Alister_G

Just to let you know I'm away now for a fortnight, so don't expect any updates for a while. Al.

Could you just give it a blast of matt varnish? Al.

I would be very surprised if there wasn't guttering, to be honest Jonathan, it's not something they would leave off for even low status buildings. Al.

They still haven't shifted that bloody crate though! Al

Great to hear from you Derek, and a lovely job on the 1808 class. You say this is scratchbuilt? Wow! Superb work, and such a shame that you can't enjoy your beautiful railway. Al.

It would be difficult to incorporate a face with the headcode panels, so perhaps that's why they were left off? Al.

Cracking work on the wall mate, love the way you did that. It's all looking great, and as usual your backscenes are a true work of art. Al

Brilliant work Adrian, looks really good. Could you cut away the judas gate and set it back into the main door as the prototype is? Al.

It's always difficult to match real-life colours to modelling, particularly with ash and tarmac and things like that. If you accurately reproduce the colours seen at 12" foot scale on a model, they will invariably look wrong. Therefore, despite real ash ballast being nearly black, to model it convincingly you need to be aiming for a much lighter grey than you would think. Your 2:1 mix is probably about right for colour, I would say. Al.

Continuing the lighting saga, I think I'm getting there now. I've replaced the "Daylight" 5200K LEDs which were at the front of the layout, and which appeared very blue in photos, with a strip of "Cool White" 4000K ones, which whilst not as warm as the "Warm-white" are a more natural colour, and I've also angled the aluminium strip on which they are mounted back at 45degrees which has meant there is a better side-on illumination. You can just about make out the replacement strip on the right here, immediately behind the fascia: This makes the layout look like this: The difference that angling the first strip has made can be seen here: In the first photo, all the LEDs are pointing downwards: However here, the first strip is angled back towards the layout: I think you will agree that's loads better. So much so, in fact, that I felt able to take a bit of video using the layout lighting for the first time, which has turned out quite well, I think. Just need to make the camera tripod move a bit more smoothly, and master the zoom a bit better... Thanks for looking, Al.

Hi Michael, Thank you very much for posting this very comprehensive review of how you tackled your lighting. I will be taking notes and using them to see what I can do to sort out my woes One thing I notice already is you use of 4000k "natural White" which seem to be much better than the 6500k "Daylight" strip I have. For what they cost I might well get a strip. Thanks again, Al

Yes, absolutely, the vertical strips would have to stop a few inches above the ground level of the layout, or you would get the same problem. Al.

Thanks Andy. The trouble with Ladmanlow is that to exhibit it, it will be in an enclosed box, so I have to provide nearly all the illumination, whereas your spotlight just highlights a certain area and you have daylight for the majority of the layout. As you've all seen in earlier pages of this thread, the layout is fine for photography when sitting open on the kitchen table. Maybe I should just exhibit it like that, and not bother with an enclosure? Al.

It's not really the strength that's the problem - any light strong enough to provide noticeable illumination will cast a shadow, and the further away the backscene is from the subject, the larger the shadow will be, and if the source of illumination is below the subject, the higher up the backscene the shadow will be. Like this: Edit: Also don't forget that the fence and gate and gateposts would be between the light source and most of what you would want to photograph, so that would have shadows all over it as well. Al

Hi Stu, because the gateposts, fence, crane, and any rolling stock would cast horrible shadows on the backdrop. Al.