Paul Robertson

With my initial success of my high lighting mast under my belt I set forth today to install a lot more lighting. I wanted the lighting under the bridge to represent sodium lighting which is typical of the prototype so installed a couple of LEDs in there and did my best to cover up the wiring from view. (yellow lights installed in under bridge) So far so good. Next was the Linkspan proper. I wanted white light on this as looking at prototype night shots from Dover it's all white lighting on the linkspans to give the best light in these dangerous areas. (Linkspan lighting going in with the wiring to the second high mast included.) After every instillation I wired it up to my controller and made sure everything worked. Finally for today I decided to install some port and starboard navigation lights on the Linkspan (not sure how prototypical this is but I like the look as well as another white LED on the lower link span. Again wired it all up switched it on and... (oh...) (ah...) Well the navigation lights work well! I had been merrily daisy chaining all the LEDs with their built in resistors so what power that was left over would power the next. You can probably tell its been about 30 years since someone last tried to teach me basic electronics! So out with the wire cutters and strippers and a cats cradle of wiring emerged under my base board as I broke up the light fittings into max of 3 LEDs wired in sync and then wired the whole lot back to the transformer again. (suddenly alot more wires emerging from my baseboard) Wired it all back up, crossed my fingers and switched on the juice and hey voila! (sodium lighting under the bridge) (some light on the matter) (the layout lighting beginning to take shape) (there will be more white lighting to go on the top Linkspan but the navigation lights give a dramatic feel. I also like how the light shines off the water) One thing I found quite effective for the high masts was putting a layer of tin foil into the bottle cap to help reflect the light better and give a more even distribution as I only have one bulb up there. (light mast with tin foil reflector added) I will need to order some more white LEDs for the ship and building but should be able to make a start on lighting it up. Ferries tend to be lit up like Christmas trees! Thanks for reading

Not much time to progress over the last few days but before I did too much more I wanted to get some lighting in to ensure I could cover up the wiring fairly easily. My first go at the high masts was with a yellow LED to represent a sodium bulb. Unfortunately having tried it out there wasn't enough light coming out of it for the effect I wanted and I didn't have enough room in my brass rod to get any more LEDs. Initial trial with a yellow bulb. Can you spot the light?!) For the top of the light mast I tried a cut down bottle top. The first one whilst getting there felt a bit too big (first attempt with a bottle lid) (attached to the top of a brass tube) Whilst doing the washing up another smaller bottle top passed under my nose so grabbed that one and cut off the screw shank to get it to size. (A bit of a wonky top but good enough for a second trial) Replacing the yellow LED for a white one provided a much better result. (white light LED high mast light) (and another view) Pretty pleased with the result as it will make the layout a bit of a centre piece in the room. I need to create a second mast and then put some yellow lights under the bridges. The Linkspan and ferry will have white lighting as will the buildings eventually. Managed to coax my yellow pen back into life to finish off the dockside lining as well some further white lining down the train Linkspan. (lining finished off) (just need a bit more signage) Many thanks for reading

Many thanks - The cliffs are a little close to the road and railway and a bit too shear an angle compared to prototype but that's the compromise with a 1ft wide layout. You are obviously a mind reader as I am thinking of placing a a rockfall prevention fence on the cliff similar to this: This barrier at Dover has since been replaced with a galvanised steel H beam and galvanised mesh. Just trying to think of a mesh that will look good at n gauge. You can see the more realistic cliff angle and road setback in the image above. (More modern catch fencing (should be an interesting modelling project!))

This weekend was a chance to finish off painting the asphalt and to make a start on getting all the road lining and decals down. Ferry terminals seem to be covered with white yellow and red lining of different sorts so out with the acrylic pens and bendy ruler to start marking it all on. (marking on the top road lines first using the bendy ruler for the corners.) (I then marked out a chevron where the two routes split before marking the lines down the ramp.) The ramp road crosses the railway at the bottom. Due to the dockside industrial nature I decided to make this an open crossing with give way decals rather than full barriers. The first thing to do was to mark on the box junction. I decided to go with a hybrid design using the diamond pattern courtesy of my daughters set square but spread over the whole box as when vehicles are running they use both lanes in one direction on the ramp. Not quite to DfT diagram standard but as this is a private road I didn't think that mattered. (box junction marked on) I really like these acrylic pens. They make line painting really easy. I then lined the rest of the junction Having completed this it was out with the scale model scenery self-adhesive decals again to put the finishing touches to the road markings. The tiny writing proved quite tricky to get off the sheet, but everything else came off and onto the layout relatively painlessly. (arrows where the traffic flows meet) (decals applied to Junction) Having completed the approach roads I turned my attention to the dockside. Having looked at images of Dover the mooring points are marked with red paint and a yellow border whilst on the train ferry Dock there were numbers marked on the dockside I assume as a count down for the ships crew to know when they were about to butt up to the Linkspan. I wanted to mark out the area of the tramway in a similar way to how it was done at Weymouth with a single 45 degree line and dashed outer edge. Unfortunately my yellow pen started running out when I got to that part. Here is the state of play when I finished this evening. (marking the mooring points) (additional parking bays marked in with yellow lining progressed. Lots of no parking paint slapped down) (scaled count down to Linkspan in metres along Dock edge) I need to order a new yellow pen to finish off the yellow lining. Thanks for reading

