An Amateurish Attempt

[Artless Bodger]

The other thing I've been working on is a low relief boiler house for the paper mill at the back of the layout. The stock preparation building and machine house were recovered from the previous layout and butchered to fit, leaving a gap in the backscene. There was a mixture of boiler types and building styles at the mills I worked in or was familiar with, and the result is a mishmash mostly representing east mill Stirling Boiler house at Aylesford. I made several cardboard cut-outs to try in the gap to get an idea of what looked right, then transferred the chosen one to PS sheet.

The skin is made from corrugated PS sheet (1mm corrugations), bought from 4D Models just before the first lockdown, it is scribed into panels representing overlapping 8' x 4' sheets. The chimney is half of one left over from a Walthers Cornerstone kit used on the previous layout. The structure is a bit of a bodge; I wanted to avoid laminating the corrugated sheet to a thicker PS carcase as I've experienced pitting and bubbling from trapped solvent pockets, so thought of using foam board (of which I have an excellent sufficiency) and using double sided tape. Having made 4 layers of foamboard I then realised that gluing the edges of the skin together in-situ would risk solvent getting into the foam core so the shell is currently loose and somewhat precariously butt welded with solvent along the corners, it is jiggled into place over the foamboard core which supports it and, separately, the chimney.

Then the colouring debate; dull brown like Overton before it was reclad, rusty red as APM east mill, or faded cream like APM west mill (as seen in the Aylesford Paper Mills Traffic thread)? Or of course just some shade of grey. I've tried to get a faded patchy creamy yellow, so far just one coat and I'm not sure if I like the result enough to leave it or need to recoat, though I want to avoid a uniform appearance.

With no suitable cream paint to hand I used a mix of Tamiya dark yellow and flat white paints left from AFV modelling days. I have both Humbrol and Tamiya acrylics and find them very different to use. Some of the Humbrol ones have very compacted pigment which is difficult to disperse in the vehicle, while the Tamiya is a soft paste which disperses very easily. The vehicles are clearly different Humbrol is water like and easily thinned with water, the Tamiya has some organic solvent (IPA? and perhaps an aldehyde, it smells quite fruity), I thin with water but the result is not ideal and the paint skins rapidly. Mixing Tamiya and Humbrol acrylics can also lead to some sort of incompatibility. How do others find these paints? I only brush paint and mix paints in metal tin lids. Coverage with the Tamiya paint is patchy (something I don't recall from occasionally painting AFV models with them) and they brush out to incomplete coverage so maybe they've not aged well. I see that other modellers on RMweb use Games Workshop and Vallejo paints and seem to get along fine with them - do you have to only mix like with like? Any suggestions gratefully received, thank you.

 

[Artless Bodger]

I earned a black mark from Head Gardener this afternoon when I managed (mis-managed?) to drop my secateurs into the shredder. Thanks to the amount of stuff already in there, even with my slow reflexes I managed to turn the machine off just as it jammed, no significant damage to the shredder (slight ding in one blade of the whanger) but the secateurs are most definitely dead. Luckily they were 'my' pair, ones Head Gardener had replaced as they were not sharp enough for pruning, but ok for me to chop up bits for shredding or the brown bin. So a bit of a dent in this month's allowance to replace them.

 

Not such a bad thing perhaps, I've been internally debating for months how  I might use the allowance not consumed as it would have been in social events (pub meets with old colleagues) and trips out had it not been for the virus. Naturally this ranged around which loco to buy next - too many options depending on whether I keep to a narrow definition of the area my layout is supposed to occupy, or go for rule 1. However, I have recently read an article on research into enjoyment and wanting, apparently the two are not linked in the brain, wanting something is not a guarantee that you will enjoy it when you've got it (at least I think that was the conclusion). This does sound rather true for me, generally the anticipation of something is better than achieving it, so one purchase just leads to the next. Doesn't stop me wanting that C class / class 33 / birdcage set etc. 

 

The colour of the boiler house looks more like dull green today, not what I had in mind, so once I'm sure the paint has dried thoroughly I think it will get a thin coat of pale yellow / cream. Hopefully the patchy appearance now will act as a sort of pre-shading and give the shabby worn effect I'm after.  

