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Rich Papper
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Iris is a cut-and-shut conversion from the two car Bachmann Derby Lightweight. I did look at kits originally, but noticed that the two available at the time (from memory DC Kits and Hurst) both had incorrect van end doors. On the two car version of a Derby Lightweight the van section doors with the window in are diagonally opposite one another, on Iris both windows are closest to the cab. I have no idea why this is, there is some conjecture as to whether the two single car Derby Lightweight units were originally supposed to be a two car set, whether they were designed as singles, or whether a change was made while they were being made, but either way both kits were wrong (regular readers will note that my pursuit of authenticity rarely ventures this far!). Then while mulling this over I chanced upon a second hand Bachmann two car set at a show for £50 and that made my mind up!

 

I did mine a number of years ago and don't have any in progress pictures, but I found another thread from a modeller far more skilled than I who has done the exact same thing - found here.  Mine does have full interior detailing - even down to the kitchen sink (may show up in photo below) and lighting.

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Lighting proved to be a bit of a gremlin actually as I went a bit too far. By the time I had cut down the chassis motor block to fit the cab interior at the van end, then added interior lighting, I then decided I wanted all 4 lights at each end to light up, which the Bachmann model didn't. Cue lighthouse LEDs and some fibre optic for the top ones. So by the time I got round to a decoder there wasn't much space left and I shoehorned in quite a small one. Too small unfortunately to have enough output to run all the lights at once! So you can have the interior lights on, or the head/tail lights, but not both at the same time. Never mind. I also didn't need to be quite so keen with the fibre optics and bi colour LEDs for the tail lights as I've seen pictures with all 4 lights on the end lit up white, but I don't think they all light up red for reverse. 

 

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I do also have the etch for the grille in the van end window somewhere but have never got around to fitting it. Will also get buffer beam detailing one day. One of the few I would detail both ends since she is incompatible with all the other DMUs I have.

 

More soon.

Rich

 

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3 hours ago, Rich Papper said:

Iris is a cut-and-shut conversion from the two car Bachmann Derby Lightweight. I did look at kits originally, but noticed that the two available at the time (from memory DC Kits and Hurst) both had incorrect van end doors. On the two car version of a Derby Lightweight the van section doors with the window in are diagonally opposite one another, on Iris both windows are closest to the cab. I have no idea why this is, there is some conjecture as to whether the two single car Derby Lightweight units were originally supposed to be a two car set, whether they were designed as singles, or whether a change was made while they were being made, but either way both kits were wrong (regular readers will note that my pursuit of authenticity rarely ventures this far!). Then while mulling this over I chanced upon a second hand Bachmann two car set at a show for £50 and that made my mind up!

 

I did mine a number of years ago and don't have any in progress pictures, but I found another thread from a modeller far more skilled than I who has done the exact same thing - found here.  Mine does have full interior detailing - even down to the kitchen sink (may show up in photo below) and lighting.

CA178.JPG.a586b0547b0bea933db96e105cdb4e91.JPG

 

Lighting proved to be a bit of a gremlin actually as I went a bit too far. By the time I had cut down the chassis motor block to fit the cab interior at the van end, then added interior lighting, I then decided I wanted all 4 lights at each end to light up, which the Bachmann model didn't. Cue lighthouse LEDs and some fibre optic for the top ones. So by the time I got round to a decoder there wasn't much space left and I shoehorned in quite a small one. Too small unfortunately to have enough output to run all the lights at once! So you can have the interior lights on, or the head/tail lights, but not both at the same time. Never mind. I also didn't need to be quite so keen with the fibre optics and bi colour LEDs for the tail lights as I've seen pictures with all 4 lights on the end lit up white, but I don't think they all light up red for reverse. 

 

CA179.JPG.47a264caae8cf27b1c9ed66a6baaad60.JPG

 

I do also have the etch for the grille in the van end window somewhere but have never got around to fitting it. Will also get buffer beam detailing one day. One of the few I would detail both ends since she is incompatible with all the other DMUs I have.

 

More soon.

Rich

 

 

Have to say that's 'da bizz'! Might embark on a similar project myself and paint it BR Green

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Slightly early start due to nocturnal children but a little progress to report. Ground cover coming along next to depot entrance and siding. Mixed some chinchilla dust into some B&Q tester emulsion and sponged it on just for a bit of texture. Turned out OK, but technique needs work. Next time will sieve the dust onto the wet paint as I think this would give a slightly finer result. Covered most of it in static grass anyway - awaiting a hoover in picture below.

