The Coal Drop

[MAP66]

OK, I know that previously I said that I would paint the tree first before adding any more sea foam but I think you are getting to know me now in that I sometimes change my mind, especially if I think things are going well doing it a different way.

That said, I have continued with adding more sea foam, leaving it alone and then coming back to it to add a bit more. It's taking ages and I'm about half way through. So a good time for a tea break and to post a few more progress photos of the tree.

 

Oh, and on a separate issue the dog arrived and will soon be installed on the rug in front of the fire. I shall name him 'Dave'. There maybe a link with the yard broom here as the broom belongs to Trigger one of the yardmen.

 

Just following on from yesterday evenings post, I purposefully left one space to place the latest photo on the tree so you can get a comparison on progress from yesterdays photos. The sea foam stage is finished apart from some trimming up. Then it will be a spray of brown paint and then the scatter.

Edited June 1, 2018 by MAP66

[MAP66]

Not much progress to report on my CBC, not to see anyway as I have been busy on the underside. There will be some lighting on the diorama which will be powered by a 9V battery. So I have secured a battery holder with velcro and an electrical terminal block to the underside of the base and installed a small toggle switch behind the fence out of sight. So a flick of the switch turns all lights on or off.

 

At the moment I have the flickering effect LED for the fire place and 2 x ceiling lamps one for the coal office and one for the yard store. I am contemplating about fitting a working lamp to the top of the Peco buffer stop and perhaps a street light.

I am not an electrical person but I'm hoping with all lighting on at once will reduce the lighting to a more realistic and dimmer effect. 

 

Topside, I have added some drainpipe to the coal office and had a go at weathering the brickwork in places using water colours. I think I have devised a method to add some sign writing to the coal dray, it needs a little more working out before I am ready to try it out, if it doesn't work we'll say no more about it.

 

The tree is also fully sea foamed up and I am very pleased with the result considering its my first attempt, next stage will be to add the scatters and then I will need to chisel out a hollow by removing some of the cobbles to plant it. Then a little bit of Das or filler to extend the roots to give the appearance that the tree is really rooted to the ground. 

 

The coal office just needs a little more work on the interior and outside then it will be ready to place onto the scene permanently and for this I will need to remove more cobbles so that the coal office sits into the ground and does not appear to float on top of it.

 

A little more forethought at the design stage would have saved some time here but like I said on my first post its a 'make it up as you go along' so mistakes were inevitable. I'm not too worried though as I intend to learn from them and improve for next time. 

 

Anyway, heres a photo just to show the tree and weathering on the coal office.

 

MAP66

[Guest ShildonShunter]

Very nice indeed love the tree and coal office.

[Bill_J]

I really like your tree. It looks like it would wave with a wind. Just the feel that I'm trying to achieve with the tree I'm making for my cbc. If it ends up looking as good as yours I'll be most pleased.

 

 

Regards

 

 

 

edited for typo

Edited June 6, 2018 by Bill_J

[Jerry1975]

Very nice and atmospheric, I also love that tree.

 

Jerry.

[MAP66]

Thank you all for your kind comments about the tree. I have now added the scatter and removed some of the cobbles ready for planting on the scene, also done the same for the coal office.

I also made a little easel and blackboard to display the price of coal, just for a bit of fun.

 

A bit of bad news as senior management was moving things around the room not knowing that my box of fragile parts for the CBC was on top of a pile of magazines. You can guess the rest, the box and contents went crashing to the floor and the poor old coal dray ended up in 5 separate pieces. Another job for the super glue!!

 

On a positive note though it allowed me to handle the separate pieces better so that I could add my sign writing which I have printed on sticky labels just using Word and size 4 font.

So here are tonight's update photos.

 

MAP66

[Guest ShildonShunter]

I really like the blackboard you have modelled and with the prices too very nicely done..

[MAP66]

Evening folks,

 

It's been a bit quiet at the coal drop this week as I've been in Bruges for a few days taking a short break. One good thing while I was away is that some more figures I had ordered through ModelU arrived in the post including the seated signalman (1038-076) which I have placed in the coal office with Dave the dog who is laid out on the rug in front of the fire.

