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Wolverhampton West Park - A run down city terminus


turtlebah
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10 hours ago, Adrian Stevenson said:

Looking really good!

 

Thanks Adrian - there’s a long way to go and I’ve got a little one on the way in November so the clock is ticking!

Edited by turtlebah
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In addition i’ve also started the very boring job of assembling the cassettes for the fiddle yard (expertly provided by Martin of Model Railway Solutions). I’ve still not really thought about how to connect them, but thought about having connector wires at each end that can be linked under the baseboard, although that seems quite fiddly. Maybe good old fashioned crocodile clips above the board...Any suggestions welcome.

 

The view below also shows the two warehouse sidings in front of the fiddle yard.

 

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Edited by turtlebah
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  • 5 weeks later...

Whilst on holiday this week I took the opportunity to make a start on the station overall roof - creating the structure involves kit bashing a job lot of Dapol canopies together.

 

846811E3-A985-484D-BB89-8E135668CCDB.jpeg.39c6555aba196c3e5cd5a9386e90ed40.jpeg

 

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Llanvair Grange waits in platform 2 with a local semi-fast to Shrewsbury. The class 47 in the middle road is awaiting it’s empty stock to arrive to form a stopping service to Hereford.

 

 

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7 hours ago, turtlebah said:

creating the structure involves kit bashing a job lot of Dapol canopies together.

Watching with interest as that’s in my plan too on a much lesser scale.

Paul.

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29 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

Watching with interest as that’s in my plan too on a much lesser scale.

Paul.

 

Sadly my abilities don’t quite stretch to scratch building such a structure yet, but I think the Dapol canopy frames provide a good solid starting point. Hopefully something similar to snow hill / Shrewsbury will evolve, but let’s see.

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28 minutes ago, turtlebah said:

 

Sadly my abilities don’t quite stretch to scratch building such a structure yet, but I think the Dapol canopy frames provide a good solid starting point. Hopefully something similar to snow hill / Shrewsbury will evolve, but let’s see.

I really won't worry about your abilities to scratch build the canopies you will find that the Dapol / Airfix kits will make a very convincing structure which you can weather to suit the scene that you are looking to produce. 

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  • 1 month later...

It’s all been a bit quiet on the modelling front the past month or so. Saturdays tend to spent on a cricket field rather than in the “railway room”. Progress has been slow, but here’s a few picks of recent work.

 

I’ve started using das clay to fill in some of the sidings and platform areas where locos were stationary for significant periods of time. One thing i often notice on terminus layouts is that modellers ballast them as if they were running lines, but in reality ballast, ash, water, cinders etc often combine to form a thick grimy silt. Hopefully das clay and a bit of chinchilla dust (tip picked up from a Barry Norman book) should create the correct grimy atmosphere.

 

BDDB5CE3-3D60-4F17-A9BF-B3184F69AA4F.jpeg.586e558814f72eed5e680f44e97a390b.jpeg

 

Ballasting of other areas is also underway - i’m using a light grey 2mm ballast. I like starting with a light colour and then darkening.

 

C443DC63-5C2E-4EA6-8B94-4C6DFBCC70E0.jpeg.3fedb82e37b89270ead12d4c478442a8.jpeg

 

Finally, a 52xx awaits its next duty in the headshunt for the warehouse sidings. Note the temporary platform canopy support...

 

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Edited by turtlebah
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8 minutes ago, Robert Shrives said:

Hi 

looking good , point rodding does add to the scene, muted colours really help and good running on vids - a good start and looking forward to updates

Robert  

 

Thanks Rob, i think with colours more is definitely less. I always think it’s amazing when you look at the real railway how much sleepers, ballast and other stuff can blend into one over time (although not always the case). Hopefully the muted colours will achieve the run down look of a station earmarked for closure.

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2 hours ago, sb67 said:

Really good Layout turtlebah, the canopy looks great and I like the idea of using DAS at the ends of the platforms. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Steve.

 

Hi Steve, i’m trying to get as much as possible done before November when our little girl arrives! It’s a mad race to the line to get much of it finished and will have to be a fine balancing act between nursery and West Park decorating.