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Girder bridge has had a couple more coats of paint too. Idea is to make this a bit neglected so I wanted quite a pale grey to begin with to then go over with various washes and dry brushing. Again a B&Q tester pot - 'Chic Cashmere' apparently. Do always want to make sure my girders are chic enough. 

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More soon I hope.

Rich

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Good Evening All,

A bit of tinkering this afternoon while all was quiet.

 

First layers of weathering on the girder bridge. A bit of dry brushing with black and brown acrylics and then an overall wash with Humbrol dark brown wash, most of which was then wiped off with cotton buds. Needs a few more rust colours on it and then a little airbrush of exhaust mess from DMUs sat or passing beneath it. I started with the underside matt black as I don't think it would manage to be many other colours.

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Then been getting some bits and pieces in place for the area between the end of the bridge and the end of the station platforms. Much of the middle of this picture between the signal box and the retaining wall will be (deliberately) an expanse of bare ballast with whispy plants and grass where lines crossing the girder bridge used to be. Might put a few piles of civil engineers junk about, but aim is for a station throat that has been rationalised.

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Close up of area near the end of the platform. Orange cable pipes by Scale Model Scenery (available here) and cable trunking by Ten Commandments (available here). A simple foot crossing to link to the signal box and small retaining wall starting to take shape in the background. I like getting to this stage - starts to look a bit more real even before the ballast. All the track on the top level had been sprayed with track dirt (Humbrol 29) before being added as I wasn't sure I could reach all of it with the airbrush when it was in - either not enough space to get behind it or too close to platforms. There are a few bits where flexible track has moved slightly exposing clean bits of rail, but these will be quick to touch in after ballasting.

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Starting to get a bit nervous of how I'm going to add side protection boards to the third rail up here. Any ideas gratefully appreciated!

 

Incidentally the wooden block that fits inside the signal box on the upper level (soon to be painted black) is a handle to allow me to grip something should I need to lift the upper section off to reveal the tunnel below. Not planning to if I can help it, as could also turn the whole board around and remove the backscene, but remains an option.

 

Rich

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A quiet morning so much painting.

First, while I had the filler out, I filled in a bit on the Sydney Gardens side of the room that I had left out next to the girder bridge. Added some retaining wall too. This is actually on the keystone board that fits aross the window end of the room. As yet there are no plans for what is going in front of the tracks as I tend to use it as a workbench because the light is better at that end of the room. Has had a coat of brown and will get walls painted and some hanging basket liner added. Plans afoot for the corner.

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Back over the other side on the upper level I've been painting walls, concrete and tarmac. Surprising how long all these things take by the time they've had a few coats, been drybrushed, washed or whatever. Very early days but seems to be coming together. Would like to get the track ballasted up here soon so I can experiment with some third rail protection boards. Got a delivery from Eileen's Emporium this morning of some test pieces of brass to play with. Going to be insanely difficult to put together, but worth a go.

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More soon.

Rich

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Hello All.

A bit more progress tonight. I feel I haven't got very far, but have been doing a large number of little jobs which hopefully are starting to add up.

 

First a shot from yesterday. Managed to get the upper layer ballasted across the pointwork (took forever but at least I haven't glued one up this time) and along the front platform as far as the buffers. I haven't done the rear platform and stabling siding yet as it was getting a bit late and I couldn't face another set of points. The embankment behind has also been contoured with filler, painted B&Q brown emulsion, wall added and painted, and then concrete fence added. This is about 1cm in front of the backscene - toying with the idea of some sort of photographic backscene behind but not sure what yet. I'd prefer to start that from the station end where there is space for low relief buildings and then try to blend this way. You can't really tell from this picture but the gradient on the line going into the tunnel begins shortly after the last set of points so it is already below the level of the sidings before the tunnel mouth. Hopefully with scenery this will look a bit more logical!

