Balley-yn-Eas

[Chris Williamson]

A little more progress on the mine working terraces with the structure of the upper terrace now completed.  The outline of the original mock-up has been modified to better suit the site from a scenic perspective and to marginally improve access to the fiddle-yard in the light of operating experience - strictly from a testing perspective you understand. 

 

Both undersides:

 

 

Both topsides / scenery sides:

 

[Chris Williamson]

The structural element of the mine working terraces has now been assembled, complete with the ramp from the workshop and manager's office forecourt down to the level of the mine sidings.  Having previously considered a mirror-image ramp down to the loco shed, I've decided that steps will be more in keeping and appropriate to the scale of the site.  These won't need a supporting sub-structure in the way that a ramp might.  Some thought is now needed as to how best to clad the walls of the terraces.  As, in real-life, these walls would most likely not be plumb-vertical, I'm going to need a material that will allow me to introduce an appropriate 'batter'.  I suspect this leads me back to the use of the Peco / Wills walling sheets and the need to reduce the size of the larger stones to reflect the small, scrappy and random nature of Manx slate.  That's going to be quite a bit of work for this much wall.

 

The structure for the terraces in-situ without the mock-up mine buildings:

 

 

The structure for the terraces in-situ with the mock-up mine buildings in place:

 

Edited March 11, 2021 by Chris Williamson

[Chris Williamson]

How to clad foamboard?  Prior to embarking on the task of cladding the mine working terraces, I thought a little experimentation might be in order.  Something that would limit the quantity of materials destroyed in the case of failure.  The smaller of the chimney structures came to mind.  Cornelly Mine, the most northerly of the Foxdale mines, lies on one of our longer walks from the house.

 

The two chimneys are reasonably representative of the square chimneys constructed on the Island.  So I thought I'd tackle the smaller of the two.

 

 

There's slightly more batter on my model than on the original.  While I had thought to include granite quoins on both of my chimneys, I've now decided to omit them from the smaller, as is the case at Cornelly.  And while the original is constructed from small and irregular slate, I've opted to use the Wills dressed stone sheets to get something of the same effect without having to do too much work.

 

 

The cladding is glued to the substructure with PVA.  The abutting pieces are welded together with a brush-on cement / solvent.

 

 

The butt-joints in the cladding then need blending into the adjacent stonework.  Progress is slow, but somehow addictive and therapeutic at the same time.

 

[Chris Williamson]

Cladding the chimney continues ...

...slowly...

...not helped by cladding three sides of the top one evening and then, the following evening, loosing track of which courses of stone work I'd cut from the previous sheet when I came to cut out the last piece from a fresh sheet.  As I cut this oversize, width wise, and then trim once stuck and set, I didn't spot the error until too late, the following morning.  There was a perfect match of the courses at the bottom and also at the top, so you can see how I'd been fooled.  Alas, the disparity in the middle of the section was glaringly obvious once trimmed.  "Oh bother!" I exclaimed.

 

The offence was corrected by careful use of a sharp blade and some head scratching to fathom which courses were the correct ones.  Once sorted, all the edges could be blended in and tidied up.

 

Referring back to the photo of the smaller chimney at Cornelly, I then set about reproducing the brick capping courses.  This really is proving to be slow and fiddly work:

 

 

A closer view of the capping under construction:

 

 

And, finally, to give you an idea of how the two go together:

 

[Chris Williamson]

Brick capping all but done.  Took far longer than expected and was much more difficult than expected.  Not perfect, but I'm happy enough with the end result.  "Onwards and upwards!" as Fred Dibnah might have said.

 

[Chris Williamson]

Small chimney construction completed:

 

 

The chimney is since primed and awaiting painting.  Just a few days ago I spotted someone else's post regarding the destructive effect of rattle-can primer on polystyrene foam.  Suitably warned, a coat of PVA was applied to seal any remaining exposed edges of the  foamboard sub-structure.  Out of interest, I primed a fragment of scrap foamboard and, sure enough, the foam filler slowly dissolved as the paint penetrated!

 

Painting the goods shed is still a work in progress.  The shed notionally started out as a Wills kit.  Originally, I thought I'd use a few of the Wills building kits to speed up construction in the village.  I learnt two things: I wasn't happy with the look or the scale of many of the structures as, in reality, they just didn't address my desire for a Manx look; I'm more interested in creating something 'of my own' than slavishly completing or lightly modifying someone else's creation.  Of course, the down side to this is a much slower rate of construction than I'd originally anticipated.

