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
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
Evening all,
Just a quick update to say that work on the layout has now seized ready for the one day exhibition at BHMRC tomorrow.
Today the layout was erected on its support structure and last minute jobs ranging from works to the front fascia including a few descriptive images and storyboard to the rear fascia track plan diagram with notation for the magnets, isolating sections and turnouts - old school stuff this
Here's a few pics and I will report back after the show on whether
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
Update - A number of activities have been taking part of recent, and so to blend against those new FC Barca RMWeb colours I thought I would try a few black and white photos.
Firstly, I recognise that I do need to improve on my photographic skills. The neat Canon A590 digital camera bit the dust recently so I have been using our 'entry level' Nikon D3100 and am still struggling to get good light/depth of field despite using a tripod, manual settings and selftimer simultaneously...
Back t
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
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
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/
Evening all,
The trip to Wycrail yesterday allowed me to make a few purchases and undertake some further work today on the new track insert(s) - A set of Xuron track cutters, new soldering iron 2mm chisel bit and a soldering iron cleaner were ticked off the shopping list.
First thing today I finished the tie bar started with Mark the other week. This was first drilled to allow for the wire in tube mechanism. Once installed it allowed me to trim the frog ends of the turnout to match the e
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
Evening all,
Another heavy week at work lead me to want to get some modelling done this weekend. This followed a lightning 90 minute visit last weekend to the St Albans show to keep the mojo topped up.
Progress has been in the form of fixing the 4 roads to the fiddleyard in place, which has once again put my basic soldering skills to the limit. To aid this process, I have used both Solder paint and red flux from C+L so was feeling a bit light headed after breathing in fumes the last two
Evening all,
Following on from the last entry I have since managed to simplify the wiring and the new turnout is in place and trains run through it - a couple of locos need a check on their Back to Backs before I start tweaking the frogs...which was a downfall of the previous ones I think.
With this in mind I decided to build the second replacement turnout under the road bridge as the layout has quite a few shows over 2019/2020. I started this yesterday afternoon before bad light stopped
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
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 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
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
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
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,
Kyle was invited to the one day St Neots show yesterday. Jackie and I had been trying to find a date when there were no clashes after a few email exchanges and 2023 was when the planets aligned!
Set up the layout Friday night to test run and very glad I did as two roads in the FY were dead - turned out to be dry joints after some detective work. Soldering iron administered with the England footie game on in the background 🫣
Once sorted, car loaded
