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Ropley - Downtime progress!

TomE

Entry posted by TomE

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28DEC11-030b.jpg

MHR Resident Black 5 heads towards Alton to collect it's first train of the day.

Hi all, and belated seasonal greetings!

 

Well it's good to be back on-line, even though I can't help but think a few more bouts of enforced downtime might do wonders for modelling productivity levels!

 

Anyway, since the last update, a fair amount of progress has been made on various areas of Ropley. The Christmas break gave me chance to pretty much finish the trackwork the Ash pit being the last major part left to complete. As previously mentioned, this will be built 'off board' then dropped into place and I now have a pretty good idea on how this is going to be achieved, but more on that in a future entry.

 

The whole board received a coat of Railmatch Sleeper Grime over Christmas, allowing me to seek out any uneven or wobbly bits of line and adjust as necessary. There were only a couple of areas thankfully, and overall I'm quite pleased with how the stock runs through the 'bodged to N gauge' 2mm pointwork!

 

Here's a view of the Western end of the layout as it currently stands:

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Still a couple of check rails to fit (Ok, I just realised I missed them, d'oh!) but otherwise complete bar ash pit.

I've also made a start on fitting fishplates at the Eastern end of the layout. I ordered a fret from the 2mm SA shop just to see if it was feasible, and even though they are tiny, I think it makes a nice detail at close quarters! I have tried to fit these in as close to prototypical location as possible using photos of the real location.

22DEC11-036b.jpg

The Fishplates have been drybrushed with black paint to represent the oily appearence of the real things

I've also spent some time experimenting further with the scenic side of things, and mainly the use of static grass for the embankment. A little while ago I bought one of these flyswat applicators on e-bay, thinking it would be worth a go for the £12 or so they were being sold for. The one thing I wanted to avoid was the uniform astro turf look you sometimes see when static grass has been applied, so I also purchased several different shades and lengths of grass to try out.

 

So I could get some idea of what things would look like when in place on the layout, without gluing anything in place without first practising the teqhnique, I spread some PVA onto a clear plastic wallet, and then started by applying mininatur Winter fibers, followed by summer fibers, and then finally a layer of some short bright green fibres I picked up at a local show a while back. In the tub they look far to bright to use, but when mixed with the other colours they do a half decent job of representing the newer growth coming through underneath.

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Here the fibres are applied to the plastic wallet.

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And here is the grass pealed off the wallet in one strip once the PVA is dry.

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Finally the strip rested in place on the embankment.

I'm quite pleased how this turned out, but I've ordered a few more colours to try and add some further variation and get a closer match to the real location. I also need to try integrating the method used to create brambles shown in this previous blog entry. If anything I think the result here proves I didn't need to spend upwards of £70 for my relatively short section of embankment!

 

The one thing I didn't really get chance to work on was the carriage shed & boiler works, although I have confirmed I got my measurements right and it looks in proportion when placed in the correct position.

22DEC11-034b.jpg

Here's a view you won't see once the tree line is in place along the top of the embankment!

So, thats where we're up to at the moment. January is going to be a busy month with work so things might not progress much, but hopefully in Feburaury some leave will see another progress spurt!

 

Finally, thanks to Andy and Jim for their work on the site over the past few days. Their efforts to keep things running so we can ramble on are much appreciated!

 

Cheers all, and Happy New Year!

 

Tom

28DEC11-039a.jpg

Having collected it's train, the Black 5 slows for Ropley Station on a lovely Summers day.

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Mighty

Some beautiful crisp photography there Tom. I had to do a double check when you said this was 2mm gauge as this is really fine work!

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James Hilton

That's an impressive embankment for a £12 swatter thingamy and you must have excellent eye sight to apply those fish plates! They look superb though - you really have to look close to see it's 2mm!

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TomE
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Some beautiful crisp photography there Tom. I had to do a double check when you said this was 2mm gauge as this is really fine work!

 

Thanks Mighty!

 

Ive used a very similar method for applying grass and am really pleased with it.

 

It was your post in the layout thread that inspired me try this method, so thank you! I'm not sure if I'll go with it when it comes to the final application though as I have concerns about it pealing away from the embankment over time. If I get a set of strips I really like on the next trial including the brambles I probably will, no point doing it twice!

 

That's an impressive embankment for a �12 swatter thingamy and you must have excellent eye sight to apply those fish plates! They look superb though - you really have to look close to see it's 2mm!

 

Thanks James! I did loose one or two fish plates to the ether, but I think the effort is worth it.

 

Cheers all,

 

Tom.

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SNCF stephen

Your method of applying the grass is really good. I also have one of the fly swat applicators and, although I am sure the more expensive models are better, it is not half bad!

 

I wanted to paint our bedroom in Railmatch Sleeper Grime but my wife wouldn't let me!

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TomE
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Thanks Stephen! Can't think why the wife would object to a sleeper grime bedroom, lol!

 

Tom.

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justin1985

Your track is looking absolutely amazing - the fishplates really look good, and the weathering really brings them out well! I had been dubious as to whether I would bother, but they definitely look worth it now.

 

The grass is looking excellent too - the depth of colour is just right!

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