Christmas Eve

[Jimmy styles]

so i was bored and found a old wooden bedside table and some left over 009 track, a crazy thought crossed my mind and a new project was born.

 

 

 

unfortunately my daughter saw this and as she loves my wifes christmas layout "Chapel Rise" insisted i built her a christmas layout with a castle and call it "Christmas Eve"

 

obviously i'm not going to say no to my little girl and any excuse to model.

 

 

luckily i scratch built a castle years ago, so a little dust off and its good to go, although she has insisted that it has lights fitted, and insisted on a station building.

 

the goal is to make it look as though it is sitting on top of a hill.

 

i have lost my mind??

 

watch this space for the next mad update.

Edited September 6, 2018 by Jimmy styles

[d&h]

so i was bored and found a old wooden bedside table and some left over 009 track, a crazy thought crossed my mind and a new project was born.

 

2018-08-22 17.11.52.jpg

 

 

unfortunately my daughter saw this and as she loves my wifes christmas layout "Chapel Rise" insisted i built her a christmas layout with a castle and call it "Christmas Eve"

 

obviously i'm not going to say no to my little girl and any excuse to model.

 

2018-08-27 14.57.34.jpg

 

luckily i scratch built a castle years ago, so a little dust off and its good to go, although she has insisted that it has lights fitted, and insisted on a station building.

 

the goal is to make it look as though it is sitting on top of a hill.

 

i have lost my mind??

 

watch this space for the next mad update.

This looks interesting, I toyed with a similar idea, but in N, and using the Hornby ruined castle pieces with a Christmas fair event with lights Christmas tree etc, and to try out one of the snow products but alas never got further than the thought.

 

This looks much grander, I love the castle, and there nothing like a looming deadline 

[Jimmy styles]

I have promised her it will be ready for next Christmas but will try my best to finish it this year.

 

Once I get my teeth into something I do crack on.

 

I’m planning on using the delux materials scenic snow

[Jimmy styles]

so my daughter wanted a station building, but obviously in 009 and on a layout this small, this was going to be a challenge.

 

until i stumbled across a lovely little cricket pavillon kit. i decided that if i cut the front railing's off this would look like a small station, i knew that it dosent have to be completely prototypical as the castle is santa's house apparently.

 

 

she then decided that the walls needed to be painted gold and found a white metal piano kit in my box of spares so yes this is the only station now with gold walls a piano and a counter with bronze till.

 

 

 

so i painted odd planks to look as if they had been replaced at some point and a small LED light inside.

 

next up was to make the Santa Halt sign. this was done by printing the sign and then sticking it to a wood off cut from the kit.

 

all in all i think it makes a super cute little station.

 

 

finally i will attack it with the airbrush

 

 

 

 

[luke the train spotter]

 

so my daughter wanted a station building, but obviously in 009 and on a layout this small, this was going to be a challenge.

 

until i stumbled across a lovely little cricket pavillon kit. i decided that if i cut the front railing's off this would look like a small station, i knew that it dosent have to be completely prototypical as the castle is santa's house apparently.

 

2018-09-03 11.10.33.jpg

 

she then decided that the walls needed to be painted gold and found a white metal piano kit in my box of spares so yes this is the only station now with gold walls a piano and a counter with bronze till.

 

2018-09-08 11.01.00.jpg

 

 

so i painted odd planks to look as if they had been replaced at some point and a small LED light inside.

 

next up was to make the Santa Halt sign. this was done by printing the sign and then sticking it to a wood off cut from the kit.

 

all in all i think it makes a super cute little station.

 

2018-09-08 10.59.56.jpg

 

finally i will attack it with the airbrush

it looks really good. I'd never thought of using that as a halt but you're modifications have made a big difference.i look forward to seeing more on this layout.

[Nearholmer]

Great stuff.

 

I expected the castle to feature Elsa.

[Guest NorthernRail]

A great excuse to build a model layout, the 009 track fits nicely on the baseboard. Fantastic modelling on your castle and Santa’s halt. Look forward to seeing more.

[BritishGypsum4]

This looks brilliant....Wondering if my wife and daughters would let me have that coffee table now?

[Jimmy styles]

so my daughter now decided that one of the rooms at the top of the castle will be a bedroom and the other room needed a table with some people eating and drinking. these rooms also needed to have LED lights along with a light in the castle arch. so as i didnt want to upset her.............

 

 

 

 

so next up was to start adding some height and contours to the layout and also i needed to add a facia board to help with the contour of the land.

 

i think its really starting to take shape.

 

[009 micro modeller]

Looks very nice so far. Can I ask what the curve radius is and whether you will be castellating the tunnels to fit in with the building above them?

