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TechnicArrow

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  1. Looking lovely in the sunshine! The first and second shots are especially atmospheric, and your modelling really shows what can be done with simple ingredients and a bit of care. I'm looking forward to what the next layout will be!
  2. There has been goods shed progress! Firstly, following a trip down to Antics last weekend, I have obtained some Slaters 4mm stonework plasticard. This was primarily for the station platform wall, but I quickly realised I have plenty, and it would do excellent for the shed interior walls. I cut out and fixed some to the inside of the rear wall (which doesn't have external stonework!), with openings for two windows; these are leftover ScaleModelScenery lasercut offerings I bought for a warehouse on Alexandra Wharf. Then they were liberally whitewashed with acrylic. With this complete, I could finally assemble all four walls into a singular structure, which I did. I also affixed some Quoins to the corners - simply a thin card piece with regular 4mmx6mm cutouts, and painted a brown earth colour to match the stonework, although this won't be the final colour. Then I had an idea. Since the structure is a 2/3rds relief model, looking through the open door you just see the end board not a big shed. I have employed several tricks to conceal this, with a half-shut door, and a stack of crates against the "false" wall. But to conceal the lack of a continuing rail, I needeed something else. So I dug out an old Airfix/Dapol kit-built cattle van, and the junior hacksaw... It's brutal, but I never run this wagon anyway! The remaining wagon still has both axles, so it can sit sticking out from under a bridge or a shed on my other dioramas. Once I'd done the same to the roof, I could fix the stub end to the false wall, and I think the effect is very convincing, especially in the gloom of the shed. It will have internal lighting one day, but probably not soon! Finally, a few other touch-ups, and we have a complete-looking shed! I've cut the roof from two sheets of Wills slates (which are what defined the maximum length of the shed). I could then add bargeboards, before a touch of cream paint to all the woodwork. That's where we are for now. Whilst the warm Cotswold-stone colour is quite pleasing, it's not the final goal, it's just what colour the Wills stonework happens to be! I'll need to mix up a suitable Watchet yellow-grey, which could be interesting. I'll probably procrastinate by building something else first!
  3. That looks like a fantastic track plan, with plenty of options for interesting passenger runs and freight shunting. Maybe if you made an opening on the spur track you could run longer engines, or maybe even connect another fiddle yard and have trains passing eachother.... I may have to take note of this one!
  4. Nice work on the backscene! The groundcover is looking good too. Personally, I think the larger building works, but could it perhaps be slid further to the right - maybe even slightly behind the goods shed? It would help imply the platform and station is larger than the layout actually is. Alternatively, if you do go with the smaller building, perhaps you could add an ancillary storeroom, shelter, shed etc? I'm not familiar enough with the prototype to know what sort of building layouts were common. Whichever you do I'll be following with interest, since I'll have to do similar at some point for Watchford!
  5. Fantastic work all around, I do love a bit of re-use! The shunter is fantastic, and the side valances fit really well - but I think the windscreen wipers are the smallest thing that make the biggest difference. The layout more generally is fantastic, simple but very well detailed. The trackwork is especially well done. Top work!
  6. I'm a bit late back,but cheers @john new, card is still my default medium! I mentioned in Luke's thread about my ballast, but realised I'd never posted it here, so time for a bit of an update. A few weeks ago, I fancied an evening task that didn't need me to use either a screen or a brain, so I started the ballasting. A while ago I bought some Woodland Scenics brown, and I have a collection of old fire ash, soil and sand. I'd done some dry-tests mixing the ash into the ballast to tone down the colour, so I thought I'd go ahead and glue some down. I started in front of the signal box, working forwards up to the loop line; for the yard sidings I switched to just ash, with some other materials pushed into the surface to represent spot repairs. Unfortunately, I have once again been fooled by my poor perception of colour. Whilst I didn't want my ballast to be bright fresh grey, this is very bright brown instead! The ash basically washed out and achieved nothing. To the left is unglued ballast, and the middle and right is glued - nothing here is really the right colour. The yard surface has come out nicely, especially with the blend from ballasted track. But looking at other layouts, and especially inspired by @luke the train spotter's painting, I think I need to take up the ballast, give it a repaint, and try again with something more grey. Luckily, the glue was too dilute, so that will be quite easy! But in the best tradition of not making decisions, I've been doing something completely different instead. Namely, the goods shed. Using Wills stone sheets backed onto thick card, I have built up the gable-end and road-facing walls, based on the sheds at Watchet and Dunster respectively. I've used scored card to represent planning over the rail doorway. Then I built up the loading platform, completely guessing at dimensions - using photos from @DRoe96's goods shed, the road vehicles I have, and some rounding to the nearest centimetre! The right-hand door will be modelled mostly closed anyway, to hide the fact I'm only modelling two-thirds of the length. You can also see my stone carving efforts on the doorway, to blend the texture around the sharp edges of the plasticard. I'll need to come back and add quoins and archway to this anyway, likely with some thin card. This is about the extents of the model - I'll represent the interior of the rear walls, but the exterior can never be seen so I'm not planning to bother! Still, it's looking good viewed from both ends of the layout. I need to polish up some edges, then glue it all together; a flat card base and the platform keeps the whole structure rigid without the roof. And then, one day, I'm going to have to ruin the whole model by painting it ... As I think I've proven, I'm a typical engineer - good at structures and mechanisms, but terrible at colour!