[Kris]

I'm sure that we have all earned black marks in the garden in the past. I got mine for mowing a rake that the head gardener had left in the grass. The mower let out a clang and the rake was no more. I still got the blame despite it was not me who left the rake out and that it was 9 years ago. 

 

To my eyes the boiler shed looks too yellow. It might be my screen or my eyes and ultimately it is your layout. 

[Artless Bodger]

41 minutes ago, Kris said:

To my eyes the boiler shed looks too yellow. It might be my screen or my eyes and ultimately it is your layout. 

Yes, thanks for the feedback, I'm glad someone else thinks it's too dull, yellow too. I'll recoat with something less dark, maybe white with a hint of yellow, or I think I've got some light stone but that is enamel, if I leave the existing paint a few days overpainting with enamel should be ok? The sort of appearance I'd like is shown in the photos below, though I think they are overexposed. I've not tried to paint a weathered, faded appearance before so it is an experiment.

Reeds seemed to paint all it's buildings, corrugated iron and concrete in a pale cream at one time. However some of the less used or semi derelict bits were just rust.

 

[Artless Bodger]

Here's the boiler house with a coat of humbrol light stone, and the chimney with an attempt at dry brushing with darkened red brick over the original red brick coat. I think I'll leave it at this for a while, see how I feel about it. 

I've also finally stuck the machine house roof on, replaced the windows and fitted some dryer exhaust vents. It's a bit cobbled together using parts recovered from the old layout - it fills a gap in the backscene with a purpose.

Also in view - I gave the trolley bus a bit of a repaint, I'm happier with it now. Still needs some trolley poles in the raised position, destination blinds detail painting and adverts, I might get round to them in the next 6 months or so.

 

 

[Artless Bodger]

Crickey, has it been so long since I did any work? No not quite but it has been quite desultory. Most of the effort has been directed at the birdcage set (2 of of 3 done and reported elsewhere) and the 4Cor-a-like. Odd bits of tidying up and getting back into scenic work on the goods yard in the continuous run, with some paving and building a Metcalfe single track loco shed as an engineering workshop for the paper mill (inspired by the OMED workshop at Reeds). 

 

Some time off to work on fitting out (shelves and a workbench) Head Gardener's new shed - 8' x 10' lined - no, I'm not jealous, not really, it has no power and is at the bottom of the garden - not a trip to be contemplated in the depths of a winter evening, so not practical for a layout, however ideal it would be sizewise.

 

Recent  rain and clearing the computer off the work table has meant a couple of afternoons and evenings on the layout, no wandering off down the rabbit hole of the internet. I started on paving in the goods yard of the terminus, using left over Wills sheets from OO days - I think they're supposed to be rough cast walling but the texture makes reasonable concrete roadways (I think). But, things we not working out and I felt dissatisfied with the goods yard track plan (not for the first time), so pulled some of it up, moved the goods shed and began relaying. I do plan first normally but the plans rarely survive the first track laying, and I plan on the board with the track (lots of short off cuts in the bits box!), shades of train sets. Yesterday was no exception, but this is what I enjoy, as much if not more than running trains. Finished the track laying today even ran a few locos around it - the GF 08 is a real treat. Spent this afternoon building a raised loading platform and end dock.

 

Pics to come when I've got them off the 'phone. 

[Artless Bodger]

Some views of the goods yard progression.

 

As originally laid, taken May 2019

 

Slightly scenic-ed in June 2020, this was the start point for the last few days bodging around. I was unhappy with the putative road access and unloading space between the tracks. The scenic treatment of the few mm at the end - beyond the railway boundary didn't accord with the picture in my head of what I would have liked either, so I lifted a siding and repositioned the goods shed as a view blocker (trial 1), that wasn't entirely aesthetic either, so trial 2 (photo) and 3 (oof photo) followed. The photos were to have been for digital trials in paint.net, but I was too impatient - on with the track bashing! 