[Jimmy styles]

Looks very nice so far. Can I ask what the curve radius is and whether you will be castellating the tunnels to fit in with the building above them?

The diameter is 14inches across so as tight as a tight thing.

 

I hadn’t thought about the tunnel mouths but have decided after your question that as they are so close to the tunnel I will build them to mirror the large arch on the castle

[Guest Nero]

A great idea of using an old table no chance of my wife letting me use ours:) the castle is lovely bit of modelling and I really like how the track disappears under the castle.

[Jimmy styles]

so after i built "operation abyss" i swore blind that i would never again hand scribe stones into clay, however my daughter said that on her layout she wanted a little road going to the castle and wanted it to look like operation abyss.

 

well what she wants she gets. it is her layout at the end of the day.

 

 

so she helped, im teaching her young, she's better than me

 

[tomparryharry]

so after i built "operation abyss" i swore blind that i would never again hand scribe stones into clay, however my daughter said that on her layout she wanted a little road going to the castle and wanted it to look like operation abyss.

 

well what she wants she gets. it is her layout at the end of the day.

 

2018-09-09 14.57.06.jpg

 

so she helped, im teaching her young, she's better than me

 

2018-09-13 15.53.49.jpg

I like that very much.

[Guest Nero]

I agree that road is very good.

[Jimmy styles]

Thank you

[Jimmy styles]

next up was a coat of paint on the road, this is just the basic base colour. but already taking shape. 

 

 

 

the next challenge was to make the tunnel entrance for each side, i decided that as they are so close to the castle the best thing would be to make the entrance to match the main arch on the castle. 

 

i then had to build a rock wall on each side to make the cutting. obviously once this was done i had to do a bit of playing (testing)

 

https://youtu.be/zzXctuKx5Kw

 

 

 

[Jimmy styles]

so the next mission was to add the landscaping, the way in which i have done this is with simple plaster bandage and das air dry clay. 

 

i screwed up newspaper and added this where i wanted the hills. next was to add the plaster bandage, as this is my daughters layout she was keen to get involved and she helped throughout this entire process. 

 

 

 

so next up was to add the base colour and ballast.

 

i have used normal poster paints mixed into a dirty brown colour. 

 

for the ballast i have used fine N gauge ballast mixed with ballast magic to secure in place. 

 

 

 

 

now for the fun of adding grass etc.

 

 

 

 

[009 micro modeller]

Good to see the scenery taking shape. Plastercloth is a fun material to work with but does make a mess.

[Jimmy styles]

Yep but a fun mess

[Jimmy styles]

so for my next trick........ i had to get all the greenery done. i started off with ballast, i used n gauge fine ballast. once that was complete i then added static grass and i mixed two colours together as didnt want bright green. 

 

then i added bushes and other thicker scatter materials to build up the landscape. 

 

 

its almost a sin to cover the entire thing in snow. 

 

so i also had to build a tree but this tree had to be a christmas tree with lights in it.......... well what my little girl wants. 

 

so i built the tree using hanging basker liner, once the trunk and branches where completed and the whole thing sprayed brown i then added micro LED's for the lights and hid all the wires inside the trunk. i then added scatter material of conifer green to the tree. i used two colours of LED's to make that christmas feel. 

 

 

all in all im quite pleased so far 

 

[Charlie586]

Great little layout, and you've built it so quickly as well.

[luke the train spotter]

Very impressive, I like that the Christmas tree lights up.

[Guest mydadstoys]

A very nice layout lovely scenery work and the Christmas tree is a lovely idea.

[d&h]

 

so for my next trick........ i had to get all the greenery done. i started off with ballast, i used n gauge fine ballast. once that was complete i then added static grass and i mixed two colours together as didnt want bright green. 

 

then i added bushes and other thicker scatter materials to build up the landscape. 

 

2018-09-25 11.14.08.jpg

 

its almost a sin to cover the entire thing in snow. 

 

so i also had to build a tree but this tree had to be a christmas tree with lights in it.......... well what my little girl wants. 

 

so i built the tree using hanging basker liner, once the trunk and branches where completed and the whole thing sprayed brown i then added micro LED's for the lights and hid all the wires inside the trunk. i then added scatter material of conifer green to the tree. i used two colours of LED's to make that christmas feel. 

 

2018-09-20 19.02.00.jpg

 

all in all im quite pleased so far 

 

"its almost a sin to cover the entire thing in snow." I'm inclined to agree, now for the easier said than done comment, have you considered a "frosted" look. I do remember some time ago seeing a layout with this effect. I've know idea how this was achieved, but in your model a hoar frost would retain all the fine detail and keep the winter theme.