Beginners OO 1950's Banff

[danstercivicman]

This looks like a nice plan and a good location to model!   Will follow! 

[aardvark]

• Step 6: print out 1:1 plan for the first baseboard from AnyRail in preparation for transferring it to the ply behind.

• Step 6a: curse at manufacturer of sticky tape that sticks to anything all-too-readily, but shortly later comes loose.

[26power]

Banff station yard & loco shed. 15.4.61.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/110691393@N07/36572898815/in/album-72157638437955544/

 

Maybe of use/interest?

[aardvark]

Banff station yard & loco shed. 15.4.61.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/110691393@N07/36572898815/in/album-72157638437955544/

 

Maybe of use/interest?

 

Awesome job, 26power!

 

Most definitely useful - I had not previous seen this image, which has now been added to my collection of reference material!

[26power]

No problem.  Will keep my eyes peeled for other pictures of here.

 

Awesome job, 26power!

 

Most definitely useful - I had not previous seen this image, which has now been added to my collection of reference material!

[aardvark]

An early Christmas present for myself: my first baseboard

 

 

I know, it doesn't look much because it isn't much: a single through line and a single siding, and no points.  The construction is the standard plywood approach: nothing innovative.  Oh well, you have to start somewhere.

 

From the beginning, I thought it A Good Idea to have somewhere where I could actually see the train as it passed, much like the locals would have done.  This baseboard will be that place, with a model of a prototypical train being much the same length as the baseboard.

 

Here's a depiction of a passing loco:

 

 

I suppose that the next step will be laying track, although I am sorely tempted to building the adjoining baseboard next, just to check the alignment.

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by aardvark
manually restored lost images

[26power]

Looks like heavy duty construction!  Having baseboards done before laying track would allow a flowing alignment across the joins.

 

An early Christmas present for myself: my first baseboard

 

P1120944.JPG

 

I know, it doesn't look much because it isn't much: a single through line and a single siding, and no points.  The construction is the standard plywood approach: nothing innovative.  Oh well, you have to start somewhere.

 

From the beginning, I thought it A Good Idea to have somewhere where I could actually see the train as it passed, much like the locals would have done.  This baseboard will be that place, with a model of a prototypical train being much the same length as the baseboard.

 

Here's a depiction of a passing loco:

 

P1120948.JPG

 

I suppose that the next step will be laying track, although I am sorely tempted to building the adjoining baseboard next, just to check the alignment.

[aardvark]

Before another week from my limited supply whirls past, I would like to thank trw1089 for his generosity and hospitality last Sunday.  I had the pleasure of seeing his layout Wakefield West up close and in operation.

 

If I manage something half as good, I think I shall be doing well.

[aardvark]

Actually, I think the next step will be legs.

 

The baseboards have been fashioned with a socket in each corner to accept a 42x42mm leg.  I was thinking of something around 1m long, but discussion with trw1089 suggests a track-zero of 1.2m.  I mocked this up by putting my Christmas baseboard up on a trestle.

 

 

I have to bow to trw1089's experience: 1.2m is much more workable for a standing-height model.  I think the elevated height will avoid the helicopter viewpoint, thereby making the model look much more realistic to non-modeller family and friends.

 

In doing this, I've discover a mistake (already).  The lowest level of the baseboards is sea level, but I failed to make any allowance for the depth of the sea.  I will probably use one of the liquid water products, but I now understand that these need some sort of pour depth in order to give the illusion of - umm - depth.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this stuff?  What sort of pour depth would I need for the result to have a chance of looking convincing.  5mm? More?  Less?

 

When I find a number, the baseboard will be disassembled and the front run through a table saw.

 

cheers to all, and a safe New Year.  Especially if you're using a table saw

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by aardvark
manually restored lost images

[danstercivicman]

Looks like a good start

[McRuss]

On our FREMO modules we uses 1.3 meters as height between the bottom and the railhead.

 

Markus

[Signaller69]

In doing this, I've discover a mistake (already). The lowest level of the baseboards is sea level, but I failed to make any allowance for the depth of the sea. I will probably use one of the liquid water products, but I now understand that these need some sort of pour depth in order to give the illusion of - umm - depth.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this stuff? What sort of pour depth would I need for the result to have a chance of looking convincing. 5mm? More? Less?

 

Happy new year to you! Your baseboards are taking shape nicely, looking forward to seeing the trackwork in progress!

 

Regarding the water, do you need to see the sea bed? I think unless it is a bright, still day you would be unlikely to see the bottom; more likely at Banff would be choppy, murky North Sea water. If it were me I would be inclined to keep the sea level as is, paint the surface a dark greeny-blue and give it a couple of coats of varnish, then build up waves on top using one of the specialist products available for doing this. Also by the time you have added the shore line in (rocky here I believe), there probably won't be a lot of room for visible water on the board shown I'm guessing. So to me it just seems a lot of work to start altering it?

