I find it much easier to paint coach sides "in the flat" rather than when the coach is fully assembled. This is obviously impossible with etched brass kits, soldering painted sides would be a challenge, however with plastic kits it's not a problem. The Slater's sides come in two halves which have to be joined, fortunately the Guard's ducket helps hide any join line. I think it looks more realistic if coaches have a few windows open, so micro strip was used to represent the top of the dropligh
So far the only coaching stock that I've built to use on Sherton Abbas, are a rake of 4 wheeler's along with a solitary all 3rd bogie clerestory. To add a bit of variety to operating sessions I've decided to build some more passenger stock and thought I'd document their build in my blog.
The Slater's kits comprise of really well moulded plastic components for the majority of the coach body, accompanied by lost wax castings for for detail parts. The coaches run on etched brass bogie
Excuse the title, I couldn't resist! I'm still plodding along with my model of a William Clarke station building. Progress has hardly being made at lightning speed, but I'm happy with the end results so far. As I've said before, I think the chimneys on William Clarkes buildings are their crowning glory, so I wanted to capture their appearence as closely as possible. I used layers of plastic card to construct the stacks, inlaying "bricks" as required. Once the assembly had dried, the corners
In response to the comments and advice I received from Buffalo regarding wagon numbering, along with suggestions from BlackRat and Ian Smith, that straw might make a nice addition to the wagons, I decided to get busy! Thanks for all your interest and advice guys, i hope you like the results.
GWR cattle wagon diag W1
GWR cattle wagon diag W5
GWR cattle wagon diag W3
I wanted to include a cattle dock and loading bay on the layout's back siding and decided to use the Skytrex kit as a starting point. The kit comprises of a resin base which has some nicely moulded brickwork embossed on the surface, along with a number of white metal castings. The posts and rails have to be individually measured and then cut to length, which unfortunately I found a fairly tedious process. Quite why the kit can't be designed with parts that are the right length is beyond me! If I
I had a very enjoyable time at the Telford 0 gauge Guild show and amongst the bits and pieces that I bought for the layout were some rather nice buffer stop kits. Ragstone Models produce some lovely looking castings that once assembled make a variety of buffer stops from different railway companies, they also produce some very nice water cranes:-) Before I can finish ballasting my layout the buffer stops need to be installed in position, so a start was made on building the kits.
Ragstone mod
Before I can finalise the height of the backscene at the point where it curves around the front of the layout, I need to work out the contour of the landscape in this area. During the planning stage of the layout http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1131/entry-9648-mock-up-completed/, I decided to have a twin arch road bridge that would act as a view blocker between the off stage area and the main layout. The height of this bridge will dictate the profile of the land around it, so be
Once I was happy with the overall size and shape of the bridge, the underside of the arches, parapets and abutments could be tackled. South Eastern Finecast brick embossed sheet was wrapped around a curved former of a suitable diameter (Empty bottle of Aussie red wine!), then placed in a bowl of boiling water and allowed to cool. Once back to room temperature the sheet stayed in a reasonable curve and was glued to the underside of the bridge side walls. Flat embossed plasticard sheet was also cu
I've been out today and bought some foam board, with a view to making a 7th scale model of the proposed layout. No pictures yet, but it's coming along nicely. I'd previously photo copied the templates in Barry Normans book and after cutting them out spent the afternoon shuffling them around. It's somehow very satisfying messing with these templates and has given me a much better idea of the radii and clearances involved. The paper representations of stock are great for working out how long loops
I've finished painting and lining my Dean Goods, but it needs a final coat of satin varnish and some number plates before its ready for viewing on the blog. While I've been waiting for the various coats of paint to dry, I've made a start on building the baseboards for my proposed Edwardian, GWR, branch line terminus. As a reminder of what I'm trying to build, here's a picture of my 1/7th scale foam and cardboard mock up.
Mock up
The layout will fit along one wall of my workshop and com
Well its been a month since my last blog entry, so I thought it was about time I posted something up! Once the number plates for the Dean Good's turn up I'll post up some pictures of the finished loco. I've been promised delivery by the end of the month, so hopefully not too long a wait!
