Physicsman

Correct! The loco is actually on the down line when, heading south, it should be on the up line. Reason? It was already on the down and I couldn't be bothered to switch everything on to change lines. I'm just being a lazy bu99er!

It's a lovely sunny morning at Gill Head as the 07.14 from Long Meg passes the goods shed, heading south..... Can anyone spot the deliberate mistake - and it has nothing to do with the loco.

Al, thanks for the illustrations and reminder. And I've used the paper method ever since it was recommended by the "infamous" Jason! My usual method is to tile completely to the boundary, making sure the tile layers are aligned. Then I put the "flashing" - just the same thick paper painted a different colour - down the channel on top of the tiles. It does mean the flashing area is slightly thicker than it should be, but saves me having to trim the adjacent tiles. Even with a sharp scalpel it can easily make a mess. My way is a bit of a lazy way, but I prefer it for the "almost" guaranteed neatness.....you wait and see what happens this time! Always good to hear from you. Apologies I rarely stray to the C&HPR, though your backscene is very effective.

The 07.14 from Long Meg emerges from the North Cutting on its way south via Gill Head:

I finally "bit the bullet" and made a start on the completion of the station building. On the basis that once-started it just has to be finished, I enjoyed a good 3 hour stint tiling most of the main roof section....

That looks familiar, Jonathan. Imagine working on that, out in the open amidst the beautiful weather that tends to occur up there. Even in mid-summer!

That's very interesting and I'm grateful for the supportive comment. I have to be careful "advertising" future "product" on here, but you're certainly doing a good job at convincing me that there might be a market for a few of my "items".

The static grass-technique post on page 82 has been updated to recover the "missing" pics. They were still there, but Andy York said a server glitch had shuffled them off the post into a storage buffer. Hope that post is now of interest to anyone who hasn't seen it!

Hi Steve. I did an extensive post on my technique earlier in this thread. The pics disappeared with the Forum server problem. So I re-did the post on pages 81-82 and put new pics in again. When I looked a couple of days back, the pics had disappeared again!! I'd do a video of my technique but it's nothing original. And I've never done any video editing to piece together a series of "takes". I'll have a look at that method post later tonight and re-do the pics again.

I use a Celotex equivalent - PIR board is a great modelling material. Years back I used a saw to cut the sheets- now I use an old steak knife. Still a bit messy, but not too bad. The joys of landscape modelling!

Ah, Jay. You're a wimp 😀 - I just love the mess, haha. Some people hate mod roc. I think it's great. If it works, that's all that matters. 😀

I have a simple, very low tech and not very effective way for wheel runs. I use a model land rover (if I can find it) and play "vroom vroom" running it up and down the road. I think it produces an almost imperceptible sheen on the surface! The verges need a bit of low grass. The right side needs a post fence putting in. Then it'll be a few choice weeds, again, almost random. I find it best not to think too much about the process. If it looks good, that's ok. If not, the great hand-weedkiller from the sky descends and I try again. With almost infinite variety available, who's to say who is right and who is wrong?

I think one important factor is to include base undulations on the board before anything goes down. Cutting an old rag into bits and laying it onto the baseboard with strips of mod-roc to hold it down gets rid of the flatness. After a base coat of brown paint and flock the grass layering seems to work better. I always put my 2mm fibres on first, leaving random non-grassed flock-only areas here and there. When longer fibres are added, this seems to break up the landscape giving a more natural approach.

Here are a few grass pics, Jay. There'll be additional "weeds" added in to some of these areas, as well as peripheral hedging/bushes and a couple of smallish trees adjacent to the station. And btw, I think your grassing on Llanybod is very effective. The last pic is the road leading to the underbridge. It's just had a coat of "paint" and the walling may need another wash. And there's still a bit of grassing and a "mucky area" to go in.... Jeff

I'll post a few more pics later with emphasis on the grass areas - hopefully useful.

Jay, maybe it's a man thing but we all crave for something a bit bigger. Layouts, I mean.....😇 As for the grass. All down to multiple layers and a bit of random chance with the pointing of the grass gun. Rob, I must admit I'm happy with the way the platform surfaces have come out. A bit of uneveness to indicate wear and tear - again, a bit of randomness as to where the sand stuck onto the PVA. This time, unlike the last layout, the chinchilla sand seems well fixed in place. Rich - nice to hear from you. A bit of relaxation at home and a bit of modelling - even if you only make small progress - is just what's needed. Thanks gang. I really DO appreciate your feedback.

