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Windmill End


k22009
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  • RMweb Gold

I made up a couple of walls, fitted the one next to the goods platform but just temporarily positioned the others. I added a gate to the access to the foundry but the gap across the 2 lines leading to the transhipment area was too small for the gates i had hoped to fit.

 

IMAG3899.jpg.602316e08684c50f02ff57a3fccee32e.jpg so i decided to make a drawing to suit the measurements and make a pair up from brass strip

 

IMAG3902.jpg.714a0115e60b7f54da957c8a4e6883b7.jpg

 

After a couple of hours of cutting and soldering i ended up with a reasonable pair of gates with posts on working hinges.

IMAG3904.jpg.ca605e226ba9f0ffeda268b6230e3996.jpg

 

Dave

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  • RMweb Gold

Bracings reversed, gates and posts primed and positioned to make sure there's enough clearance.

 

Closed 

 

IMAG3909.jpg.1125bccc0763ca5428669b1ff47fc054.jpg

 

Open

 

IMAG3910.jpg.587f1477244145de68435bd5ca10d8c1.jpg

 

I'll finish off the ballasting now and position the walls before fixing the gates in position.

 

Dave

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • RMweb Gold

I got the ballasting around the gates tidied up with the walls fixed into place so i turned my attention to the area between the foundry building and the engine sheds. I had wanted to include another building with a steam hammer, oven and a stationary boiler providing steam so i traced a small plan of the area using a couple of sheets of A4 and set to making a building to fit within the parameters. I was fortunate to pick up an Auhagen Steam Hammer kit from Ebay which came with all the necessary piping, work benches, oven etc. The building i've made is half open with a runway beam down the middle of the interior which will have a chain hoist attached at some point. The pipework was a bit tricky but got it fitted along with the pipe brackets. I've just primed the stationary boiler which was a GEM kit  and the pipework to connect up to it needs painting. With the roof on you'll not see much i guess.

 

Steam Hammer building without the roof.

IMAG3919.jpg.80d833f91c039c2857f31f9527f648a6.jpgIMAG3920.jpg.ac4186d70193d900491c258e4c455e2d.jpg

 

With the roof and louvred vent just positioned on top, i'll fix it once the assembly gets positioned on the layout.

 

IMAG3921.jpg.4a062ef27759f2c73ea23c4ef835300e.jpg

 

Dave

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  • RMweb Gold

Quick update with the forge building in situ (roof still not secured though).

 

IMAG3934.jpg.f9a1ed7843a980e81aa38b53cb40248a.jpg

 

I'll add a small low level lean to shed to the end of the building to break up the wall.

 

IMAG3932.jpg.d8e5bcbb6db04dfa936eac0cd383536f.jpg

 

As i mentioned in the previous post the walls are now positioned, i need to add a few items to the foundry and boiler house before they get secured in place, ie cupola chimney. The small chimney and water tank are not painted yet.

 

IMAG3935.jpg.bd985e40f78cea7ca6391d8fe6d55f95.jpg

 

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  • RMweb Gold

There has always been a lot of conjecture about why the area is called the Black Country, but probably named from the "Thick Black" the coal seams that were the basis of most of the industry, i'm sure the colour and ambience caused by pollution etc had a part in it too though.

From my memory in the 60's it was much much cleaner than it must've been in late Victorian up to the mid 1900's time. I do remember you could taste the air and the smell on some days was something else. Probably from rotting rubbish and the general filth that was pumped into the canals, the sulphur from the myriad foundrys and the general smog from burning coal. 

I recently bought an excellent book by the local artist Arthur Lockwood (with some work by his father Frank too) which shows the general dilapidation and gives a real flavour of the area during it's recent industrial decline.

 

I will need to get a few test pieces made to hone my non existent weathering skills before i let loose on the layout. Any tips would be appreciated.

 

Dave

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  • RMweb Gold

A little more work done to either end of the layout.

 

First up was to provide a suitable scene where the lines will eventaually go to the fiddle yards, i decided on an aquaduct. The canals at Dudley are at different levels and at one point cross each other (at the Tividale end of the Netherton tunnel) so i thought it would be an appropriate way of providing a full width layout termination. Its slightly on the skew so that i could get a sliced narrow boat into the scene too. The scalescenes viaduct was used with an additional section added to accommodate the additional depth of the canal itself.

 

IMAG3958.jpg.f525aa8e6157a7871913f2c96244cc78.jpg

IMAG3959.jpg.dc31d7514cfb44700a142b66cec5086a.jpg

 

At the other end i made a small loading platform and once again clad an LCUT laser building in scalescenes paper to provide the office, a small lock gate has tidied up the canal.

