Wessex & West: Avonbury to Lostwithlea! Early 90's GWR Wessex to Cornwall multi-deck layout

[Rhysb]

15 hours ago, SouthernMafia said:

Hi Rhys,

 

Good to see this great layout again, I followed Kevin's progress on it for some time so it's good to see it with a new owner being looked after. Looking forward to the stock updates, the weathering looks great and will inspire me to crack on with my ever expanding fleet some day!

 

Thanks Rich! Will need your help to create a REP soon!

 

Speaking of stock updates over the last week of lockdown I have decided to attack my civils rake particularly the Seacows and Sealion wagons.

 

My stock of Hornby seacow wagons is that pre-weathered version so I decided to remove this and make them look as they did back in 92!

 

Before and in-progress shots:

 

 

And some finished shots on the layout:

 

 

 

 

 

Sultan pulling the rake out of the yard:

 

Thanks and stay safe!

[Rhysb]

Wow didnt realise it had been so long! Amazing how time flies when your at home all the time! 

 

Anyway time for an update. I have been doing various bits to the layout in the workshop including a little bit more re-wiring and some additional tracks in the fiddle yard. In the main it has been odds and ends here and there.

 

I have however started a big-ish project on the main Leighford Junction board. I have always looked at enlarging this board lengthways and eventually this will happen but firstly I want to increase the width and replace the older backscene boards. The current width is around 20" but when I first moved it from Kevin's it was put onto a 3ft (36") table so I have now added roughly 6/7" to the rear of the layout to increase depth on the low relief buildings and then 10" at the front for new through lines and extension of the station forward.

 

The station will take on a kind of Westbury/West of England station with two island platforms with the original platform area forming one of these new platforms.

 

So a before pic towards the speedlink yard:

 

And a before pic towards the bridge:

 

In the above photos you can see the additional space at the front of the layout. The two pieces of set-track give a quick idea of the additional lines. The blue backscene I believe is part of the original exhibition layout so must be 15 odd years old now. It does show some signs of age so a re-fresh will be good.

 

Ans the re-build begins:

Gone is the backscene and buildings. The buildings are currently being rebuilt to more depth.

 

And a new backscene tested in situ. I have not decided if this will be painted sky or whether I will use a backscene. Its around 15" high now so frames the layout a lot more. In this picture you can see the additional space at the back:

 

Finally from the other end. The bridge I am thinking will go back to a road inspired by the Millway Road bridge in Andover. The Rank Hovis building may go behind the brick retaining wall again in inspiration of Andover station:

 

More updates coming over the next couple of days on the buildings and another little fun project.

 

Rhys

[Rhysb]

So building work has commenced! The first building to get the treatment is the main warehouse on the backscene. This in its current form is about 1/2" thick whereas it will become a lot deeper to add perspective to the layout. 

 

 So Steve at Railway laser lines laser cut me a framework to my design. I had to design this in such a way to be able to mount the existing building and provide an internal structure for the new side walls and roof. The original building was made with Pikestuff/Rix parts from their scratchbuilding range. Thanks to Nigel (Melangoose) and an ebay purchase I managed to get some more spare sparts to complete the build.

 

First a test fit of the exisiting model onto the frame and a re-wire of the lights:

 

Secondly to ensure it fits with the base and backscene on the layout:

 

 

 

Second phase was the new roof and again test fitting on the layout:

 

 

And finally once the roof was complete out came the Montana spray paint and the roof has its new colour!

 

 

Lastly the warehouse fits back onto the layout in its new home!

 

 

 

Very happy with the added depth! Now onto the B&Q warehouse!

 

Thanks

 

Rhys

[Rhysb]

Now for something a little bit fun! I recently bought a couple of the Bachmann brake coaches for my parcels rake and as soon as I put them in the yard the little OO figures with their montana spray paints have had some fun!!!

 

 

Hand painted. If anyone is interested in how I did it I can post some in-progress pics!

 

Thanks

 

Rhys

[Iron Horse]

Yes please

[Rhysb]

4 hours ago, Iron Horse said:

Yes please

 

:-) Here goes then!

