Good evening,
Just a small update to end the week.
The next level of detail has been added to the station building. Slithers of evergreen strip have been used to create the verticals and framing to doors and windows.
Windows will be (I think) formed of individual 'cut to fit' clear perspex with a paper or thin plasticard frame mounted on top. I would like to have gone the etch route, but I have one eye on the clock as I would like to keep the project moving until christmas time and s
Good morning,
Kyle took a back seat for about a week as my brother visited us. He gifted me an original Hornby HST that he had bought on ebay as a non runner, stripped it down and he had got it running...not bad for a 35 year old model with a 3 pole motor...problem was, the layout I am making for my sons is an end to end on an IKEA (longer) lack shelf. So we went down the DIY store and knocked out a 7' x 4' roundy roundy for the kids in a day using all the setrack from their boxes...they als
Good evening,
It's been a while since I posted on this blog as I have been developing Thurso as an entry to the MRJ Cameo layout competition.
Back at the Tonbridge show, I was invited by Dakota Dibben, to a one day show he is organising next Sunday 9 July 2017 in Oxted. Details as below:
http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/other/events_detail.php?eid=15071
Hopefully there will be a few new things on show. First up, Kevin of Coastal DCC has sound chipped my 24/0 so now there are two sou
Update - That title's twofold really.
Firstly, I lost most of last week due to some gastro which struck me down...a trip to a rather fine Indian restaurant here soon put my stomach on track...
Secondly, I got stuck in on some more weathering of the rolling stock. Again, using dry brushing techniques and a few MIG powders with a few strokes with some cotton buds too. Its not up there with Mercig's weathering by a long shot but it has given me a little more confidence to keep having a go.
Good morning,
Progress has been a little set back of late having lost this week to Man flu some kind of 'cold weather induced' sickness.
However, finally brought some paints (and a decent tiny paintbrush) for painting the station building. Armed with a screen-grab of MP's visit to KoL on my phone I tried to best match up the different greys and the blue from the Humbrol rack of tins in one of the model shops. Not sure how popular Humbrol paints are in Spain...but some of the colours on t
Good evening,
Further to the backscene crisis I have been undertaking some experiments. My tinkering with GIMP and Paint was getting me nowhere. Enter, Glen, a good friend from School for over 34 years now (an ex rail enthusiast who still has a light flickering for the hobby I think) who offered his photoshopping skills, as that's one of his skills from his profession, who kindly offered to tweak the backscene.
Glen was briefed (from the comments made last entry) to try and keep the clou
Good evening,
I was having a trawl through the KoL images earlier for Chris Higgs and I happened upon a pic that I always liked but it never made it into the final cut.
It was taken on my iPhone, with me balancing dangerously on the edge of our desk in our spare room late one night with only the small directional ceiling mounted spots directed at the layout as it is stored out of use about 2m high on the wall.
I always liked this pic as the light coming in from the right threw some n
Evening all,
Two weeks have passed whilst I awaited a print to return (more on this shortly) coupled with some intense periods at work
Before I complete the fascia framing I had to redo the back scene. Not only had it faded badly but being paper, spray mounted onto a card former, it had also bubbled and delaminated.
Chris Nevard had suggested getting the image printed directly onto sticky backed plastic or onto 2 or 3mm foamex however after a little research, not many printers could
Those not wishing to see something downbeat...please avert your eyes now...
I guess it was only a matter of time before the mojo would suffer a dent again...after managing to stoke it high through the summer, thanks to the diorama competition and then straight onto Kyle for a 3 month 'make-over'...it was on the cards at some time...and I guess a few set backs have fuelled it.
First up, the water (again) Having re stripped the PVA layers off, repaired and redone the quayside wall, repa
Good evening,
The good news is...it's not the track...as this has been somewhat fashionable in 2mmFS circles of recent...
I am referring to the quayside which has seen some work the last few days.
First up, after repainting the water with a touch of black (thanks Will) I started the PVA layers. The first coat was applied thinly and after leaving to dry overnight, the second was applied. No problems with misting...but it didn't really start to take on the water effect. I guess it wil
Morning all,
Yesterday was the one day show at Tonbridge with the layout operating to the paying public for the first time on dcc and with the sound chipped 37/4.
Nigel Ashton and I were flying the 2mmFS flag at the show, each with a corner slot although I think Nigel faired a tad better in his location in one of the main halls Fair play to the exhibition manager who came to check everyone an hour before doors opened and realised his floor plan had been a little ambitious given we were
Hi all,
As we ease ourself into a BH weekend just to let you know that Kyle will be attending the RAILEX virtual show tomorrow Saturday 29th May 2021.
The layout was lined up to attend the original show but will appear at a date to be confirmed when some sense of normality returns. Meantime, I was honoured to be asked to be part of the virtual show and details can be found here:
http://www.railex.org.uk/index.php
On my layout
Afternoon,
2nd attempt as I lost the last upload just as I was spellchecking
7 weeks since my last blog update - work has been full on of late but at least I get to travel to Oxford once or twice a week so I get to see a bit of 'real' railway action to compensate...class 66's on long freights are growing on me somewhat
On the last entry I had just been redoing the backscene giving something like this:
New backscene and fascia...
