Wot Halt or trying to get back into railway modelling

[Kevin Johnson]

It’s all a learning curve even for the experienced of modellers. I’m sure it will all turn out well as your modelling skills are really good.

[jetmorgan]

Well it's been a while since I updated my Wot Halt thread, mostly because I have just been posting on my facebook profile but decided I ought to get back into the habit of updating here too. Before getting the track laid and ballasted and the platform fitted I needed to sort out the roadway colour and surface look I wanted. What I really wanted was the look of a road made of fine sandy yellow coloured gravel spread over a bed of tar. I couldn't get the surface I liked from anything so I ended up doing the best I could with polyfilla and getting it as smooth as I could but with a rough-ish looking surface. What I did find during a visit to the Uckfield show I came across these Town and Country scenic textured paints. After a bit of playing around with them....they really need a long, long good shake and stir to get the particles mixed. The surface was looking okay but the colour of the sand was too light or white.  So a first time visit to Squires in Bognor and I got a bottle of Humbrol Sand wash and also a spray can of desert yellow to see what I could so with those. First attempt with the sand wash was a bit of a disaster as it was just too brown when painted on with a brush so I tried stippling it with a small piece of foam and got what looked like a better result. So I started again with an overpaint of the textured paint.

[jetmorgan]

Second of the updates this evening. Had another go with painting the roadway to get the colour I had in my head. Almost there and probably about the best I can get. Tired the sand wash again, only this time I thinned it down even further than it already is, about 50/50. I then used a wood stick from the coffee shops to drip small amounts onto the road and then used some foam rubber to stipple the paint about. Now looking a bit more like the idea I had in my head. Now that was all done I could now glue the track into place along with the halt platform, occupation crossing and the bridge. I also made a start on the ballasting but more of that in a future posting.

[jbmccarthy]

Such a great scene will start following this with interest. Some great modelling here.

[jetmorgan]

3 hours ago, jbmccarthy said:

Such a great scene will start following this with interest. Some great modelling here.

Thanks for that...more pics to come in the next day or so. Not so sure about the great modelling as I'm back to being a beginner. Also have to start some threads for my other modelling efforts, including 2 layouts so will have to start those as well this weekend.

[jbmccarthy]

10 hours ago, jetmorgan said:

Thanks for that...more pics to come in the next day or so. Not so sure about the great modelling as I'm back to being a beginner. Also have to start some threads for my other modelling efforts, including 2 layouts so will have to start those as well this weekend.

 

Look forarwd to more pictures. When you have started the threads for the other layouts please share them here, would like to follow those as well.

[jetmorgan]

Last update for the moment. Ballasting started using DC Concepts 2mm Legacy ballast dark grey. the look I was going for was a line that had been cheaply ballasted with ash, cinders and old dirty ballast and the DC concepts stuff gave the nearest colour to what I was looking for, very dark grey's for the ash & cinders and lighter brown bits to represent the old ballast. laying it down it went in fine and looked good but as soon as I started gluing it down with a watered down PVA mix along with a drop of washing up liquid, the ballast turned a very dark dark grey and the lighter brown specks almost disappeared. Also the matt, dry look to the ballast disappeared as well and while a bit of the colour has returned it's still very dark for what I was wanting and once dried it has a bit of a sheen to it. Possibly I had too much glue to water. I also didn't have enough washing up liquid either as when dropped onto the dry ballast it made all the ballast bobble up and clump on top off the sleepers. Anyway I still have some areas to ballast so I can experiment a bit more and see what happens. 

 

Also had a little photo session play with some of the trains.

[jetmorgan]

1 hour ago, jbmccarthy said:

 

Look forarwd to more pictures. When you have started the threads for the other layouts please share them here, would like to follow those as well.

Right started the first of my layout threads....Ball Spond Road. Posted some of the early pictures of the baseboard building but more to come

[jamest]

Hi there,

 

Great to see this layout back with updates - I've started a small layout that is very similar (uses the same wills bridge) all because I liked the look of this. I need to do some updates too!

 

Reference your ballasting woes - I'm not sure on the colour problems - but the clumping when applying the water/PVA mix can be helped by misting the ballast with water from a spray bottle first.

 

It looks pretty good to me though - you always seem to need to do some cleaning up/vacuuming afterwards anyway. The annoying bit is if you remove paint from the track/sleepers when doing so.

 

Anyway, good to see this back on RMweb.

 

regards,

James

[jbmccarthy]

23 minutes ago, jetmorgan said:

Right started the first of my layout threads....Ball Spond Road. Posted some of the early pictures of the baseboard building but more to come

 

Thanks, I have found the thread. Have started following that, it's off to a great start.