 

A side-effect of the above is a whole boxful of components that can be incorporated into my creations.  The goods shed doors came from the Wills kit, albeit in considerably cut down form.  Another 'left-over' is the crane.  Maybe the mine needs one for heavy lifting between railway and the workshop and stores on the terrace above?  Space is tight, but this position might be plausible.  Thoughts, anyone?

 

[Woody C]

Hello Chris, You have my admiration for the skills and workmanship on the chimney as well as the rest of the layout but that chimney does look particularly good especially with that brick topping. Anyone who can work that sort of magic with Wills sheets has to have a lot of patience and talent which you obviously have. Woody

[CameronL]

On 29/03/2021 at 15:56, Chris Williamson said:

   Another 'left-over' is the crane.  Maybe the mine needs one for heavy lifting between railway and the workshop and stores on the terrace above?  Space is tight, but this position might be plausible.  Thoughts, anyone?

 

Hi Chris

The crane really fits in. As the terrace with the mine buildings is at a higher level than the railway there would be a need to lift things from rail level to mine level - such as deliveries of pit props from the NG railway to flat wagons on the mine tramway (if there is to be a mine tramway). This would be a regular occurrence. Various pieces of machinery would go the same way, as would coal for the boiler house if it's up there too. Depending on the type of mining, there might even be an occasional gunpowder delivery. 

 

Best wishes

 

Cam

Edited March 30, 2021 by CameronL
Added a bit

[Chris Williamson]

On 29/03/2021 at 19:01, Woody C said:

Hello Chris, You have my admiration for the skills and workmanship on the chimney as well as the rest of the layout but that chimney does look particularly good especially with that brick topping. Anyone who can work that sort of magic with Wills sheets has to have a lot of patience and talent which you obviously have. Woody

That's very kind of you to say so.  To be honest I'm not sure if it's patience and talent or just a peculiar form of OCD.  I'm going to have to spend some time on other domestic projects before long, including the garden, if I'm not to be so accused by the Domestic Authority here.  And I still have to learn how to paint the finished article; a skill I'm still wrestling with.  I'm increasingly of the opinion that the very best of the modelling we all admire and aspire to emulate has been painted by artists with a keen eye and a talent for replicating the colours, tints and shades they have observed in real life.  I'd say you've done a fair job of doing that with your layout and I'll be happy I end up with a result that measures up once I've got that far.

[Chris Williamson]

7 hours ago, CameronL said:

Hi Chris

The crane really fits in. As the terrace with the mine buildings is at a higher level than the railway there would be a need to lift things from rail level to mine level - such as deliveries of pit props from the NG railway to flat wagons on the mine tramway (if there is to be a mine tramway). This would be a regular occurrence. Various pieces of machinery would go the same way, as would coal for the boiler house if it's up there too. Depending on the type of mining, there might even be an occasional gunpowder delivery. 

 

Best wishes

 

Cam

Thanks Cam. That's the sort of thing I had in mind.  Lead, zinc and even a little poor quality silver are mined.  For now, the mine tramway is 'off-stage'.  I'm out of room to include anything of it on the terraces.  That said, I'm wondering about including an addit below the terraces just above river level with access by a bridge.  That might present an opportunity to include a 6mm gauge line for the Ant or the Bee to run on!  I'm certainly going to need a drainage addit out to the river in the vicinity of the larger engine house from which the pump is driven.

[CameronL]

15 hours ago, Chris Williamson said:

  That said, I'm wondering about including an addit below the terraces just above river level with access by a bridge.  That might present an opportunity to include a 6mm gauge line for the Ant or the Bee to run on!  

I must admit I was thinking about the Great Laxey Mines railway when I posted above. I'm sure there's a suitable z-gauge 0-4-0 that could be bashed into something Ant-ish or Bee-like.

[Woody C]

23 hours ago, Chris Williamson said:

That's very kind of you to say so.  To be honest I'm not sure if it's patience and talent or just a peculiar form of OCD.  I'm going to have to spend some time on other domestic projects before long, including the garden, if I'm not to be so accused by the Domestic Authority here.  And I still have to learn how to paint the finished article; a skill I'm still wrestling with.  I'm increasingly of the opinion that the very best of the modelling we all admire and aspire to emulate has been painted by artists with a keen eye and a talent for replicating the colours, tints and shades they have observed in real life.  I'd say you've done a fair job of doing that with your layout and I'll be happy I end up with a result that measures up once I've got that far.