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First loco up and down testing was 47406 Rail Riders. No issues with running to report. I don't think I'm going to get the airbrush on the track to weather it up here until I've got the third rail on as I'll end up doing it twice. Cable troughing looks a bit better with the ballast in. I'm very impressed by people who cut each individual section instead of laying them in moulded runs, but I have seen a few too many layouts where people have obviously thought that having gone to all the trouble of doing them in separate pieces, that they need to glue each one down at a subtly different angle giving the overall impression that the S&T chaps must have been working blindfolded!

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Then tonight have added a little more greenery with flock and static grass just to add a bit to the embankment at the back and blend the front bits in. Have also added the large expanse of ballast at the front side of the signal box where (in my head at least) the removed line that used the lattice girder used to be. Hard to get a long short of this, but hopefully this shows it coming together a bit. More grass needed and many small details. Might create some sort of S&T or civil engineers compound in the space but needs some thinking about. I quite like it being dead space - tufts of grass, buddleia etc.

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Talking of small details - first time I've used Shapeways and parcel arrived today. I ordered a couple of things from SJP Models - St. Simon on here (link here). He's put together a nice range of little detail pieces, including some very nice ticket barriers that I wish I'd had on Oxford Road before having to scratch build my own for an Underground station. Picture below shows point heaters. Need to do a bit of research as to where they should be and what colour. Have also bought some impedance bonds but way too small and translucent so probably wouldn't photograph. I like the idea of Shapeways but don't really have any idea how to effectively search through it - it's massive - so finding a nice range like this is very handy (thanks Simon!).

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That's all for now. Not sure what stage is next. I'd really love to get to the end of the platforms so I could start thinking about the station detailing, but need to give some thought to the buildings behind first.

Rich

 

 

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Hello All. Progress report. Well, the usual mix of some progress, some confusion and head-scratching.

 

First a bit of an alignment issue. Have ballasted the front platform of the station without issue, but while prepping the next pit I noticed the rails were slightly askew at the join. Not sure why yet so haven't ballasted further. The lower level has alignment dowels. Wood blocks are then glued and screwed to that, and then the upper layer (12mm birch ply) screwed to the top of these. Where the tracks cross board joins there is a strip of wood with copper sleepers attached with epoxy. Rails are laid across, soldered and cut. Not sure how these have crept out like this but haven't really looked at them this closely since laying so will monitor.

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Plenty to do elsewhere anyway. At the other end of the platform details have been going on like the dummy point motors with various bits of fake rod attached and wires to the nearest trunking run. Point heaters have been painted and added nearby. I added a layer of plasticard underneath these as the base would have been under the ballast otherwise and most pictures I can find seem to have it visible. More weathering to do in both cases. Not sure if there should be location cabinets nearby here as it is right next to signal box - I'm working on the assumption that all the wiring is in there.

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Then at the far end I've been puzzling over buffers. The front platform has a Peco one, but I've had some kit ones from Lanarkshire Models (found here) floating around for a while and wondered what they would look like. Will make a decision when I've painted this one a bit. Only thing giving me cause for concern is it is a GWR pattern and has quite long rail 'braces' (?) on either rail which extend quite a way forward. I know third rail would usually stop short of the end of the track anyway, but not sure how this would look so close to this. Any thoughts gratefully received.

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More soon.

Rich

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Good Evening All,

 

Seems like a while since I've give this one much attention what with OR being out and about. Finally worked up the effort last night to remove a board and shuffle the others around so I could get at the transformers.  The enclosure was designed in such a way that there was no possibility of small fingers getting in it, but it does mean I have to remove the largest and heaviest board in the room to get to it - and I have to disconnect and shuffle three others to do that. It's not really that much of an issue, this is only about the third time I've needed to get in there in the last five years. Been having a bit of a gremlin though. I have a 5A NCE PowerPro system with a circuit breaker wired in (following an unfortunate incident with a derailment and some smoke!). In the last six months or so I have noticed the circuit breaker kicking in and cutting off the power while we've been running, but for no reason I can find. All is running happily, usually only a couple of trains looping the main lines, then everything goes dead. Process of elimination has ruled out any wiring errors, and its not restricted to certain trains, the number of trains on the track or the location of them. Only thing I can think of is that the connection of the last lot of point motors is drawing too much juice out of the system, although the DCC Concepts SA2s and SA8s that I've used seem to be on the lower end of the reported current draw of some decoders. I've no idea one way or the other, so have just tweaked the jumpers on the circuit breaker from 4A to 5A. Will see what happens.