Tonight I managed to finish off the point infilling and then get on with finishing off the paving. (infill finished off along the dockside) First of all I paid attention to an area of das clay I wanted to turn into concrete (wanted a bit of relief from the tarmac). Concrete needs a nice clean edge to represent the formwork so out with the craft knife and metal rule to straighten up the edges. After that I scaled down and scored 9m movement joints into the das surface. (area to be 'concreted' tieded up and movement joints scored in). Whilst I had originally bought the Indian ink to create tarmac I hadn't been impressed with the results but a couple of coats watered down did look very much like concrete so decided to use that technique instead. (a coat of watery India ink. Note how it picks out scored movement joints) Having done this I then got out my acrylics and started to paint the asphalt Road. Lots of different shades of grey finished off with a thinner brush and lighter colours to represent where most of the traffic go. (Linkspan junction with the lighter paint showing where the vehicles go) (with the viaduct bridge back in place) (and a final shot of the portakabin on its concrete apron) Just need to paint the rest of the Dock then I will need to put all the lining and road painting decals on. Thanks for reading

So having completed most of the infill and das clay around the dockside track I thought I better try out various items of stock to ensure different wheel flanges and wheel bases work before I start painting it all up. The first to test were two of my cargowaggons with the class 66. (class 66 going into the underpass on the headshunt for the train deck Linkspan) I tried out various sidings and locations with this set up making sure they all worked nicely. The 66 was sticking on some of the point work. I think some of the das clay was stuck on the point flange reducing the electrical contact. With a bit of cleaning this problem seemed to resolve itself. (shunting some wagons back into the customs warehouse siding) (lined up on the Dockside.) Having played around with my 66 I then tried out my 2nd hand Graham farish class 08. It initially pushed around my cargowaggons again sticking on a few points. (08 on the Linkspan with the cargowaggons) Having tried my traction I then tried some different wagons. Out came a Graham farish polybulk and my revolution trains cargowaggons twins. (cargo twins on the linkspan) (coming across the roads under the viaduct) (polybulk attached to back) (polybulk on the Linkspan) Having tried out various items of stock I will finish off the infill and then start painting Thanks for reading

It's been a few days since I last posted but progress have been steady. I've been focusing on completing the das clay roadway around the Dock area. More rolling between balsa formers to get the right depth before smoothing off with a shaping tool. (rolling out the das clay to correct depth and standard width before laying on a pva layer) There was a lot of cutting and shaping the clay to get it around lots of tricky corners. (all the clay in but looking a bit rough.) Once dried I sanded down the clay to get rid of the wrinkles and smooth out some of the bumps. (sanding down the clay. The small triangle on the right hasn't been done yet and the sleeper end bumps can be seen through the clay. These were sanded out). Once all the clay was sanded and the dusted hoovered up I then started to infill the tracks with thin strips of balsa. Straight lengths of track were relatively easy whilst points were quite tricky. Radius tracks required me to wet the balsa and gradually bend it between my fingers. (initial infilling with balsa strips) Once every piece had been cut out my type 66 was driven over it to check clearances with flanges and that all the electrics still worked. (type 66 testing the infill) (limit of progress today - a few more points to be infilled) A final shot of the dockside: (Nord pas de calais back in Dock) (the second Linkspan paving beginning to stretch down to the train deck) Thanks for reading