Hello Chris, Many thanks for your very kind words. I am no artist but I have to admit since I started military modelling 12 years ago I have changed some of the things I do and the way I look at things in railway modelling. That and getting older - you do learn from mistakes over the years and I have made many and still do but with age you do begin to work smarter not harder as a Canadian trucker said on his blog. I think we can all aspire but never doubt your own skills and always be proud of what you make - you are the only one who can say 'I made that' and seeing what you have produced so far on this thread I'd say 'You made it and its looking good!'

 

On the painting front, and again a lot from my military modelling, but I turned this

 

 

into this in about two hours using a minimum of different colours. May not be the greatest but it was quick and might be the look your after. more details on my blog at this page Apologies for putting pictures on your thread but trust they may help?

 

 

 

 

 

[Chris Williamson]

On 31/03/2021 at 21:04, Woody C said:

Hello Chris, Many thanks for your very kind words. I am no artist but I have to admit since I started military modelling 12 years ago I have changed some of the things I do and the way I look at things in railway modelling. That and getting older - you do learn from mistakes over the years and I have made many and still do but with age you do begin to work smarter not harder as a Canadian trucker said on his blog. I think we can all aspire but never doubt your own skills and always be proud of what you make - you are the only one who can say 'I made that' and seeing what you have produced so far on this thread I'd say 'You made it and its looking good!'

 

On the painting front, and again a lot from my military modelling, but I turned this

 

 

into this in about two hours using a minimum of different colours. May not be the greatest but it was quick and might be the look your after. more details on my blog at this page Apologies for putting pictures on your thread but trust they may help?

 

 

 

 

 

I've no problem with other people's pictures in this thread and thanks for sharing.  The link is very informative, too.  The more we share, successes as well as failures, the more we can learn from each other.  Having just acquired an airbrush from a certain Merseyside retailer, I'm now absorbing George Dent's Airbrushing for Railway Modellers from the Crowood Press.  There's a lot to take in before I'm going to feel confident of turning the airbrush on hours of work.  Practice on scrap  appears to be the way to get started.

[Chris Williamson]

On 31/03/2021 at 13:26, CameronL said:

I must admit I was thinking about the Great Laxey Mines railway when I posted above. I'm sure there's a suitable z-gauge 0-4-0 that could be bashed into something Ant-ish or Bee-like.

A while back I acquired a Copy of Andrew Scarffe's book, published by the Manx Heritage Foundation, now Culture Vannin:

 

 

It's a fantastic source regarding structures, buildings and working practices, not to mention the history.  At best, I'm not sure I'm going to have room, or time, for anything other than a static representation.  But it would be interesting to know if anyone has thoughts on creating a z-gauge based working model in 4mm scale?

 

 

[Chris Williamson]

Referring back to Andrew Scarffe's book. Here's the inspiration for my mines office and workshop:

 

 

Space available has dictated that the prototype design be 'cut-down' for my model.  Anyway, heartened by the success of using foamboard as the substructure for the small chimney, work has started on a foamboard 'frame' for this building.  As the majority of the faces will be larger than any one sheet of Wills walling, the structure is too big to be put together without a sub-structure to build around.

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say I am enjoying working with foamboard.  It's very easy material to work with and structures like this can be quite quickly put together.

 

The sun shines and the gardening awaits, so cladding is going to be an activity for evenings unless the weather turns.

[Chris Williamson]

A little progress made on cladding.  Now it's available, I thought I'd try out the new Wills slate walling.  Others have already observed that these sheets include a number of overly large blocks of slate even by Snowdonian standards.  How many 4mm workmen would it have taken to put the biggest of the monoliths into the wall?  Needless to say, some work is going to be required with the sharp knife to cut these down to Manx proportions.  The big question in my mind was how readily was I going to be able to 'blend' joints, particularly on any apex where two walls meet.  A couple of evenings allowed an experiment on a gable-end and chimney stack. 