 

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Having all the boards out also allows a few other jobs to be done (since I'm not twinging my back more often than necessary), including some interesting views of the layout not normally possible, like this shot from back to front towards the girder bridge.

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Biggest job I've been wanting to do was the backscenes though. I'd bought a ID Backscenes one a while ago (available here), but hadn't really thought out how to attach it or how I would trim it to fit the space. Having the boards off allowed me to get the main run of it on one board's backscene that was easily removable, so I could align it properly and get a feel of how easy it was to work with.

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I did buy some of Deluxe Materials 'View Glue', but to my slight puzzlement found that the ID instructions recommended not using it! As usual there are as many positive as negative reviews on here. Decided to follow their suggestion of using a pritt stick since I had one to hand. Seemed to go on really well, so will wait and see how durable it will be long term. The boards that join this one were more of a pain to get the board off the back for one reason or another, but were easy to reach so I glued about 8 inches at a time and unrolled it smoothing out as I went.

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Then bolted it all back together. Really surprised by the depth of field it gives having it in place. It's one of those situations where, once you've put it on, you can't imagine what it looked like before. Very happy.

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What amazes me most is that there are three joins in the picture below. Rare quality given my usual dexterity!

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There are a few things to watch out for. To my eye it looks like about 10-12 houses that are then photo-shopped and repeated - a top job though, you really have to look to spot it, and with things in front you won't. There are also a couple of garage doors suggesting some sort of access out back that I don't have space for, so have positioned this section behind to concrete fence to make it less obvious. The image is also a winter scene so the trees on it have no leaves, but can easily add half a green one in front.  Really happy with the results of this. It won't all be visible. Most will disappear behind a car park behind the station platform, but at least the sky will be continuous. 

 

Having a strange affect on me though - I actually want to do some scenery. Better have a lie down.

Have a good weekend.

Rich

 

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Good Evening,

No sooner have I got a backscene in that I'm trying to build things to go in front of it. Well, some of it. Been working on a low relief multi-storey car park. Still at the early stages of making a lot of mess with some off cuts of plywood, but getting there. Measurements are based on the excellent Scalescenes offering (found here). I really liked it, but didn't want to build it out of card, and needed to tailor to the shape I had. So I bought and downloaded it, and have then printed a couple of pages just to give me some rough measurements - height between floors, depth of front wall etc. May get some detail signs to add to mine later too.

 

To the wood. A rare check of alignment! (Usually in too much of a rush or can't find the right tool!)

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Repeat several times and then test fitted. Not glued together yet as will be easier to paint in layers.

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Have decided to raise the bottom floor up a little since the picture above. Quite happy with the size and 'bulk' of it compared to the stock in front. Have then decided to try to add a little texture to the bit that will be rough concrete. Layer of PVA sprinkled with play sand (kids won't miss a bit!). Seems to have stuck well to the test piece I did. Hope is that I can give it an overall grey primer, and then dry brush some variation into it.

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Not sure yet how it will turn out but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

Have a good weekend.

Rich

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Good Afternoon,

A small photo update on a rainy afternoon. Car park has now gained primer, tarmac and spaces. Needs a bit more dry brushing to give variation to the front but sand idea seems to be working.

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At the door end of the room the tunnel mouth area is coming together. I was intending to do the building next to the car park next but realised I needed to vary the ground height, which in turn dictated the height of the retaining walls, and thus the tunnel mouth etc. Cardboard templates first.

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Then some ply to raise the level at the back and many bits of carved plasticard for the tunnel structure. Same method as previous ones.

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Slotted together. Some fiddling needed here and there. 

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Retaining walls next. Have bought a compass cutter to see if I can make my own arches.

Have a good weekend all.

 

Rich

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Good Evening All,

Well work on the tunnel area has been ticking along as time allows. Not sure I've fully mastered the compass cutter yet but I've still got all my fingers so not going that badly. A few photos.

 

Tunnel mouth. I've taken to edging them with strips cut from the Wills arches pack. I take the big one, cut them into three strips and then nick the inner edge with a stanley knife to allow me to vary the radius to suit. Not my idea - if you want to see it done far better check out the Ellerby thread here.

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Then stuck on.

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Then thoughts turned to the retaining walls either side. These are just to the left as you walk in the room next to the removable bridge section that allows the main lines to loop around the room. First go with compass cutter. Radius dictated by Wills arches - no point in making it harder.