 

First thing I did was get an idea of what I wanted the graffiti text to look like. For this I just printed out a graffiti font from windows. Secondly as I sell spray paints I had the ability to ask a few artists how they do it and then I copied their idea in mini-form.

 

First stencil out with a pencil an outline and then start with the background colour. Either black or white normally. I used the cut out letters to give me a guide:

 

 

Pencil back out again to stencil in the letters:

 

Finally build up the layers of colours!

 

Thanks

 

Rhys

[Rhysb]

Afternoon all,

 

Just an update on the warehouse. All finished and back on the layout. I added some greenery and a faded look to the roof:

 

 

And back on the layout:

 

The steel wagons have been into the speedlink yard!:

 

Hope your all safe and well

 

Rhys

[Rhysb]

Morning,

 

So the civics wagons project continues on! Over the last few weeks I bought some of the Dapol Turbots on the recommendation of Ian (Temeraire) and I have to say he is bang on as its a cracking model. However of course they needed the early 1990’s weathering treatment as from memory and checking on photos they were certainly showing signs of use at that point.

 

So armed with sport on the TV I cracked on:

 

My method is; I take all the bogies off and coat all the models with Matt varnish and leave to harden. Then a light black wash again left to harden. 3rd step is the lighter rust elements followed by two further gradually darker rust coats left to harden between each coat and then finally dry brush highlights on to finish.

 

This photo shows on the top the wagon after a Matt varnish and light wash and the bottom one after the rust coats:

 

On the left of the wagon is layers of rust built up and the right side is just the lighter new rust:

 

Few more of the rusting process:

 

 

 

After the rust is dry I added the highlights:

 

The others were done to varying degrees of wear and tear. This one is a bit worse and has had a few replacement panels:

 

 

 

Finally added a bit of left over ballast loads into the wagons and onto the layout. I have made some full wagon loads with cutaways underneath so they don’t damage this effect.

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Rhys

[Temeraire]

Excellent work Rhys, you've just got yourself five more to do! 

[Rhysb]

Good Morning all, 

 

One project which I worked on a few weeks ago now but forgot to upload here was my BBA weathering project. I received 4 of the fantastic new BBA wagons from Cavalex and they really are a great model but they had one problem! Back in the early 1990's I never saw one that was clean or without some form of rust! Therefore they hit the workbench:

 

Firstly they received a good coat of matt varnish which was left to fully harden then out came the washes, the railfreight red was faded and the grime and dirt layers. The left picture is the out of the box one:

 

Next the rust layers:

 

 

Once fully dried and another coat of matt varnish they hit the layout (left hand wagon is weathered, right one is out of the box):

 

 

 

Also I managed to buy some metal wagon loads from Goodwood Scenics. They are certainly not cheap but well worth it and they are value for money:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Few more weathering projects to do including some more parcels stock and some locomotive traction!

 

Stay safe

 

Rhys

[Melangoose]

Good work Rhys

[Rhysb]

A quick weekend project this weekend in the evenings was a tiger clay wagon. This came in gleaming white but as we all know when these were in service they were never clean for long! Pretty pleased with this one considering the few afternoon beers I enjoyed in the sun!

 

 

 

 

stay safe

 

Rhys

[Melangoose]

Some excellent weathering here Rhys, I am very impressed.  You have definitely captured the looks of these wagons for the period that you are modelling.

[Iron Horse]

More cracking weathering going on here Rhys, what was the process on the PBA if you don't mind me asking? Not that I'll ever be able to recreate it. Love the Turbots.....almost convinced me to start mine....you make it sound so simple

[Rhysb]

11 hours ago, Iron Horse said:

More cracking weathering going on here Rhys, what was the process on the PBA if you don't mind me asking? Not that I'll ever be able to recreate it. Love the Turbots.....almost convinced me to start mine....you make it sound so simple

Adrian, thanks for the kind words. First a Matt varnish which is left to fully harden. Then a wash of 50/50 frame dirt and roof dirt with enamel thinners. Let that dry and then a light grey acrylic paint dry brushed on. Finally to represent the China clay deposits...... China clay! (Im sure you could use chalk or white paint instead). Finish with another Matt varnish coat.

[Rhysb]

Little newcomer to the layout:

Need to fix one little thing I missed but getting there!

