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Ropley - Powder on the line

TomE

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10042012-1.jpg

A quiet moment between services.

 

Hi all.

 

My sole purchase from the York show this year was a bag of Green Scene Weathering powders in browns, black and ash grey. I had been mulling over ways of improving the weathering of the track on the layout and also how to achieve the multitude of different colours and shades found at the real location and decided that powders might give slightly more control and flexibility than using paint.

 

It's something of a bugbear of mine that I see a lot of otherwise superb layouts with beautifully weathered and detailed stock running on beautifully made trackwork, but which is almost entirely uniform in colour, or has ballast so impossibly neat that it must have been placed piece by individual piece.

 

With Ropley, I wanted to pay as much attention to weathering the track, as I will to the buildings and stock. With this in mind, I spent a little while experimenting with the powders, using the black to represent areas where grease seems to accumulate, notably around the frog & check rail areas of point work, and fish plates on the plain line. I’ve also used a mix of black and brown along the length of the rail to try and give some representation of the brake dust and general dirt that seems to accumulate in this area.

 

Black powder was also used to represent the fine, ashy ballast around the pointwork which leads to the wheel drop shed. This was ballasted in the normal way, but whilst the Kleer was still damp, the powder was applied on top. The result is quite pleasing, and better than trying to ensure Das doesn’t gunge up the mechanism when you only need ballast up to the sleeper tops.

 

Overall I’m quite pleased with the results. Hopefully the photos show the results to some extent, although I was only able to grab a few quickly on the iphone.

10042012-2.jpg

The ballast around the barry slip has also been treated with the black weather powders for a closer to prototype look.

 

I know by now you're probably all fed up of seeing this same section of track, but hopefully next time there will have been some further developments with the ash pit area, and the top of the embankment. I also need to make a start on the water tower and finish the carriage and boiler shop, so lots to do!

 

Cheers all,

 

Tom.

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queensquare
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Superb stuff as usual Tom - this just leaves regular N gauge track trailing in its wake in terms of appearance.

 

Jerry

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bcnPete
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Not fed up at all to see it Tom - each time brings some new well executed details - keep em coming...:D

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-missy-

Weathering powders in my opinion are not used enough on layouts!

 

I used them on my trackwork (before I reworked it) and the were fantastic so I am planning on using them again for sure. I was going to suggest a little rust colour on and around the rails to highlight things like chairs but looking at the photo you have got it spot on in my eyes!

 

M :)

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cornish trains jez

Hi Tom,

 

You've nailed it! Track work looks great! Really wished I had been brave enough to build my layout based on Par using the finescale track work, it makes such a difference.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

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Dukedog

Nice permanent way!

please excuse my ignorance but, what track and point work is it you are using? looks extremely lifelike to me. I can't believe this is 2mm scale!

 

Cheers!

Frank

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TomE
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I was going to suggest a little rust colour on and around the rails to highlight things like chairs but looking at the photo you have got it spot on in my eyes!M :)

 

Thanks Missy. The photos from the phone don't quite show it, but I did spend a little time mixing up a few different rust shades, trying to match the more orangey colour of the real place rather than just use a generic 'rust' colour, which I find tend to be too red.

 

Hi Tom, You've nailed it! Track work looks great! Really wished I had been brave enough to build my layout based on Par using the finescale track work, it makes such a difference. Best regards, Jeremy

 

Thanks Jeremy! It certainly was worth the extra time and effort. I won't be going back to Peco!

 

Nice permanent way! please excuse my ignorance but, what track and point work is it you are using? looks extremely lifelike to me. I can't believe this is 2mm scale! Cheers!Frank

 

Thanks Frank! The trackwork is all Easitrac components from the 2mm Scale Association. I don't think I would have been able to model the trackwork as accurately any other way. The only modification is opening up the clearances of the pointwork to allow off the shelf N gauge stock to run though.

 

Cheers,

 

Tom.

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