katwigan

Hi, I have used a product here in Oz called "Distress Ink", massive range of colours in the form of ink pads, applied by sponge pad for larger areas. I stole the first one to try from my wife's collection, normally available from papercraft shops, I am sure they would be available in the UK (It is probably where they come from) Not near my layout at the moment so can't show you where I have used it, but certainly worth checking out. Regards Kevan

Hey all thanks for the compliments, comments and support, Hopefully I will get to progress things still although having just started another round of Chemo not much has happened in the last few days. They ( the doc's ) said about day three you WILL feel like you have just been hit by a Mack Truck, They didn't say it was such a big one nor that it would keep coming back round the corner. Anyway, Day 5 after first dose today don't feel quite so flat, hopefully I will get some more cobble cast this arvo. WIll see how we go next week when they hit me again. In the meantime I will try to keep up the work in progress. Latic hopefully your plans can come to fruition, if I can help out in any way, give us a shout. My Great Granpa Taylor had a bungalow somewhere in Parbold (Many years ago) don't know where, but it was always known as Grandpa's Bungalow by my dad and aunts. Cheers for now Kev

Hi all, it's 2:00 am, can't sleep, news on the C treatment hasn't been good of late so I here I am ! Never mind what some people say " Railway Modelling Preserves Sanity " ( Hmmmm, think I'll have that printed on a tee shirt!) Anyway, other than some weeds and a bit of rubbish ( Chip papers etc ) this small part is ready to be located and secured in the Goods Yard area adjacent to Fyffes warehouse. Fyffes will be at the top end of the photo with the l/h line entering and the r/h passing on into further areas. Coping stones in place on both sides , the l/h side butts up against a 'platform' face allowing access to the cattle vans. The other old T/T well has different treatment in the centre fill to allow lorries to turn and reverse into Fyffes without churning up too much of the gravely coal dust area. The crew seems to have buggered off for a cuppa or some chips. ( badly needs a layer of dirt and grime on the 1F ) Some lazy sod left a pile of the T/T Well edging behind after the job was done, surprised there isn't a greater load of weeds on there by now! Just thought, I had better add a couple of old rusty capstans and probably a cable or two. Anyway, going to have another crack at sleeping. Goodnight Kevan

Hi, danstercivicman, I haven't figured out how to link to another thread,but if you go to "Scenery,Structures and Transport" on I did a thread on there titled "Rough Ground Area" when I was experimenting with the 'gravely substance' (which is in fact a flexible,premixed tile adhesive, it contains shredded rubber granules which give it the rough finish look. The colour in the above photos hasn't been painted that is it's natural 'set' colour. Manna, the pointwork was a preferable option, operational wise and like I said somewhere earlier they seemed to have spent more time altering all of the surrounding area and facilities that I defy anyone to achieve the correct combination. Hence I tried for something a little different than just pointwork or just wagon T/T's, glad you like it. Cheers Kev

Hi all, In order that I can position the Fyffes building I first needed to get the tracks positioned on the approach to it. This also meant that I would be having to step up and lean over the top yard in order to to do a lot of the other associated work eg, the setts and the road access ramp etc. So I decided to cut a piece of 3mm mdf to use as a seperate base and fasten that down afterwards, this enabled me to work sitting at the workbench and minimize the strenuous excercise of stepping up one step repeatedly. The surface was to be a mix of plaster molded Setts and some compacted gravely substance so applying it while being at the workbench allowed me to take more time over the application etc. Anyway the pics probably show better what I have been up to, First up a bit of a long shot showing the area I am working in, The higher end of the access ramp complete with setts but without the edging finished off, the surface was given a wash of a darkened Burnt Umber and then a light rub with fine emery paper when dry. Some of the black spots are blowholes in the molding, I thought I may fill them with 'muddy water'. The broken sleeper will get covered over eventually. A view looking back up the ramp with a painted but unsanded area of setts in the foreground. Also in the foreground is my ( as yet unfinished) portrayal of one of the wagon turntables that had at some undetermined stage been removed. Looking now there should obviously be the two rails still embedded in the setts to the left of the TT. Also need to slowly fill in the gaps without gluing the point , fortunately the fill material doesn't leave joint lines and remains workable for several hours after applying. Back to the ramp area again the Coping Stones have been fitted to tidy up the edge. Mr Jones has arrived in his apparently brand new lorry. More setts req'd to fill in those gaps @ the rails. Same shot but after giving the setts more of a rub Must find the cable and go back to using my camera instead of the phone which has no depth of field judging by these shots, sorry 'bout that.

