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Mol's MSC Layout: "The Boysnope Bump"


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My new florists wire arrived today and I have made another 70 stems of rosebay willowherb, bringing the total to over 100. I'll probably need one more batch after this.

 

Here is the process:

 

(1) Prepare some strips of scrap wood by drilling 1mm diameter holes, enough for the number of stems you want.

(2) lay newspaper over your work surface as the static grass will go everywhere.

(3) Take 28SWG green florists wire, and cut into lengths of about 25mm to 40mm. Don't measure, it's better if they're all a bit different.

(4) Put some dark and long static grass in a tub. Put the static grass shaker machine on the surface next to the tub.

(5) Take a length of wire and hold one end in the static grass machine earth clip. Coat the middle of the wire with Copydex but leave the top clear

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(6) Pick up some static grass in your fingers and sprinkle it onto the glued part, turning the stem over to get coverage all round

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(7) Hold the top of the stem (the unglued bit) in your fingers and place the bottom in a hole in the wood you prepared earlier. This process will also remove any static grass from the top section which is desirable. Repeat with many more bits of wire (it's actually pretty quick once set up)

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(8) Leave to dry for a few hours, meanwhile clean up the loose static grass which can be re-used.

(9) Once dry, use tweezers to pick up a stem, and apply a little Copydex to the top part.

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(10) Dip it into some suitable pink/purple ground foam (I have two slightly different shades to give a bit of variety)

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(11) Place back in its hole in the wood, and then repeat for all the others:

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(12) Leave to dry again. Then shake to remove excess purple; outlying unwanted bits can also be pulled off.

 

 

On the layout, I lay a patch of the same dark green static grass where I want to place my rosebay willowherb clump; this gives a denser feel to the foliage.

I then drill a 1mm hole for each stem, and insert with a blob of Copydex. A spacing of 10mm or less is about right, try and make them unevenly spread for a more natural look.

 

 

 

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As well as the RBWH I have added a lot of static grass to the canal bank this afternoon (helped by the delivery of some more grass). I've also added 'forest floor' mix to the areas which will have trees or brambles.

Much of the bank now has two layers of static grass, and by layering a variety of colours in different areas I am gradually achieving a wilder look to the grass. It's quite difficult to capture the 3-dimensionality of the grass but I think this view sort of does.

There are some more stages to go yet including adding some ground foam to some areas, plus more brambles, rosebay willowherb and a few trees and shrubs. But I feel I'm making good progress iwith the greening of the layout.

grass.jpg.0fb067646c84a9a0becf9254ffb6db88.jpg

 

At some stage soon I need to get back to the rolling stock, but for now I'm enjoying the scenics so I'll stick with it for a while longer.

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The Rosebay Willowherb is spreading:

C1310EE0-F248-4CD8-9455-04CB65F5548F.jpeg.9b3e0f3d9926c7da557d6f1d582f7f95.jpeg

I only have a few stems left now from the hundred I made, and still have another large clump and several small clumps to plant. So I’ll make another batch tomorrow. 

Here’s the biggest clump:

C1A851BB-79F0-45E8-8093-E093B5C90F46.jpeg.f576908c0900199d77debfc99c3eb396.jpeg

I’m pleased with how these are bringing some height and colour to the fairly flat baseboard. 

 

Other things that will add height are the low-relief buildings along the back (which I haven’t planned in any detail yet), and the telegraph poles. I might tackle the latter soon - I have all the bits in stock and there are only 3 to make. I have also ordered some sea moss for making a few small trees and perhaps one big one to go in the back corner. 

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Careful with trees. They are big.  Elder is a good start as the bushes which unchecked can grow to 5 or 6 metres. Like rbwh it is a calcicole which thrives in the calcium rich soil of demolition sites and brocken concrete. The tiny seeds from the berries are spread by birds and get anywhere. They also appear to be tolerant of atmospheric pollution. Over mature elder is often a scaffold for rampant wild rose and blackberries.

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38 minutes ago, doilum said:

Careful with trees. They are big.  Elder is a good start as the bushes which unchecked can grow to 5 or 6 metres. Like rbwh it is a calcicole which thrives in the calcium rich soil of demolition sites and brocken concrete. The tiny seeds from the berries are spread by birds and get anywhere. They also appear to be tolerant of atmospheric pollution. Over mature elder is often a scaffold for rampant wild rose and blackberries.