 

Final photos shows the result - the goods arrival / departure road moved closer to the platform, a new longer goods shed road with inlaid tracks to allow (in theory) road vehicles to back up to the doors. The point for the spur was put in with no clear intention, but a short end loading dock seemed to fit, hence the loading bank and dock made up from scraps. Fortuitously it will just hold the 08 clear of the other roads.

 

 

 

[RobinofLoxley]

I like your style of scenery building - not hyper realist. Im also a fan of paper based buildings, easy to modify and individualise and relatively quick to build.

[rob D2]

I like it , your layout sums up the appeal for N gauge , namely complicated operational opportunities in a small space.

 

I was tempted to have another go, but availability is a big issue. I couldn’t even put together a class 50 and full rake of coaches from eBay . The stuff just isn’t around long enough 

[Artless Bodger]

3 hours ago, RobinofLoxley said:

I like your style of scenery building - not hyper realist. Im also a fan of paper based buildings, easy to modify and individualise and relatively quick to build.

Thank you. An advantage with the card kits is that I don't have to paint them - I'm not very good at painting - and they remind me of the Superquick kits of my schooldays. I also like building plastic kits as long as they are not too fiddly, not just railways; AFVs, Napoleonics etc in the past.

[Artless Bodger]

3 hours ago, rob D2 said:

I like it , your layout sums up the appeal for N gauge , namely complicated operational opportunities in a small space.

 

I was tempted to have another go, but availability is a big issue. I couldn’t even put together a class 50 and full rake of coaches from eBay . The stuff just isn’t around long enough 

Thank you. The operating options are there, though I don't often make use of them. 

 

I agree about your availability point, it saves me money though - by the time I've convinced myself I do really want something and have accumulated the funds, it is all sold out. 

[Artless Bodger]

There has been some sporadic activity since the last entry, some scenic, some wagon kit building.

 

Capillary action - defined as the process by which glue or solvent is drawn into the interface between one's fingers and the hitherto pristine surface of the model, and not into the joint to which it was applied. I'm thinking my nom-de-plume ought to be Glue On My Fingers.

 

Latter part of last year I bought a range of N Gauge Society wagon kits and had a fun time making them, also bought and applied some transfers - the first I've used since my teens. Chasing odd bits around the sides of the wagons trying to get them level etc was a bit of a strain. Among others I now have a Mica B, a wagon I've wanted ever since I saw a friend's Hornby Dublo one - that must have been around 1966.

 

As relief from wagons I've got on with the backscene to the terminus, some Metcalf kits recycled from the old layout, plus a lot more bodged up from what ever parts were left over in my bits boxes - Metcalf, Bilteezi and Kestrel.

 

I've even run the odd train (and some are odd), and managed to do a bit of shunting without having to poke the locos too much, so feeling quite pleased with myself, though prototypical it certainly isnt.

 

Lots more to do though.

 

 

 

 

[Artless Bodger]

With two NGS MR van kits already made, retrieving another from the small stash I decided to have a go at altering it to represent an LSWR van. Carefully (always a nuanced term in my case) paring the framing off both ends of one side, restoring the plank lines with a file and then applying the X framing from strips cut from scraps of 2mm planked PS sheet. There is a thread in French section "L'heure bleu", which could apply to the air during my efforts, very tiring on the neck and shoulder muscles hunched over the work table (due to the magnifyer). Now I only have to repeat the exercise for the other side. (Have realised the door opens to the wrong side for an LSWR van though that wont be too obvious once it's painted I hope).

 

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Artless Bodger
Made clearer - I hope

[Artless Bodger]

The other project which lurched forward a bit, after many months in the doldrums known as project boxes is the E1, a 'flavour of' conversion of a Union Mills 2P to an SR E1. I bought this loco years ago, always with the intention of doing a conversion to a Southern class, reprising a conversion early in my N gauge modelling of a Farish compound to an L1 (remove cylinders, new bogie wheels and dummy front frames, plastic sheet cabside overlays and some tender mods). The issue for the 2P was to replicate the characteristic narrow splashers of the E1 (the loco has fluted coupling rods), so after much umming and ahhing as to how to proceed, I've filed the cab and splasher sides down significantly, using a chisel ended craft knife for the awkward bits. Opened out the cab cutouts and begun to remodel the spectacle plate openings, flattened the dome a bit and filed the chimney top to resemble a capuchon (the chimney is too tall but I know if I cut it through and refit it, it will be cock-eyed, so it stays how it is). The template for the new cab sides in 20 thou PS sheet is a bit too square cornered, but will inform the final version to be glued in place. 

