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I've been hankering after another micro lockdown project after finishing Frost's Mill, I had another Billy Bookcase shelf left over so came up with a few ideas of what to do with it. My plan is to build another Inglenook, this time with decent Peco track instead of the Hornby settrack I had to use on the last one, along with DCC servo point control and frog switching. I managed to snag probably the last pair of Code 75 wye points in existence a couple of weeks back and since then I've been picking up a few other bits - a Wills occupational bridge, good store & a Ratio water crane set.

 

I won't be doing anything quite as adventurous as Frost's Mill, I'm having initial thoughts of setting the layout on an embankment somewhere in Wales, all fairly bleak, dark & wintry. I picked the name 'Garnswllt' for no other reason than I've built some mimic diagrams for Welsh Water for that location as part of my Job a few years back, the layout itself is not based on any real location. I have a couple of working lamps on the way and I also want to fit the Goods Store with lighting, as well as having a few 3d printed braziers and a Fire Devil flickering away to hopefully create some decent atmosphere.

 

Made a bit of a start over the last couple of days. I've built up an embankment from some flooring underlay and started carving out space underneath for all the electronic gubbins. I did manage to get it wired up and working last night too so more updates soon!

 

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Thanks guys!

 

More progress made yesterday, got everything powered up and working, and the track stuck down. Next job will be fairing in the embankments with filler.

 

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I also printed out the first of the 'light features'. This is designed to replace the Fire Devil from the Ratio water crane kit and will accept a 3mm flickering yellow LED.

 

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  • RMweb Gold

There's lovely isn't it,  look ewe.

 

Tidy.  

 

Rob. 

Edited by NHY 581
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Hoookay. That wasn't working lol.

 

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The flooring underlay I used purely because it was hanging around taking up  space was just not up to the job. It was quite thin and flimsy so warped quite a lot, plus the PVA I used to laminate the sheets was still wet in the middle due to the back layer of each panel being a vapour barrier.

 

I now have some proper blue styrofoam on the way, some Gorrilla glue to stick it all together, and I've also taken the time to try out a servo & microswitch mount design rather than just gluing the things to the baseboard and hoping they don't ping off lol. More on that soon!

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  • 2 months later...

Ok then, 3rd time lucky! The second attempt ended up with a massive hump in it where the Gorilla glue had expanded and pushed up as I didn't put enough weight on top. I decided to abandon the idea of layering the foam and just stick to one top layer on honeycomb card stilts.

 

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I also got a pair of servo mounts from eBay as mine were being a little problematic. The new version has 2 microswitches for frog polarity which means there's always a period when the point is changing that the frog and blades are completely isolated from the rest which has cured the shorting issues I was having. After some trial and error and a sprinkle of code modification I've got a fully working layout that I can control entirely from my phone :)

 

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Next step will be building up the embankment, initially from foam offcuts probably, then I'll blend it all in with either DAS clay or filler.

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  • 1 month later...

Had a bit of time at the bench this weekend and got the embankment built up with foam, along with a foamboard fascia.

 

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This was then filled in with Sculptamold. My first time using it but it's absolutely brilliant stuff, and perfect for this. Unfortunately it takes a few days to properly dry so I'll have to leave it alone for now. Once it is dry I'll skim over it all with a bit of sandpaper and then undercoat the entire layout with black rattle cans. Then I can finally start to weather the track and bridge :)

 

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For some odd reason I haven't been getting notifications of updates on this thread, despite following and my settings being correct to do so! Really liking the open nature of this so far!

 

In other news, am asking an acquaintance to print out the small warehouse I purchased from your website a while back as a downloadable 3D printing file ... exciting times!

 

Steve S

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3 hours ago, Locksley said:

.....

 

This was then filled in with Sculptamold. My first time using it but it's absolutely brilliant stuff, and perfect for this. Unfortunately it takes a few days to properly dry so I'll have to leave it alone for now.

 

 

 

*

I very much agree about Sculptamold. It is three years ago that I first used it. Not only is it lightweight, but is very clean in the mixing with minimal dust given off. It does take a few days to fully dry, at which time I found it could be drilled for the "planting" of trees.

 

CP

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The Sculptamold was finally dry enough last night to carry on. I suspect I may have put a tad too much on as it had just started to go slightly mouldy lol, maybe running a dehumidifier in the room next time would be a good shout. I started by giving the entire layout a basecoat of Hycote Matt Black followed by various airbrushed and drybrushed browns over the trackwork and the occupation bridge abuttments. The Peco buffer stops were also added at this point and weathered in with the track.

 

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Next, I decided I ought to get all the lights wired up and make sure they work before progressing much further. To my surprise they all work fine, although I had to make a slight change to the code on the Arduino controller to stop one of the lamps from flashing. In the dark it's every bit as atmospheric as I hoped :)

 

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I think the next job will be to get the occupation bridge itself painted and in place, plus a few sleeper piles etc, then it's ballast time!

 

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I assume that the base coat of matt black is similar to the technique used in painting figures, to allow shadows under further coats of colour? Watching with interest, because your skill with colours is something I'd also like to develop!

 

Steve S

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23 minutes ago, SteveyDee68 said:

I assume that the base coat of matt black is similar to the technique used in painting figures, to allow shadows under further coats of colour? Watching with interest, because your skill with colours is something I'd also like to develop!

 

Steve S

 

Absolutely, and it also gives a nice even base too so no unpainted bits show up under the grass or ballast.

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5 hours ago, LBSC123 said:

Looking really good, out of interest, what size is the layout? 

 

Thanks! It's 760mm long x 260mm wide. I think it's a Billy bookcase shelf, or similar, I picked up a pair from the spares bin at Ikea just before COVID.

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More done this afternoon. The 3D printed sleepers and sleeper pile have been painted, stuck down and weathered in, as has the upper part of the occupation bridge.

 

 

PXL_20201002_152127275-01.jpeg

Edited by Locksley
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