Tortuga Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 That looks neat. Remind me; is it DC or DCC? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 2 hours ago, Tortuga said: That looks neat. Remind me; is it DC or DCC? It's old school DC as I like to occasionally run relics that are older than I am. That said, a lot of the "new" locos are 20+ years old. There's only two wires coming out of the controller, the rest are point motors, jumper cables for the insulfrog points and isolation links. I've tried to keep things simple, though originally I was going to use wire in tube for points operation, it turned out that motors involved a lot less engineering. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 Having managed to sort out the wiring to a less visually offensive state last night, I thought that I had better give it a quick test this morning. (Read as: I've dropped off the memsahib for her train to work, so I'll play with my trains for an hour.) Nothing. Dead. What have I obviously made a total dog's breakfast of? Just as I was about to start disconnecting wires one by one to find the short, I spotted the coil of solder that I had left lying across the rails in one of the sidings.... The Nobel prize for Dumbassery goes to,......... 3 4 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Rowsley17D Posted August 9, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 9, 2021 We've all done it 8 minutes ago, MrWolf said: Having managed to sort out the wiring to a less visually offensive state last night, I thought that I had better give it a quick test this morning. (Read as: I've dropped off the memsahib for her train to work, so I'll play with my trains for an hour.) Nothing. Dead. What have I obviously made a total dog's breakfast of? Just as I was about to start disconnecting wires one by one to find the short, I spotted the coil of solder that I had left lying across the rails in one of the sidings.... The Nobel prize for Dumbassery goes to,......... We've all done it - various tools, pins, spectacles...... 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold NHY 581 Posted August 9, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 9, 2021 4 hours ago, MrWolf said: Having managed to sort out the wiring to a less visually offensive state last night, I thought that I had better give it a quick test this morning. (Read as: I've dropped off the memsahib for her train to work, so I'll play with my trains for an hour.) Nothing. Dead. What have I obviously made a total dog's breakfast of? Just as I was about to start disconnecting wires one by one to find the short, I spotted the coil of solder that I had left lying across the rails in one of the sidings.... The Nobel prize for Dumbassery goes to,......... In the midst of an exhibition, when nothing will move and panic is fast approaching....................check the "centre off' on the Gaugemaster Combi..........just saying 1 2 2 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post MrWolf Posted August 9, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 9, 2021 (edited) Amongst other once in a lifetime thrills, I've painted the sides of all the rails. I've also put some grey washes on the sleepers. It's going to receive more weathering once the ballast is down. I will try and post a picture! Edited August 20, 2022 by MrWolf Raiders of the lost JPEG 20 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold NHY 581 Posted August 9, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 9, 2021 44 minutes ago, MrWolf said: Amongst other once in a lifetime thrills, I've painted the sides of all the rails. I've also put some grey washes on the sleepers. It's going to receive more weathering once the ballast is down. I will try and post a picture! Rob, to sow a thought........ My track weathering has evolved over the last four Cameoesque adventures. The Standard Sheep Operating Procedure is now fully weather the track before adding ballast. This means that those colours for track only stay track only and don't make their way into the ballast and then prove tricky.....impossible to dislodge. It does take a while but I find that its worth it in appearance. I'll post some photos on Sheep Chronicles to save cluttering up yours. Rob. 2 1 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium figworthy Posted August 9, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 9, 2021 20 hours ago, MrWolf said: we'll have to hoover now that you can actually find the carpet. Isn't that the sort of thing that incurs the wrath of the carpet monster ? Adrian 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 53 minutes ago, NHY 581 said: Rob, to sow a thought........ My track weathering has evolved over the last four Cameoesque adventures. The Standard Sheep Operating Procedure is now fully weather the track before adding ballast. This means that those colours for track only stay track only and don't make their way into the ballast and then prove tricky.....impossible to dislodge. It does take a while but I find that its worth it in appearance. I'll post some photos on Sheep Chronicles to save cluttering up yours. Rob. Evening Rob, That is a very valid point. I will only be weathering the entire formation when the ballast is down. I had better finish all of the sleeper weathering first. Not a problem to post pictures on here if you want to, it helps me to remember what the hell I am supposed to be doing! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 59 minutes ago, figworthy said: Isn't that the sort of thing that incurs the wrath of the carpet monster ? Adrian The carpet monster knows better than to mess with the memsahib. 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 Picture of rusty rails on my previous post at last! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 I've got a couple of LED work lights which I am going to rig up over the layout. Despite the fact that there's two ceiling lights in the room, I am always working in my own shadow on the layout itself, which makes it difficult to paint anything that is fixed down and of course makes colours appear dark and muddy. I'm going to have to sort that out before I do much else. It has become very noticeable today whilst painting the rails. