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On 07/10/2021 at 19:27, 33C said:

Made me think...3 drawer chest. N gauge in the top, 00/H0 middle and 0 gauge in the bottom. 3 micro layouts in one 18" x 36" footprint. And, you can pull them out and place them anywhere. Instead of using the wood backs, replace with a slide out perspex for easy play......Work bench on the top......if your single....:D

Or, 2 drawers with the scenic parts and the other with the fiddle yard. Pull them out and bolt together.....or 3 scenic and then mix them around if the lines match up as they leave each module. Maybe, 3 in a row or in an "L" or "C" shape. Even one on top of the other like overground with underground, North-eastern hoppers to  discharge to wagons or lorries below, Liverpool overhead above Dock railway or NCB sidings above mine railway. Any scale or scales....all in 36" x 18" on castors with a workbench on top. Even the pull down writing desks from the 30's -60's are super cheap or free at the moment. A nice piece of furniture with a pull down, secret layout that you can sit at! :locomotive:

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Well, Grindleford is great inspiration.

So I am cracking on with bridges and tunnels.

 

Weathered and tweaked the smaller tunnel and now on to contracting the bigger tunnel at that end.

 

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Junction boxes, cable trunking and tunnel portal finished 

 

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Wednesday and Thursday this coming week is when I am hoping to break the back of it. We shall see.

Cheers

Steve

 

 

Edited by SouthernBlue80s
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Scenic board base colour painted

 

Wires soldered to the sidings.

 

Worked out where tunnels and the bridge goes. 

 

Track and sleepers painted.

Blasting and yard ground cover.

13hours in......I hate ballasting.

 

The ballast and ground cover is largely finished, it needs tweaking and then I can get weathering it the right colour.

 

Await a delivery of card for my hills.

Max secenery hight is 13.5cm...which isn't much.

 

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Blurry, night time, tired blasting shot.

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Edited by SouthernBlue80s
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Largely cleaned up my balasting mess.

Locos seem to running fine after a few teathing troubles.

 

A bit of banger blue on the fresh ballast.

 

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Next jobs are.

Lifting handles for the cover.

Weather the blast and repaint the rails in places.

Get hold of a couple of switches.

 

 

 

 

Edited by SouthernBlue80s
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3 hours ago, SouthernBlue80s said:

Largely cleaned up my balasting mess.

Locos seem to running fine after a few teathing troubles.

 

A bit of banger blue on the fresh blast.

 

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Next jobs are.

Lifting handles for the cover.

Weather the blast and repaint the rails in places.

Get hold of a couple of switches.

 

 

 

 

That is looking mighty fine!

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1 hour ago, 33C said:

That is looking mighty fine!

 

Thanks. I was a bit despondent last night. I always seem to get PVA and balast in all the wrong places.

 

Perhaps there is an easy way...but l haven't found it.

 

However, after hours of chipping away cleaning up and making sure it all still works today. I feel pretty positive about it all.

 

The tunnel mouths are too wide, and the hill above will only be a bit higher.

Also Code 75 track without sleeper spacing...but I will see how realistic I can make it. We shall see!

 

Starting testing locos that haven't been run forever.

 

So far

Hornby 08375 runs but poor

Hornby 56040 runs just, very poor

Bachmann 37034  very good

Bachmann 37253  very good

Bachmann 45040  very good

Heljan 47076 very good

 

Still a load more to test

 

Edited by SouthernBlue80s
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  • 2 weeks later...

My wife is away for two days. So modeling chaos has occurred in the living room.

 

I have untill 16.00 tomorrow to clear up and get it under the bed.

 

So quite a bit of progress.

Cable trunking down, point motor down, track is painted and weathered.

It's all a first pass and will need tweaking and detailing but the basics are done.

 

Lots of work building the tunnels and walls and so on. It looks like a road will now run over the top. 

 

Not convinced I have balasted into the left hand tunnel far enough.

 

Tomorrow I wills build up the other side.

 

I have not given the center too much thought. But I think a road will enter from the right into the small yard.

 

I am hoping to get the bulk of the big messy stuff finished. And then I can get it out and work on the detail at my leisure.

 

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Slowly improving the track, but a way to go.