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

 

A single sheet isn't tall enough to clad the entire Gable and stack.  There are three pieces and two joints in the following view.  The first in line with the 'cut-out' for the terrace and the other half way up the height of the stack.  I just needed another 10mm or so to get to full height.  Here are a couple of views of the overall effect:

 

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by Chris Williamson

[Woody C]

Hi Chris, Looks good to me even with you highlighting where the joints are! Talking about 'blending', have you ever tried Vallejo plastic acrylic putty sold in the same bottles as the paint comes in https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vallejo-Model-Color-Plastic-Putty/dp/B000PHCNLC It is a paintable putty , i.e. you can use a fine wet brush to move it about and use it to fill fine gaps and even create small shapes. Being acrylic and a very fine putty, a damp cloth can be used to wipe away the excess so avoiding the need for sanding. If you do need to sand it, it is that fine no effort is needed. It has saved me a lot of heartache dealing with Wills sheets in the past. Apologies if you already know about it but hope this is of use. 

 

Woody

[TangoOscarMike]

On 02/04/2021 at 13:21, Chris Williamson said:

But it would be interesting to know if anyone has thoughts on creating a z-gauge based working model in 4mm scale?

 

These things are a source of constant temptation for me:

 

https://www.lightrailwaystores.co.uk/collections/all/006-5

https://www.busch-model.info/modellbau/katalog/loks-wagen-zubehoer/feldbahn-lokomotiven-wagen/?p=1

 

I agree with the others - excellent stonework.

[Chris Williamson]

On 06/04/2021 at 22:24, Woody C said:

Hi Chris, Looks good to me even with you highlighting where the joints are! Talking about 'blending', have you ever tried Vallejo plastic acrylic putty sold in the same bottles as the paint comes in https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vallejo-Model-Color-Plastic-Putty/dp/B000PHCNLC It is a paintable putty , i.e. you can use a fine wet brush to move it about and use it to fill fine gaps and even create small shapes. Being acrylic and a very fine putty, a damp cloth can be used to wipe away the excess so avoiding the need for sanding. If you do need to sand it, it is that fine no effort is needed. It has saved me a lot of heartache dealing with Wills sheets in the past. Apologies if you already know about it but hope this is of use. 

 

Woody

Many thanks Woody.  That looks like another great tip that could save time and effort, not to mention providing a means of saving work that might otherwise be beyond redemption.

[Chris Williamson]

On 07/04/2021 at 07:10, TangoOscarMike said:

 

These things are a source of constant temptation for me:

 

https://www.lightrailwaystores.co.uk/collections/all/006-5

https://www.busch-model.info/modellbau/katalog/loks-wagen-zubehoer/feldbahn-lokomotiven-wagen/?p=1

 

I agree with the others - excellent stonework.

It's got to be done some time!  All I need to do is to find the time and the space.  Looks ideal for a layout incorporating a larger mineworking.  The tramway from inside the the Great Laxey Mines to the washing floors was built to a gauge of 19 inches, while the tramway from the washing floors down to the harbour had a gauge of three feet.

 

Rolling Stock | The Great Laxey Mines Railway (laxeyminerailway.im)

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by Chris Williamson

[Chris Williamson]

Poor weather over that last couple of days provided the opportunity to work on the next section of cladding.  A start has been made on the bay window that's such a distinctive feature of this building; the basic frame being constructed 'in -situ', but without being attached to the cladding.  The assembly can then be completed and painted separately before being attached permanently once everything has been painted.

 

 

Sorry the photo is upside down, but I don't appear to be able to get it to upload the right way up!

 

The dilemma, now, is how best to complete the finer details of the window frames; both the bay window and the other windows?  I've not found anything remotely suitable that's available for purchase.  To my mind that leaves three options: construct from fine strip - difficult and time consuming; cut out from thin plasticard as a single piece - also difficult and time consuming, with the risk of one slip of the blade ruining the work thus far; scribe the glazing with the desired design followed by the careful application of paint to represent the glazing bars, wiping the glazing clean where needed.  As far as I recall, the third option always worked well for me in my N-Gauge days.  But then you can get away with that sort of thing in 2mm scale.

 

Thoughts, anyone?  A pertinent WOW, perhaps??

[Woody C]

Hello Chris, I won't call it a WOW but I think it might have been the much missed Allan Downes (apologies if I have wrongly attributed this) who used sticky labels. The method was to use a sharp scalpel to cut out the frame just as you would in plasticard. However the paper label was much easier to cut then plasticard and given the fact that is was self adhesive there were no issues with glue clouding the glazing material as would be the case with most solvent glues that would be needed for plasticard. Labels are available in a variety of colours but once cut out and before application to the glazing material they can be painted with acrylics including the cut edge. You would still need to be careful in cutting your frame out but there are savings in time and potential mishaps are minimised.