 

I attempted to fit an illuminated buffer stop from DCC Concepts, but in my haste I blew the LED for the lamp as I did not use the mini pcb board which incorporates the resistor. There are two buffer stops in a pack so I will give it another go before giving up on this idea.

 

I have also added some static grass, moss and a bit more greenery around the scene. I really want to place the tree but this will have to be the last job as once in place the diorama can only be moved carefully. So this evenings progress photos include the interior of the coal office and more of the yard.

 

MAP66

 

 

[MAP66]

A very quick post tonight, just finished painting another of the ModelU figures (Woman shopping from the Pendon range 0103-076).

I hope to have 3 or 4 cameo scenes and this lady will be in conversation with the coal yard owner, who may make an appearance tomorrow.

 

MAP66

[Andrew Cockburn]

Very realistic scene, enhanced by the lighting effects, look forward also to seeing the cameo scenes.

[MAP66]

As promised, Del of Del's Coal Merchants (AKA The Owner) makes his debut appearance. He's a bit of a scruffy looking chap but that's because he likes to muck in and is pretty hands on. For those of you who are interested, again the figure is from ModelU (Man in conversation 0105-076).

I'm glad I came across these figures as I feel they look more natural, when placed within a scene, due to being modeled by 3d scanning real people.

 

Anyway see what you think.

MAP66

[Andrew Cockburn]

Nice work, and it would be interesting to know exactly what the man was saying to/asking the woman - a possible date at the local perhaps?!?!

Edited June 19, 2018 by Andrew Cockburn

[MAP66]

Nice work, and it would be interesting to know exactly what the man was saying to/asking the woman - a possible date at the local perhaps?!?!

Hi Andrew

Thanks for your very kind comments. 

I think the conversation is revolving around the price of coal as Del as forgotten to put the price board out again 

[MAP66]

Well its about time they started loading that coal dray, but hang on a minute they've only loaded two bags and already there talking about a tea break. Wait until Del clocks em, shirkers.

 

 

[MAP66]

Well after much struggling and fiddling I finally managed to install the Illuminated buffer stop from DCC Concepts (DML-MBS). They are very fragile so one needs to take care when handling and fitting them to the track. However, my patience was eventually rewarded as the end result looks very pleasing with the lamp glowing away. The next stage will be to disguise the wiring with some carefully placed greenery.

 

Now those rickety old shelves in the store below are just crying out for some old toot to be placed on them me thinks.

 

MAP66

[MAP66]

Well who would have thought the price of coal was such an engaging conversation topic. Del has been talking to this lady for so long that ivy has now grown over the front entrance of the coal office.

 

I made the ivy from strands of thin copper wire twisted together at one end and then teasing out and fanning into shape the loose ends, keeping it all flat like the real thing as it clings to the brickwork. I then sprayed it a brown colour and when dry I sprayed with an adhesive glue and added 3 different shades of green scatter. finally I carefully stuck it to the face of the coal office wall sticking the base of the stem first with a dab of super glue and then carefully applying small dabs to super glue to a few of the strands to hold everything in place.

 

I like to experiment so I also used fine grade wire wool for my representation of brambles which I placed behind the buffer stop to conceal the wiring. A word of warning as I would not recommend using wire wool for scenery anywhere near electrics as it can create a short circuit if layout wiring is not fully insulated and comes into contact with wire wool, this is also a potential fire hazard. However, I took the decision to use it as I have doubly insulated and shielded the buffer stop wiring from the wire wool to avoid this risk.

I used a similar method to the ivy by pinching off a clump of wire wall, teasing into shape and then spraying brown and finally adding the scatter and also some 2mm static grass.

I hope you enjoy the attached photos.

 

MAP66

[Andrew Cockburn]

A very convincing scene, well done!

[D869]

Like it - nice job!

 

Not sure if it's the camera or the real thing but the interior lighting looks a little bit bright and white in the photos. Some higher value resistors could deal with the brightness but I've found that an easier way to make LED light both dimmer and warmer is to stick some pale yellow tape over the LED. Either DCC kapton insulating tape or Tamiya masking tape seem to work equally well in this regard and it's easy to play with multiple layers or else just partially covering the LED until you get the effect that you are happy with.

 

We've also used glass paints on white LEDs where they are out in the open but this is not so easy to 'adjust'.

