carriage seating - solved

These were delivered this morning from my mate Phil (of Port Wynnstay models - normally 7mm narrow gauge suppliers) - they are resin castings from a plasticard mould I made and they are designed to tessellate together to form an easy way to add seating to the Worsley works carriages I have made. Just add simple plasticard tables!

Top job and only 50p each including making the mould and P+P. It's all good.

Colin

Further progress

Some more shots of the scenery coming together... Below the walling has been completed this side and the water is dry now, the bush was an experiment with photo mount and woodland scenics flock.

an overview of the Ffridd Isaf board. Talus has been added under the rockfaces, further detailing with small bushes, weeds etc is to come.

a better image showing the rock colours.

the (Beddgelert end) side of the station has had carpet felt added and the roadway is visible in the foreground too.
Colin

Hitting the ground running

well, much progress hath been made! A selection of images show the progress better than words, but be aware that flash can do weird things to reality especially when taking pictures of model railways!
The final rocks were added around the layout and after the base of the 3 streams were painted, woodland scenics realistic water was added - it won't stay blue once its dry! I'm also experimenting now with WS 'water effects' to get the running water effect on the main stream.

The rough track has been finished as a base, with just the effect of some grassy bits etc to add.

Hairy carpet underlay is gradually being applied all over the layout - note the stream here too, with temporary block to avoid the guu spilling off the end. The clipper (for the hairy underlay once dry), hairspray and puffer grass bottle are also visible. In the foreground a slate path has been gradually built up. I'm worried about this as it is too dark, but maybe it just needs time to dry??

The first attempt at colouring grass and adding some static puffer grass is on the triangle piece - stinks of thinners!

The flash doesn't do this justice, but the rocks are starting to be coloured up - note the comedy land rover!
Mixing paints - one baby food bottle has LNER Doncaster green with 1:24 parts thinners and the other has the same but with 3 parts Donnie green, 1 part matt trainer yellow. This was suggested by Barry Norman. It doesn't make a lot of difference, but does at least add some subtle tonal effects too.
My spray painting table is ready - with lazy Susan from IKEA. Dad and I both bought a dust free drying pod from the garden centre - a seedling propagator with variable venting. I have however managed to cover mine in talcum powder - another casualty of the mistake with the roadway.
and talking of roadways, it's now much better thanks to emulsion herringbone colour from crown.
a close up of the stream area - the 'bridge' in the background needs more work, but is gradually coming together. The next piece is to add the 3 piece culvert at the base once the stream is dry.

So overall, I'm quite pleased! Great fun this scenics job! Next I need to give the carpet underlay a good trim.

PS My brother got a 2:1 today (MEng Civil Engineering) - clever clever! Now maybe he can help with that bridge.....

Colin

some things work, others don't

Well, good progress on:

• Adding the final few rocks and boulders around the layout
• Adding larger debris to the stream (these are real stones liberated from the Glaslyn!)
• Colouring the main rockfaces using a variety of pigments leopard-spotted on
• Mixing railmatch LNER Doncaster green with 24 parts thinners and colouring the carpet underlay
• Adding more underlay to parts of the Ffridd Isaf board
• Smashing up pieces of slate into a million bits and then affixing to the Fridd Isaf board to create the slate waste path
• Creating the Ffridd Isaf access track from ballast attached with scenic cement and a mix of stone grey/concrete colours

but less good:

In attempting to finish the main roadway alongside the Pitt's Head straight, I painted enamel grey onto the road and then added talcum powder on top to lighten the colour and give a slight texture. Sounds good.

Well after getting most of the garage covered in talcum powder I brushed it off to reveal.....streaks! The paint had dried so quickly on the plaster bed that the talcum powder just hit dry paint - it did work in a few spots and hence the streaks. damn. Going to try it with emulsion (a cheap tester pot from B and Q) tomorrow as that shouldn't dry so quickly. Oh well.

Great fun this scenics thing though!

(oh and I found that the IKEA latte frother I had bought for 99p isn't quite up to the paint stirring I was trying to make it do - firstly the head only just fits in the can and then the end fell off into a bottle of white spirit! RIP the IKEA frother!)

Colin

More images

Lots of progress today, unfortunately this one is slightly out of focus - comedy tree added for fun only at this stage(!). Ballast started on right, final undercoat painting done, realignment of the edge on the far right hand side finished and talus etc added to stream.

close up of first ballasting

The triangle got a trial coating of carpet underlay and also woodland scenics fine turf.

A few random rocks were added to the station approach board, which had been lifted into a new position the night before.

Close up of the rocks etc.

Colin

the rocky road to success

Further progress has been made in the last week or so, particularly on the Ffridd Isaf board.

The stream bed has been built up and banks improved to not look as 'clean and finished' as it had after its initial construction. Also the banks around the stream bridge have been built up ready for the inclusion of the wall and bridge itself (coming when Slater's deliver my plasticard order!).

On the other side, the hillside has seen considerable progress - we have rocks!


On the adjoining board, a large cast rock has been added to the side of the line and this now awaits joining with Fridd Isaf to check the heights etc and joins.

The station board has also had some rocky outcrops added... and in the foreground you can see the new ramp, steps and sunken culverts.

Colin

200th post!

Hi, This is the 200th post and still going...

Lots going on recently, which has meant little opportunity to blog, sorry.

In the garage (layout land):

The main station board was turned upside down, a hole created for the culverts and a better method of attaching the plywood lower base was achieved using staples from my now infamous netto nail gun - why infamous? Well I've blogged about it being great before - and now it's broke! A staple got caught in it, I scraped it out and now it's bust. Oh dear, shoddy netto tools(!) me thinks.

The vast majority of the scenery has had its base brown colour added and the car park/station transition area now has its ramp (image above - the tape measure is there to hold it in place while the filler sets), steps and the (now lowered) culvert run.

In addition, I have also started sorting the stream bridge on Ffridd Isaf and have started attaching rock pieces (from woodland scenics rock moulds) to the main hillock - more photos soon.

The hidden sidings traverser sides have been bolstered with L shaped pieces glued/nailed to add strength (these came from IKEA's kitchen department!). I have decided that these will have 6 roads as shown (although I'll tack them down straight!).

On the workbench (dining room table):

Due to continued damp weather, work has also continued on carriages. Barns 104, 105, 106 and 107 are all now ready for primer, 104 is actually my brother's kit and was put together by Dad a while ago from a Chris Veitch (CV) kit. Another CV kit I have put together and two others are simple worsley works kits (well I say simple, but the beading has changed on the sides, so quite some time was spent cutting plasticard strip to length and attaching. I could've asked worsley to reissue the kits with the correct beading, but I have quite a list for him to attack already and didn't want to add to that (100, 102, 116, 124, 2010, 2100 [all dependent on sourcing drawings], Braithwaite panels (for the water tanks), DZ wagons, Upnor Castle...)

I have also done work to the Langley kits for FR 14 (ex L+B buffet) and a short bowsider. Both are close to being ready now.

and...K1

I've also started on my first attempt at a Backwoods loco kit! Well the body at least! I've completed both tanks and the cab and firebox formers as well as cut out and cleaned all the main body parts. Later this week I hope to sort a bit more, but it's softly softly at the moment with it!

Colin