 

Just my own thoughts of course!

 

Edit to add couple of photos: First shows basic still water on "Crinan" done as described above ie 2 coats of varnish on painted hardboard. The second is the same area having started adding some gentle waves; I am still working on this area with more wave effects to add, but hopefully gives the idea.

Edited January 1, 2018 by Signaller69

[aardvark]

Regarding the water, do you need to see the sea bed? I think unless it is a bright, still day you would be unlikely to see the bottom; more likely at Banff would be choppy, murky North Sea water. If it were me I would be inclined to keep the sea level as is, paint the surface a dark greeny-blue and give it a couple of coats of varnish, then build up waves on top using one of the specialist products available for doing this. Also by the time you have added the shore line in (rocky here I believe), there probably won't be a lot of room for visible water on the board shown I'm guessing. So to me it just seems a lot of work to start altering it?

 

I think you're right: you wouldn't see the sea bed in Banff.  I was previously inspired by Andy Y's work on Keyhaven Quay, starting here, and continuing over the following page.  I say "previously", as I think your first photo is truly sensation: I had to look really hard to see whether it was real or modelled!  So, now I'm inspired by your work.

 

You're also right that there won't be a lot of sea.  I figured I had to include some sea, Banff having been a fishing village and all, but on the other hand, I'm a beginner railway modeller, not a beginner maritime modeller.

[Signaller69]

I think you're right: you wouldn't see the sea bed in Banff.  I was previously inspired by Andy Y's work on Keyhaven Quay, starting here, and continuing over the following page.  I say "previously", as I think your first photo is truly sensation: I had to look really hard to see whether it was real or modelled!  So, now I'm inspired by your work.

 

You're also right that there won't be a lot of sea.  I figured I had to include some sea, Banff having been a fishing village and all, but on the other hand, I'm a beginner railway modeller, not a beginner maritime modeller.

Thanks for your kind words. Water colour is always subject to many factors such as background, viewing angle, brightness, weather etc of course, so colour and how to model it is very much a personal choice, I found photos of the area being modelled useful in this respect. The pictures show my first go at modelling sea water (Crinan Canal Sea lock) and like anything it is a learning curve, and I am still learning. I need to add a little more depth to the small breakers yet. The layers of Gloss Yacht varnish (cheap stuff, nothing fancy) were carefully poured on and then brushed evenly into all the corners. I did try adding ripples during curing by running the tip of a rounded paint brush handle over the surface but they more or less vanished during drying to leave the surface seen in the top photo. Keeping dust away is vital during drying too! Light streaks of white paint dry brushed on at roughly 90 degrees behind, as well as along the breakers suggest foam as seen in the second photo, but the breakers almost sank into the existing "water"; my next attempt to rectify this will be the use of some "Making Waves" scenic water effects.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Martyn.

[aardvark]

Thanks for your kind words. Water colour is always subject to many factors such as background, viewing angle, brightness, weather etc of course, so colour and how to model it is very much a personal choice, I found photos of the area being modelled useful in this respect. The pictures show my first go at modelling sea water (Crinan Canal Sea lock) and like anything it is a learning curve, and I am still learning. I need to add a little more depth to the small breakers yet. The layers of Gloss Yacht varnish (cheap stuff, nothing fancy) were carefully poured on and then brushed evenly into all the corners. I did try adding ripples during curing by running the tip of a rounded paint brush handle over the surface but they more or less vanished during drying to leave the surface seen in the top photo. Keeping dust away is vital during drying too! Light streaks of white paint dry brushed on at roughly 90 degrees behind, as well as along the breakers suggest foam as seen in the second photo, but the breakers almost sank into the existing "water"; my next attempt to rectify this will be the use of some "Making Waves" scenic water effects.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Certainly does.  It may be a few years before I tackle modelling the sea, but it is extraordinarily useful to know where you are heading, and what to do when you get there.

 

As far as colour is concerned, on-line satellite imagery of modern Banff is perfectly adequate - I doubt that the sea colour has changed all that much over the years.  Despite the sea being in shadow from the seawall, I reckon I can pick a colour from the harbour floor (not being modelled) that would do me just fine: sort of a murky gray-green.

[aardvark]

Just wanted to check before I make a serious noobie mistake: the fireman goes on the left of the cab, right?

 

Not sure why, but Bachmann 36-047 Locomotive Staff feature both a left- and right-handed fireman.