Having completed the cliffs and having an evening to spare I decided to tackle a fairly long section of road. Having learnt from my earlier mistakes with the overbridge and Linkspan I didn't try to put the ironworks in first. They can be a finishing touch instead which stops them getting bashed about. It also saves a lot of fiddly cutting about the das clay. I used the air dried clay again as overall I was pleased with the result last time and I still have a large block to use up! Sticking two strips of balsa down to my kitchen work surface gave the correct depth and width to roll out my clay between. A Liberal application of PVA to help bond it to the ply and then I carefully peeled the clay off the work surface and laid it gently down trying to avoid too many finger marks. Once on I used my wooden das clay shaping tools to gently smooth the clay into the corners, adding a bit more here and there to make up levels. (first section complete) Considering I had rolled it out as a straight piece it coped with going around the tight corner surprisingly well with a bit of persuasion with my modelling tools. Second section was the ramp (ramp paved) After that was a wide section of tarmac to join the first two sections together (top piece smoothed into place) And then to finish this section a large piece that will go under the bridge (the last piece butting up against the railway) Much checking of clay heights, point operation and flanges ensued to try and ensure I wasn't storing up trouble for myself later on. Just need to let this all dry out so it can shrink a bit before coming back with filler then painting, white lining and adding the self-adhesive decals and ironworks. (first main section of road complete) Thanks for reading

Just a quick update tonight as I didn't have much time. The shrubbery has grown dramatically today with the rest of the embankment covered up. I've left a small amount of embankment clear for a small diorama depicting a landslip. (embankment fully vegetated) There are two structures that will adorn the top of the cliff. The first was an abandoned WW2 observation bunker. These were always very crude bits of architecture so thankfully quite easy to model. Digging through my box of bits I had some 3mm ply which I cut the walls and roof out of. Having glued it all together it was painted up in suitably grubby colours before being stuck above the tunnel portal and then covered with encroaching scrub. (the old bunker with a commanding view of the harbour) The second structure for the cliff will be the concrete control tower but that will have to wait for another day. Thanks for reading

So having left the plaster to dry overnight today was a painting day. Firstly I painted the soil a lightish soil colour having seen some photos showing how the underlying chalk affected the upper soil colour (pic of light brown soils on the white cliffs) (soils painted-its lighter than it looks) Having painted the soils I then painted the cliffs some very light shades of grey and white. Initially my son asked me why I was painting my cliffs to look like Stilton rind so with this constructive criticism ringing in my ears toned it all down with a bit more white. I was really pleased with the final result, picking out some of the rocks with darker shades to try and show up some of the geology. (the stippled cliff face) Having some extra time I then started adding the scatter. A brown scatter first before then adding then some burnt green over the top. (brown scatter on first) (burnt green scatter on) Lots of hoovering in between scattering to clean up. Then using the clump scatter I started to create some shrubbery on cliff tops and the steep embankment. (some of the clump scatter on the steeper bank to suggest larger vegetation.) Now I have all but completed the the main landscape edges I can continue with the roads around the layout. (a view from the ferry with the white cliffs rising in the distance) Thanks for reading

And so after a few false starts today was cliff building day. The cliff is the only major landscape feature on the layout and hopefully will really set the tone and feel for the layout and give it the character of the Kent coast. First thing to do was to remove the polystyrene along the back scene which hadn't really worked and replace it with landscape mesh. To set the right angle I used cardboard from an old cereal packet to create some formers. (cardboard formers in) (mesh screwed into place with 10mm screws) Having got the mesh on then the messy (ish) job of apply woodland scenics plaster impregnated bandage began. I followed a tip off a youtube video applying the bandage onto the layout dry then using a water spray bottle to wet it insitu rather than dipping the bandage first and dripping it everywhere. Seemed to work well enough and I used my finger to smooth the bandage down and fill in the holes with the moist plaster. (the completed cliff) I placed a second coat of bandage on certain areas where the bandage holes were a bit obvious. Pretty pleased with the end result although the quality of the flock and painting will make or break all that work! Having completed the cliff I then covered the final 3 landscape banks to complete the landscape areas. (embankments infilled as well) (final result that now needs to dry for 24hrs) Next will be painting this all earth and chalk colours before adding lots of flock. Will also need to clean up the tunnel entrances which have been splashed with plaster during this process Thanks for reading