Good thoughts.

Although the canal banks were mostly grassy in the 1960s, there were some trees and I'm keen to have a few.

 

There is a smallish tree in the middle distance here, and some larger ones in the far distance (this is the place I'm modelling, but it's a winter photo and in black and white). I'm guessing it might be 6" tall in 7mm scale?
image.png.144df4bc2deec074550c77b0e9eb0863.png

 

This photo, about half a mile away, also shows a smallish tree among the grass and brambles:
scan103_flip.jpg.3acd01df193a51c7eb4c803f64d9f092.jpg

 

This photo is just abve Barton Locks and a few years later, but at least it's in colour and summer, and again shows some smaller trees/bushes on the bank:
Barton_locks_1972a.jpg.983a4711cad6e9093fddcb6fd4f97ccd.jpg

 

Any thoughts as to what species these might be?

 

 

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3 hours ago, doilum said:

Not sure. The ones on the left could easily be elder. The one on the right has the look of a "proper" tree. Wish I still had my Observers book of trees!

I scoured the bookshelves and found 'A field guide to the trees of Britain and northern Europe' only to find the only mention of Elder is in the introduction where it is dismissed as not a proper tree!

 

But googling for photos of Elders I agree with you, in general they have multiple stems from near ground level rather than a proper trunk, and so would definitely fit the bill for the 'tree' in the second picture and the smaller 'trees' in the third picture above. Not so sure about the first picture, but it still could be an elder. Their growth habits certainly fit the bill for the first trees to colonise a previously open area.

 

I think the big tree on the right is probably too large for my layout.

However, I was wondering about one or two birches in the back corner of the layout; ideally I'd like something about a foot tall in model form to hide the corner. Again a fairly fast-growing tree as an early coloniser of open areas, and tolerant of damp soil (this location is after all on the edge of Chat Moss), though the ground by the canal (and river before it) is better drained. Birches are common in the area now.

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Silver birch is the "go to" tree of site reclaimation. They will grow easily on poor soil and reach five or six metres in less than twenty years. Oddly enough, I have taken an elder down to soil level this afternoon. Thick as my arm it is only a couple of years since I last attacked it. Trouble is, it is rooted through the fence and I try to avoid using poison in the fruit garden. The books are technically correct. Elder would count as part of the shrub layer of the forest. A possible contender for the larger solo tree might be Hawthorne. Another member of the shrub layer they can easily grow to six or eight metres. This example might be a survivor of a more ancient hedgerow. For "proper trees" the sessile oak is a possibility.

Edited by doilum
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Many thanks!

My copy of Gordon Gravett’s book on grassland and landscape detailing arrived today, and I think my next weed project will be some stinging nettles.

 

On the layout today I have planted more rbwh, laid a bit more ground surface, and sprayed the rocks near the water level in shades of grey and black as per the (polluted) prototype I am following. 

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2 hours ago, Mike 84C said:

Hawthorn is quite a dense bush at ground level indeed at all levels!, I remember it as pretty rampant along railway lines.

Left alone with animals to graze the root saplings it will take on a proper tree shape. Sharp thorns, second only to Blackthorn.

It is worth remembering that railside vegetation was strongly influenced by regular burning.

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1 hour ago, doilum said:

Left alone with animals to graze the root saplings it will take on a proper tree shape. Sharp thorns, second only to Blackthorn.

It is worth remembering that railside vegetation was strongly influenced by regular burning.

Very true, and the same on the ship canal banks in the earlier days. This photo dated 1969 is about half a mile upstream of the location I'm modelling, and appears to have been partly burnt off. There are still a few trees and bushes on the bank though. The rails are just visible on top of the canal bank.

below_Barton_Locks_1969.jpg.f2224b89bc2b322638fad5bc0f298f6b.jpg

These days the canal banks are a forested jungle, much like many railway cuttings. In the mid-60s period I'm modelling there were some trees and bushes but it was mostly grass and weeds.

I have just planted my 170th stem of rbwh, or 'fireweed', which is enough for now!

 

 

 

 

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A couple of photos showing current progress on the planting of the layout

 

The canal bank still looks a bit of a patchwork but that’s because some areas are complete and others are awaiting more work - hopefully they will all blend together better once complete. Most of the grassy areas will have a final coating of the straw colour; the darker green areas will be patches of nettles or other weeds. 

