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War Department First World War Narrow Gauge Layout O-16.5 WDLR

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Baldwin in a Day

In an attempt to make up for some of the lost ground this week (and kindly facilitated by the awful weather), I attacked another Wrightlines Baldwin and have made great progress;     OK, so I cheated a bit. This is one which I got from Ebay a while ago with the chassis already completed and rather well at that! Only downside though is that it has been made as per the instructions so the flat motor drives the center wheel thus being visible where there should be daylight and it invades the c
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Lights but little action!

I just know you have all been missing me but I am still here and unfortunately progressing at a pace that a snail would be proud of, which is very bad with that doomsday exhibition clock ticking. After a short but adventurous holiday and having to tackle misbehaving, cars, cats, cameras, children and even bats, I finally have something to report. The LED lighting is finally in place as is the fascia with the aid of much velcro. The white balance of the camera doesn't really do the lighting justi
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Lighting and Fascia

Yesterday I managed to get all the background and fascia supports shortened and daubed with anonymous black paint as well as much of myself and a 'helpful' 8 year old!     And reinstated on the layout. I think the following pic should show how it has ended up. They have now been lowered so that the backdrop is only 18 inches and brought back so the front is level with the front of the board. This has actually made a huge difference to the stability of the whole contraption.     I then
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A Brief Interlude

With that doomsday clock on the Tracks to the Trenches site ticking down rather uncomfortably you would have thought the last thing I should be spending my time on is a loco from 1928. Well yes, but there is some logic somewhere. I bought the basic etch from A1 models at the Burton show on a whim and for £12 I think and had a DCC ready Bachmann chassis so thought why not? What I wanted was something that would actually work for testing the track and which wouldn't look too out of place if my wor
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An Historic Bit of Earth

As weeks go this this has been one of the most hectic on record, hence lack of updates because not a lot has happened except for this one rather significant corner of a foreign field - it was the last unscenified (spell check won't like that one!) bit of the layout.     Still wet with Astonish and will need some grass but otherwise the scenery is officially finished! Well at least to a degree where it can go on display without a paper bag over my head. The sharp eyed amongst you will have n
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H Class Finished

Finished might a actually be a bit of an over statement but it is certainly as far as I can take it right no. While I muse on what to do with the back scene and fascia (my optimism of getting them finished yesterday was completely unfounded!), I though this would be a nice diversion. After finding my bottle of obviously under used mascol solid I decided that spraying was not an option so the camouflage is hand painted in acrylics. My Peter Spoerer Easi Liner pen had its first outing after being
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What a difference a backscene makes.

A quick trip to the slightly smaller than usual Telford show started the weekend off, unfortunately accompanied by an unusually moany little girl which did make it a pretty quick trip. Good thing though was that I didn't get the chance to spend much money! As it wasn't raining when I got back another start was made on fitting the backscene and wow, does it make a difference! It is not perfect yet as I shall explain but heaps better.   I have recycled the 2x1 from my mark1 legs which has been v
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Odd jobs

As it has managed not to rain a bit I have done a couple of things that involved sawing and drilling outside. First up was the implementation of an idea I had for leveling the boards on the trestles more effectively. This involved drilling (very accurately!), 10mm holes in the top bar of the trestles, inserting one of the many spare M10 bolts and fixing with a nut. A wing nut was then screwed upside down on the tread an a large washer placed on top. Corresponding holes (12mm to give a bit of le
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Reliably unreliable

I think I should just pack up and go home - hang on, I am at home so that isn't an option! What has brought this on? Well...... As it is still mostly raining so unable to cut my wood for the back scene supports outside and not wishing to fill the house with sawdust (again!), I decided to sort out another couple of bits of wiring which meant plugging in all the connecting leads. Result - dead short. After much head scratching eventually disconnecting and unbolting each section I found the culprit
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Problems of all sorts!

It just has been one of those weeks really on all sorts of levels! You can take that as an apology for not a lot of progress and not a lot in the way of pictures. There are pictures but they are on the computer that is out of action with a faulty PSU (I hope!). Was fairly well prepared for such things having bought an emergency spare a few months ago onto which I had transferred some stuff but not nearly enough. Along with school plays, and loads of other things cropping up not very much time l
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GW Rivet Press and an H class wagon

I have had a GW rivet press sitting somewhere under my piles of stuff for quite a few months now but have only now found an excuse to play with it. Actually, the Mercian H class tank has been sitting under the same pile for even longer but started it off as something to do while my lovely wife was in the same room Googleing where I am being sent off to on holiday this year. As regular readers will know, no filing of metal or soldering is allowed to occur in the same room as her! After a bit of m
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Down to the detail

Knowing myself as well as I do, I quickly realised that if the layout went back in the studio again or got crated up all those little detail bits just wouldn't get done. I put up with tripping over it in the office for another couple of days therefore and just got down to it.   Much use was made of PhotoShop and printable transfers so I came up with this lot. A lot of attention was paid to making sure that they didn't look like signs that had just been knocked up on a computer so no straight f
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First try at resin casting.