Did a bit of work around the station this evening. Produced some brick walls to the rear of the viaduct to represent the rear of the structure. I also used some modern platform paper to complete the finish of the platform surfacing. (paving paper done from scale model scenery. Like the look of the tactile paving) (brickwork parapets 'laid' along the backscene) I also have had time to do a bit of bodge wiring. Whilst my father is a retired electrical engineer the electrical genes weren't passed on! I currently have a Gaugemaster controller on order so wanted to put some wiring in place on the tracks in order to be able to do proper track testing before I start ballasting and infilling paving around the track. (stripping wire and covering joints with insulation tape to create a wire extension to attach the new controller to) Once the controller turns up I will try playing around with some lights. Thanks for reading

A chance to do a bit more detailing this evening. I wanted to get some railings on the ferry. Using the same laser cut scale model scenery key clamp handrail as used on the Linkspan. (handrails starting to go on) (and another view) Once both sides were safely railed up I painted all this white. (finished railings) (all painted up) (rear view) Not sure how long these will last before getting knocked off or damaged. It's very fine detail very close to the edge of the layout so we will just have to wait and see. Thanks for reading

Check out Kathy Millets instructional video on YouTube. Whilst my Wilko PVA took days rather than hours to dry as she stated, the rest was pretty much as her tutorial describes. The colour is perhaps still a little blue but I wanted to capture a summers sunny day when the Dover sea is at its bluey greenest! (from the photos I've seen anyway) I think I'm going to have a rethink about the cliff construction and perhaps order some Noch aluminium landscaping mesh or something similar. The polystyrene is too crude and thick in places for my liking. Live and learn!

It's been a little while since I last posted. I've been concentrating on getting the sea finished. Eventually after 48hrs the PVA dried. Now for the fun part of tacky glue and making some wavy texture. (Dock ready for texturing) Put an angle on it to make it look like the breeze is blowing across the Dock. The glue holds its shape pretty well and with the aid of a cocktail stick I could get rid of the bubbly bits and make it more wavy. I did two treatments of this to infill between rows. (second row complete and left to dry) I was pretty pleased with the end result when it had dried (final texture result) I also wanted some seaweed attached to the edge of the Dock and piles so using the tacky glue fixed some medium flock around the edge of the water. (flock stock round base of Dock) This flock was then painted dark brown to replicate seaweed. A few flecks of white were also painted on waves here and there to replicate breaking waves. A final layer of PVA was then splashed over everything to give it a glistening look. (final sea finish with seaweed bobbing in the water) (everything in place and cliff beginning to rise in the background) The cliff was causing a few issues so gave up for the day as I was beginning to lose patience with polystyrene and pva! Thanks for reading

Once I've built my cliff I'll give it a go at preserving it at 1:148 scale!

Many thanks. The nice thing about painting is if you don't like it you can just paint over it again. This took about 3 coats to get the 'right' grey that I was happy with. I had thought about downloading some of John Wiffen's work but thought I'd give painting a go first as concrete is generally just a stained grey with some movement joints. If I mucked it up I could always stick paper over the top! I drew the line at old Victorian brickwork though which was just to small for my eyes so bought some brick paper for the viaduct and old tunnel mouth. I really wanted the layout to have that feel of layered history to the engineering from the original late 19th century brickwork, 1930's architectural regeneration, and then late 20th century rebuild of the dock infrastructure. For modern layouts I think it helps to build the fictional backstory into the fabric of the layout to add realism.

I think the powers that be didn't care that much back then and such 'dangerous' places weren't covered in signage. You just had to learn quick on the job how to keep yourself safe!

I was worried the card might not be robust enough over time to cope with what might get thrown at it in a household with relatively young children and the possibility of taking the layout out on the road. I've used a bit of cardboard here and there to help with curves but this is generally hidden away. I might have used plasticard on certain items if I had my time again to make painting easier without all the prep but that would have made it even more expensive! Much of the balsa has been used to bring some finesse to underlying much cheaper ply structure which gives a base rigidity.

Thanks. Always wanted to build an n gauge layout and thought I better get going before my eyesight couldn't cope with the details! Always fascinated by big engineering and my favourite part of my holiday as a child was going on the ferry or seeing them arrive and depart from Folkstone Harbour.