  7. Nice work! Your signals may be static but your eye for colour is far better than mine! Your trackwork is looking excellent with that point rodding, it really adds a lot to the a layout and reminds me I need to buy some for Watchford. You're also making me think I should take up the ballast I've laid so far, and try repainting the trackwork before it gets too far... Similarly, I agree with @Kevin Johnson about the platform stonework. What have you used for it? I really need to sort mine out, but the stonework I've got at the moment is a bit too overscale.
  8. Some fascinating photos, and a promising layout! Very neat work on recessing the plugs into the SMS boards; I've been pondering how to get power in and out without impeding the ability to place the layout in a RUB (not that I own the correct size of RUB mind you); I've ended up with some plugs hanging loose beneath the board, but it does the trick. I like the cutting and footbridge secne. The signal box looks neat too, will therebe signals for it to control?
  9. They were one of the items I bought from Wizard Models (no connection, hadn't even heard of them until last week!). https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/?s=GWR+buffer+stop+&post_type=product&title=1&excerpt=1&content=1&categories=1&attributes=1&tags=1&sku=1&orderby=date-DESC&ixwps=1 They do both whitemetal and brass versions, I went for the cheaper! Just needs a bit of tidying up and a few holes drilling you're good to go. From previous experiences of whitemetal I was concerned it might not have much stopping power, but it's survived a few trains being accidentally rolled into it so it's probably fine! I'm looking forward to it already 😉
  10. Wonderful! I don't often see Modern Image Micro, but for a truly minimalistic layout, the setting works really well. This is practically what the Class 153 was built for! And for such a small space it's very recognisable, it instantly reminded me of a weekend I spent exploring the area back in Summer 2017. I think the only thing it would benefit from is a little brick hut, with an orange-clad signalman ready to operate the gates! And possibly an upper-quadrant semaphore to reinforce the area and era, but that could be overkill. Out of interest, what fiddleyard arrangement are you using?
  11. OK, another long ol' post incoming! It's been a week of dark, cold evenings - which of course means lots of modelling... We started this week with a purchase from Wizard Models. This was initiated by the need for some replacement Roof Vents for the old Airfix B-Set. In the best of traditions, things were added... more on those in later. First, making a mess! I removed the remnants of the moulded vents with scalpel and sandpaper (and tried to remove some of the more offensive paint streaks). Then I added the new vents. They come in a pack of 24, which seemed like a lot given I only needed 9 per coach. I discovered why as soon as I cut one off the sprue - they are very good at pinging off the bench, and are tiny enough to never be seen again! The second coach received the similar treatment, but with a lot less work since the roof is still the original white. I am intending to keep the roofs different colours for a bit of variety, but will probably need to do some form of weathering. And sneaking into this photo is one of the additional purchases - some etched signs, being painted. The other item in the basket was a whitemetal GWR bufferstop. The Peco Bullhead one I've been using up until now was a little bit too modern and overkill for a rural station, this one fits a lot better. It is simply two cast-metal sideframes, with some wire for tie-rods, and a wooden beam. The sideframes include the rail in the moulding, to match Code 75; they do need some sleepers to clip into, but I seem to have hoards of them anyway. One advantage is that by butting up to the track, instead of clipping onto it, I effectively gain two inches of siding - very useful! This was a pleasant evening's work - gluing down the siding and sleepers, then fixing in the frames, adding the tie-rods and beam, and giving everything a coat of black paint. The base rail and chairs were painted in the same reddish-brown I've used for the rest of the trackwork to blend it in, and a blob of extra paint hides the gap necessary to ensure the cast-metal frames don't cause a short! Some spare rails stored beneath it complete the look. I still haven't painted the face of the beam, but I might just leave it bare for now. The next item I added showed up during a tidy-up of my modelling draw (aka the dumping drawer), and I thought I should add it before I lose it again! It's a point lever for the front siding, since it wouldn't be controlled from the signal box. I cut some extra sleepers to "extend" out from the point, then added the lever and some wooden footboards to either side. It's been placed far away enough that even the Autocoach won't hit it when passing into the siding, not that it should ever need to! Painted up, and with a shunter posed nearby, it adds a lovely focal point to the scene, viewed from the Yard Gate. And oh look, there's one of those signs too... And finally (I did warn you it's a long post) - the bridge. No, I still haven't painted it properly, I've been building some more structure instead. Once again, it all starts by making a mess! The goal here was for the bridge to look (and be) solid, especially with the wing walls - but since the lever frame has expanded to 8 levers, it takes quite a chunk out from where I would usually put formers. It also means the fascia and "Inner fascia" around the lever frame don't really have much to secure to. Nevertheless, here it all is! I've topped it off with a card road deck, and a strip of paper for the embankment; I'll come back and papier-mache that once I've sorted the rear wingwall too. But there's a trick up my sleeve - so that I can still get to the levers and/or trackwork to fix any problems that may arise, the entire structure is removable. Achieveing this meant even more cutting and gluing was involved, to keep it solid without gluing to the baseboard! There are a pair of low wooden strips glued to the board which locate the bridge in position, but everything else is held together with corrugated card formers, UHU, and hope. It's honestly surpringly solid! Now I just need to paint it... So finally, can I get this week's work in one photo? Not quite, sorry bufferstop! , I've just spotted I've got some black paint on the backscene... that's joing to be a right pain to hide. Oh well, you can't win them all!
