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Station Rails

 

Next step: sharpen up the beige paint round the chairs. It's quicker to do it like this than to try to get it accurate first time round.

 

post-2189-0-55550900-1542910409_thumb.jpg

 

post-2189-0-77740000-1542910415_thumb.jpg

 

Last step - dust with black weathering powder.

 

post-2189-0-58900700-1542910352_thumb.jpg

 

I did a test bit, then ran out of black powder, because most of it seemed to go on my fingers, up my nose, or behind the layout  :haha:

 

So I tried a dark black/brown acrylic wash instead on the adjacent bit of track.

 

Powder on the left, wash on the right:

 

post-2189-0-41635200-1542910355_thumb.jpg

 

Perhaps another coat of wash will improve it a bit ...

 

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Station Rails

 

Next step: sharpen up the beige paint round the chairs. It's quicker to do it like this than to try to get it accurate first time round.

 

attachicon.gif2018-11-22 002.JPG

 

attachicon.gif2018-11-22 003.JPG

 

Last step - dust with black weathering powder.

 

attachicon.gifNew-Out99999_99998 (3).jpg

 

I did a test bit, then ran out of black powder, because most of it seemed to go on my fingers, up my nose, or behind the layout  :haha:

 

So I tried a dark black/brown acrylic wash instead on the adjacent bit of track.

 

Powder on the left, wash on the right:

 

attachicon.gifNew-Out99999_99998 (4).jpg

 

Perhaps another coat of wash will improve it a bit ...

 

 

Following this with interest, perhaps one of the hardest things to get right, but the process looks good

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Station Rails

 

In a happy accident, I washed over the remaining station trackwork with the dirty acrylic colour. After visiting Warley on Sunday and with a fresh supply of black weathering powder, I attacked the track and found that the powder stuck much better to the wash than to the beige concrete paint.

 

But before I could lay some ballast, i wanted to set in some point rodding stool bases as I've heard that it's much easier to place them in advance than to chip away solidified ballast later.

 

I did already have some MSE whitemetal point rodding stools. I also had a couple of packs of Wills 4mm scale plastic point rodding. I knew the Wills stuff was over-scale and a quick comparison shows that it's almost identical in height to the MSE stools. The Wills point rodding itself is about 0.9mm square, which is also overscale (the MSE castings use 0.7mm square nickel-silver rod) but very much closer to 7mm rods than 4mm ones.

 

post-2189-0-72541900-1543267269_thumb.jpg

 

I did also have some etched point rodding cranks and base plates in 7mm scale. Basic, but the right shape and size. Here with the definitely undersized Wills 4mm plastic sprue for comparison.

 

post-2189-0-38316000-1543267274_thumb.jpg

 

So I plan to use a combination of Wills point rods and the etched cranks.

 

The thing that sets the distance apart of the rodding stools is the fixed spacing of the Wills rods. These measure out at a bit over 5 foot between stools.

 

My research shows that rodding stools should be 6 foot apart for pre-grouping installations, reducing to 5 foot on curves. I think 5' 2" will be visually OK in 7mm scale.

 

post-2189-0-80525200-1543267279_thumb.jpg

 

I glued some bits sliced off C&L plastic sleepers to the baseboard. I need one rod going left to the solitary point on the high level. (I'm assuming the Midland railway used an EFPL (Economical Facing Point Lock) here, which only needs a single rod). I will run this between the track and the platform edge.

 

I'm also planning a couple of rods running off-stage to the right. One will be the matching point which joins the two platform tracks back into the single running line. The other - who knows?

 

Just for variety I'll run the latter two rods in the 6 foot way.

 

post-2189-0-37053900-1543267286_thumb.jpg

 

post-2189-0-48057100-1543267386_thumb.jpg

 

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Bridge

 

The bridge carrying the high level over the exit to the goods yard had been in bare plastic for quite a while.

 

attachicon.gif2018-11-14 006.JPG

 

I blacked the brass railings and gave it a coat of grey primer, followed by matt black.

 

attachicon.gif2018-11-15 001.JPG

 

I also added some Archers rivet transfers to break up the 2' beam a bit.

 

attachicon.gif2018-11-15 003.JPG

 

In place. Standard Joe keeps watch:

 

attachicon.gif2018-11-15 004.JPG

 

Then it was finished with some dry-brushed grey and Model Mates Rusty Red wash.

 

attachicon.gif2018-11-15 007.JPG

 

attachicon.gif2018-11-15 008.JPG

 

You can see that the fencing has also had some white paint applied, but mostly on the platform side as the painters couldn't reach the other side!

 

Hi Duncan, going back through your posts I saw the wonderful bridge, fantastic work as ever.  Could I ask how you did the rivets on the top half?  Also you say the bottom bit was done with transfers? I' planning a couple of bridges for Green Leaf so I am busy nicking ideas.

Great work

Cheers Tim

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Hi Duncan, going back through your posts I saw the wonderful bridge, fantastic work as ever.  Could I ask how you did the rivets on the top half?  Also you say the bottom bit was done with transfers? I' planning a couple of bridges for Green Leaf so I am busy nicking ideas.

