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About this blog

UPDATE 20TH JULY 2020:  Calshot (MkII) is no more! Sadly, I decided to abandon the project due to being stored in a dusty garage for 10 years. However it is more than likely to live on in another guise... watch this space!

 

The Ramblings of a Junior 4mm Modeller

Entries in this blog

Calshot - A summary

Baseboards       All the boards on Calshot have been made using the open-frame format, where a ply upriser is sandwiched between planks of pine. Polystyrene is then cut to shape to form the contours of the land and cut to fit between the uprisers. This method requires slightly more thought than the more usual method of pinning track straight to a board and is much more versatile because you can cut holes in the uprisers for wiring looms and it also means hills are much easier to landscape b
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Brockenhurst NFMRS Open Day - Calshot's visit

Firstly, thanks to all the event organisers, catering staff and of course the general public! I wasn't sure what to expect, but what I did not expect is the size of the hall - much bigger than I anticipated and a pleasant surprise.   The morning didn't start particularly well as we battled to unlock the van doors and manoeuvred several cars to enable it to be put in the drive for loading. Once the van was loaded it was a quick rush to get to the venue in time due to the earlier fiasco. Anywa
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Blog entry no.76 - Has it really been that many already?

Some more up-to-date photos of Calshot I won't add any descriptions to the photos as it's all pretty self-explanatory I hope. In the photos you will see a new platform taking shape. However, I am yet to find a drill chuck small enough to hold some drill bits less than 1mm in diameter! Hope you enjoy this set of photos. 76 blog entries - who'd have thought it?! P.s. I have just received an email for an invite to an exhibition in the New Forest area - stay tuned...    
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Biro sketches

Well, I don't like blog posts without photos and I haven't made any progress so I thought I'd wait until I had something vaguely worth blogging about and that might make for some discussion or helpful comments before posting. So here we go - and it's about time I got my teeth into this project...   Sketch 1 Sketch 2   One of these sketches you've seen before, but the other one (sketch 2) you won't have. It is based on the real prototype and follows it closely looking towards the west. T
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Appealing for help!

Times have been stressful lately but soon I hope to pick up work again on designing Calshot Mk II. The trouble is that I don't know where to start. I'm not even sure if I want an end to end layout or a roundy roundy one though probably the former due to space constraints.   I really feel as though I'm stuck in a rut, I just can't seem to work out anything in my head or on paper. I don't have much room (5ft x 2ft) in which to build a layout but I'd really like there to be a lot of operating in
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Anglicizing a German! - Part 1

Now, as you may have noted on my previous blog entry, I've bought a little NG shunter from Liliput. Today I decided on some surgery to make it look a little more British. I did away with the glazing and chopped off the window frame and gave it an initial coat of green. The paint is still drying in the photos, and it will need at least one more coat.   I have to say this is the finest locomotive I think I have ever boug
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8

And it's a Merry Christmas from me! (plus some photos)

Festive greetings to you all! Merry Christmas A lone van weathered by the salty atmosphere of the seaside waits on the quayside.     An unidentified narrow gauge locomotive emerges from the shade of the pipe bridge.     The same locomotive is pictured here without a driver who has obviously gone for a quick cuppa.       A break in the stormy clouds sees the 4-6-0 emerge from behind the hangar.     A works train heads west towards Eaglehurst Camp for track repairs haule
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A WWII theme

After having taken delivery of some stuff for the layout I opened the parcel which, amongst other things, contained two WWII narrow gauge bogie rolling stock opens. These were promptly constructed and now await painting. Inside the box were 2 more packs of corrugated iron (the shop had run out of corrugated asbestos so I decided to go for the wriggly tin instead as it is a close match). This allowed me to spend this afternoon building the hangar. This hangar has caused me a lot of grief so far -
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A series of completely unflattering photos

As per the blog title really. There are certain jobs that I haven't done yet that have been annoying me and needed to be done. The main one:     The layouts looks a mess here and thats (mainly) because the pelmet has been sawn off and the backscene taken off but also because of the poor light. There is a good reason for this major cutback - don't worry I haven't yet gone mad! The idea behind the layouts size was meant to be that I could fit it in a car for when I pass my driving test an
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A scenario in 4ft

