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Hello Well, there were times when I didnt think I would ever get this far but I can gladly report Highclere has reached another 'milestone' in its construction. The point rodding is now done... It took roughly 14ft of rodding, 30 etched cranks, 700 etched stools, and 2 years (on and off) to get this far and I am glad its now done. Missy Ballasting next, once Christmas and New Year are out of the way...

After a mammoth late night session last night (I promise to go to bed earlier tonight!), the roof was finished. It needed a few bits re staining this afternoon but was soon looking like this; And then before I could get too attached to it; Actually it took quite a long time carefully damage it as did not want to destroy it completely and then a few dabs of glue to secure some of the flapy bits. Still much work to do in getting the weathering and the brick colour right as well as some detail parts and general junk but much of this will need putting in when the building is bedded down on the layout to make it blend in properly. One major area needs a lot of work - roofing tiles. On my reference picture there are none at all on the roof which can only mean that they are all dumped in side! I have a plan for these which I shall reveal when I know it works.

A couple of shots of progress on the repainting of the VGA. the one i'm working on is in the middle on these photos. it still needs electric warning flashes and the TOPS data panels were painted over so I need to replace those. once the transfers are on it will be weathered. the Railmatch paint is not the same as the Bachmann factory finish,but after it has been made grimey it shouldn't be too noticable. need to find the time to finish it now.

In the previous blog entry, I mentioned that the next job on 'Callow Lane' would be the production of a low-relief factory, based on the new Scalescenes 'northlight' engine shed kit and this has now been completed. I have previously described the construction of the Taffson Evans lineside factory, which is built in part-relief, and is partly about providing a bit of background detail in lieu of a flat backscene. This was also based on a free Scalescenes warehouse kit, albeit fairly heavily modified and with new scratchbuilt corrugated extensions. I always planned to add something else to the left of it (as you view the layout), between the factory and the road level crossing near the cottages (the photos will make this clearer), but I wasn't sure what that might be. In the end, I discovered the recent release by Scalescenes of their new engine shed kits and bought both the 'northlight' and gable-ended roof kits, as I thought they would also have potential in terms of industrial buildings. In the end, the initial part of the factory was really rather small for a premises that is purported to have once manufactured narrow gauge locos and other 'heavy engineering' products, so the extension using the engine shed prints has really increased its size to something a bit more credible, even if the new sections dominate the older bit slightly... The extension proved to be so 'low relief' as to be almost flat, although it is not quite as bad as simply pasting a photograph onto the backscene, but there really wasn't much space, as the photos will show! This is the Taffson Evans factory before work on the backscene factory extension began: Here is a typical page from the Scalescenes kit, printed out: I had sufficient room to incorporate five 'bays' of the northlight structure. The main elevation would use Dalerboard mounting card, but first I cut two and a half of the Scalescenes printed templates out and taped them together, to form a 'five bay' structure: The paper template was then lightly taped over the Dalerboard and the main shape cut out in card, including the windows. Two and a half brick paper prints were then cut out and each glued in turn to the Dalerboard. I use 'Pritt' type glue sticks for this (I read somewhere recently that the glue doesn't cause the paper to go damp). Each component, once glued, is then weighted down with heavy books and whatever other weighty stuff I can find, and left to go off overnight. Once the base layer of brick paper was glued to the Dalerboard, I needed to start matching the new structure up to the existing factory building: From the back, it all looks a bit 'Heath Robinson' (although this will eventually be permanently attached to the backscene proper): Here is the basic shell, with the base layer of brick paper attached, plus the vertical buttresses: The plinths were cut out and their respective brick paper coverings glued on. I had to make some plinth sections deeper, because the ground falls away slightly on the layout. These have only just been glued: And this was immediately followed by ensuring that they were lying flat, and then covering them with more heavy books and something else with a bit of weight in it, and leaving the lot overnight: Work continued, with the plinths and drain pipes being added, plus the window sills and a representation (in Evergreen plastic strip) of the edge of the roof. For the glazing, I used some pre-printed factory type glazing sheets produced by Freestone Model Accessories, suitably weathered with a dilute dirty enamel mix and wiped off almost immediately, Black paper was attached in behind each window. A little weathering followed, and the completed extension was again matched up to the original factory structure on the layout. Please excuse the awful green poster paint on the area in front of the factory, but I thought it would look slightly better than the bare newspaper & PVA landscape, prior to the application of some proper scenery... I have temporarily fixed a large sheet of light blue/grey Dalerboard behind the layout at this point - this is not what the final backscene will look like, nor will it be as high as this Dalerboard has been fixed, either! Some kind of water colour or toned-down photographic representation of the lane receding into the distance, flanked on both sides by industrial buildings, will need to be provided immediately behind the level crossing: The corrugated extension to the original factory has now become a small 'lean to' workshop extension: More general views: When it comes to sorting out the backscene proper, I think I will add some hint or representation of further factory structures behind and slightly higher than the 'northlight' structure, to give the whole scene a bit more depth:

My latest build that I made to incorporate in my new layout. A Woodland scenics machine shop that I made a diorama of. I named it Miller & sons after the great Glenn Miller. I listened to a lot of his music during the build.... I'm very satisfied with the build so far. I was honestly surprised at the value of this kit! It has a few issues though, as it is (as I have understood it) an old Alloy forms kit thar WS have re-released. The white metal is VERY hard, and made adjusting the walls a bit hard to do. There were some mold errors as well which demanded some work with the Dremel. I used Campbell shingles on the roof instead of the paper strips as I think it looks better this way. The building have led lighting and real glass windows. The cars are made from Jordan kits. Thanks for looking.

Right then. This is my first EVER blog ever, so bear with me... It's basically on my first layout project 'Frappington'. The layout is a continuous run single track line with a passing loop in the centre of the layout in a three platform station in the centre of the layout, all housed in my loft. It's modelled in 'OO' to anything but finescale! It's set on the Eastern Region of BR in the 1950's, to the east of Doncastor on a fictitious line from Doncastor to Grimsby via Epworth. The Epworth connection allows me to keep open the L&Y branch from Hull as far as Epworth, which gives me the excuse to run some midland engines as eastern branchlines aren't the easiest to stock... Theres also a fictious branch line just of scene to Scunthorpe, allowing for steel traffic (when I have the stock) and bigger engines (possibly.) This is also the cause of the dubious junction. The name was originally Frappington Junction, a name which had been taken from a previous layout which never really got past track on base boards and there was no hope of scenery. That layout used the same boards as the current layout, but was double track with a branch line, which made it very cramped and hard to operate. As such it was ripped up and replaced by the current plan which includes a much larger goods yard and a small cement works. That also dictated my profile name, as I still was/am calling it as such until I have to actually decide and make station roundels. Most of the bulidings are kit built, from the usual suppliers. Some of the buildings are ready-to-plant examples, mostly the bigger town buildings (garage, church, firestation) and the cottage and barn on the farm. The ground frame hut and coal staithes are also resin. The only exceptions to this are the yard crane which is a repainted Hornby Thomas model, seperated from it's base and painted grey, and the shed which is scratch built using one wall of a very old shed my Grandad many decades ago. It did manage to survive the hacksawing which it was subjected to though. Photo's are included below. I do apologise for the quality of the photos, the light isn't very good. I've also included a picture the madness that occurs behind the scenes in my four road fiddle yard. After this pic was taken, I cleared some of the stock off the layout as I had no idea where to put the van train, and I like to have all reguarly used stock within easy reach when assembling trains.

The final bit of point rodding in front of the signal box has now been completed and is shown in these photos. A general view: and just in front of the box: Unfortunately, I've now created a problem with the wonderful signal box made by Gravy Train. The original had a walk-way in front which was removed because the rodding cranks and signal wire pulleys are in the way. However, there is no slot above ballast level for the rods, etc., to enter the box, so I'm faced with having to create one without wrecking the finished box. This is to accommodate the support of the inner ends of the rods going under the box, which are above the false bottom in the box. I hoped I might be able to carefully carve a suitable opening in the floor and front of the box but it appears to be made from a grade of plastic card closely related to armour plate and the front face of the box is several thicknesses laminated together. I'll have to find a way to achieve the necessary openings somehow.