  12. We have a structure now! This is truly a multidimensional cardboard sandwich. The deck is two layers of corrugated card, laid with the corrugations perpendicular to eachother, and topped with cereal box card. The supports are corrugated card with a layer of cereal box card on both faces, cut into strips with the corrugations running vertically, and laid out in a truss pattern. A further single layer of corrugated card forms the base. The whole thing is held together with PVA throughout. Resulting in, as usual, a lightweight and strong box. At some point I'll give it a fascia piece to tidy it up. Now, the shape. It was built as an asymmetric wedge, to mimic the angle of the front siding. This gives a viewing through the gateway on the left: And a nice open yard space in front of the siding, with the front edge neatly matching the photography angle back towards the bridge at the end. Now that I've built it, part of me wants to flip it 180, so the main photo view is from the gate! I probably won't - the structure would be upside down, there would be more space outside the railway gates than within, and as much as I like the gate sightline from the Operating end, I need some good views from the Desk end too. Who knows, I might even use the yard space for a crane...
  13. I walked past the Ladywash chimney when I was briefly in the area last summer, having very little clues what it was. Fascinating to read all that you're digging up about it! Your model is looking equally fascinating, good work!
  14. Cheers Luke, sorry I missed this just now! Even the small area a lot to the scene; more road space is important for a rural setting, since land would have been cheaper allowing more generous yards. The wedge-shape also helps to draw the eye back into the scene at each end, since it's too late to extend the backscene further forwards. I'm working on building it up using my usual carboard sandwhich method, so it should appear again soon!
  15. A quick little update, maybe I'll get better at these in 2024? Probably not, knowing me! Nevertheless, I have been spending recent evenings painting things. Firstly, the Airfix B-Set. I've made a start on "upgrading" these coaches, by deciding to se if I can manage painting the droplights on one. First up was dismantling it - this proved a challenge, since there are no screws involved, only clips. It is in fact the glazing that is clipped onto the seats; the seats are screwed to the chassis from within, and the press-fit of the glazing into the bodyshell is what keeps it in place. Prising open the bodysides therefore isn't enough to release the clips, it's the glazing that needs to be pulled outwards too. Nevertheless, once it was dismantled, out came the paint! 1. Interior - Benches a coat of orange-brown, and floors dark grey. 2. Sides - Droplights on each door, the same dark red I used on the autocoach. A black wash bled into the doorframes, to highlight the surprinng amount of moulded detail. 3. Roof - Old thick black paint sanded off, and grey brushed on. Upper chocolate stripe tidied up (luckily, as a raised detail, this was easy to keep straight). 4. Bogies - A spot of blue to the axleboxes. I hope the results speak for themselves! Since I have only painted one coach so far, we can have a little before-and-after: The biggest improvement is undoubtedly the droplights and weathering, which pick out the doors and show just how much detail these old models have. They benefit from having flush glazing, even if it is somewhat thick. For the second coach, I will try to be a bit more careful with the weathering, I may have to return to this first one and touch it up as a less-clean coach. I also need to source some replacement air vents (there are precisely two out of the 18 I should have), some metal wheels in place of the clunky plastic ones, and possibly a close-coupling between them. Other than that, I'm very happy with where these are headed, and far cheaper than buying new coaches! Secondly, the ground signal now has coloured lenses! The original plan for these was to borrow some translucent paint, but I keep forgetting to pick it up. However, whilst I was buying stationery today, I realised a pack of coloured permanent markers would probably do the trick just fine. So I tried them out. the red is red and the green is green; what more do you need? A phone camera on 3x zoom is of course incredibly cruel, and also not great at picking up the light the same way the eye does, but I should probably try to tidy the white paintwork a bit. Not photographed, I did also applied some green to the main starter's lens, since I thought the stock one from the kit was always quite washed-out. It turned out very well. To finish this evening then, a quick video - featuing 4527, the repainted B-Set, and the coloured signals. Enjoy! It's definitely getting there... but I should *really* start building that platform properly sometime soon!
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