 

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This morning 

 

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Late afternoon

 

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This evening

 

We shall see how far I can get 

Cheers 

Steve

 

 

Edited by SouthernBlue80s
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Tackled the others side.

I have a lane leading down to a disused bridge through which is the entrance to the yard.

 

The hills are just a first approximate pass. They still need alot more thought/work.

 

The central section, I haven't given much thought to at the moment. But I think it will be raised.

 

I have worked out how to incorporate a backsceen. Which will be stored on top of the storage case and held in place.

 

So did about 90% of what I set out to do.

 

I think it will really come together on the next big session.

 

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Stratford's 47010 was the tunnel test train.

 

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Worn out.....going to have a cup of tea.

It's back under the bed.

Cheers

Steve

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6 minutes ago, Andrew D said:

Absolutely loving this build, Steve! Really enjoying this thread, cheers! 

 

Nice of you to say so Andrew.

So far so good. Not happy with one of the tunnel inners and I haven't balasted far enough in. But it's coming along and glad I can work a full collapsible backsceen in. (watch this space)

Cheers

Steve

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The paper and  gap filler filler hills have had three passes and are now painted a mucky base colour. 

 

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Apart from the tunnel portals and the track and ballast, nothing has been done in any detail.

 

I have worked out how to get a detachable backsceen behind it.

So I will get that set up soon and see how that relates to what I have on the senic board. Then step back and think about what happens next.

 

Steve

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Put this away for the weekend.

 

This how the backscene looks.

I am a perfectionist....and it is not quite square. Oh well I tried my best. You only have to be a fraction of a mm out at the start and that turns into a few mm or so over the entire length.

 

As you can see it slots into the non scenic board and is stored ontop.

 

I can now  see how much I need to build the back up to hide the base. 20mm or so.

 

The disused bridge on the right I am not too sure about. But it stays for the time being.

 

Not too sure what happens with it next.

 

I think I will get the inside of the tunnels finished. The ground cover in the yard and the static grass on the hills done.

 

So kind of get the basics finished to a decent level and then step back and work out what happens with it building wise and detail wise.

 

Ramblings over...back under the bed.

 

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Edited by SouthernBlue80s
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Now I can see how the backscene relates to the senic board I am beginning to reshape and tune the hill sides.

 

The weathered disussed bridge is on. The road down to it is too steep. I am leaving that right hand side. 

 

And I will focus all my attention on the left. Painted a grey road on to get a feel for where it will run and started to hack bits off and build bits up.

 

Right hand side. No more work on this for a while.

 

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Left hand side. All the attention here a long way to go, but it's getting there. It will be good when I get it to the static grass stage.

 

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Spent hours with the dremel, knifes, paper, flour and water and gap filler.

Also used fine sand and dried mud as ground cover.

 

Change of plan. Decided to try and get the whole thing looking right.

 

All work in progress. Slowly coming together.  Concentrating on getting the shape right and ground cover texture. Not focusing on the colours yet.

 

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Need to wait for things to dry overnight.

If I get a good nights sleep then another big session tomorrow.

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Bad nights sleep. 

So greeny paint on the hills and some grey slapped on the roads, to see where I am with it and put it away.

 

The shape of the left hand side is not far off finished ready for detailing.

 

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The center. Not sure what happens there. Low relief buildings? Keep it low level? Raise it. However I have a basic muddy ground texture down.

 

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The right hand side needs lots more work on the shape of the road and around the bridge area. I am now confident it will look right in the end.

The road I think will become a rarely used muddy track.

 

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Don't want to devote the time to scratch building a signal box. So I aim to heavily kit bash this Metcalf one, which didn't cost much. Plasticard and brick paper at the ready. Still a fair bit of work but will be a quicker result. This will sit at the entrance to the yard.

 

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Will put this away for a few days now and return afresh.

 

I am aiming to do it on a budget, so I also have the constraint not just of size but trying to use the existing materials I have.

 

Cheers

Steve

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Many more hours work and I have all the basics down.

 

It is now ready for weathering powders, chalks and static grass. This is the stage I enjoy. Lots of fine tuning 

 

The only bit I have not given much thought to is the center section. At the moment it is just basic yard ground cover and a ridge to cover the button that holds up the backscene. Might be after some ideas later.

 

So after the next stage I should have a basic landscape with which to run trains through.

 

Cheers

Steve

 

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