 

Two big projects coming up. A load more ILRA/Bristol based 47’s coming and another project that will give some direction of where the rest of the layout is going.

 

Stay safe

 

Rhys

[Rhysb]

So with the house move as set in stone as much as it can be at the moment! I am carrying on with stock projects in the workshop. The Leighford Junction yard board (soon to become Leighford Hill ;-) ....a bit of a clue there!) and some tree building.

 

Anyway stock updates: 

I had been putting off the VGA's for some time. I had a load of Bachmann ones in the draw in either normal or the poorly weathered versions and I decided it was time for these to be weathered and detailed. These will find work on both this layout and the expo layout. So armed with a load of pictures and inspiration from Mr Makin I set to work:

 

First one complete and on the layout:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come....

[Rhysb]

Phase two was more grime and graffiti, I also wanted to model where someone had come along and painted over the graffiti:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

again more to come!

[Rhysb]

And a few shots of the rake coming together:

 

 

 

 

[Rhysb]

And finally:

 

 

I also decided to try some paint pens to see if I could get a bit more detail into the graffiti, I have also created a graffiti artist called WIZ that might be tagging around the layout!:

 

The last couple on the layout (well one more to do but fed up with VGA's now ):

 

 

 

 

And finally as my layout is roughly 1991 to 1993 a very apt bit of graffiti from the socialists:

 

 

That's all for now.

 

Stay safe

 

Rhys

[Rhysb]

All,

 

Apologies for the delay in an update but the big house move is now completed. I have moved a few miles down the road into even more rural Somerset to a 15th century farm. And yes the farm has many outbuildings :-) one of which has been under construction (and battling with planners!) and is almost ready to house the layout and its extensions!

 

Overall the room is about 48' x 15'

 

As I am sure PaulRHB, Temeraire and the others will attest after many many hours, weeks etc of track planning im pretty much 90% there on the new track plan, which I will share with you all soon. The remaining 10% of it will be ad-hoc when building. 

 

It will be a double deck round one side (eventually) with a central peninsula. Some areas will be triple deck. I am aiming very much for the american style of layout building but keeping the UK theme of it. Various locations from the Bristol area, Westbury, Salisbury and Somerset, Devon & Dorset. They all have something in common: Wessex! So I think the old Wessex Junction layout name may come back!

 

Thanks

 

Rhys 

[Andrew P]

On 04/03/2021 at 15:42, Rhysb said:

 

:-) Here goes then!

 

First thing I did was get an idea of what I wanted the graffiti text to look like. For this I just printed out a graffiti font from windows. Secondly as I sell spray paints I had the ability to ask a few artists how they do it and then I copied their idea in mini-form.

 

First stencil out with a pencil an outline and then start with the background colour. Either black or white normally. I used the cut out letters to give me a guide:

 

 

Pencil back out again to stencil in the letters:

 

Finally build up the layers of colours!

 

Thanks

 

Rhys

Hooligan

[Andrew P]

22 minutes ago, Rhysb said:

All,

 

Apologies for the delay in an update but the big house move is now completed. I have moved a few miles down the road into even more rural Somerset to a 15th century farm. And yes the farm has many outbuildings :-) one of which has been under construction (and battling with planners!) and is almost ready to house the layout and its extensions!

 

Overall the room is about 48' x 15'

 

As I am sure PaulRHB, Temeraire and the others will attest after many many hours, weeks etc of track planning im pretty much 90% there on the new track plan, which I will share with you all soon. The remaining 10% of it will be ad-hoc when building. 

 

It will be a double deck round one side (eventually) with a central peninsula. Some areas will be triple deck. I am aiming very much for the american style of layout building but keeping the UK theme of it. Various locations from the Bristol area, Westbury, Salisbury and Somerset, Devon & Dorset. They all have something in common: Wessex! So I think the old Wessex Junction layout name may come back!

 

Thanks

 

Rhys 

Amazing space Rhys, I'm looking forward to seeing the final plan, and following the Build, obviously you wont be Exhibiting it.

[Melangoose]

A fantastic space for a layout Rhys.  Look forward to your developments.

[Temeraire]

31 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

 obviously you wont be Exhibiting it.

 

He can hold his own exhibition!