On my to do list for quite some time has been loads for the wagons, which, with a very large number of bogie opens to sort out really shouldn't have been left until now! There are various loads to be considered, duck boards, A frames, wire, hay, ammo boxes, but I have started with shells. A bit of lateral thinking and a chat with another Dad at school who is a pretty serious shooter resulted in several bags of these;     Then some cling film in the wagon to stop them sticking and a bit of c
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Two boards finished!

It seems to have been a long time coming but have now pretty much finished two boards and only have a very small patch to do on the others ans I am there! OK, don't get too excited, there are quite a few more details I want to get in there but it will very shortly be fit for public display. The final push involved a new shell hole to give a reason for the damage to the cafe and the building up of a bank (in very traditional manner by the barn Then went on to make a very long low wall at the fro
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Found the camera so here are some pics.

So having finally found the camera here we go.     This was the state of play on Saturday night. Now, those of you who have been following this blog will probably be able to guess what happens next ......     Turning a lovely roof into this   I then got a bit of help in painting the ground while she was avoiding getting her hair dried     A bit more weathering and the starts of building up some rubble brought us to here     There is still plenty to do but is now presentable
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No Pictures Tonight I Am Afraid

Sorry, I seem to have lost the little camera, well not lost exactly as I know I had it earlier but where it is now..........   On it are a bunch of pictures from an action packed weekend and significant progress on the latest building.   Saturday saw me off to Burton upon Trent for the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association annual do. As always, a good selection of layouts and traders and some very useful chats with several people. One in particular which has saved me a lot of trouble in scratch build
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Is it a cafe or a shop?

Well, doesn't really matter I guess as it certainly won't be trading on my railway but will be a nice building anyway and am using some new (to me !) techniques here.   I must admit that measuring out and drawing are not my favorite things so I didn't do any! i just straightened up the photo I was using as a reference in Photoshop, scaled it to the right size and printed it off on paper. I then Pritt stickered it onto the foam board and just cut around the outline. Then did the same thing for
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Making a Scene!

A back scene of course! Have been firmly wedded to the computer for the last couple of days doing proper work but this did mean that I had my big super fast PC fired up so was able to play with the backdrop when I got bored of PhotoShopping product photos.   I used as a basis a panorama I took near Arras last week but had to stitch it together by hand as all automated attempts were just rubbish. I overlayed onto this a cruelly enlarged original WW1 picture that I had tinted for the remains of
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Barn pretty much finished

The barn is pretty much finished now with the field kitchen installed and a few figures dotted about. I still need to add a bit more rubble and weeds but think I will do this all in one go to get a consistent look. Talking of a consistent look though, I am a bit worried that the last couple of things I have done are far better than the buildings I made only 6 months ago! Not that I am going to replace them or anything but I am glad the old ones are at the back.   Am just about to embark on a n
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Going to the wall

Just as a little aside as I complete the barn, and as another step towards filling in all the 'white bits' I have been working on a little wall section. Quite a satisfying little project actually as a good result pretty quickly which is good as have been far too busty today engaged in the troublesome business of doing some proper work for a change.   Last night I knocked up a quick foam board shell, stuck on some embossed plasticard and then some thinly worked bits of DAS - bit like marzipanin
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Barn Therapy

As an antidote to a month of wiring and locos that refuse to work properly I can thoroughly recommend building a barn. I now feel very much as Harrison Ford must have done in Witness, before people started chasing him again (crikey, I have had some strange dreams lately but that is for another forum!). Anyway, it has all gone together pretty well, there are a few things that I would do differently next time but am really pleased with results so far and pretty fired up over getting loads of extra
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Another research trip

The reason for a recent lack of posts will now become obvious (although I was organised enough to pre post a couple this time), we have been off to France again. It is rather a long story as to why we went at pretty much on a whim but my lovely wife would be French if she wasn't from Stafford! She loves the place so to keep her happy (always a good plan!), I suggested a short trip to Paris. Imagine my surprise when I was offered what turned out to be two days on the way to do a bit more of my WW
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Baldwin now 92% finished and 98% running well.

A very , very busy week so nothing more on the barn but did manage a play with the Baldwin. The more attentive amongst you will have noticed a subtle change in the ECI (Estimated Completion Index).   As I have not yet acquired that inspection camera I resorted to a sheet of glass and found that on close inspection the chassis was rocking badly . Well, I knew it was straight and level when I built it so what has gone wrong? Pushing the pony truck off the glass settled it as the six wheels of th
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A bit more barn

Rather a hectic week so not as much progress as I would have liked but I have found something out - doing wattle in 7mm takes forever - there were some expletives in there by the way !   I was looking for a suitable thread to use for the wattle but the best I could come up with was some elastic from a bead making set (sorry Izzy!). It worked but was difficult to trim at the ends and didn't think I had enough of it anyway. I then got out a photo trimmer and my best letter paper and sliced real
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And Now For Something Completely Different!

Getting back to filling the odd corners of the layout that are not yet finished seemed like a good idea so I started on this which is unlike anything I have ever done before. Actually two points here; most of what I have been doing I have never done before and if I have it was thirty odd years ago and not done terribly well and two perhaps I have done something a bit like this! It suddenly occurred to me that building a barn is not that dissimilar to building a radio controlled aircraft of which
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