 

Hope this may be of use or you may just say 'Wow, why did I ask!' 

 

Woody

[Chris Williamson]

On 12/04/2021 at 21:01, Woody C said:

Hello Chris, I won't call it a WOW but I think it might have been the much missed Allan Downes (apologies if I have wrongly attributed this) who used sticky labels. The method was to use a sharp scalpel to cut out the frame just as you would in plasticard. However the paper label was much easier to cut then plasticard and given the fact that is was self adhesive there were no issues with glue clouding the glazing material as would be the case with most solvent glues that would be needed for plasticard. Labels are available in a variety of colours but once cut out and before application to the glazing material they can be painted with acrylics including the cut edge. You would still need to be careful in cutting your frame out but there are savings in time and potential mishaps are minimised.

 

Hope this may be of use or you may just say 'Wow, why did I ask!' 

 

Woody

WOW! That sounds like a great idea that's just got to be tried.

 

Of my three other options I can report as follows on a trial build of a small nine-pane (3x3) window:

 

Construction from fine strip - has indeed proved difficult and time consuming; didn't quite manage to get all the glazing bars at right angles to each other when made of two full length verticals cut to fit inside the frame and the two horizontal bars cut from three pieces each so that they fitted between both the frame and the verticals; the end result was just about acceptable if a little 'rustic' in appearance.

 

Cutting out from thin plasticard as a single piece - also proved difficult and time consuming, with a final appearance that was far from convincing; it's well nigh impossible to make neat square cuts, even by trimming little by little, and keep everything perpendicular; then end result really wasn't very convincing at all. 

 

Scribing the glazing with the desired design followed by the careful application of paint to represent the glazing bars, wiping the glazing clean where needed - well this worked up to a point but, while being quick, was messy and it proved difficult to clean the glazing without also removing paint from where it was wanted.

 

This last approach in turn inspired me to attempt a fourth method, currently in process - having lightly scribed the frame and glazing bars, I applied 6mm masking tape to part of the design in the horizontal direction so that one frame bar and one glazing bar were left exposed and the exposed bars were then painted between the tape.  Once the paint had hardened for a couple of hours the tape was carefully removed.  The end result looks reasonable in appearance.  I'll leave this for a week or so to fully harden prior to repeating for the remaining horizontals.  This process can then hopefully be repeated for the verticals if the tape doesn't lift the existing horizontal paint at the time of removal.  This will be slow work with the need for the paint to harden sufficiently between stages.  If this works, the big plus is that I can play with the tape until I'm happy it's in the right place without risking damage to any of the work so far.

 

But the WOW has to be tried as it will be so much quicker and easier to execute if the end result looks good enough.

 

Alas, very recent sad and unexpected news from a far corner of the British Isles is going to put modelling on the back-burner while I take up the duties of Executor over the coming months.  Updates here are likely to be infrequent or non-existent for some while to come. 

Edited April 14, 2021 by Chris Williamson

[Woody C]

Hello Chris, Trust that all goes as well as these things can do with regard to your duties over the next few months. Been in a similar situation recently so appreciate it is not an easy time for you.

No doubt you'll keep an eye on the forum even if your own modelling takes a backseat. I will be at some stage probably be creating a Woody POW or as it will be know Project of Woe where anything that can go wrong has and will no doubt continue to go wrong! Makes a change from a WOW!

Woody

[Chris Williamson]

Balley-yn-Eas is back!

 

Thankfully I have only had to make one trip off the Island, albeit for a number of weeks.  I'm hoping there's no further need to travel as the best part of a 1000 mile round trip isn't something I'm in a hurry to repeat any time soon.  My most pressing duties have been fulfilled and all that remains is to deal with occasional correspondence over the coming months.  Since my last post back in April I have managed to snatch the odd hour to continue work on the office and workshop building.  It's an activity that has provided the perfect balance of distraction and occupational therapy at those times I have most needed the like.

 

I'll post more in due course, but in the mean time, here's a couple of pictures relating to the struggle to make Wills slate roofing sheets join and blend.  This is work in progress and I hope to be able to improve on what you see here by means of judicious use of needle file and sharp knife.

 

 

 

Work in progress on the operators side of the roof and the 'raw' joint on the layout side:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Closer view of work in progress on the operators side of the roof:

 

 

Edited July 5, 2021 by Chris Williamson