Don't give me ideas, Rob. You know where that can lead! 4mm scale is too small for individual slates - but if I was working in 7mm or larger then I'd have probably gone down that route. Using plastikard though, not DAS. I don't mind receiving likes - but I prefer comments....even if they are written in 6 font!

Brief update: I've sorted out nearly all the walling in the station area and surfaced the access road and platforms, painting them after the surface had dried. This afternoon I pulled out the door, roof and other bits I'd concocted for the station building in 2018. The pics show these bits sat loosely in place and - to my surprise - most of what's needed had been done. So maybe I'll do a bit of work on the building in the next few weeks. MAYBE.

Rob, looking at the state of that, it might not be standing at Christmas. It'd make a nice restoration project, though - in 1:1 scale....not DAS blocks!! Ps. Just bought the 32nd/33rd of block of DAS used on the GH project (yes, I'm a sad git who keeps count!)

Hi Tortuga, Blandford. I'm very happy to dish out likes to thank you for your kind comments. And yes, I make loads of mistakes - and hopefully learn from them (and report them on here) - so constructive criticism (and definitely not sycophantic ar5e licking) is appreciated. I agree, it seems a widespread thing that unboxing or plonking down a "specimen" loco (A3, A4 especially) rakes in the likes but ACTUALLY DOING something - no, no, we can't have that! Please keep your comments coming - if you wish to do so. I'm painting platform tops at the moment and have had to escape the Bunker, temporarily, to avoid the stench of a particularly obnoxious grey primer (not my usual vintage). Jeff

Don't worry about that, I don't "do" thread hijacks. Nearly every post is relevant in some way and - providing people aren't being over-stupid or ar5es - we just go with the flow. Just downloading tonight's pics, so a quick glance to see Andy's news.

Cheers Jim. The Likes business is a bee in my bonnet that surfaces every now and then. I have no qualms about expressing my opinion and I certainly don't claim to always be right in my views. But too many people on here just want an easy life and put up with anything. Whatever, I enjoy what I'm doing to get too despondent. As I've said, my comments are on behalf of many who often are ignored by the "system". This really is a great hobby (almost on a par with my other love, astrophotography 😀) and it's nice when modellers get the plaudits rather than the comedians or attention-seekers!

Hi jcarta - John, Jeff, Jim? Thanks for your comments, fully agree. Can I make it clear to all that my comments were GENERAL comments. They weren't specific to what I'm doing, but to ALL the excellent modellers on this Forum who get SOME credit, but often a lot less than a group of people exchanging a joke. The most annoying situation is for the modeller to put up some work and get, say, 6 likes and then 2 or 3 people to post comments about the modelling and get MORE likes than the modeller who has done a lot of work! Clearly ridiculous. As you say, nothing is going to change. But it doesn't mean we should just sit here, say nothing and put up with it. Some of the stuff being posted on supposedly top notch, inspirational threads like Realistic Modelling is scandalously poor and nobody says anything. And is then repeated ad-infinitum, and still nobody reacts. Politics is a no-no on here, but one only has to look at Putin's Russia to see where a laissez-faire attitude can lead. So, jcarta, thanks for your supportive feedback. Irrespective of any likes (it's the unfairness issue that annoys me), a lot of us in here will always try our best, even if it doesn't always work! Cheers, Jeff.

Yes, Steve. Two issues for me here. The Likes issue - yes, I know people have the right to choose if they want to give a like. It's simply that a lot of these are "awarded" for trivia, non-railway issues while the modellers (that includes research, history, design, planning, building, updates etc) often get short shrift. Then there are those that play the system for likes. Same picture again and again and again.....same background, no new modelling, again and again and again and again. Loads of likes for the same pic. Meanwhile, the modeller posts what he's been working on for a month gets acknowledged, a few likes, then back to the grind. You could argue that none of this causes any harm. But YES it does. It's demoralising to get little response for a lot of good work while others get credit for banter, crap modelling or just posing the same thing....again and again. Right, Steve. We'd better get some modelling done. About time I put something onto Realistic Modelling to pull in a few more likes.

Thanks Jonathan. Not double standards, but a like for the above statement demonstrates some kind of support. I know ticking Like can save having to say "nice bit of work" and I agree with that. I just object to the abuse of the system for, especially, stuff that has nothing to do with railways or railway modelling. Anyway, on FAR more important matters, thanks for forwarding that email this morning. I hope something is successfully sorted out in the very near future.