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Update time!

 

On the work bench this morning is the OBA which is being converted, as the real thing was, to an OEA. A single wagon was converted at Cardiff Cathays with the intention of using it to carry packaged timber, the canvas hood designed to make loading easier. The OEA ended up on lots of different flows including china clay. See some photographs of the prototype on Paul Bartletts excellent website: http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/obarebuild/h1cd83f5a#h1cd83f5a

 

 

I drew up a simple 3D printed conversion for a spare Farish OBA I had knocking around, an image of which is further back in the thread. Here's the 3D Printed OEA body as it arrived and the donor OBA:

 

post-146-0-35047700-1393332531_thumb.jpg

 

The next job was to rub back the detail on the side of the OBA, this is a straight forward operation that involves sliding the OBA back and forth along a piece of fine sand paper.

 

post-146-0-99405700-1393332602_thumb.jpg

 

Next job is to cut off the irons which support the side doors once open, as the OEA has no side doors, these are surplus to requirement.

 

post-146-0-41118800-1393332686_thumb.jpg

 

Next the 3D printed body was primed and slid over the OBA.

 

post-146-0-77061200-1393332751_thumb.jpg

 

Finally a shot on the layout!

 

post-146-0-14402100-1393332818_thumb.jpg

 

The next task will be rubbing down the OEA body to smooth it out, the roof isn't too bad but the sides need a rub down to bring out the undulations I buit into the model. Then another coat of primer, painting and decalling.

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hello Jack,

 

Nice work (as always) and great progress.

 

Further filling/fine work can be done - in the yard - with Deluxe Materials' acrylic filler and or when painting mix the paint with some Pound shop talc.

 

I use a lot of talc for texture on my wagons et al - of course I am working in a larger scale but for groundwork in the smaller scales I would have thought that when mixed with paint, it would be ideal. For such a large area a tester pot or two  - from one of the sheds - would be the most cost effective and experdient mehtod to cover the area.

 

Hope that I am not teaching anyone to suck eggs.

 

Kind regards,

 

CME

 

Thanks for the tips, there are always plenty of new ways to suck eggs so don't worry! I'll have to experiment with the talc as it seems to be quite a good proxy for china clay so I'm sure it'll have a few applications around the layout! 

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

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Thanks for the tips, there are always plenty of new ways to suck eggs so don't worry! I'll have to experiment with the talc as it seems to be quite a good proxy for china clay so I'm sure it'll have a few applications around the layout! 

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

You are most welcome, indeed talc has a myriad of uses and it would help to scale/level out any deeper cracks and faults that may be troubling you.

 

Kindest,

 

CME

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The layout is really taking shape and all the other info on here is most useful. Thanks to Stoker for his information

I have to say that I find infill track in N a real challenge. I have chickened out and avoided the points and kept to straight track wherever possible. I have used cardboard formers inside and outside the tracks with lots of trial and error and trimming. I have also made the flanges over scale to compromise reliability over looks. It doesn't look half as good as yours but when viewed at a level and it's all painted and weathered its much less obvious

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I couldn't resist starting to paint it despite a few little details that still need adding! Obviously it will need weathering so at the moment it stands out against the weathered donor.

 

post-146-0-04002100-1393346133_thumb.jpg

 

As I had the stock box out... In a short bagged clay train!

 

post-146-0-15712200-1393346194_thumb.jpg

 

And one of my favorite Cornish tractors, it still needs a lamp at this end and the glazing putting back in despite being on the workbench for years!!!

 

post-146-0-61402000-1393346251_thumb.jpg

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

 

 

 

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The OEA looks really good, I like the fact you've been able to get a nice curtain texture on the print!

As for that 37, you're making my work look speedy :-p

 

jo

 

I'm certainly pleased with how the curtain effect came out, being the first curtain sided model I've had printed, it was a bit of an experiment!

 

I know, I know, I've been putting the windows back into 37175 for the best part of 3 years, I will sort her out one of these days!

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

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Hi Jack

 

Nice job with the OEA!  I have not seen one of these before and it will add something very different to your stock.