I can only count 9 Stubby, well 10 if you include the painted concrete inside the building, I will have a look amongst my collection to see if I can contribute similar. Cheers Kevan

Wow mate, haven't seen any of those before. If you take the two passengers heads out of the scene that last shot could be a very good model. All the shots are great and they are all showing the yard entrance area I was on about above. Do you know I even have a folder on the PC labelled " That B....y Crossover" containing the various photos maps etc of the various configurations. Cheers for them, Kev

Thanks Latic, hopefully the wanderings of a chemically confused mind don't put you off, time it seems is galloping away and it would seem that my body clock has gone onto a 20 hr day as I am all over the place ( eg, working in the train room at 3am this morning for an hour - mind wouldn't switch off so I htought sod ya! ) Besides slotting Christmas in since my last decent post ,Mum finally lost her battle in October , I hope I can battle this 'C' as long as she did Breed 'em tuff in Wiggin! I have been on 'Immunotherapy" since my last post, I have never slept so much in my life. I once worked 27hrs straight on a major breakdown at work and felt nothing like this afterwards ( mind you I was also 35 years younger!) Anyway enough of that In the hour or so I can muster each day between eating, sleeping and trying to achieve anything else I have been working in the area that backs onto the goods yard from King St. Now that I look at the above comparison photo I haven't managed to finish anything. Hmmmm! Anyway, It did involve pulling it all out to improve the base it all sat on then working on the backyards etc. Not much to show with the buildings but I did improve the retaining wall and fitted the coping stones along the top edge. Still no roofs in evidence in places, still some coping stones required and probably some more weeds. The front of Fyffes warehouse, the building of and it's location has taken up a fair bit of my time recently, most of the problems coming from the modellers licence creating the bend in this area resulting in alignment problems. Oh well. I thought the granite sett moldings would be ok around this area but they seem to be overly large, many of them scaling out at 12 x 9" rather than 9 x 6" ish as I seem to remember them. Any thoughts on size? I will have to try the rolling mold doofers that I tried out a while ago, I think they might be a better size. When I get the light wired up in the office below you can actually see the man sitting in his chair in the r/h side of the window. ( Unless that is the wrong photo and you can't see him anyway, perhaps it is? ) ( Perhaps I need to go to bed, it is 3:20 pm here after all!) It was when I started putting this together, so now after 2 1/2hrs sleep and a nice steak after waking it has all gone quiet and I will finish this off. A shot looking back towards Wallgate, the area in the foreground will be covered in a mix of setts and rough ground area besides the several additional sidings that connect to the next, larger warehouse off to the r/h side of the photo. This whole area has given me quite a few headaches in determining the most appropriate trackwork and warehouse for the time frame. I have photos of at least 3 different methods of the trains accessing this part of the yard ( inc; Trailing x over and access point, what appears to be a diamond crossing , what appears to be a single slip, in lieu of said crossing) 4 different O.S Maps from late 1800's to 1954 all showing different access and yard layouts, inc several combinations of wagon turntables. To add to the morass the previously mentioned warehouse had a twin pitched roof design for the main structure, but added to the front of the L/h half was a further but slightly smaller pitched roof building which appears to have been knocked down and left as an open platform for a number of years until it too appears to have been removed completely. Again the maps only add to the confusion but I am planning on the middle option with the open platform. I can feel the fatigue creeping up again, so I will say Goodnight and I hope this makes sense to sane minds. Cheers Kev

Funnily enough, I have just been struggling with exactly the same problem ending up with two cuts around any of the traced lines with a narrow ragged piece being cut out of every line. When I zoomed in far enough there were definately what appeared to be two lines. In actual fact each section comprised of only one line that was basically joined at each end of the section. Trying to delete any of it just got rid of the whole section of line. Eventually I gave up and drew the template my wife req'd in a CAD program,( reaching a pro rata agreement on the number of modelling hours wasted in the process) ( Not really, she is a great source of encouragement ) Problem overcome, Normal Modelling has resumed. Kevan