 

Really enjoyed your scratch building on Pecketts Wharf, especially the walkway. It looks great :-)

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10 hours ago, turtlebah said:

 

Hi Steve, i’m trying to get as much as possible done before November when our little girl arrives! It’s a mad race to the line to get much of it finished and will have to be a fine balancing act between nursery and West Park decorating.

 

Really enjoyed your scratch building on Pecketts Wharf, especially the walkway. It looks great :-)

 

Thank you turtlebah, I'm still doing a bit of work bedding the building in then got another area to think about.

I'm interested how you colour the ballast, that's something I've not done too much of and as you say over time it all seems to blend together, something that I think is hard to get right in model form as I think you need a subtle change in colours in places.

Steve.

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20 hours ago, sb67 said:

 

Thank you turtlebah, I'm still doing a bit of work bedding the building in then got another area to think about.

I'm interested how you colour the ballast, that's something I've not done too much of and as you say over time it all seems to blend together, something that I think is hard to get right in model form as I think you need a subtle change in colours in places.

Steve.

 

To be honest, Steve, I’m no expert.

 

That said, general plan was to start with a generous layer of precision paints 961 sleeper grime. Application with an airbrush gives some nice subtle differences in concentration on top of the light grey ballast.

 

Afterwards, and using a combination of sooty / oily coloured paints and weathering powders, I like to highlight details and areas of particular grime and add some static grass to give an air of dereliction.

 

Finally, I use weathering powders to rust the rail sides. I prefer using powders for this as I think they give a much more realistic and subtle finish rather than just bright orange.

 

As I said though, this isn’t necessarily tried and tested, just a mash-up of tips I’ve picked up on this very forum! Hopefully it looks good once complete...watch this space I guess

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17 hours ago, turtlebah said:

 

To be honest, Steve, I’m no expert.

 

That said, general plan was to start with a generous layer of precision paints 961 sleeper grime. Application with an airbrush gives some nice subtle differences in concentration on top of the light grey ballast.

 

Afterwards, and using a combination of sooty / oily coloured paints and weathering powders, I like to highlight details and areas of particular grime and add some static grass to give an air of dereliction.

 

Finally, I use weathering powders to rust the rail sides. I prefer using powders for this as I think they give a much more realistic and subtle finish rather than just bright orange.

 

As I said though, this isn’t necessarily tried and tested, just a mash-up of tips I’ve picked up on this very forum! Hopefully it looks good once complete...watch this space I guess

 

Thanks. I'm sure it will look fine, looking forward to seeing it.

Steve.

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Ballasting work continued this evening. A combination of using 2mm ballast and the track being the thin sleeper C&L flexitrack means that ballasting has been a bit more challenging than i was anticipating. There’s only a thin layer of small material, which seems to make the required capillary action harder to achieve and ballast ends up going all over the track and sleepers. I’ve tried using the traditional PVA, water, washing up liquid combo as well as ballast bond, but the same result occurs and it’s a real pain scrapping ballast from the track sides and sleepers once it’s set.

 

To negate this i’ve decided to just paint some PVA in between the sleepers and then sprinkle ballast on top, which gives a thin base layer i can then, once set, add more ballast to and use more traditional methods to fix in place. The thin base later seems to promote capillary action. I’ve then filled in any remaining gaps with painted PVA and sprinkled chinchilla dust. I think end result looks pretty good so far and the finer chinchilla dust offers some natural variation. Lots of additional track and ballast weathering to crack on with once we get the ballasting completed. It takes a little longer this way, but I think the end result will be worth it.

 

55xx sits over the ballasted area with a local service.

 

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An 8F sits in the loop siding waiting for a clear road to proceed towards Oxley sidings with a small freight - looking quite sorry for itself.

 

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Edited by turtlebah
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15 minutes ago, turtlebah said:

I was kinda going for Snow Hill meets Moor St (with a bit of artistic license).

 

Well your artistic license has paid off because its a masterpiece

 

I had my artistic license revoked for modelling without due care and attention

 

 

Edited by chuffinghell
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4 minutes ago, chuffinghell said:

 

Well your artistic license has paid off because its a masterpiece

 

I had my artistic license revoked for modelling without due care and attention

 

 

 

How do you get your artistic license back? Do you have to do an modelling awareness course...

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