Anthony Ashley

David, In answer to your question I focus on one task at a time and am content in finishing that task, as I move slowly through the process. Ross came over today and we worked on some tricky sections together. Photos and discussions below. I have started gluing the cork for the track bed. This line being glued is the outside yellow line next to one of the platforms. I decided to get Ross to help fix the end of the Penmaenmawr viaduct road. It was easier with 2 persons, one below and one above the layout. The road is now fixed. Next is to add foam board shoulders to the road and the add the road base plaster. I was going to add the derelict building in this area, which Jamie posted a picture of in 2020, but unfortunately these photos are no longer showing on the site. Ross and I decided that I need to incorporate a pop up area for the Bangor goods yard. The picture below was the best spot. Unfortunately I had added a support for the underneath track which cut this area into 2, and was not big enough for me to fit through. By removing the timber support which was joined by the ply block in the foreground above I have enough room for a small pop up area, surrounded by the hidden track under the layout. I readjusted the rod to go through the timber at the back of the photo. It is not straight but is still supported adequately. This photo shows the outline of the goods shed at Bangor, bounded by the inspection pit above, foam board strip on the left, track section on the right and the pen at the bottom. I have built much of it using card and brick paper. It is a relatively simple construction so might finish it soon. Ross and I fitted the end of the road to the other road section. We added another block under the layout to provide support and a block on the viaduct wall face, visible in the foreground of the photo. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Howard, Sleep is grabbed in odd periods every now and then. Ed the layout includes wall paintings including a rainbow and fierce storm. The rainbow is behind Conwy and the storm behind Penmaenmawr. Have finished the cork underlay and cut the connecting flex track. Photos are below. I need to paint some of the rail sections, glue the cork, paint it and wire the track. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Lez , Thanks for the comment. I am very happy with the castle so far. Have been working on the Bangor goods area and laid out nearly all of the track over the last two days. Next is to cut cork for the bed, glue it and paint. There are a few areas of flex track that need extensions but most of it is showing in the photos below. I can also lay down the 6 inspection pits in the engine shed. Track plan and wiring of the Bangor goods yard. The left side of the good yard is the engine shed. The first 6 lines of the left side of the yard in blue terminate in the inspection pits inside the engine shed (about 450 ml long). The 10th line (green) from the left terminates in the turntable. Then there is the goods shed (red lines)(about 700 mls long) and on the right side of the yard the engineering shed (Blue lines)(about 560 mls long). Next job is to cut the cork to match the track profile, glue and paint the cork. Then wiring of the track. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, Photos of the gassed and bushed mounds on the road side of Conwy castle. Wide shot from the west side of the castle. In real life this would be taken form the far bank of Conwy river. View from the south. Closer view. Focus on the new grassed and bushed section. I need to cut the tower platform supports and paint them, both for 7 large and 4 small towers. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Cameron, I think Edward I must have had very good planning and organisation to build such a large structure using only manual labour in 4 years, given the pace of modern construction. Your comments are very much appreciated. I have gone back to the past by starting the process to finish the towers. I last did this about 9 years ago but only finished 1 tower out of 8. Need to add about a 1/3 of a circle of inner carboard filler around the inside of the top of the towers. Photo is below. I have had some ideas about the Conwy suspension bridge. Photos of elements of the bridge are below. I think the most distinctive element of the bridge are the straps providing the support to the bridge and the connectors, through which the wire cabling passes through. I have thought about options in terms of material to make the bridge. I have 460ml lengths of brass comprising 2 1 ml circular edges joined by a flat piece about .5 ml in height by about .5ml wide. There are 5 layers of strapping and the scale length of my span is about 700ml. I can join 2 lengths of my 460 ml by soldering a joining plate on the top and bottom of the flat section. Although the span length is only about 700 ml with the curve I shall need the two 460ml lengths. I think the connectors can be 3D printed with a hole running through the middle of each connector to thread through the brass strapping. I shall need to stack the strapping 5 high as in the bridge. I think I could drill through the connectors and brass strapping to insert 26 gauge jewellers wire to create the cable supports. The hand rail and bottom rail on the bridge will also be lengths of the brass strapping. The sides of the bridge could be made of small rectangles made of individually soldered thin gauge wire. The panels are separated to allow the supporting cabling to run down to the floor of the bridge. I shall use tule glued to the wire rectangles to create the diamond shape. The towers will be similar to the castle construction methods. I think this should work well. I am getting advice on the 3D printing, as the connectors will only be maybe 4ml long by 4mls deep by 3 mls high (not very big to fit a hole to accommodate the brass strapping. I have finished the grass mounts on the road side of the castle. Just waiting for the white glue to dry. More photos tomorrow. Next will be finishing the entrance area walls and then the cliff face on the east end of the castle. Regards, Anthony Ashley .