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Much measuring and checking.

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Some off cuts for bracing and to make it easier to stick the arch interiors in.

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And then the back on.

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Fairly happy so far, although extraordinarily time consuming. I'll do the one opposite to match and see if I get any faster at it now that I know the measurements. Not sure I can see myself doing it in longer lengths, but as this is quite a confined space and n a curve scratch building was probably the best option.

 

More soon, thanks for reading.

Rich

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Good Evening All

A little more progress this week. Managed to get a little better with the retaining arches in light of experience. Took two attempts to get the right hand side scaled properly though. First one just didn't look right. It slopes downward towards the front of the layout so the arches get slightly shorter. In the first attempt the arches didn't get shorter in line with the height of the land behind, so although they looked good on their own, somehow in place they just looked wonky. Second attempt went better though. Managed to get the lining of the arch from one strip. I tried this on the one above and it kept snapping so I had to use three pieces on each - must have just found a slightly more flexible sheet of brick.

 

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Just about sorted on the contours behind too. This view shows some more blue polystyrene carved to shape. The slightly raised area will form the station car park. The new walling in the foreground will be next to the DMU depot on the lower level. 

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Hopefully it will all come together into something coherent looking!

 

Hope all travelling to the NEC have a good weekend. I am going to try to bring Thing 1 for his first Warley experience tomorrow. Not sure how it will go - will see how long his attention span lasts - but if you see anyone having to manhandle a recalcitrant 4 year old away from something expensive it will probably be me.

 

Rich

 

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Good Evening,

A little progress this week, but mostly just mess with filler. Managed to get to Warley, but three hours was about the limit with a small person. Don't think I saw more than about a third of what was there - have been reading about things I missed all week, but he loved it so don't really mind. Only thing I was sad to have missed was Sydney Gardens having built my own and never seen theirs. Top draw for him was either the Lego or Hornby Dublo (probably because they were fastest moving!)

Only purchase was a couple of Mk2s from Kernow, NSE of course. Need weathering, as does 50033, but not too much as I have a nice picture of this one looking quite clean.

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Hopefully some progress pics soon. Just seem to be layering huge amounts of plasticard for retaining walls at the moment.

Rich

 

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On 30/11/2019 at 08:06, Boco_D1 said:

Progress is looking good Rich, it’s a shame you didn’t get to see Sydney gardens it was a beautiful layout to look at, I did manage to video a few shots.

 

Fantastic video, thanks for sharing. I really must get to see it some time. Does highlight the lack of trees on mine at the moment. I have a box of seafoam somewhere, and a few older bought trees that could be 'spruced' up (sorry). Quite impressed by the size of some of the trees on here - I think something we often underestimate on models.


Rich

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Good Evening All,

A quick mid-week update as wasn't expecting to get any time in there tonight but somehow both small people fell asleep first go! First pictures hows the tunnel mouth and retaining walls at the door end of the lower level on the left hand side of the room. Quite a bit of swearing involved, and they do still need a bit of filler here and there, but I'm fairly happy. Can also see from the picture why I had to make my own for such a peculiar shape (which OK I could have avoided if any of this was properly planned!). Going to go blue brick I think, but could be governed by whatever paint I find I have enough of.

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Than a quick running session. Oxford Road due out a few times next year so am starting to think about what stock to take and what new I might want to try and get done now the workbench is a little clearer. Class 128 on a parcels run to start with. Really like this Heljan model. Shame it runs so often on it's own, I think it has more pulling power than my car.

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With some of the groundwork sorted am starting to run things to the upper level more often. Class 115 seen here approaching platform 1 (or 2, haven't decided). This area needs third rail adding but have paused on it while trying to decide how to make side protection boards for it. C&L made some but haven't had any in stock for about 18 months now. I have some bits of brass and phosphor bronze strip from Eileen's Emporium to play with. Will weather track when all of that is in.

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Finally a look down into the cutting with new walls. This is the last area of the main loops that isn't ballasted. Will get the walls in and painted first, and all the various bits of trackside clutter. There will be a signal near the second arch back from the tunnel mouth with a Heathcote Electronics board to change it automatically as trains pass. Class 101 number L207 trundling past.

