kyle 2015 - a sign...of the times...
Afternoon all,
A quick update on general progress of late. Lots of small bits and pieces undertaken since the last update. First up the station sign. The original layout has had two different signs during the last two years starting with the Scottish blue one before I swapped it to the British Railways black and white sign.
I have always had a soft spot for the blue signage so set about recreating it. The previous one had been undertaken trying to match the typeface and colour to pics but this time I recalled the famous Michael Palin trip and the sign featured at the end...namely because he got to take one home and fix it to his back garden wall. I remember taking some screen grab stills of the DVD in BCN in order to help with detailing and using the shot from the garden I was able to import it into Photoshop and (with the help of a colleague at work) sharpen up the white text and tweak the blue colour.
This was then printed to a 20% reduction on our colour printer and duly applied to the wall of the ramp. So a real copy of the original two piece metal station sign shrunk to suit in case anyone queries the typeface at the exhibition
original pic screen grab from tv!...
packaged ready for MP to take home...
completed sign in place...
Next up was replacing the bridge handrail and roadway. The road was redone with fine wet n dry paper and the paving using one of the scalescenes downloads. The handrail took a few attempts and was formed using various sections of Evergreen plastic assembled using liquid poly.
bridge handrail redone...black out below bridge described below...
The quayside had some repairs including new metal bollards formed from small model wooden boat accessories from a model shop in BCN which specialised in boat models painted rust colour to match whilst the excellent TPM metal Herris type fencing was repaired following a disaster when the strip light fell from above during temporary positioning of it
Another important addition to the base of the ramp is the classic telephone box which is a rather lovely little etched kit from Shirescenes - this awaits a prime and red coat top colour.
A slightly bizarre and time consuming job was the alignment of the power connector between boards. This involved some reverse engineering somewhat as one side had been prefixed to the scenics board and now in an effort to simplify the wiring I tried to position the opposing side on the FY boards...except there was no end to this board as it had been hollowed out to get the wires in. What followed was a fairly Heath Robinsonish affair of locating the connector whilst continually checking the tracks above were aligned and then setting this within a surround so that when I plug the two boards together they align and do the power - Note to self: next layout I build will have this all resolved with C+L board connectors prior to track laying
Finally, a small experiment to help block the view when taking pictures. A small hinging flap made from cardboard and coloured in using a black permanent marker pen is located above the bridge on the inside face to lower and help block out light and hopefully get more realaitic pics - more done as a trial to see how I get on with it...the fourth pic down shows the benefit(?) of it in place...
small cardboard hinged mechanism...
which can be folded out of the way when not required...
still chipping away...
Now hoping to get onto rolling stock starting with the locos once the wheels return from being turned down.
That's about it - comments welcomed as always.
Pete
- 11
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