 

IMAG3961.jpg.1cd058286ff83e3520a6b691d32bab03.jpg

IMAG3962.jpg.46ff6fbe15d3f32c479946099ccf28c1.jpg

 

Next up is the area between the new aquaduct and signal box and the area between the half relief small factory and station area. 

 

Dave

 

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  • RMweb Gold

This is a lovely project and is coming together very well.

 

Your treatment of the card building kits, especially the Scalescenes ones, is skilled and convincing.

 

In terms of weathering card buildings, such as Scalescenes, I have a few to do myself some time and I was given some advice by Mick Bonwick, no less, that spraying the card surface with a matt varnish (I plan to use some original Dullcote) and then using weathering powders was one way to go.

 

I had done one or two of my card structures that way already, albeit without having sprayed the Dullcote on beforehand, but the powders do seem to work.

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Thanks, i've found the Scalescenes kits get easier to manipulate after you've done one or two.

 

I've still to add the small details to all of the buildings, ie gutters and certainly more details like vents etc to the industrial buildings which in my opinion can make quite a marked difference. I will probably print off one or two sheets of brick paper cut them up into maybe 3" squares on card and try the weathering powders along with some artists acrylic crayons to try and get the desired under maintained, polluted, tired buildings they probably would have been like. I don't have an airbrush so it will be either rattle can applied or brushed on weathering. All of the buildings have had a couple of quick wafts of the matt varnish already.

 

I've a couple of small buildings to sort then i'll try a few samples which i'll post on here with the results.

 

Dave

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  • RMweb Gold

Spring has got in the way of doing to much lately and the garden has been needing some attention. However i have done a little more.

 

Finished off most of the buildings construction now with the addition of the glass works  under the aquaduct complete with bottle kiln, walls around the signal box. A small oil storage area with a narrow access platform for connectiing the tankers to the pipework and some dust filters added to one of the low relief buildings. I also made a start on the backscene painting, looks mediocre in my eyes but its better than the large expanse of white, i'll need to titivate it as time goes on.

 

IMAG4038.jpg.ab9c608915c62246df6714d7aaa37f0f.jpg

IMAG4035.jpg.23fe673eda09d299e30c3a43b52440fb.jpg

a.jpg.c6d116009d6169b6d9ac1bcf48416d5f.jpg

 

I'll probably have a little break now as i want to get a small loco built. But i'll get the trial done for the weathering soon on various selections of brick paper etc to see which is the best method. The weathering will be the next job i think.

 

Cheers

 

Dave

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I have only just caught up on your thread. Beautiful and expert modelling. Thank you for sharing your stages of construction.

 

One aspect which intrigues me is your use of wire in tube operation for points, using sliding switches, which is exactly what I intend to do for sidings and for my fiddle yard. However, you do not appear to have used any omega loops or cranks, which is what other advice seems to consider essential, but I was never sure why. Has this worked well for you?

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Hi Mike, Thanks for the kind comment, i did consider adding omega loops or similar but i only have a narrow strip of ply (50mm wide) on which to mount the switches etc so it would have been difficult to have used them. I guess they ensure a positive pressure is always applied  to keep the turnout in the desired position. Instead i bought mini slide switches (there seems to be several sizes available) which happen to have the same travel as the turnout blades, i always bond the blades to the stock rail for both the 009 turnouts and the handmade EM ones just in case there is a small gap, it all helps alleviate any electrical problems. In the end i used some plastruct tubing with 0.7mm dia nickel silver rods buried into the foam board layer. Seems to work ok for me anyway. I guess if you were using omega loops you would need to use sprung steel wire or something similar however.

 

Dave

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On 26/04/2019 at 18:11, k22009 said:

A little more work done to either end of the layout.

 

First up was to provide a suitable scene where the lines will eventaually go to the fiddle yards, i decided on an aquaduct. The canals at Dudley are at different levels and at one point cross each other (at the Tividale end of the Netherton tunnel) so i thought it would be an appropriate way of providing a full width layout termination. Its slightly on the skew so that i could get a sliced narrow boat into the scene too. The scalescenes viaduct was used with an additional section added to accommodate the additional depth of the canal itself.

 

IMAG3958.jpg.f525aa8e6157a7871913f2c96244cc78.jpg

IMAG3959.jpg.dc31d7514cfb44700a142b66cec5086a.jpg

 

At the other end i made a small loading platform and once again clad an LCUT laser building in scalescenes paper to provide the office, a small lock gate has tidied up the canal.

 

IMAG3961.jpg.1cd058286ff83e3520a6b691d32bab03.jpg

IMAG3962.jpg.46ff6fbe15d3f32c479946099ccf28c1.jpg

 

Next up is the area between the new aquaduct and signal box and the area between the half relief small factory and station area. 

 

Dave

 

 

That is lovely workmanship :) 

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