David and Ben, Thanks for the really encouraging comments. I decided to do a comparison of the time taken to build the actual castle versus my modelling of it. If you look at the start of the posts I first placed 2 90ml pieces of plumbing tubing to represent 2 of the towers in Sep 2013. Nearly 10 years ago. I built a substantial portion of the castle over the next 2 years or so but then left it in place for a number of years. Kicked off again with the castle maybe about 6 months ago. So I am coming up to a 10 year construction period. Patience is clearly a virtue. Edward I started building Conwy castle in during his conquest of Wales in 1283. The castle was finished in 1287. That was a total of 4 years construction to build the real thing!!!!! I should have the model finished within 3 times that time period. time by the 12 year mark if not 10 to 11 years!!! Anyway the process continues with focus on the entrance area stairs and platforms. I have completed these, added the rocks along the ascending path and glued the foam entrance area and painted the floor of the entrance area. The remnants of the platform rising to the castle have been cut and stone added to 2 faces. The other faces will be rough stone work which I shall need to stack similar to the battlements. Photos are below. The section in front of the platform is the old path leading up to the castle. I shall add vegetation and rubble under the stairs and platforms. You can see the red rocks on the left I shall probably add static grass this afternoon. The right side of the earth area is much rougher with wilder bushes and longer grass. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, Worked on the wall capping for all walls except the battlements which will take forever!!! Although I did paint the wood section of the battlements grey to blend in. Photos are below. The main castle area with all walls capped apart from the battlements. Worked on the platform supports at the castle entrance, and cut the arch way through the castle walls to the platform. Next is to complete the 3 stairs beyond the platform and a second platform. Then will finally grass the next section. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, Capping to the vertical main walls has been my focus. Photo below. Happy with the effect, either single or double stonework. Left side is pre glue added over the top. The glue is wiped off to create a mortar effect in the gaps. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Simon, Thanks for the critical comment. I have had a close look at the model and think the paint may have been damp at the time of the photo, or the angle of the light on the model at the time. I used the same paint to paint the broken area as the original walls so it should be the same sheen. Perhaps the angle of the light being directly above onto the broken surface has caused more sheen. Clearly the normal wall surface which I have painted in many places is at a totally different angle. I will try some mat spay on the area and take another photo to check the effect. I normally ask for advice when I want critical comment and you are a valuable regular. Good advice from you is always welcome. Thanks again. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Simon you are very observant. My wife's only comment was what a horrible foot. I think it looks OK but I guess it is my foot . I have finished all of the walkways and the vertial stone work around them. I have experimented with the rough plaster strips in the last page. I broke then up into pices no more than ml to 2 Mls and the stuck these fragments onto 2 of the battlement sections. I have posted photos for comments and ideas if you are able to contribute to the discussion. Not sure that I can improve on the effect but am asking for feed back for any other ideas. At this stage it takes about 1/2 an hour to do both sides of a rise. Any comments would be appreciated before I continue on with the process. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, Not much to show for todays work on modelling but it was exacting. I cut the pieces required to fill in the rest of the walkways along the battlements. The photo below shows the most complicated shape, which needed to be cut to about .5 of a ml tolerance . The next shot is an aerial photo showing all of the completed walkways. You can clearly see the lower areas of the castle against the top wall t ext to add resin stone work to the interior side of most of the battlements and the other interior walls on the walkways. once this is done I will finish the other road way slope by adding static grass. I have found some 1ml spring grass so might try that up the top of the left side of the slope. The upper slope to the right of the second tower from the right is mainly bushes rather than grass as seen by the google street view from the ascending path. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Thanks to all for the positive feedback. I have been busy finishing the wall capping jutting out from the castle. It was a tricky shape being a triangle, but the plaster dough material worked really well to provide the base. Photo below is shows my method to adequately join the surfaces as the top proved difficult to get a clean finish without pegs. Finished section below from both views. I got very excited yesterday when I realised that Google street view would enable me to to "walk " up the walkway to the castle entrance and then go inside the actual castle itself. I had no real idea about how the entrance was designed although from the pictures available I would have made an educated guess. While the start of the castle entrance is completely different from 1960, now being a flat ramp from the other side of the road, rather than a small building on the castle grounds with an ascending initial path, I don't think that the return pathway and actual entrance into the castle has changed much from 1960. I am therefore simulating the current layout of the immediate castle entrance. I have 3 photos below that show the castle entrance. This photo shows the path is bordered by rocks which I was unable to view easily from the photos I have downloaded previously. Possible modelling solution. Need to glue and darken rocks. The actual entrance into the castle in photos below. The photos show a descent from the start of the far tower down the path, then a flight of steps, then a platform, then 3 more steps and a last small platform. My attempt to recreate the descending path from the castle, the flight of steps and the platform, both of which need to be painted. While the stairs are not perfect it is difficult to create in 2 ml and once enclosed by the castle walls will look good enough form the overhead view, which will really be the only way to look at them. The piece of paper showing a partial map section in the above photo is the dimensions of the old ramps leading up to the castle. This will of course be modelled. I need to remove more foam down to the pen mark to continue the slope of the ramp between the castle towers. The wall section which is unpainted needs to have an entrance door cut into it. Last photo is the start of filling in the walkways which still need to be paved with resin stone work. Cutting these shapes is difficult and exacting as they need to fit perfectly. Regards, Anthony Ashley

