scrap left after cutting the walls for the building. The ladders sides are 5mm square(3” in scale) PVC solid foam board, with the cross pieces being made from 2mm thick plasticard. Smooth off the rough edges left after cutting.

All the pieces are cut on my small circular saw, which made things very easy. Fix one of the side pieces to a bench, and use a couple of scrap distance pieces to set the other one in place and clamp it in position at both ends.

Make another distance piece for the gap between the ladder rungs and work your way up the ladder adding the rungs, I used ‘Evostick’ (latex based) adhesive for this. Leave it to set for a short while, and it can be carefully removed and left for a day to set thoroughly.

When dry use a drum sander to add some ‘wear’ to the upper edge of the ladder rungs, by grinding off a small amount of the edge of them.

I painted my ladders with a (yellowish) sandstone colour acrylic paint as an undercoat for new wood colour. I then added the nail heads; there are two per rung per side, the outer one being at the top, using a black ballpoint pen. They were then weathered with several washes of dark brown, and grey, with a small amount of black added occasionally for variety. This can be done several times to complete the effect that you require, which can be anything from almost new to utterly filthy! Finally you can just whisk a brush across the worn bits to indicate the wear that has been accumulated on the ladder.

Here is a photo of the new ladders --




©Peter Bunce 2005