However, when I placed the layout up at pro
Good morning,
Little bit more progress on the station building however watching 'catch up versions' of Spooks 10 has got in the way a little (two more to finish next week...no spoilers please!)
The station is a reduced version of the building as the prototype is significantly longer and probably to scale would stretch to meet the fiddleyard, so this is trying to capture the essence of Kyle. Whilst I am not trying to replicate it to the exact detail, if when I finish, the model can be rec
Good afternoon,
This week has seen much thinking, sketching and deciding on the fate of the layout.
It ranged from chucking it in the dustbin...to expanding the layout in width and increasing the amount of water at the edge...
I then realised that it was starting to expand as a project...not really what I wanted for a 3 month filler project.
If I go back to the origins of why I built the layout it was something like this:
Visited the 2009 BHMRC exhibition and joked to the or
Update - This week has seen a number of things addressed.
Firstly, the rewire. More of a replacement of some of the major wires which used to join the various sections together have been redone and the DIN socket for the controller replaced with a terminal box so I can quickly connector the Morley controller. A couple of sparodic sections were traced back to dodgy mini slide switches so these will be replaced shortly.
Secondly I rebuilt one of the cassettes and redid the height alignment
Evening peeps,
Back from the one day show at Oxted School today. Nice little show with a mix of layouts although as my youngest son couldn't attend today I didn't get to see much. Nice Spanish HO/009 layout San Maria Gandia.
Overall the layout behaved itself and as always a couple of little things for the 'to do' list prior to the next show (DG couplings and tweaking one of the turnouts)
The layout was primarily run with the 24/0 and 37/4 sound chipped locos and a 26 and 27. The 24/
Good morning,
Just a quick plug to say KoL will be appearing next Saturday at the 1 day exhibition in Tonbridge, Saturday 18 February 2017.
This will be the first time (other than a preview at the 2mmFS AGM) that the layout appears in DCC mode and since then 37414 has been sound chipped. Have been testing the fleet and big thanks to Pixie who managed to breathe life back into two of the locos
Due to work commitments I haven't been able to finish 24124, 37025 and 26040 but they are c
Many thanks for all the continued comments regarding the layout, in particular the recent 'backscene crisis'. I decided to reprint option 1 as that seemed to get the most votes and I think the differences are quite subtle but worth it. Although I realise it may not be to everyone's taste, I am grateful to Mike to raise the issue, which prompted debate and actually got me to rethink it and change it albeit in a subtle way. Thanks Mike. I confess I was starting to lose a little interest again with
Back again...
Think I have found the new way forward for the station building construction...been experimenting this evening.
Following departure from plasticard, I was thinking that perhaps a mixture of overlaid thin card layers might give a better result. Onto the 1mm card base, seen last night, I first allowed a layer of clear plasticard for the windows. I had been in two minds whether to scribe and fill with white paint for the frames...or use tape etc...however I thought I would se
Update - This week I hope to complete the rewiring...which for me means using more than 2 different coloured wires
I'm not kidding...most of this layout was wired with what I had available at the time...which was only red and green...I even had to find a few old photos on myiPhone taken when last set up to remember how to re connect the wires ...pathetic on such a simple layout too.
This weekend I have formed the new fascias in 2mm grey card from the artists shop. I know its not as st
Good evening,
I must admit, having participated in and been following the thread on 'Blog quality' I was wondering whether to continue with my blog(s)...however, I do try to post something regularly and I accept that it may interest some...but not others.
After two weeks of Christmas parties, its time to rest the liver and slot in some modelling...tonight being one such night.
The first layer I am referring to is the glazing layer which was applied a few nights ago and has helped giv
Just an update on the back of this weekend's superb RailEX 2023 in Aylesbury. Great show with nice mix of quality layouts and trade - honoured to be amongst the line up and to have made the front cover of the show guide.
Thanks to Tim, David and all the team for hosting and looking after us all weekend.
Thank you for all the kind comments and it was great to finally meet some people who have either been following my diatribes on here and/or saw the layout in Model Rail ma
Evening all - smashing weather the last few days
Last year I accepted an invite to the Billericay Model Railway Group one day show on 5th May 2018, so Kyle is Essex bound.
It’s a small one day show which is my preference at the moment juggling the hobby with work and family commitments as many of us do.
I wanted to try and do some work on the rolling stock for the show, having now got two class 24’s sound fitted. My priority was to try and get 37025 (purchased from TMC as 37035) als
Evening all,
Quick update to say Kyle appeared at the Wycrail one day show yesterday.
As always, a very nice show and very friendly and helpful exhibition team.
Good to see some familiar faces for a catch up and also meet some new peeps. Received some very nice comments and overall the layout performed well.
I really do need to sit down and work my way through the list of small things such as replacing knuckle couplings on coaches, corridor connectio