 

I dont know if you are planning any more (was there more than one?) but if you are you might find it easier to remove the chassis.  This is straightorward (I've done it myself without incident) and means that while filing down the sides and removing the door bangers there's no chance that you might inadvertently damage the W-irons or brake gear.

 

cheers

 

 

Ben A.

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That's interesting! Certainly sounds like a tedious and dusty job!

 

One thing I've noticed at Crugwallins is that the existing loading face of the linhay seems to have been supplimented with several larger height loading doors, though they wouldn't offer the same clearence as the section of linhay you describe where it looks like a large section of roof was cut out and covered over.

 

I'm painting the canal today on Pontsmill, I know that rivers at some point ran white with clay before the clay companies were told to clean their acts up. Do you know when this happened and would the river have been cloudy white at Pontsmill or clean (brown)?

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

 

The Luxulyan river at one time did run white. At it's headwaters were the china clay works at Bugle and Carbis, whose effluent all drained into it, as well as all the early workings along the Luxulyan valley. By the 1960s the industry was recycling it's runoff water, lagooning mica waste and sand fines, and the rivers were mostly running clear. In the period you are modelling, the river would've been brown from natural tannins. The St Austell river (the Vinnick) continued to have clay pollution issues up until 2005, although I'm not sure exactly what the cause of that was.

 

An interesting fact about the Luxulyan; prior to the clay there was a lot of tin streaming going right back to the 16th century. The village of Par was built on the sediment left by this, and before this it was reputably a wide estuary much like Looe or Wadebridge - supposedly it was possible to sail a ship as far as Pontsmill.

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Update time!

 

Today I've been working on the river and started doing the scenery. Before anyone says anything, I know the Luxulyan River is too fast flowing for Lilies, but I like Lilies so they've miraculously spawned!

 

post-146-0-99191000-1393542762_thumb.jpg

 

I've used Noch grass sheets, covered with a mixture of Woodland Scenics "Kermit Shavings" and teased out hanging basket liner. The river has been painted with brown/grey acrylics and then covered with 3 layers of PVA glue. I still need to decide the best way to make some trees up!

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

 

 

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Greenery looks good, I'm always a bit anxious before doing that kind of stuff for some reason, but I'll have to crack on with it on mine soon, so I'll be following this for inspiration. How did you do the lillies by the way?

Oh, and "Kermit Shavings", copyright J. Alder 26/2/14 about 12.10pm somewhere between J17 and J16 of the M4 :sungum:

jo

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Greenery looks good, I'm always a bit anxious before doing that kind of stuff for some reason, but I'll have to crack on with it on mine soon, so I'll be following this for inspiration. How did you do the lillies by the way?

Oh, and "Kermit Shavings", copyright J. Alder 26/2/14 about 12.10pm somewhere between J17 and J16 of the M4 :sungum:

jo

 

You should get "Kermit Shavings" trademarked, maybe market your own flock under the brand!

 

To do the lilies, I placed some dark green blobs of paint, then once dry I did put some light green blobs on top of most of the dark green blobs. The idea being that dark green blobs are either shadows of the surface lilies, or leaves which are below the surface. Once they were painted I did a final layer of PVA over the top.

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

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Greenery looks good, I'm always a bit anxious before doing that kind of stuff for some reason

 

Probably because it's so easy to make it look awful and so hard to correct it if it does go wrong. It's been a while since I had any kind of layout at all, but I found it helpful to pick up the woodland scenics scenery technique book, and follow it to the letter. That way I knew I'd be safe to proceed knowing the result would look good.

 

I also worked from photographs as accurately as possible. There were a few things in the photographs that I wouldn't have thought about just working from imagination, such as undergrowth, scrub, bushy weeds, brambles, and colony growth. Applying yellow scatter to dark green ground foam on lichen moss to represent flowering gorse was probably my favourite trick.

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That's a good reminder Stoker, I need to make up some gorse, it's very common along the atlantic coast it seems!

 

I have dusted some more Noch sheets with Games Workshop "Skull White". The grass which is around the clay works will be this dusty grass as shown above, the fields at the front of the layout will be without the Skull White dusting and occupied by sheep.

