Crofters Cottage (DAFS)

The DAFS Crofter’s cottage in this PopUp Designs’ kit is designated a type No1c and is in the form of a late 1920s original concept for “homes for heroes”.

Unique to Scotland, Crofting is a system of landholding ubiquitous across much of Highland Scotland and the islands. There are over 20,000 crofts with the majority held in tenancy. They have an average size of 5 hectares. The tenancy on crofts is based on “statutory conditions” (seldom a written lease). The sector is overseen by the Crofting Commission (https://crofting.scotland.gov.uk/crofting). Houses on crofts (there may or may not be a residence on the croft) have seen several issues over the years as they have been covered by evolving rights under the statutory conditions.

The base size of this model when assembled  is approx  120 x 117 mm (to help with layout designs).

(With thanks to Alistair Moffat for supplying the research into this text.)

The building requires glue. Choose a glue that allows at least a minute before setting to allow adjustments to be made during the build. Always test the build before using glue.

For finishing, we recommend first priming the surface, then painting with any acrylic or model paint of your choice. The material is etched, so any engraved detail such as brickwork or roof tiles will be visible after painting.

Important information about railway scaling: 

All kits are designed in OO Gauge on 3mm plywood, so there are a few considerations to be made when scaling the digital files to other Gauges. The instructions provided will be the OO version as the build order is the same at different scales.

O Gauge Orders: When scaling to O gauge, there are manual modifications that may need to be made when assembling the kit. This is due to the thickness of the plywood when scaling the kit from the OO gauge material of 3mm to the O gauge 5.25mm material that would be needed. As this thickness of ply does not exist, we undersize the material to the closest thickness we have of 4mm plywood and recommend dry fitting the build first so that any joints that need to be sanded for a flush finish can be noted.

N Gauge Orders: Scaling to N gauge works well and has no extra modifications needed due to material thickness. Some parts will be very fine, so take care when removing them from the frame. If some window pieces are particularly fine, they can be reinforced by soaking them in glue before assembly.

TT Gauge Orders: Scaling to TT requires slightly more modifications of the designs before cutting, so please contact us if you’re interested in a kit, and we can provide you a quote at info@popupdesigns.co.uk.

Any other questions, tips or enquiries please don’t hesitate to contact us via our email address or contact form. 

This kit is designed by Iain Ross and sold by PopUp Designs with his permission.