Although not much progress has been made on the modelling front, my modelling room has come on considerably. I've finished skimming and painting the plasterboard walls and laid a laminate floor. It used to f
Since the last update, some progress has been made, albeit at a slower pace than I'd planned! The point rodding is now a rather fetching vermilion colour, it will need a little judicious weathering as its a bit "in your face" at the moment! I've also made a start on the ballasting and installed one of two ground signals. Ballasting is one of those tedious jobs that I find you have to be in the right mood for! This is my first 7mm scale layout and I definitely found ballasting this scale far more
I've been plucking up the courage to tackle my layout's backscene for well over a year now. Despite reading endless books on landscape painting and having a clear idea in my head off what I wanted to achieve, I was fairly convinced that I would produce the kind of landscape that the Teletubbies would feel at home in!
I wanted the layout to be set in a rural landscape of rolling hills, but didn't want the backscene to dominate the scene in any way. I toyed with the idea of using a commercial
Now that the scenery at the rear of the layout and the backscene have been completed I've been able to make a start on the layout foreground. I decided to begin with the area immediately below the retaining wall. I built the retaining wall using Slaters Plastikard sheet as outlined in a previous blog entry http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1131/entry-16523-retaining-wall/ back in the summer of 2015. Here's a picture of the retaining wall and the baseboard surface below it.
Ret
Now that the backscene is more or less complete I thought I'd position the flower beds onto the platform surface. Obviously tools are required when a bit of gardening is in the offing, fortunately in my bits box i had the following etch from Severn Models :-)
Severn Models etch
Once assembled using 188 solder paste I had the necessary equipment to enable a start to be made on the gardening project!
Finished tools
Before the beds were fixed in position I installed some fencing a
Great Western Railway open wagons constructed using Cooper Craft kits, with the addition of Slaters sprung buffers and wheels.
GWR 3 plank open
GWR 4 plank open
To relieve the boredom during lock down I've spent sometime watching YouTube clips on modelling disciplines other than Railways! Probably heresy on a Railway Modelling forum, but good fun and interesting all the same The Military Modellers have some very interesting weathering techniques that I fancied having a go at and thought would make a nice change from pristine Edwardian G.W.R. locomotives and coaches!
As a teenager I dabbled in 1/35th scale WW2 military stuff and I remember
I’ve finally completed painting my pair of six wheel coaches which have been languishing on the work bench for far too long! Readers of this blog will know that coaches are definitely my nemesis, they always seem to take me forever to complete and these two have been no different! I’m taking Sherton to the York exhibition at the end of the month and that provided the enthusiasm to get them finished🙂
Diag V8 Passenger Brake Van
Diag U14 Is
Great Western Railway 18' 6" Diag W1 Cattle Trucks Built using Slater's Plastikard 7mm kits.
Great Western Railway Small cattle Truck Diag W3 Constructed from a Pow Sides models etched brass kit
As a bit of light relief from track planning, I've built a couple of Cooper Craft wagons. As I wanted them in the early livery, I've changed the axle boxes and brakes for something more appropriate for the era. I've always really rated Cooper Craft kits and built most of the range in my 4mm days. I only wish the 4mm Minks were available in 7mm scale! I'm not a fan of the buffers supplied with the kits, so they have been replaced with turned, sprung buffers from Slaters Plastikard.
GWR 4
I usually take pictures of the layout using my iPad, but thought I'd have a go using a compact camera for a change. I've had a Panasonic Lumix https://www.panasonic.com/uk/support/discontinued-products/cameras-camcorders/dmc-tz60eb.html for a few years now, that I use on motorcycle trips and for general photography. Although generally happy with the results that I get from it, the smallest f stop that it will go down too is F8 and I thought this would cause problems with depth of field on mod
A great deal of pride was taken in the appearance of Edwardian stations and competitions were held to find the best kept station. Often stations had beautifully kept gardens that exhibited fine displays of flowers and these greatly enhanced their appearance. I didn't want Sherton Abbas to "let the side down", so some 7mm gardening was called for.
I started by cutting some card to form a base for each flower bed and then these were then coated in PVA glue and sprinkled with wood ash. Once dr
Apologies for the lack of blog entries over the last few months, life sometimes gets in the way of modelling! I’ve managed to rupture my Achilles’ tendon, so I’m hopping about in a Vacoped boot with my ankle locked in an equinus position. Getting up the steps into the workshop is a bit of a hassle, so as way of compensating for not being able to play trains I’ve been building something not railway related🙂
I’ve long been fascinated by WW1 aircraft and used to build and fly radio con