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The area on the far right of this picture is going to be a road. I have some of the Woodland Scenics road stuff - from what I can see some sort of plaster - just haven't figured out how to do it on a slope. All the videos I've seen of it in use seem to apply it rather sloppy. Needs a bit of thinking about before I create the plaster equivalent of Niagra Falls. All suggestions welcome.

 

Good night all.

Rich

 

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9 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

How ‘portable’ is the board?  Could you raise it at one end so the road is level for plaster slopping?

Paul.

 

That's not a bad idea actually Paul, thank you. The boards rest on Ikea Ivar uprights with two thick battens running the length of the room, so take one out and the others can be slid up and down or tipped up. I'll have to upend that one to install the signal wiring anyway so could do it when I do that. This one is 70 by 160cm and with plentiful woodwork attached, so I only move it when i have to! Angle can be seen in the foreground of the picture below. I think the next plan needs to be to make some mock ups of where the buildings need to be and then plan the other roads around them.

 

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Apologies for the terrible mess!

Rich

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My largest is 53x142cm with nothing attached yet and that’s unwieldy enough. I don’t envy you moving around something bigger.

I’m interested in you experience of Ivar supports as that’s something I’m considering following our move.  I assume it’s the short 124cm uprights and then your battens: how do you find the height once you have a baseboard on top?

Paul.

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I can just about lift it, but it's easier with two. I tend to unbolt the adjoining board and slide it along a bit so I only have to tip this one up and not lift it off altogether. Yes I do use the 124cm Ivar uprights. You do have to be careful when choosing them though. In my experience only about 1 in 5 on the warehouse shelves in Ikea are straight. I lay them on the concrete floor and see if they rock! My previous layouts had all been at tabletop height. Not such a problem while I was younger, but I'd reached 6 foot 3 by the age of 14 so it was starting to be a pain in the back bending over. Then while thinking about a new home layout one day I was in Ikea and found myself leaning on the 124cm set of shelves and it seemed like a good level for me. The home layout doesn't have any adjustable feet as it stays in one place so I've been able to build it level(ish!). On Oxford Road I trimmed them down a couple of inches so it wouldn't be too tall when I fitted adjustable feet for shows. Both are about mid-chest height to me. No back ache bending over, and a good amount of storage space underneath, where you can use the Ivar shelves and cupboards.

 

The narrower side (30cm depth legs holding up 50cm depth boards) - Sydney Gardens and hidden sidings.

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The wider side (50cm depth legs holding up 70cm depth boards) - upper level, station, depot. Oxford Road stored beneath.

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Again, sorry for the mess. It's usually tidy while I'm running things or working on something small (until my son gets in the stock boxes), but when I'm doing big bits of landscape it rapidly descends into mess. There's a picture that shows the Ikea bits and battens better with a board off about half way down page 3 of this thread (here). 

 

If I ever get it tidy I might do a full tour. Really need to get the camera truck out again before Christmas.

Rich

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I’d seen the photo on page 1 with clear new boards.  I hadn’t found page 3 (this time) so thanks for the link, especially as it shows the half lap joints in the longitudinal battens.  Also shows that I’ve read it previously as I posted immediately below!  I have also thought about trimming a bit off the legs so it’s good to know it works.

Thanks,  Paul.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • Tempfix

Good Afternoon and Happy Christmas Eve

Not a lot done on the layout over the past few days other than a base coat of engineers blue on the walls and tunnel mouth of the cutting by the door. I'm nearly at the point of fixing all this in. The tunnel lining has gained some cabling and hangers from Scale Model Scenery (these here). Nice looking product. barely visible here, but adds to the effect. Now thinking about how I could add them to other tunnels already in place.

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Some more weathering needed yet, although not sure about whether to or how to do the mortar runs. I might leave the mortar as most examples around me with blue brick seem to be quite dark. Also have the feeling that against such a dark colour as the blue brick it might over-emphasise the over thick mortar lines on the brick sheet. Recently took the photo below of some blue and red brick together on a bridge near Cam and Dursley station while waiting for my car to get MOT'd. Some lovely weathering effects, but would they look overdone in OO?

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Have also spent a very nice day doing some DMU research at the GWSR. Well, Santa train technically, but anything that gets us a cab ride in the 117 has got to be worth doing. Always an excellent day out at the GWSR - thoroughly recommended.