Great work

Cheers Tim

 

Hi Tim,

 

Thanks!

 

The upper half of the bridge is 4mm scale Wills Vari-Girder and comes with rivets already cast in.

 

The lower half is a plain 14mm Plastruct I-beam girder with Archers Rivet Transfers applied over the primer coat. I had the 7/8ths inch size but a bit bigger would have been better.

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Thanks Duncan, that is really useful, so you found the 4mm OK for 7mm? 

 

On its own it looked a bit small (scale 3' 9"), thus the extra 2 foot girder underneath. Now there's a scale 6' of steel.

 

There's nothing intrinsically 4mm about the vari-girder though.

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Station Rails

 

In a happy accident, I washed over the remaining station trackwork with the dirty acrylic colour. After visiting Warley on Sunday and with a fresh supply of black weathering powder, I attacked the track and found that the powder stuck much better to the wash than to the beige concrete paint.

 

But before I could lay some ballast, i wanted to set in some point rodding stool bases as I've heard that it's much easier to place them in advance than to chip away solidified ballast later.

 

I did already have some MSE whitemetal point rodding stools. I also had a couple of packs of Wills 4mm scale plastic point rodding. I knew the Wills stuff was over-scale and a quick comparison shows that it's almost identical in height to the MSE stools. The Wills point rodding itself is about 0.9mm square, which is also overscale (the MSE castings use 0.7mm square nickel-silver rod) but very much closer to 7mm rods than 4mm ones.

 

attachicon.gif2018-11-23 012.JPG

 

I did also have some etched point rodding cranks and base plates in 7mm scale. Basic, but the right shape and size. Here with the definitely undersized Wills 4mm plastic sprue for comparison.

 

attachicon.gif2018-11-23 013.JPG

 

So I plan to use a combination of Wills point rods and the etched cranks.

 

The thing that sets the distance apart of the rodding stools is the fixed spacing of the Wills rods. These measure out at a bit over 5 foot between stools.

 

My research shows that rodding stools should be 6 foot apart for pre-grouping installations, reducing to 5 foot on curves. I think 5' 2" will be visually OK in 7mm scale.

 

attachicon.gif2018-11-23 024.JPG

 

I glued some bits sliced off C&L plastic sleepers to the baseboard. I need one rod going left to the solitary point on the high level. (I'm assuming the Midland railway used an EFPL (Economical Facing Point Lock) here, which only needs a single rod). I will run this between the track and the platform edge.

 

I'm also planning a couple of rods running off-stage to the right. One will be the matching point which joins the two platform tracks back into the single running line. The other - who knows?

 

Just for variety I'll run the latter two rods in the 6 foot way.

 

attachicon.gif2018-11-23 026.JPG

 

attachicon.gifNew-Out99999_99998 (5).jpg

 

Hi Duncan,

 

I've also started adding the blocks to mount MSE point stools, but still along way from installing anything.

But I have made up a test piece to check what everything looks like before committing to it on the layout itself.

 

post-24137-0-04704500-1543435349_thumb.jpg    post-24137-0-32866900-1543435424_thumb.jpg

 

I used the MSE 'square rod in the stools and 30 thou sq microstrip under the tracks to prevent any shorting issues.

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Those sleepers look good. The photos you posted with your method didn’t have me convinced, but these after the “happy accident” with the wash and the weathering powders do - maybe it’s the unintentional comparison with the brown plastic sleepers to the left?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Station Rails and Wall

 

I started some weathering on the tracks through the station.

 

Rust weathering powder:

 

2018-12-03001.JPG.4bccf64d771e86789a26ca70681aa5c9.JPG

 

... and some black weathering powder.

 

I will keep looking at it and adding powder as it needs it.

 

2018-12-07007.JPG.0d63d71bf3667f58e5f7228851bfcc4d.JPG

 

The wall behind the rear platform has also been clad in brick paper (with columns) and capped with stone (foamboard + DAS).

 

Edited by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.
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Better Picture

 

I found that Microsoft Photos is a quick and easy way to adjust the colour, brightness and rotation of a photo.

 

This is considerably less blue than the original attempt at this photo.

 

New-Out99999_99998(6).jpg.b06ce12ec4bbef01f4ea394c239c4854.jpg

 

 

Edited by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.
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  • 1 month later...
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What an excellent thread and thanks so much for taking the time to detail your efforts in such detail. I've just spent the afternoon reading the"book" from cover to cover, all 9 pages of it.

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What an excellent thread and thanks so much for taking the time to detail your efforts in such detail. I've just spent the afternoon reading the"book" from cover to cover, all 9 pages of it.

 

Thanks Ray!

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks for posting up your efforts Duncan there's plenty of tips for me to collect.  I know people say don't go re-inventing the wheel but there are times when a better wheel is found.  You have got some great tips and how to's on show here.

 

One to follow, yes definitely.

 

Regards

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