 

 

Equal opportunity, I suppose.

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by aardvark
manually restored lost images

[Ben Alder]

Only if he is looking out the cab... driver on the left, fireman on the right,for nearly all except the GW.

[aardvark]

Whew!  That was a close one

 

Edit: the levels of my ignorance astound even me!

Edited January 6, 2018 by aardvark

[sulzer27jd]

Whew!  That was a close one

 

Edit: the levels of my ignorance astound even me!

 

Whilst left-hand drive is a reasonable rule of thumb, there were many classes that were the opposite. Not that the A1/A3's would trouble you in Banff, but they regularly trap the unwary modeller. Again, these are not likely to affect you, but the B12's that ran on the GNSR were right-hand drive.

 

John

[aardvark]

Thanks Richard & John!  I am surprised by the lack of standardisation on what I might have thought to been a fairly basic binary choice.

 

Certainly one case where the wisdom of RMWeb far surpassed my abilities at internet research.

[aardvark]

My order for flexitrack is (hopefully) due to arrive shortly, so time to get organised (stop laughing you lot).

 

Step 4 of the process for laying track from my previous post was ...

 

• paint sleeper base

 

I'm inclined to use acrylics because the clean-up is easier and a bit kinder to the planet, but I read in the Feb 2018 BRM that acrylic paint doesn't stick well to metal rails, so I need to use an oil-based primer.  Red ochre seems to a common choice of modellers, but this choice is not supported by my local hardware store, where all primer is grey.  So, it seems, I'll need a coat of an enamel primer followed by a coat of colour.  Humbrol 29 Dark Earth comes in a matt acrylic aerosol, thereby matching my skill with a paintbrush smaller than 1".  As a bonus, the colour matches photos I have of the track Banff in the 60's.

 

Does this sound right?  Will the Humbrol acrylic stick to the oil-based primer, or should I be using Humbrol acrylic primer?

[aardvark]

Hallelujah!

 

My C&L flexitrack arrived today!  It does seem to be worth the wait, and I do have to publicly thank Phil for his exceptional packaging.

 

 

The track was cut in half (under by instructions), wrapped in plastic, bubble-wrapped, and then bound to a length of timber to stop any inadvertent destruction whilst in transit.

 

For anyone who hasn't previously seen C&L track, here it is, alongside Peco code75.

 

[aardvark]

Following the theme, my PECO bullhead large radius turnouts arrived today.  A bit of an extravagance really, as I had already purchased "fine standard" code 75 turnouts and underlays, but there are only 3 large radius turnouts on the whole layout.

 

Whilst I am sure that you've probably all read about the new turnouts elsewhere, here are the bullhead (top) and standard (bottom) points together, and individually in close-up:

 

 

 

 

My first impression was that the increased sleeper spacing makes the rails look further apart.  I also found it interesting that despite the two turnouts having the same geometry, the new ones come in a significantly bigger package.  Maybe PECO needed more space for all the extra words on the back

Edited March 16, 2018 by aardvark

[aardvark]

The baseboards are progressing, but not really earthshattering news, so I will spare you more pics of lumps of congealed plywood.

 

Today, I took a trip to my "local" GW shop today (1hr drive each way), and tried my hand at painting some C&L track.

 

 

One of the attractions to GW paints is that they have a free phone app which allows you to pick a colour from an image to reproduce, then the app provides the user with three close approximations to the target colour.  Just prefect for this beginner who is pretty hopeless with colours. Another is that many (most? all?) GW shops have paint tables where you can experiment with their paints at no cost while get free tuition from the staff.

 

No need to be kind - I can see it's a bit sh!te, but, all things considered, not bad for my first attempt at painting something smaller than a bedroom wall..  I think that the sleepers and the sandy colour on the rails are ok (Baneblade Brown), but there is way too much red.

 

I'm open to suggestions.  Here's what the prototype looked like:

 

[aardvark]

I have taken delivery of some Woodland Scenic ballast.  I would have preferred Greenscenes, but they declined my generous offer to ship some to Australia.

 

I couldn't resist trying it out to see what it looked like.

 

 

Ballast makes the paint job on the rails look better than before, and the ballast colour doesn't look too bad, but does need toning down with some weathering powders or suchlike.

 

I'm happy enough with the result and the approximation to the prototype (above) to order more before the Australian Government closes the door on eBay*.  No idea how much I might need, but I might guess that even with a small layout like mine and thin sleepers, I'll go through a couple of shakers-worth.

 

 

 

 

* From 1 July, we will pay GST (our VAT) on all imports.  EBay have indicated that they may block Australian buyers from international vendors to avoid having to collect and remit GST

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by aardvark
manually restored lost images