JustinDean

Merry Christmas to you and your family Jonathon, and thanks for visiting my miniature Middleton Top on here. Jay

Looking great mate! Jay

Merry Xmas Geraint! Also looking forward to seeing Friedan progress and the Derby shindig Jay

Merry Xmas from a very windy Derbyshire! I hope you all have a great Xmas break. Jay

Merry Xmas! Hope you and yours have a good ‘un mate. Jay

Merry Xmas Kevin! Jay

Merry Xmas Rob and everyone else on here. Stafford was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I look forward to the mighty SWAG in April. Jay

Very much looking forward to this! Jay

J94 68013 picking up tenders at Middleton Top

It’s that time of year when nuts on the line become an issue. Jay

…what have I missed? Pretty little green locos and a young lady in a big jumper. ….right, back to work. Jay

Maybe consider some of the fancy MBR trees for prominent positions then make your own for the rear of the layout? For Llanyblod I bought two big MBR trees then hacked them up to make some smaller ones. Seemed to work well. Jay

NLR tank at rest. Middleton Top 1940’s

Unidentified NLR tank at Middleton Top in the 1940’s:

Excellent post showing the layout build and best of luck today mate. Jay

Thanks Jonathon, my dads coming out of hospital today and is on the mend which is a huge relief. Jay

Last of the inset timber work is now glued in at the top of the incline. A few bits of DAS clay here and there also. I’ll be pushing some more DAS around tomorrow hopefully. Last week was a write off. Car died, recording system at work died, then my 92 year old dad had a fall and has been in hospital a few days. Superstitious folk say these things happen in threes. I hope they’re right! Anyway all three are currently being fixed and will be operational again next week. Jay

I was born left handed and forced to write right handed at the strict Catholic school I attended at an early age. Apparently left is the devils hand. The result is I’m very ambidextrous and have terrible hand writing. Going back to playing trains and @Gilbert’s post - I really hanker for a roundy round layout. I like the idea of sitting back and just letting the train do its thing without having to fiddle with anything. Jay

Sorry to read this Jonathon and I wish you and your family all the very best. As a younger chap on here it really brings into focus that you must live your best life; you never know what’s round the corner. Jay

Here you go, all scrubbed up for an SLS rail tour! Jay

Hi Mark, the technique is: Rub along the length of the planks with a fibre pen to produce light scoring. Use the tip of a scalpel to very lightly produce some deeper scoring, again only running along the length of planks. A wash of black acrylic over everything. When dry some dabs of rust acrylic on bolt heads and other protruding metal parts. Dry brush some rust onto corner plates. Wash of underframe dirt acrylic on solebars, brake gear and axleboxes. Pick out some repaired planks in natural wood color. The acrylic I had was actually ‘stone’ but it was the best match for the photos to hand. Some darker greys were also used for a couple of planks. Once this was all absolutely dry (next day in this case) all the planks had Humbrol black powder worked in with a small make up brush. This was then partially removed with a cotton bud and is the point where you can decide just how heavy you’re going to have the weathering. Humbrol red oxide was very sparingly used on metal work and if too much ended up on the wagon this was again removed with a cotton bud. Spray the wagon to seal with a light misting of matt acrylic varnish. Use photos as reference! Jay

Ay up Nik… it’s terrible light in Cazz’s dining room so the colours in the photos look a bit off as you’ve noticed. Most of the lettering has received fibre pen treatment and some have seen the tip of a scalpel. They were treated in daylight but by the time I’d done it was dark hence the crappy lighting! Also no worries about being critical; I welcome it. We’re all here to learn! I had the same thought about those rear steps on the J94 at the time of painting, so I had a good search through photos to make sure. No doubt someone will find evidence of them painted red at some point! Jay

Lovely model - well done Rapido. I’ve started weathering my rake of seven: Jay

More wagon weathering and some limestone loads: I’ve decided to go for various intensities of weathering. A few different techniques have been used across all of these. Scoring, replacement planks and varying levels of powders. I have also come back to 68006 which has been weathered, crewed and received couplings. Along with weather boards for protecting the crew. Now ready for service at Middleton Top.

Thanks Martyn. I’m aiming for 1940ish to 1960’s so I can cover late LMS period and BR so there is potential for some more in this condition. I may have a bash later today so watch this space…. Jay