 

Judging by progress so far, I might get round to doing a bit more in a year or so......

 

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Artless Bodger
Spelling again!

[Artless Bodger]

Having mentioned the Farish compound conversion, a couple of old instamatic photos of my 2nd N gauge layout pre 1985, with the L1 lurking on the turntable. Lettering was the small size of 00 pressfix, from earlier days, lining was by hand - wish I had such steady hand now!

 

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Artless Bodger
Spelling

[Artless Bodger]

Update! (As the R&D director would demand on appearing by your desk each month for his period report).

 

The LSWR van conversion from the NGS MR van kit, painted and ready for transfers (SR), I tried LSWR lettering with a Uniposca pen but it feathered a bit, and I could not get the S over the hand rail so washed it all off. 

 

To the faults - the X framing doesnt quite fit into the corners, the door opens the wrong way and I should have moved the handrail, also the top part of the end frame is wrong - too thick. Next time (assuming there is one) I'll perhaps invert the sides to get a left opening door. Still, if I take my glasses off it doesnt look too bad.

 

Something I thought I'd have a go at, having seen a bit on RMweb about converting an MR brake van to an ex-SER 6 wheel type (as found on the K&ESR). I had a PECO MR bv in the boxes, left over from a previous infatuation with things S&DJR. Also cut down PECO 5 planker masquerading as one of the APM internal pulp wagons. As the paper mill on the layout no longer has any internal railway system (no room after down sizing the layout), the wagon was superfluous. I had the mad idea I could somehow carve out part of the middle of the bv chassis and drop in the complete axleguard unit cut out of the wagon chassis (so as to retain the correct spacing). After much carving and filing it became clear that was not going to work, so I cut off the other 2 axleguards and stuck them into the hole I'd made in the bv chassis after reassembling the body and chassis, superglued to the steel weight. It works! After opening the axle holes slightly with a drill, the wheels are slightly high so dont contact the rails, but that isn't obvious (and there are also small gaps in the sole bars but by this stage I couldn't be bothered to try and fill them with tiny slivers of the wagon sole bar - I only have so much patience). Replaced the PECO disc wheels with Osborns's brown spoked ones - you can't really see them but I know they are there and it is pleasing.  Verandah doors were made from a spare goods shed door as I know I cannot scribe planking on PS sheet uniformly. Again painted and awaiting SR transfers - probably need to buy some more, only having a few left overs from the SR van kits.

 

Now I'm looking through the other bits and bobs in my boxes for stuff to repurpose / rebuild. Now the Roco chassis is in the 4COR it will no loger fit in the 2H, which was a very amateur job anyway, so I'm thinking of cutting the compartment bits out of the DTC and mating them with left over scraps from the birdcage conversion to make another SR style carriage - very much a 'flavour of' job. Not sure if I can bring myself to ruin my earlier 'handiwork' carp though it is, but something in malachite would be nice.

[Artless Bodger]

After posting the above I went for a walk - good thinking time to mull over models. This afternoon I decided to scrap the remains of the 2H, after taking a photo of the trailer for old times' sake. Have recovered some bits for future use. Another advantage - there is now space in the storage box for 6 of my kit built vans. Silver lining after all.

 

Also dug the Q1 out of the box, it was retired in some disgrace as it was a jerky runner but it is now having another extended running in and by the seems to have altered its ways. 

[Artless Bodger]

Punctuated Equilibrium - aptly describes my modelling efforts, the equilibrium being no activity. A few punctures in the last months.

 

In no particular order;

1. Scenic, have got on with the tunnel and approaches as in the attached photos. The inspiration behind the footbridge and level crossing bit comes from childhood walks from Lower Fant, over the footbridge of the old Tovil station then across the foot crossing on the Tovil goods branch before crossing the river to Tovil itself.

