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About this blog

UK outline train ferry terminal project in n gauge loosely based on modern southern region prototypes borrowing heavily from Dover Western Docks, Admiralty Pier, Folkstone Harbour, and a little bit of Harwich. Imagine if the channel tunnel hadn't caused the train ferry to close and instead the two complimented each other and built international traffic upto the present day. 'Seahaven' is my realisation of that idea. 

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Carrying on with paving...

Tonight I managed to finish off the point infilling and then get on with finishing off the paving.    (infill finished off along the dockside)    First of all I paid attention to an area of das clay I wanted to turn into concrete (wanted a bit of relief from the tarmac). Concrete needs a nice clean edge to represent the formwork so out with the craft knife and metal rule to straighten up the edges. After that I scaled down and scored 9m movement joints into the das surf
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson in Blog

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Blog

Building the gantry sign...

It must be the inner geek in me but I've always found gantry signs interesting structures and have wanted to model one. This wasn't going to be a motorway gantry sign as the prototypes I've seen at Dover are a thinner a frame type structure than the massive monolithic structures put up by Highways England.    (prototype signage at Dover with a frame structural supports)    I started off making the sign face out of a piece of balsa sheet. I wanted this lit as per prototy
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson in Blog

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Brutal functionality...

I have one space left for a scratchbuilt building. I've always been fascinated by the harbour control centre at Folkstone. Call it ugly or misunderstood beauty this bit of brutalist architecture stood guard over the harbour for all the time I can remember in the last 70s 80s and 90s only recently succumbing to the demolition man with the wholes ale redevelopment of the harbour. (a brand new control tower)    The control tower for Dover harbour looks like something from a sec
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson

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Bridges, boats, and lighting mast bases...

So today has been spent on alot of detail. Taking lots of thin balsa strips and neatening tunnel mouths and providing a bit more structural detail on abutments (additional bridge abutment detail)    (tunnel mouth neatened up ready for some 'concrete' paper   After a comment from another user here I spent a lot of time checking clearances with two types of wagon before sticking down the walls to the HM customs warehouse    (an early train load
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson

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Blog

Advancing the asphalt...

It's been a few days since I last posted but progress have been steady. I've been focusing on completing the das clay roadway around the Dock area.    More rolling between balsa formers to get the right depth before smoothing off with a shaping tool.    (rolling out the das clay to correct depth and standard width before laying on a pva layer)    There was a lot of cutting and shaping the clay to get it around lots of tricky corners.    (all th
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson in Blog

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Action Stations...

I'm onto the second to last scratchbuilt building for this layout. This is the station building itself which as mentioned previously I have wanted to build in the art deco style. Some examples I like are as follows:   (Surbiton station)    (DE la Warr Pavilion)    Firstly I completed the platform to give me a base to build up from:   (supports put in place behind the Peco edging)    (Thin balsa sheet laid on top of the str
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson

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A temporary office...

So today I had a bit of time to do some more modelling and advance my scratchbuilding skills. I need a portakabin type structure to act as a combined office for the ferry and train staff on the quayside. Having done a bit of research on sizes of units and suitably scaled them down to n gauge I started to produce the model   (my sketch drawings and scaled dims of a standard 12155x4050mm portakabin. I initially cut the floor and roof out of thick balsa and glued together with stren
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson

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A start made...

Starting the Linkspan winding machine house building tonight. This will take more than an evening to complete. My styrene I beam arrived today so could get on with it. Firstly I started with the housing base structure which will eventually stand on legs above the Linkspan bridges.    (first stage - styrene beam structure)    Once I had finished with this I started on the housing itself made from Wills corrugated plastic sheet.    (progress on the upper h
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson

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Blog

A quick update...

Just a quick update tonight as I didn't have much time. The shrubbery has grown dramatically today with the rest of the embankment covered up. I've left a small amount of embankment clear for a small diorama depicting a landslip.    (embankment fully vegetated)    There are two structures that will adorn the top of the cliff. The first was an abandoned WW2 observation bunker. These were always very crude bits of architecture so thankfully quite easy to model. Digging th
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson in Blog

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A place to stay...

With the advancement of the back scene into the townscape I needed to create some building facades to try and link the painted back scene with the main model. The first building I tried was to the left of the station bridge. I thought this might work nicely as a slightly down at heal establishment whose heyday of catering for well to do passengers eager to catch the first ferry of the morning to get into Paris by midday has long since gone. Its clientele are now more likely to be railway workers
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson in Blog

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A mini production line...

So having created a security kiosk I was happy with yesterday and with only a limited bit of building time this evening I decided to set up a little production line to produce the two others I required.    (sort of cabin I was looking to create found on a Google search with some useful dimensions that just needed dividing by 148)   By close of play I had managed to complete all three:   (three completed cabins)    And located on the layout
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson

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Blog

A little lighting...

Not much time to progress over the last few days but before I did too much more I wanted to get some lighting in to ensure I could cover up the wiring fairly easily.    My first go at the high masts was with a yellow LED to represent a sodium bulb. Unfortunately having tried it out there wasn't enough light coming out of it for the effect I wanted and I didn't have enough room in my brass rod to get any more LEDs.    Initial trial with a yellow bulb. Can you spot the li
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson in Blog

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Blog

A good days work...

With rain stopping play in the garden I had an afternoon of painting and doing details.    First job was putting some signs about having printed off my sign sheet   (cutting out various signs for the models)    (the portakabin signed up)    Once I had done a few signs I switched over to painting the dock and bridge abutments concrete grey.    (Dock greyed up)    (abutments painted)    Whilst letting the
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson in Blog

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Blog

3rd rail and 4 lights...

Topping and tailing some details on the layout with the completion of the permanent way. Since we are in the southern region it only seemed right to put a third rail running down into the station. Due to the small nature of n gauge I didn't worry too much with the detail. I painted some 1mm styrene strip dark brown then cut a ramp into the ends. Having completed that the top of the '3rd rail' was painted silver.    (third rail installed)    (and from the other sid
Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson in Blog

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