Today I took an hour off my busy revision schedule to continue planning the new layout. This is the latest (!) idea. There are bits I like, and bit's I don't.   I like the left hand end of the plan, but I'm not sure about the station as by the time I've marked out 47cm, there isn't a lot of station that can fit there! The station by the way is based on Lymington Pier as it was. I particularly liked the buffer stops that ended abruptly at the quay edge!     The second sketch shows the ba

A new fiddle yard for Calshot

Well, I have been threatening to plan this for a while... I'm currently drawing up plans for a replacement fiddle yard for Calshot. This time it will be much shorter but wider. Oh, and i'm going to make it properly this time! Plan:     Comments are welcome!
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A layout plan I'm happy with!

Click on image to enlarge Well, here it is! ( I can almost hear the sighs of 'At last, I thought he'd never shut up' ) It's been a long time coming but I think I've finally worked out a design. I must have bored you rigid with the amount of plans I've been doing and my plethora of postings about planning indecision! Hopefully this design will work. On the left hand end we have a 2ft fiddle yard including a 3 road sector plate for the SG line (thick grey lines) and 3

8 hours left and the Landford Exhibition

8 hours left and the Landford Exhibition Well as the title suggests I've got 8 hours* to finish the layout ready for the Landford Exhibition tomorrow. Loads more to do but I'm sure we'll get there. I've had the whole family helping me for the final push - something I did not expect!   So here are some preview photos to show where I'm up to. Once the rest of the castle is scribed I'll be even more confident than I am now. All images clickable for larger size. I apprec
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6 days left - The Latest Update

Another day, another chance to get some modelling done. Feeling more confident than I was yesterday about finishing the layout on time, I just hope I can get it up to an acceptable standard!   I have prepared a short video for you with a couple locomotives running. Just one photo for tonight as I'm in a rush! New Video
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400mph on floats...

Apparently, the 22nd of May was the last time I did any modelling (for Calshot anyway). Today I made a start (but didn't get too far) on the construction of the hangar. Because of the tight deadline for the Woodgreen show in May, I was unable to build it properly out of plasticard and so I had to resort to printing off the building as a corrugated texture. I then built the roof and one side roughly out of this paper on the eve of the show!     Now I'm looking to replace it with something mor

15 days left and it's a race against time!

Blimey, where does the time go? I've got two weeks to finish Calshot. Scary eh! Luckily yesterday and today I was able to get a lot of work done on the layout so I'll take you for a little tour...                         Next on the list? Well, I've got to make two holders for the controllers, finish the rest of the 'DAS-ing', Affix the SG infill, affix the stone walls, scribe the rest of the gatehouse, build the castle, build the fascia/lighting pelmet... the list goe
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009 comes to Calshot

Hello folks, Last night and this afternoon I have been working on laying the NG track. It has been glued down and infilled using polycell (you would've thought that I would stop using this medium by now!)   I'm also a bit worried about that backscene. It doesn't cover the fiddle yard entrance which means you can't take any pictures of the loco shed without seeing clutter. I'm wondering whether to move the backscene round, but then I would lose the backscene behind the Castle and lifeboat sta
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"Three bowls of Spaghetti" and "The Blue Whale"

'What on earth?' I hear you ask! Just a couple quotes which arose today which made me laugh that seemed relevant. Allow me to explain...   JohnDMJ kindly volunteered to help do the wiring for the layout. (He's good at this kind of thing you see). Now, let's be honest here - before today I had very little knowledge about wiring so having someone else do it and teach me how to do it was fantastic!   Watching out for 'Two-ton-tin-openers' (i.e. cattle) around the New Forest roads, John prompt
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- The narrow gauge is completed - General matters -

Right folks, here's the latest happenings on Calshot. The rest of the narrow gauge line has been layed and infilled.   Now here is the state of play at the moment. Instead of the line going into the castle, I felt that there wasn't enough rom there so I decided to split the NG line round each side of the castle as you can see. Tomorrow I will be sanding it down and then scribing it to represent concrete slabs. Then I might try the plastikote spray (as you can see by the goods platform and han
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