 

The canal itself will have some coats of gloss varnish but I can’t decide whether to do that before or after adding the various posts etc that go into the water. 

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I've made a bit more progress on scenery this week.

Dozens of stems of stinging nettles now form two impenetrable thickets, and I'll put some more scattered around too.

nettles2.jpg.c2efdb2006203cc3729dd17b44381723.jpg

I've acquired a 'forest in a box' and had a go at combining some of the smaller stems into a multi-stemmed 'tree' to represent an Elder or similar. This is temporarily positioned to see if it feels right.

tree3.jpg.36f37b3ba0c21f3ee8d74920b0194991.jpg

I have also made a load more bramble bushes, and having found some gorse on the canal bank yesterday I'm doing some gorse bushes too.

 

Also on my canal bank walk yesterday I saw a pair of Weasels (or they might have been Stoats) I've never seen either before.

When I bought the Langley Models set of wild animals I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to use most of them prototypically, but now I can definitely use the Weasel!

 

 

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3 minutes ago, simonmcp said:

I hope you're going to have at least one "Ratty" or water vole lurking in the edge in some reeds. There was always one in the canal bank near where I used to fish.

Good point! There are certainly rats by the canal now, and probably water voles too though I haven’t seen one. Back in my 1960s period the ship canal was badly polluted so I’m not sure whether water voles would have survived there. 

Strangely, while Langley make all sorts of cute wild animals like rabbits, weasels and hedgehogs, there aren’t any rats in the set! They should probably outnumber all the others put together. 

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1 hour ago, Mol_PMB said:

Good point! There are certainly rats by the canal now, and probably water voles too though I haven’t seen one. Back in my 1960s period the ship canal was badly polluted so I’m not sure whether water voles would have survived there. 

Strangely, while Langley make all sorts of cute wild animals like rabbits, weasels and hedgehogs, there aren’t any rats in the set! They should probably outnumber all the others put together. 

P.S. It has occurred to me that there is one other possibly appropriate Ratty Rat for my layout. It's stretching the 1960s period a little though, here is 5238 visiting the MSC Railway:

 

21551970_10211612886431549_6665833636115607767_o_1972.jpg.94b04b9fd0e1b97cb95825d6782d9763.jpg

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11 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

P.S. It has occurred to me that there is one other possibly appropriate Ratty Rat for my layout. It's stretching the 1960s period a little though, here is 5238 visiting the MSC Railway:

 

21551970_10211612886431549_6665833636115607767_o_1972.jpg.94b04b9fd0e1b97cb95825d6782d9763.jpg

I presume 5238 got here from the Old Trafford BR connection.

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22 minutes ago, Sandhole said:

I presume 5238 got here from the Old Trafford BR connection.

Yes, I believe so. It was in 1972 I think, and in preparation for a freight exhibition on the docks. So it would not have actually passed the location of my layout. 

 

 

This morning the layout looks quite nice with long shadows from the morning sun. When installed it won’t be sunlit but in the place I’m working on it there is a window behind. 

9879351E-268B-4FBC-B54B-ECE856955442.jpeg.09e7dfe3115a2952941ad196db1fbc8b.jpeg

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14 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Yes, I believe so. It was in 1972 I think, and in preparation for a freight exhibition on the docks. So it would not have actually passed the location of my layout. 

 

 

This morning the layout looks quite nice with long shadows from the morning sun. When installed it won’t be sunlit but in the place I’m working on it there is a window behind. 

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I went to that exhibition.
They were giving cab rides in a Sentinel and demonstrating a ro-rail Unimog.
I think it was the Unimog that ended up working at Courtoulds later.

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On 26/03/2021 at 20:39, Mol_PMB said:

Sure, I'll take some photos when I make the next batch (probably tomorrow).

I'm half way through planting some new patches of nettles. I have taken photos at each stage but will post an update with the full process once that's finished (hopefully tomorrow).

In the process of defining where the new nettles are going I have had to finalise the track position for the curved siding and the alignment of the boundary fence. I have drilled holes for the fence posts and also prepared and stuck down the final bit of track.

I have also ended up ordering some kits for more structures, and I'm thinking about modelling the creosoting plant (or at least a bit of it in low relief)

Now look what you've done, @Wrenn!

Pics to follow tomorrow...

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