So today the self adhesive road markings arrived from scale model scenery. Having read the instructions which seemed straightforward enough I gave it a go. Tried out one of the cycle lane logos first as a test which with a bit of help from a craft knife and a strip of masking tape. This all went well so tried a 'stop' white lining for the Linkspan. A few minor issues with trying to get the various letters to unstick themselves but in the end all was well. Having managed both stop white lining decals I tried the arrows aimed at encouraging those coming off the ferry to use both lanes on the bridge. Again all went well. (lettering and arrows on and weathered down a bit) I then turned my attention to the back scene board setting up my jigsaw to cut some fibreboard sheets. These all went on well enough and are providing a frame for the layout now (back scene boards on. Now just need to get artistic on the back.) A small detail to go with the stop line were a couple of barriers I made up with thin brass rodding and balsa. (two barriers with their first coat of paint) I had some stop signs on my sign sheet so cut a couple out and stuck them on the painted barrier. (barriers in place guarding the Linkspan. You should certainly know where to stop! I've also put an additional bit of kerbing with a semi-circular section to act as protection to the kiosk. (additional kerbing with initial paint on) I must have really slapped the PVA on thick yesterday as it still hadn't dried 24 hrs later. (PVA still drying) Hopefully it will be ready in a couple of days and I can get the waves on at the weekend Thanks for reading

So today was a lot of bits being done round the layout to complete minor bits and bobs whilst waiting for the pva glue water to dry out. The video I watched said the layer of pva would take about 1 hr to dry. Try about 24hrs! So I had plenty of time to do other things First job was marking out the precast concrete units for the bridge abutments. Having completed this all the lines were weathered to tone them down a bit (all lining complete) (some well weathered concrete panels) By late afternoon the pva had dried out for another coat to be applied. This will be left for another 24hrs. (a very milky sea that needs to dry out again) Having completed the pva I worked on the viaduct and tunnel mouth entrance. Lots of tiny strips of brick paper were used to add details and cover gaps between surfaces. This was a long old process and included bricking up a small retaining wall by the loco lay over siding. (viaduct brick paper finally finished) (brick retaining wall at base of embankment) (tunnel mouth bricked up, so to speak) Kerbs and movement joints for concrete bays were also drawn on with a fine line pen and then weathered. The base of the ramp was also extend a bit ready for asphalting shortly. (kerbs and ramps added) Just need to wait for the pva glue to dry and then think about how to fit some back scene boards on the layout. Thanks for reading

A family game that was played on the holiday car journey was who could spot the sea first from a glimpse down a valley. Whether heading to the ferry or just a coastal trip the first sight of the azure greeny blue sea on the horizon would illicit a chorus of "I see the sea, I see the sea." from the back seat of the car! And so it was my turn to try and create the alluring sea which I used to sea on my family holiday. I had watched a video by Kathy Millett on an easy way to create water with PVA which seemed easier and cheaper than alot of resin based systems. To start with I needed to paint on the base colour for the sea. I started with a 50 50 mix of green and blue and then added a bit of brown to give a bit of water shadow where walls and piles meet the sea. Having let it dry for a while it looked a bit too blue compared to prototype images so I went over it again this time with a 70 30 green blue mix. This looked a lot better (green blue water colour) Once this had dried the first thick layer of PVA went on. (PVA liberally spread over the sea colour) Its taking a lot of time to dry so I carried on with more brick papering on the viaduct and tunnel mouth. (main brick papering is done. Just need to do the edge details) (tunnel mouth brick papered as well) At the end of the evening I put all the structures back to see how it was all looking. (altogether and coming on) Once the PVA has set then another two coats will go on before I get to play with some tacky glue to make waves. That will likely be in a few days Thanks for reading

Started on the dockside weathering today to try and make the plain painted balsa look a little more like concrete and a little less like, well painted balsa! Firstly I wanted to mark out the tide lines. 3no 5mm bands would allow for different colour banding on the base of the Dock wall. Then the concrete bays were added with black liner pen. (black lining on the Docks) (the three tide bands marked on in pencil) The first colour to go on was a well watered down black base layer having first reviewed a few concrete Dock photos. (watery Black first tide line.) Following that a watered down brown then green layer were also added I then added a load of rust colours around the concrete and over the linings to distress it all a bit. (tide marks complete and plenty of rusty streaks. Hopefully I haven't overdone it and my Linkspan structure won't be condemned with concrete cancer!) Having done that I did a bit of rusty distressing on the concrete over bridge that was looking a bit too neat. Here are some images below showing the current state of play (nearly ready for water) I want to do some more Indian ink distressing but generally happy with the result so far Thanks for reading

That's great thanks Phil! One wonders if there is anything you are allowed to do at Ramsgate Harbour?! I believe catching a ferry isn't one of them anymore although as a child I remember going there once and vaguely recollect a viking longship being present at some prominent place. Would have to go through my dad's 8mm cine film to remind myself! Got to give the site manager a place to have a brew and other welfare arrangements!