Entry posted by Jon020
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This will be a brief(ish) update as I’ve been trying to spend what little time I’ve had available in actually modelling rather than reading or writing about it... and with a deadline this week time was rather short. However, I’ve drawn a halt now... for the time being and this will have to do. There’s lots and lots to do, but this was never intended to be at a final exhibitable stage, it was actually intended as a work in progress for our local show this Saturday... and that’s what it is. Fortunately, bits of it look ok. I’m reasonably pleased with the ballast although I’d prefer the hard-standing to be a little darker in colour now that the ballast is down. I can work on that at a later date. To carry on, I will add the refuel mechanisms to the hard-standing and I’ll add pipework to the de-fuel area alongside the shed. General detritus needs scattering and I’ll have to add some weeds too. The foreground needs some fencing and some better tarmac surface... the office will probably be moved off this board and replaced with a fuel tank... and then I’ll need to add some lighting poles.... but, as I said, it’ll do for now. It should look ok as a partial board – work in progress.
To be honest, this has taken about 6 weeks... so I don’t think that’s too bad. Nothing like Jon N (Sandhills) standards... but a reasonable start.
It will (the plan) get a board at each end... and one/some behind with main running lines (2 or 4) and some backscene. The (sky) blue board serves for now... although I managed to drop the resin office onto it today and chipped the paintwork in 5 places. That’s been touched up... but it’s no work of art.
There’s a very rudimentary lighting rig that will sit behind to suspend a small tube to provide some overhead lighting; the lighting in the exhibition hall last year was a little orangey... and I’m in the same spot this year.
Ballast is all Carrs. The main depot area is Ash ballast, which is as smooth as it seems to go. All laid as flat as possible and the larger areas tampered with a small piece of packing foam (once I worked out a better way to do it)... and set with Klear... this is ideal for me because it allows me to work a bit at a time. I just wish I could find a stockist somewhere as the old stuff is in short supply. I think the new stuff is ok too... just need to find some somewhere and give it a go.
Ballast comparisons... ash on left 2mm grey on right
Some blending with powders. No, I'm right handed - it's holding the camera.
Blended ballast
The ballast at the edges and on the rear (slightly raised) line is Carrs 2mm light grey, although I mixed some ash ballast in to provide some variety. There is a colour mis-match, but with some blending in with Carrs weathering powders the difference does tend to diminish... or so I fortunately found.
The buffers are modified Peco. I removed all the additional bracing pieces, and assembled them at a slightly wider gauge... by drilling the holes in the front plate out a bit... fitting and filing the ends flush. Several prototype photos showed a bracing piece across the back... so I added this detail with 0.6mm wire – superb as it adds some strength too. I removed the bent-rail bottom ends of the vertical and added plasticard bracing pieces... of the approximate shape from photos... and added some archer rivets to the sheet. To be honest, these are a bit weak for what I needed... but they’re what I had, so they had to do. The finished item was fitted once some chairs had their uppers removed to allow the rail pieces of the buffers to sit nicely on the track. The whole thing was treated to Halfords red primer and then painted with Humbrol metalcoat which polished up nicely (where it needed to).... a white head stock (is that the name?) and lamp finished this off. Weathering was with a mix of brown and black (Sleeper grime and weathered black) daubed over and rubbed off.... and a thin mix allowed to seep into the crevices. A final partial buff gave this result... which will do for now until I can acquire something more finescale.
The inspection pit sans shed
The office is Bachmann Scenecraft with some light Tamiya pastel weathering (tried out) and the paving is of course Metcalfe.
The intent was to have somewhere to sit NIMBUS... and I hope it’ll suffice for now.
I hope it meets the punters wishes on Saturday. If you’re attending, please stop by and say “Hiâ€.
A couple more shots to illustrate my work in progress... an overview or two and a close up with insufficient depth of field... I must download that software! Oh there's so much more to do 
and this evening it was diging the allotment!
Oh, and my powercab will be connected... so if you want to hear a Deltic ... this I can manage (albeit within the limitiations of the scale)
for now.... Jon
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