As promised, I am posting several pictures of the yard crossing following clearance of the flangeways. Once the filler had set, I initially used a Stanley knife to score close up to the inner of each rail, down as far as the tops of the chairs. This was cleared out using a 1/2" paintbrush. The knife was reversed and the score widened using the flat back of the blade, and brushed clear again. Finally a hacksaw blade was used to give a little extra width to the flangeway; I merely used the rounded
I think (and hope) that the worst of the winter weather is behind us. The garage having recently been relieved of workshop duties, following a batch of home improvements, the layout is once again reassembled therein.
I'd been following Pete Matcham's progress on Moorswater with interest, especially his recent travails with inlaid trackwork; Brafferton requires a small amount of trackwork to be sunk into hardcore/yard muck. Having successfully used lightweight patching filler elsewhere, I hav
Really!
I'd established a method for construction of the station buildings. You think I'd stick to that? Not a bit of it!
The remainder of the station (seen furthest away in the preceding entry) seems to be of a later and simpler construction than the main block. It was before I'd released it, that I was picking out various pieces of card stock (not plastic card) and commencing on construction of the extension.
I do love modelling with card; so much more satisfying than plastic and u
There really is only so much ballasting one can take! It's still not finished, but I persevere.
Meantime, I thought I'd take a break and make a start on the station buildings. These have been started several times before, always with unsatisfactory results which end up being scrapped. The main problem is that the window surrounds are recessed slightly and there are stone corners to contend with too:
I'd tried plasticard with varying backing pieces and inlaid stonework. This was w
Ballasting is coming along nicely, filling those long winter evenings as well as the gaps between the sleepers.
Meanwhile, I did promise an update on the D49, and have been reminded of this in a comment to an earlier post! This loco has now been chipped and substantially painted. I'd originally painted the cylinders with a brush. This looked absolutely awful next to the loco itself. So they were cleaned up and sprayed, having first masked off the wheels and motion; they are currently just
... cinders!
Onward with ballasting. Over the years, I've tried various methods of everybody's favourite part of layout building. This time I noticed, when laying the Easitrac, that the Easitrac glue remains slightly rubbery, unlike normal PVA which sets fairly solid. This seemed to be a good medium for applying the ballast too.
Don't apply before going to bed! This is the Easitrac glue decanted into a small container for ease of use. It will be applied, neat, with the pippet.
L
Following a barren two months (modelling-wise) I am now back at it with avengance. I hope!
Last week the Class 04 had it's chip rewired as the black lead had come adrift whilst I was fettling the couplers in anticipation of the 2mm AGM. As a result, that loco merely sat sadly on the layout unmoving. However, the Class 24 and the chipped and painted D49 enabled some measure of pride to be retained.
Damage also incurred at or coming back from AGM, was a point blade coming away from the st
The layout was dismantled today ready for showing at the AGM on Saturday. Prior to this, however, I did receive the reprofiled wheels for my Cl24 from Gordon Solloway; thanks Gordon!
The loco was reassembled and had a good couple of hours just circuiting Brafferton with two coaches in tow. Despite still having Rapido couplings, this train can now run on Saturday. The Cl04 has also gained some badly needed B&B couplings and can now undertake freight duties.
I expect a lull post-AGM as
The coal drops are now substantially complete and its time to incorporate them into the layout. With hindsight, I should have sorted out the cross board join at an earlier date and not tried to do it as part of the drops. However, what is done is done and I had to make the best job I could of the rails up to the join:
Once happy with the mechanical element of the area, I set to blending the drops in scenically. The pre-mix plaster I use is especially good for this as it is very dry,
Weathering. Do you?
Personally, I feel that everything on a layout should be weathered to some extent such that the whole comes together as one seamless 3D picture. It doesn't necessarily mean that everything has to be as black as a hole in Calcutta; indeed I use more white and light grey weathering powders than any of the others.
Today I've been weathering the coal drops; washes of very thin paint and fine dustings with powders:
I hope the piece is starting to fit in
Firstly my apologies to all of those who noticed the naffness of the photos in my last post. It was only later that I realised that the camera was set to something like ISO 1600 . Sorry!
This weekend I had an enjoyable Sunday at Shipley show where there were some excellent layouts in a variety of scales; very nice. The traders were a bit of a letdown, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I came away with a couple of book, one on North Eastern sheds and the various locos thereon and one on t
With a few spare hours on Sunday (between walking dogs, lopping tree branches etc. You get the idea), I managed to progress a couple of my projects.
Out came the brushes and the Humbrol. Rails and timbers were painted on the coal drops, stonework was touched up and the coal piles were painted matt black.
When this had dried, the coal piles were glued in and real coal was added in various amounts to the cells of the drops. Finally weathering powders, black through dark brown, were brushed
Further progress today, with second track now in place. Transoms (?) are being added between the timbers and then painting will take place. There probably ought to be some transom bolts too; these will be bits of steel wire, to be added after painting:
Meanwhile, attention turns to the contents of the drops; coal. I've been making some formers out of modelling clay to represent some of the larger piles of coal. These will be painted and covered in real coal and coal dust.
Moving straight on from the last post, or maybe at a bit of a curve anyway (!), the longitudinal timbers were inserted. These are Association point sleepers, copperclad PCB, trimmed to the appropriate lengths:
As these timbers are straight and the rail will be curved, the rail will deviate from the centreline of the timbers. But it is not as bad as it first appears. The rail is tacked, using etched chairplates, at every other pier to gain the smooth curve required on the rail. The
There has been a blank hole, for some time now, on Brafferton where the coal drops were supposed to be.
By curving the main line, which was of course dead straight, I gave myself a dilemma of how to deal with this pesky area; should it remain straight, in which case how could I get it far enough back to give adequate clearance? Or should it curve parallel to the main line; but were coal drops ever curved?
From an aesthetic point of view, I went with the latter option. The curve is only
As promised, I returned to the D49 today. And then remembered why it got put to one side.
Not only did the cab roof need attaching, but there was also the (very) small matter of the Wakefield Lubricators. Even with a good kit (and this is an excellent kit) there will be a point where you have to use some initiative. Despite looking and relooking, I could find no trace of etching or casting for the said item.
The approximations that I have cobbled together, are plastic cubes from microstr
Time to address the left-hand end of the layout. In real life, the line just plodded on over several miles of open farmland before reaching Pilmoor Junction. This would look a bit odd, running the line through an undisguised hole in the backscene. Time to invoke my modellers licence!
There are several copses and small woods dotted around the line and indeed at Pilmoor itself there were substantial woodlands. So I've simply moved a small wood so that the line runs through it.
A base of da
Thanks to Nigel Cliffe 2mm Chairman and technical boffin, this blog is now linking back to the 2mm.org.uk site.
So if you use that to scan blog updates, I'll appear there.
Thank you, Nigel.
No, not for me. For my blog.
I've decided to move my missives on building Brafferton here.
Previous wafflings can be found here: 2mm NEAG
Hopefully I'll keep it up to date and keep the layout moving forward.
