Graduation

Yesterday my brother graduated from Bristol University with a 2.1 MEng in Civil Engineering. We had a great day out!

In Dad's studio, sits my WHR saloon 2043, which we sprayed with primer this weekend and a Merchant Navy tender in O gauge - quite a size difference! This is the first etched carriage I had constructed which has got as far as primer.

Dad had some BR Crimson in stock - is this close enough to FR/WHR 'Mercedes' Red?

We also visited Toddington.
For the North Gloucestershire narrow gauge railway. This has recently been extended and we hadn't been on the extra bit. You stop off halfway for a shed and signal box tour. Here well tank 'Justine' is on display.

We had a diesel though. The railway suffers from very little in the way of views - yes you can sort of see the mainline diesels, but there's too much greenery around to see much else. The cafe was unusually disappointing, and short lines like this also suffer in the scoring due to their timetable, number of locos in steam and carriages. Overall, the railway scored 33%, placing it pretty much on par with the Golden Valley at Butterley and the Amerton railway and I suppose that kind of fits as they are similar lines.

Colin

A quick update

Today I have:

- Lightened the Ffridd Isaf rocks with a white flood wash, which has been very effective in improving the colouring.

- Finished off the rear of the stream bridge with filler on the edges of the walling.

- Finished the application of hairy carpet felt over all boards. A few areas may need some extra where gaps appear after trimming, but that is phase 2.

- Smashed to pieces bits of slate to create smaller bits (scale size)

- Taken up the disappointing slate path (which still hadn't dried underneath after about a month!), this has left a nice base though and a new method for the path is being considered using the above mentioned bits of slate

- Re coloured the Pitts Head road a lighter grey with talcum powder to add texture (I promise this is the last time I'm going to repaint that!).

- Added further small talus around the rocks, clogging up my spray bottle in doing so.

Colin

The world's greatest model shop?

http://www.spmodels.co.uk/

One of the most surreal and extraordinary model shops and also possibly the world's greatest - as their shop sign exclaims.

The shop is based on a race track and ex USAF base! It's like driving into the middle of brands hatch via an airfield to get to it - very weird.

But when you do, it's astonishing - 20,000 items from toys to model aircraft/cars etc oh yes and stacks of railway items too. They have the largest display of woodland scenics items I have ever seen (I thought Castle Trains in Warwick was good!), masses of tools, adhesives, paints etc - simply wonderful!

Give it a try if your in Norfolk anytime soon.

Colin

watching paint dry

Some good progress to report since I've returned from holidays. 4 different colours of woodland scenics static grass has been added beneath the rocks, and talus dropped on too. The image below also shows my hair clipper - used for trimming the carpet felt. 95% of the bits I want to model with long grass are now felted and trimmed. The other side of the stream has been coloured and water added, plus the retaining wall completed (if it sticks at the second attempt!).

Knicker ripping rock has been added (local legend apparently) and you can see the carpet felt, plus the new plywood edge to this board too below.

Further along the layout, miles of carpet felt is visible.

and further attempts are being made at Larch modelling... using woodland scenics tree kits, I cut out most of the branches, leaving just single branches (they were split into threes) at intervals, then cut to pieces off a ridiculous model of a larch bought at the World's greatest model shop (more on that tomorrow).

Tonight I have literally been watching paint dry (assisted by a hairdryer) whilst I sprayed these white metal trees, first with grey cellulose primer and I then added brown and a hint of green with spray enamels from B+Q (see below).


Then I'm going to glue on the larch branches I removed.... more soon.

Colin

Norfolk break

On a break from the recent pattern of holidays to North Wales, we spent a week in Norfolk and visited a few places (railways) of interest:

First up is the Wells and Walsingham Railway (10 1/4 inch gauge and apparently the longest such railway in the world). Using my usual scoring system this scored 39%, placing it slightly better than the Amerton Railway but not quite as good as the Corris. The railway suffers from a small loco stud, terrible facilities and a terminus at Walsingham some distance from the village and indeed the car park. The Garratt was nice though! Below is also a moderate attempt at a Leek and Manifold carriage...

At Bressingham we had a great day out with 3 railways operating. Two miniatures and a 2 foot line too. All set is gorgeous gardens - fantastic. Overall it scored 51%, let down only by the lack of intermediate attractors, views etc that such a self contained site brings.

In the museum area I found this 16mm model of NWNGRlys brake No.1 or 2. Very nice.

Now the North Norfolk railway isn't narrow gauge, so it doesn't get a score, but we had a great time, the engine and stock was very well turned out and the stations were immaculate. The below view wasn't bad either.

But back to smaller things - the Bure Valley, which scores a superb 65%, up there with the Bala Lake! It sports super facilities and a great selection of engines. It does lose points however for the trip, which is ok, but not greatly inspiring and the consequent lack of intermediate attractions/views means it drops points.

Colin

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