 

HTH.

 

Regards, Andy

[MAP66]

A very convincing scene, well done!

Thanks Andrew

I really appreciate your kind comments.

 

Regards

Mark

[MAP66]

Like it - nice job!

 

Not sure if it's the camera or the real thing but the interior lighting looks a little bit bright and white in the photos. Some higher value resistors could deal with the brightness but I've found that an easier way to make LED light both dimmer and warmer is to stick some pale yellow tape over the LED. Either DCC kapton insulating tape or Tamiya masking tape seem to work equally well in this regard and it's easy to play with multiple layers or else just partially covering the LED until you get the effect that you are happy with.

 

We've also used glass paints on white LEDs where they are out in the open but this is not so easy to 'adjust'.

 

HTH.

 

Regards, Andy

Hi Andy

 

Thank you for taking the time to post advice on the lighting. I completely agree that the lighting level is not quite right, I do intend to address this at some point and I will probably try the paint method first as I have had success on the fire effect in the coal office by applying small dabs of black paint on the LED which when illuminated gives, I think, a good impression of a flickering fire with glowing coals.

 

I will add some light shades of paint to the LED in the store until the end result is a dim light effect  - just enough for light to illuminate some of the junk within. When I'm happy with this I will try the same with the coal office lighting.

Just to also add that I am taking photos with my phone camera and artificial lighting which is not great so this is also not helping with the end result.

 

Senior management has now tasked me with completing the patio over the weekend as we have new patio furniture arriving Monday so it may take a while before my next post - happy days.

 

Regards

Mark

[MAP66]

Well there was no model making progress made to my CBC over the weekend but the Mrs did get her patio finished ready for the arrival of the new furniture tomorrow.

 

I say there was no progress made, however I followed the photo tips kindly shared by 'KNP' from his most recent post on his amazing 'Not Another One?' CBC and took the Coal Drop outside in the garden to take these two photos in natural light. I am very pleased with the results (lighting wise, still need to sort the focusing out) and with further experimentation with reflective boards etc.should result in some nice images, certainly an improvement from the shots I've been taking indoors. So at least I can say progress has been made on the photography side of things - courtesy of KNP.

 

MAP66

 

 

[KNP]

Very nice and well composed CBC.

 

Another way that sometimes works to sort the depth of field out is to use the highest 'F' stop you can, set the picture size to the largest you have and then take the picture from a distance - start with say 1m and then 'zoom in' by cropping the picture to enlarge it.

The further away you are so the depth of field increases so you will be able to get more of it in focus.

 

Of course if you have a focus stacking program then so much the better.

 

Thanks for the compliment and the mention.

 

 

[MAP66]

Here's a few more shots of the Coal drop, these were taken inside in artificial light and I am now pleased with the light level in the coal office after painting the LED yellow, its much dimmer and looks more realistic now.  I have tried to take shots from different angles and the first shot is a close up to show the padlock on the door of the store which I finally was able to make with a bit of plasticard and fuse wire and there's me again with the shovel, you will have to forgive me for wearing a fireman's hat and not a flat cap but like I said before I was intending to end up on the footplate of a loco and not in a coal yard.

 

The second shot looks along the raised track bed and is my first attempt of sketching the track disappearing out of sight. It's not quite right yet so more practice required on that one. Can you also see the discarded newspaper that someone walking along the alley has thrown over the fence. The third shot looks through to the tree which is still not permanently fixed in place but you can see that I have added some ivy growing up the trunk, you can also see that I have added some ivy growing up the side of the stables as well which is clear to see in the last shot.

 

Just for a bit of fun I used the monochrome setting on my camera phone to take the fourth photo.

Now with football coming home and all that, does that mean I will have to squeeze a football related cameo scene in somewhere? I have an idea....

 

MAP66  

[luke the train spotter]

That black and white photo is very realistic. I reckon if you zoomed in a touch so you didnt see the edge of the board, it would be very hard to tell real from model.

[MAP66]

That black and white photo is very realistic. I reckon if you zoomed in a touch so you didnt see the edge of the board, it would be very hard to tell real from model.

Thanks Luke that's very decent of you to say so. I will probably take some more B&W shots like this when the model is complete.

 

Regards

Mark