LDM34046

Granted I've not been very active this side of the year however I greatly appreciate all the support the layouts and my modelling has received! RMWeb continues to be a gold mine of inspiration and knowledge! Hopefully time will be more friendly and allow time to post more regularly on this feed. Wishing everyone a very 'Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!'

You’ll be pleased to know Modelu only last week announced their crew pack for the J70. Earlier in the month I had the pleasure of test fitting and photographing them for their website. They really do bring the model to life and add some character. Glad to hear you made it back smoother than the journey up to East Sussex! Was a pleasure to meet you and to hear your weathering and modelling tips.

It’s not just green diesels I’ve got a thing for. Peckett’s seem to be getting the better of me! ‘614’ returns to the fleet, suitably weathered by Neville Grove. No.4 ‘Bear’ also joins the line-up. The first of the open cabs and a great way to show off the Modelu Crew and details. This’ll join the queue for DCC fitting and weathering at some point in the future! That brings the total up to four…. When will it end! 🤣

You may have noticed the hulking great trees in the background. They’re from MBR Models in Poland, as recommended by a well known Wooly member of the site! The detail and build quality is absolutely phenomenal and despite their side, with a bit of blending with the scatter, they’ll fit in quite nicely. Since you last saw them clad in PolyFiller, the two remaining buildings have been restarted, this time with plastic sheet. I felt the filler would have lacked the detail and texture compared to that of the plastic. I’m looking forward to making a start on getting these painted. I’m undecided on whether to model some interiors however with the plan to eventually fit lighting I would definitely be doing it injustice if I didn’t. The road bridge at the far end has also been painted with a variety of dry-brushing and washes. It’s coming along nicely although will benefit from some weathering powders and foliage. Using more products from MBR, Bushes have been added, predominantly along the front of the layout and between the sidings. This as added quite a bit of depth and height and provides some great low angles for photography.

Unfortunately I haven't got any photos to demonstrate the process. A simple case of wipe on, wipe off. Using a dark grey acrylic, paint the entire model, it always seems a bit scary at first. Allow to 'set' for a couple of minutes before wiping it off with cotton buds in a downward motion. This will remove the paint from the flat surfaces but will remain in all the edges, creases and gaps, as it would in real life. Once that's done I go over various areas with a variety of different powders. Rust and browns for the under frame with black and soot to further detail the body. I use a white weathering powder in the centre of the body panels to give a faded look.

So I hear. Originally due in April, I cancelled my order a while ago after getting increasingly frustrated with delays. The 31’s were also due in April, then due now, but now delayed to next year.

More weathering practice continued on the growing fleet of box vans. Again, more trials and tribulations with weathering powders and acrylic paints however I'm slowly starting to find my rhythm! Lancaster Lane made a reappearance... It's small size and nature means that it can quite easily be erected from under the better to on the bookshelf in front of the natural light. It's a great way to kill some time with a shunting puzzle or photograph a few new cameos. Perhaps in the not too distant future I might revive some of the scenics and track work. As with my previous update, my love affair with BR Green continues to thrive and a new addition of the Bachmann 37 as only strengthened that. A fantastic models, all the lights and sound and excellent detailing has made it a regular for me running on the club layout. It's a shame Accurascale never delivered with their variant as the Bachmann model really does shine through.

Well it's about time I start posting on here a bit more. Fair to say I'm absolutely useless at posting updates on here. Facebook & Instagram are much more my forte! A visit to Uckfield MRS today and meeting a few RMWebber's as spurred me on to be a bit more active on this thread and forum!

Great to finally meet you today Rob. Having followed this thread since the start it was great for you to travel ‘north’ for me to see your modelling in person. ’Ewe’ really did look fantastic and the show and layout was both incredibly well attended. Thank you for giving the time to walk through some of your weathering processes, it’s given me a real boost of motivation to tackle some more of my own! Luke

An imposing building now sits on the above the tree-tops at Dewar's Street. The distillery is now in place with huge thanks to Colin, a good friend of mine at Flexxgenix and his work in designing and creating this brilliant kit. Loosely based on elements of the real Dewar's building in Aberfeldy, the kit and sizing was based on scale drawings found in the distillery's museum. Painting consisted of layers of Vallejo acrylic paints and Citadel washes to build up the shades and highlights of the brickwork. A lightning conductor was also scratch built out of brass, clearly working to good effect! 😂 The first layers of paint and dry-brushing was also applied to the distillery gates…

Another project I've been working on is a 'childhood' loco of mine. Original in BR Blue and numbered 25245 it was my first 'proper loco' on my old layout 7+ years ago. It was fitted with Legomanbiffo sound at the time and was poorly weathered by me however in recent years I couldn't bring myself to sell It. Thanks to the Bachman Spares website and a replacement shell it has now taken on the BR Green guise numbered as 25043, much more suited to my current modelling era. The original chassis and under frame still needs some work and weathering to match the shell but is now a lovely new 're-addition' to the layout, complete with its original sound and lights from my childhood.

The first of a couple new locomotive additions to the fleet and my first foray into Heljan. Class 27 ‘D5347’ in BR Green The loco itself looks great, lovely proportions and a smooth motor. However the downfall soon came about regarding the bogies. I found the couplings drooped heavily and there was no option to run both couplings and snowploughs. The snowploughs also fouled the bogies and the detailing pack was too chunky to fit in the allocated holes. After a profanity filled evening, the bogies were modified to fit directly onto the chassis with a Bachmann detailing pack used instead. Couplings were fashioned using 0.45mm brass wire which work surprisingly well across all my stock.

Apologies for the absence. Life has been rather cruel recently throwing a few horrible unexpected events and changes. The layout has been untouched from a running standpoint however I’ve been working on a few projects on the workbench to keep me busy.

Painting started with a layer of grey, followed by a dark brown wash. Various dry brushing layers of light grey, cream and white were then used to build highlight the cracks and edges. Particularly fond of the results in the garage. Streaky dry brushing on the smooth surface resulted in an oily concrete finish. Next job is to add some foliage around the edges of the buildings to blend them in along with a few bits of moss on the cobbles. Also looking to experiment with adding some puddles.

Productive start with the new and improved street. Started with a thin layer of DAS clay and laid into place. The cobbles were scribed into the clay with textured rolling pins. A great little tool and a great finish. Quite like the inconsistency in the pattern along with the different depths and heights of the bricks. A thin layer of PVA to seal it all and then to start on the painting.