David and Simon, Thanks for your contribution to the site. I agree that the detail in a layout can become "invisible" if the project is too large. One way of getting around that is to to have a list of things to find, which would then draw attention to particular details in the layout. For instance can you spot the vine bearing red berries in the vicinity of the castle. Another question could be where are the toilets toilets on the town walls. I know that I actually enjoy hunting for such detail in a big layout and if people are drawn to such detail I think they will get a better appreciation of the detail in the layout. So I agree with both of you in your comments. I decided to modify my plaster stone production technique. Nearly all of the stones used for capping in the garden area are smooth topped as they were pressed flat but my thumb after rolling and cutting. While that section of the castle has reasonably smooth caps many of the others are quire rough. I therefore cut my strips of plaster dough and then using an old plaster rock imprinted a rough stone surface onto the drying strip. This obviously crates a rough stone like surface. Roughened strips drying. I shall have to see how good they look once dry and broken up for use as capping stones. I have also added a triangular plaster section for the capping stone on the wall section off the castle. I shall cove this with the same resin texture used on the rest of the castle. Once I have finished the triangular cap stone I shall move onto the next grass and bush mound next to the castle. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Scotty, Thanks for the comment and reinforcement. Hope you are good!! Worked on the vegetation in front of the garden area this morning. Photos are below. A mixture of flock, scatter, turf, static grass and plaster rocks. I shall move around the corner and do the path section. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, A busy day with train modelling. Have completed the tops of the walls in the garden area on the east side of Conwy castle. I am happy with the results. All of the wall tops have been covered with my plaster "stone" and I think the result looks good. Some areas have a much rougher finish which I shall need to work on. The front keep wall has also had capping added to the front of it. This photo better shows the platform on the right most small turret. Not sur eif I will pint it brown or leave grey. The capping on the keep front wall is ore visible in this photo. The earth in front of the garden area on the lower level is also visible. I will finish the lower area in front of the garden walls. I have already added a small stone section to the middle turret. Should finish the vegetation early tomorrow. Regards, Anthony Ashley

John, We have 2 cats but their cat litter is not of the correct type so none can be reused. I do like to recycle!! Been experimenting with modelling clay. I rolled a small section of the block with Sarah's rolling pin to about 2 ml thick. The section shown below will be broken up by hand to see what sort of effect I get. The "stone" will have rough edges but be flat and stackable. The next photo I cut strips and then cut the sections below. The flattened them with my thumb and rounded off the corners. These can be napped and will fit together to form a rough wall section if I need it. The last option are strips which I will snap into pieces, therefore having rough ends but smooth sides. The clay is air dried and takes 24 hours to cure. Once dry I shall do some experiments with the 3 different types of clay stone. I think all 3 will have a use to create the desired effect. The excess is put back in the packet, rolled very securely with Glad wrap and then put into a relatively airless ziplock bag. Hopefully this will maintain the pliability of the clay. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Lez, I shall have a look at what I can find in terms of cat litter. Perhaps what I have got will be enough using the rally valuable ideas provided above . Thanks again for your comment. Cameron I have looked at similar photos of the castle. I have 3 photograph folders on Conwy, the town, the castle and interior castle shots. You can never have too many though and I always look very closely at the photos which others add to gather more information. I think for the walls you are discussing a 3ml ply sandwiched between 2 resin stone sheets slightly raised will give the required effect in N gauge. I can then glue small stone pieces to the wall tops as suggested. Should look good although time consuming. I have completed a set of hand built stairs made from foam board and plasticard. The only issue is that I have a photo of the start of the stair case below and a shot from Google earth showing the nearby turrets. There is a large rock face and then another castle wall in the Google street view, but where the stairs actually go to I have no idea. Google street view of the castle area in the vicinity of the stairs. Top of the stairway is located in the garden area in thte background of the photo on the left side. Stairway in position. I might experiment with some of the tops of the walls, given the discussions we have been having above. Regards, Anthony Ashley