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post MrWolf Posted September 14, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 14, 2021 (edited) Hello everyone, after what can only be described as an interesting few weeks... ("Challenging" has been banned in this house as a bull**** buzzword...) I'm back with a little bit of progress to report. The river board has always been a bit of a bête noir because I haven't even attempted to model water since a rather disappointing experiment with resin when I was about twelve. For this scene to work, I had to get things right. I have deliberately made the river about 20% narrower towards the backscene in order to create an illusion of space and distance. I also made the river banks separately using a stiff mixture of plaster and PVA to give a crumbling soil effect to the bank's as per the real river Clun. I spent a fair bit of time mixing a sandy pink acrylic paint base layer for the soil. That received a brown wash, followed by highlighting with progressively lighter shades of the base colour. I then put in a short of tide mark for the natural water table. Next I got to do the more fun part, I built up the areas of deposited stones below the banks and the scattered larger stones in the watercourse itself. The stone is the real thing, gravel recovered from the banks of the river Clun during the only vintage motorcycle event that we have been able to attend this year, held just a few yards up the road from Broome station, the facility that actually served Aston on Clun. The bed of the river was painted with a mix of brown, tan and green that as a base coat looked like fresh cow muck. Lighter and darker shades were brushed in to the wet paint. Then came my non favourite part. Coffer dams were constructed of masking tape and a thin layer of Rustin's gloss polyurethane varnish Wes dropped in with a large brush and worked amongst the stones with a small brush, so that the tops of exposed rocks remained dry. A bin liner was stretched over the area to keep out dust and the river ignored for a week, before repeating the process. In high summer, the movement of the water is barely noticeable from fifty feet, so I wasn't too worried about trying to model ripples. Normal viewing distance is over 200 scale feet remember. (That's my excuse, dissenters will be sent for re-education / special treatment.) I think it's kind of worked! We are likely to be moving house in the near future, but neither of us think that is a valid reason to stop building Aston. Edited August 20, 2022 by MrWolf Replaced picture 25 18 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gypsy Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 Really good to see you back - hope things are now slightly less FUBAR'd... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Alister_G Posted September 14, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 14, 2021 Great to hear from you Rob, and a cracking bit of modelling, that's really effective. Al. 1 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted September 14, 2021 Author Share Posted September 14, 2021 Thanks for the compliments, it's good to be able to share a little progress. The washed up dead branches are actually bits of stick that were mixed in with the gravel I smuggled out of The Forgotten County, so they're at least authentic! Now it needs an awful lot of greenery... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted September 14, 2021 Author Share Posted September 14, 2021 Having looked at how Chris @chuffinghell has painted the concrete beneath his water tower, I can see that the flaunching around the hastily modified piers of the old wooden bridge need a lot more work too. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted September 14, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 14, 2021 A. Welcome back, it's nice to hear from you. B. Super looking river! D. Good to see that you finally got a decent camera E. Whatever happened to C? 2 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 57xx Posted September 14, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 14, 2021 Good to see you back, Rob! The river is looking good, I particularly like the narrowing at the rear, it really helps with the perspective. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted September 14, 2021 Author Share Posted September 14, 2021 I think that it's more a case of decent lighting over the layout now. Though I have had the phone repaired. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Gough Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 Good to see you back and nice work on the river! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KNP Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 Great to see you posting again. Looking very good and realistic, I can almost here the waves lapping on the stones. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold JustinDean Posted September 14, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 14, 2021 Good to see you back here! Excellent work on the river chap. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tortuga Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 That looks an extremely realistic river. It reminds me of the upper reaches of some of the rivers in the Yorkshire Dales for some reason and I’d say you’ve got the crumbling banks and stoney “beaches” down to a t. Good to see you back posting by the way. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold NHY 581 Posted September 14, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 14, 2021 Good to hear from you Rob. I'm watching the adding of the water with some interest as I have some to do myself.........and have never modelled this before. Top stuff. Rob 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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