When you think about it, the pointing on brickwork probably averages around 1/2" deep, in scale terms around 0.15 ~ 0.2 mm or 0.007 ~ 0.008",( a human hair is about half that ) it 's no wonder that some molded brickwork looks overly deep. I tend to model exclusively in card, using as much as I can photos of the buildings I am doing as the finished 'face'. This is largely due to my ability to paint anything in a decent manner is about the same as a rodents. ( Often it probably looks like I have used said rodent as the applicator ) Buildings in the real world may be made of different materials but predominately they end up looking in the same state relative to their age, so in my case anything I would try to paint would stand out like the proverbial dog's watsits. So I stick with what works for me. Kevan

I think that is as Downesesque (?) as I have ever seen! I am sure he would more than 'enjoy' your effort, I would think probably 'Doff his hat" if He had one! Kevan

Definitely Ian, the intent of this test was to see what what the dried surface finish looked like and it will certainly need 'dressing up' to various degrees for the various areas proposed. certainly tufts of grass, weeds, bushes etc etc along with the obligatory muddy puddles in the goods yard area. The surface tension of the product is such that it could probably be smoothed considerably more than I did if required but also it would hang onto embankments and slopes without subsiding. I am quite happy with the crude test piece and hope to give one of the smaller areas on the layout a go soon once I have some weeds etc available. I will post an update then

Hi, I have been looking for a suitable material / method of covering some Bare Earth areas on my layout Wigan Wallgate recently. The type of area that is not covered in grass or weeds on an embankment or a rough area towards the back of a goods yard area typically. Anyway the mind also strayed to some unfinished household jobs that have been on the backburner while I do battle with that C word. One job sent me scurrying out to the shed to locate some stored material. Some of which was soon daubed onto this test piece below ( ignore the granite setts that's not it ) This is as applied with a small spatula, the grey,mottled material in the bottom R/H area Several hours later as it is starting to dry Still not fully dry yet, takes about 24 hrs, but dry enough to give it a rudimentary spray of brownish colouring The next step I guess is to try it on a bigger area or embankment. I think it looks very promising, certainly from a surface finish PoV. It comes premixed in a 1Kg container for around A$17 , it dries slighly flexible due to the recycled rubber content and it is self adhesive. A rough calc shows that 1Kg would probably cover a couple of sq metres at about 3mm thick, however a small area on my test piece is only 1.5 - 2mm thick and has bonded really well. I suppose I will have to tell you what it is now. Not sure if it is available in UK but I am sure there would be something equivalent. OR does it look B awful? Kevan

I was going to ask what the forecast was for up there Manna, Oh I do like to be beside the seaside! Probably a few degrees cooler than you guys up north (ish) here at Christies Beach. Merry Christmas Kev.

Hi all, Rab I am now 6 months post chemo and still fuzzy in the head, more so if tired. Had 3 months worth of Cetuximab as a 'maintenance program' that more or less held the status quo with the splattering of secondary tumours in my lungs. The treatment in that case had 2 or 3 significantly different side effects ; Very dry, itchy skin usually resulting in a cloud of dust when I took my singlet off. Lots of paper cut type splits particularly alongside fingernails, making ordinary things damn near impossible, try doing your fly up without the involvement of your thumb! The third and most interesting to the nurses was my eye lashes grew like weeds and had to be trimmed every few weeks! Research is now going on to identify the part of Cetuximab isolating it and marketing it to half the world's population Recently the oncologist has put me on Nivolumab one of the Immunotherapy treatment regimes, so far after 4 doses no significant side effects and the last lot of side effects appears to be abating / healing / stopped growing. Interestingly I have heard of people losing their hair during chemo and it growing back curly, I never lost any but after a recent hair cut all the back of my head is now covered in tight curly hair, much to several relatives amusement, ! Feeling much better in myself and getting back into more serious modelling without running out of steam (sorry) or forgetting what I was doing etc. Will update after next scan in early Jan, in the meantime I wish you all a Safe and Merry Christmas and hopefully a Happy and certainly Healthier New Year . Keep kicking the doors down All the best Kevan