GWR and David, Thanks for the advice. Having read the comment by GWR I recalled I have graded some crushed concrete into very fine and course. I originally got it by going to a landscaper, filling a shopping bag to the brim and then asking them how much for the bag. They said they normally sell it by the trailer load I could have the bag for free!! I looked at the course material and thought I could further define that material into fine, medium and course. Photo of the jars are below. Fine medium and course crushed concrete and whatever else they add. A lot of this material is fairly flat so should work well in the effect I am trying to create, as most of the castle stones are very flat. I also found some Talus in fine and course. The coarse is finer than my fine material and the coarse about the same as my medium. I shall probably use both. Thanks to GWR and David for given me the assistance, as it should provide a much better effect than the plaster option. David the walls look great in the photo. I hope the castle walls will look as good!! I have also constructed some stairs from scratch. A photo or two later. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, Been working on both ends of the castle. I wanted to be able to finish the exterior areas which have lower walls and are still part of the castle but not part of the main defensive areas. The western end is now the entrance. The eastern end has a garden area. The problem was that both ends had walls and towers which were about 15 ml too tall. I tried to add more foam to raise the entrance and garden areas but the slope created by raising the side next to the exterior walls was too great, The entrance would suffer from a very considerable slope towards the main part of the castle, as would the garden area on the other end. The only solution was to reduce the wall heights on either end by 15mls. Of course while the towers and walls involved in this process were not stuck or connected to the main castle yet the towers and walls creating both of these exteriors were stuck together. I manged to cut them using a drop saw very accurately, despite the round sections connected to flat walls. The walls are now a much more realistic height, and i have been able to add only a slight slope in the entrance area in order to connect the exterior area floor and the interior floor of the castle. View showing the floor of the entrance area. I added a little more foam under the arch way to continue the slope into the interior of the castle to make a uniform slope. A little plaster work on the floor will hide the foam joins. You can more easily see the slope in this shot. Both end wall sections have been lowered to a more realistic height. The section between the castle tower in the fore ground and the wall section in the garden will have a stair case, which I have been unable to determine where exactly it goes as the photos I have do not show the lower end. I have started building it and need to cut the foam to fit it. By looking closely at Google street view I have been able to determine that the foam end in the above photo needs to be cut back and a wall and rock section added. I have a query seeking some comments to assist. The main walls around the castle and reasonably ruined with exposed stone ends on most of the battlements. The photo below shows some examples of this rough stone particularly topping the battlements and on the top of some other walls. How to create this effect is my question. I could do a very thin plaster sheet and try to break it up into tiny flat stone sections, recreating the uneven small rock sections. I would then add glue to the battlement tops and layer these small flat pieces on top of each other, Does anyone have any other ideas that are easier to create this effect? Regards, Anthony Ashley

Lez, Thanks for the positive comment. I am still not sure that it is quite the effect I wanted but will be satisfied with it. Have resurfaced the path, completed the earth effect on the other section and have done the entrance building minus the windows and doors. It is painted with effects for mortar and dry brush walls. Photos are below. Next is to grass the earth area, perhaps finish the elevated walkway stone effect and complete the garden area at the front of the castle. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Lez, Thanks for the comment. Reinforcement is always appreciated. I have done the first section with static grass and am reasonably happy with the result. Photos are below. Next is to cover the other section to create the earth effect and then more static grass. With more practice my static grass may improve!! Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, A couple of extra samples with more yellow and red variation in them. The first sample has some yellow and a touch or red. (2-3ML) The second extra yllow only (I tnink 2-3 ml) The third is the original 4 sample of 2ml light green only. All 3 are on hte light earth flock. I think I shall use small patches of sample 2 with mainly the third sample above over the light earth flock. This will ensure more yellow colour variation but maintain a fairly uniform green on most of the mound. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, A quick photo of the new area for construction, being the tennis courts at Penmaenmawr. The gap in the layaout is the location for the courts. I have also tried a couple of new staic grass samples in light of the comments by Lez to vary the colour. While these are both 2ml they add some tonal variation in colour with a dash of yellow. Once the glue has dried I shall post a photo later today. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, First earth bank picture below. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Simon and Lez, Your discussion is interesting. From viewing a few photos of the area the lawn on these mounds it is always very well manicured and seems to be of very uniform length. I think for that reason the single 2 ml length is OK. If I was modelling my lawn length, variation in length would definitely be a better representation. I also have another packet of 2 ml static grass with a mixture of bright green similar to the 4th option green with some yellow and a touch of red. Perhaps a few patches of this scattered in amongst the light green 4th option would be the best to match the colour variation in the picture, which definitely has predominately green, some yellow and perhaps a very slight touch of red. The samples above were modified by removing some of the grassed area to create the divots of brown seen in the photo. I think the browm patches in sample 4 using the lighter earth base are fine. Your additional comments are much valued and help refine the static grass process. Any comments or discussion?