 

 

I had to re-learn old techniques to produce the contours of the church yard - laminated cardboard for the base, then small pieces of paper stuck on with dilute PVA. Unfortunately the efect was to create a syncline, luckily liberal application of emulsion paint to the underside nearly cancelled out the bend. Not wanting to warp it again with scenic scatter and glue I opted for grass mat, another learnig / bodging curve but from a distance I'm satisfied. Also livened up the tunnel mouth stonework with a few stones in different shades - a bit twee but better than overall grey. The church originates from my first N gauge layout c. 1983.

 

 

The PW train was developed; NGS kits for a Shark, 2 Lings and a couple of others, plus a repainted Farish SR pillbox bv. The digger load on the welltrol was a toy gifted by a nephew who has outgrown such fripperies, which was extensively hacked to make it more suitable, but is still a bit naff.

 

 

Finally I got on with building a Neal Pelican on an Oxford Diecast tractor. The coal merchant who took over the disused Bearsted goods yard had a Pelican which provided the inspiration for something different in my nascent coal yard. Very fiddly work - the side frames were drawn up on 20 thou PS sheet - 2 layers stuck together, corners of openings drilled out and joined up with a scalpel, so at least the main sides are almost identical. I managed to find a side on photo of a derelict one without its boom, so could produce a dimensioned sketch using the OD tractor for basic dimensions. The boom is guesswork, based on photos and the grab made from pieces of two factory roof ventilators left over from a kit - it's a bit undersized, but like everything else, it'll have to do, I only have so little patience.

 

 

 

[Artless Bodger]

Strikes me that the Pelican would make a nice photo-etched kit to use the Oxford Diecast tractor base. 

 

Now someone will tell me there is one......

[Artless Bodger]

I'd got to the point of being a bit frustrated with the smallness of N gauge and the fiddly nature of it, so took a bit of a holiday by buying a Dapol 15T diesel crane kit - I remember saving up to by the original Airfix version, 3/- or 3/6 iirc, at 6d a week pocket money. Every week we had to go into Woolworths to check it was still there. Dad actually made it for me. The kit looks a bit careworn but I had some fun building it and have got the bits to work. I've since built a Parkside plate wagon and adapted it as a crane runner. I look upon this dabble with OO as preparation for a future time when I can no longer cope with N.

 

Having detoured into a bit of OO kit building, I got my N gauge modelling interest back and decided to have a go at finishing the E1, last seen as a rather filed down WIP. New plastic sheet cab sides - wider than the splashers, cab handrails, taken a sliver out of the chimney after all, and remodelled the cab spectacles to look more like a SR loco. Painted black, some very old Cavendish transfers and final satin varnish. As hinted above it has taken nearly a year before getting on with this project.

 

Continuing the N bodging, I've got on with a bit more of the scenic development - coal yard, bund walls around the chlorine tanker siding (it has got an access platform now too) and mill yard fencing. Mostly fun doing the building / bodging, not so much fun painting it though.

 

So far this is the furthest I've ever got with building a layout, and eventually I might 'complete' it, it has only taken about 4 years so far from deciding to scrap the previous N gauge and down size to this. However I hardly ever run anything, the terminus in particular acts as a sort of parade ground on which I can arrange my stock so it can collect dust.

 

On a visit to Head Gardener's sister last autumn, when aksed how my model making was getting on I mentioned that I was considering a return to OO - fat fingers and eyesight being factors. BIL goes out and returns with two big boxes from the garage full of OO stuff (in fact a lot of it originally mine, passed on to the nephews when I went N again). Fairly old stuff, Hornby and Lima mainly. Not wanting to seem too greedy I came home with a 2721 pannier and 3 wagons. Bought an oval of OO track around Christmas and got some of my residual bits out of the display case (2 terriers etc) so had a short play. Now I'm tinkering with plans for a small OO layout in what space remains in the box room - probably about 8' x 1'. Thinking of the terminus of a small independent railway  - Colonel Stephens-ish.

 

So, I think I'll terminate this thread. If anything else develops maybe start a new one - "A New Beginning" or something like that. 

 

Thanks for looking, cheers.