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That's about it for now. I suspect any spare time in the next week is going to be spent on my ham-fisted class 119 attempt, but might get onto some road surface if the smell of Mek Pak gets too much.

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Have a fantastic and peaceful Christmas everyone.

Rich

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • Tempfix

Good Evening All and Happy New Year,

A trip out with the cam truck this evening. I meant to do it earlier in daylight as it comes out much better, but I'd failed to charge it enough so had to wait for the small people to go to bed so apologies for the poor lighting. I've tried to compensate with a few with interior lighting parked in the tunnels. I've been meaning to do some for a while as it shows a bit more of the progress you don't notice just doing a bit at a time.

 

The usual tour first.

 

Sorry, lighting really is terrible. I've been meaning to get a daylight fluorescent tube for the ceiling but have never got around to it. I'm quite happy with how the new tunnel mouth and retaining walls look from track height.

 

Then a quick trip from the hidden sidings towards the upper level station.

 

The station building on the upper level is not staying, just a spare from an old layout that was put in to help me visualise where the roads should be outside.

 

Some current items of rolling stock evident, and the usual mix of totally non-period specific things I'm just playing with. Just lucky the SNCF stuff is all away today!

Rich

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  • 2 months later...
  • Tempfix

Good Evening All,

Hope everyone out there is well in trying times. Apologies for the gap in updates here. Not much has been done over the last few months as was getting various workbench and exhibition bits ready, only for most of the exhibitions to be cancelled so all that is packed away again until we start to get back to normal.

There are a large number of jobs that in this room that I keep thinking 'oh I'll just do that, it won't take long'. Always does of course, and each job completed generates a few more. A bit of landscaping to get me back into it. More blue foam, glued and then contoured. Horrible mess involved but nothing the hoover can't handle, and it is strangely therapeutic carving the contours out this way. Does also look a bit odd as I decided to use up every irregular off-cut of styrofoam I could find. Will all disappear under filler / plaster soon. Then some greenery. The hook in the far corner is to lift the upper section out to give access to the tunnel beneath. Will hide it behind a building.

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Small running session with thing 1 and thing 2 today, since they are stuck at home too and after two weeks I'm looking for any distraction. Looking a bit French!CA236.JPG.bc0522d9c039e00c5f3bbb4dee02cf3e.JPG

 

Both lovely models, both chipped, but both still sound like a bag of spanners. French layout one day?

Stay safe folks.

Rich

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • Tempfix

Good Evening,

A small photo update. Managed to make some progress with the far corner of the layout. All little jobs, but over quite a big area so takes forever and quite a few I can't really do with the small people around me during the day. A mixture of powerful solvents and over-enthusiastic help! First job involved setting in the loco pit area with concrete. I had bought a Scale Model Scenery kit for this a while ago, but realised that I didn't quite have enough, but a combination of the 2mm MDF in the kit and some thick plasticard would allow me to get a tighter fit and lever the level a fraction lower than the rail-head making future cleaning easier.

In progress:

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Then with all plasticard down and filler covering the blue foam. The brown bits at the edges are greaseproof paper. I've found that a small folded bit in the join stops the boards sticking together and still gives quite a close finish. Works with ballasting too.

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Then on with some paint. A slop of cheap brown emulsion (B&Q tester pot) and the usual layers as mentioned previously on the brickwork. Concrete colour is from Phoenix Precision paints. This went on quite well, but obviously needs some weathering down. The picture below is after one application then wipe off of Humbrol dark brown wash. More left in the pits themselves, but more to come on this. Where I have had some issues is with the Phoenix tarmac paint. Colour is spot on as a starting point, but no matter how much I stir it it always dries with a gloss finish. Weathering and varnish needed I think.

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Then last shot about an hour ago with some random green scatter as a base for the static grass etc. to go on top. I'm doing quite well using up random very old packets of brightly coloured sawdust scatter here. It's useful to have a base coat to work on, but opinion seems divided as to whether it is completely necessary under static grass.

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Besides getting out the grass machine, next plans involve further fiddling with the road finish, more concrete weathering and figuring out what is going to go on it (I put together a very nice SMS building but it's too big), then building some bespoke buffers. Extending that backscene might be a plan too.

Hopefully more soon.

 

Stay safe.

Rich

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