 

I also have some N scale figures to paint, whilst I've painted 1:76 figures and Warhammer figures, I think N scale will be quite challanging. Hopefully my figure painting techniques will scale down!

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

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Had a crack at painting a figure this evening, they are tiny! This bloke is from "Model Scene - Unpainted Figures Set B"

 

The figures from the packet look like something that belongs in a kidney dish.

 

post-146-0-60927100-1393622326.jpg

 

The figures also come with a big base, which has to be, realistically speaking, removed.

 

I painted this bloke using Games Workshop Acrylic paints. I probably need a better method of photographing figures, but here he is:

 

post-146-0-04736500-1393622661.jpg

 

There's not much detail to pick up on so he looks a bit blobby, but at normal viewing distance he looks fine. Perhaps Preiser figures are a little more refined?

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

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Games Workshop skull white spray used to be my little trick for clay dust as well. Sprayed a healthy dose of it on all the foliage near the works, as well as around vents and things. You don't see it so much these days because the clay drying plants are much more controlled when it comes to dust, but I remember growing up everything in the vicinity of the clay works, as well as all the local roads, would be covered in it. The people living in Treviscoe used to have trouble with it, keeping their windows clean and hanging laundry out to dry. I don't think people appreciate now just how bad it used to be. Inside the older rotary dryers, it would literally snow clay dust. Steam would rise off the freshly pressed filter cake and freshly dried clay on the conveyor belts, and then the clay particles would rain back down on everything - this got blown out of the building by ventilators and staff leaving windows and doors open. Also the steam exhaust stacks from the dryer were unfiltered, so you'd get a load of clay dust from that as well.

 

post-10374-0-29685200-1393636477_thumb.jpg

 

This photograph of the three rotary drying units at Par harbour demonstrates the amount of clay dust that came out of the vents pretty clearly.

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I'm sure working in that sort of environment must have caused medical issues, I can't imagine breathing in clay dust every day would do anyone any good, that said some people apparently eat china clay for its health benefits?!

 

I still have to spray the clay dries, but I'm making a few adjustments after finding some pictures I hadn't seen of the site. I need to add some steps into the concrete base, this means cutting out material from the MDF base of the buildings and putting in plasticard steps. Once that's done I can weather the lot down with Skull White!

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

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Thanks Rob and CME!

 

Scenic work is progressing slowly. Both these areas will contain trees, I've bought a mix of some cheap ones on eBay, whether they will be any good to use or improve I'm not sure.

 

post-146-0-17650200-1393686988_thumb.jpg

 

I've also glued the retaining wall in place and placed some hanging basket liner/kermit shavings along the base. There will be trees and foliage behind the wall, though I think I may use fewer/shorter trees than the prototype in places, because people won't be able to see the clay works otherwise!!!

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

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With the amount of trees around Ponts Mill, at the worst they will make good background trees :)

 

Hi Mickey and Jack,

 

I agree, and as trees are often modelled as too small/short then that needs consideration and better qaulity versions to the front - IMHO, trees, often make or break a layout, as do backscenes (a myriad of other issues too - yet trees and backscenes are two obvious areas). Wasnt it Cyril Freezer who made a pithy comment about trees on layouts?

 

Kindest,

 

CME

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I'm hoping the 60mm trees will be fairly big trees. I worked out the size I wanted based upon the idea that at a scale 30ft that'll be taller than your average house and 40mm will be about the same height as your average house. Of course I need to strike the balance as having them too tall will hide a lot of the clay works as there are 3 rows of trees between the front of the layout and the clay works!

 

I've been ballasting/grassing the track today. It's still a little damp so it probably looks a little more shiny than it will be. It's tricky making track and ballast look run down without making it look like normal ballasting done badly. I recall reading somewhere the track was last ballasted and weed killed sometime in 1988 and it was then basically left to rot, so by 1992 it wasn't possible to see the rails for the grass!

 

I used a mixture of green and yellow flock mixed with fine granite chippings and sand dyed dark brown. Before ballasting I painted the rails with a mix of paints to look like rail dirt, they could perhaps be a little more orange though. I also dry brushed a light grey over the sleepers to age them.

 

post-146-0-27460600-1393777157_thumb.jpg

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

 

 

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