RMweb Gold mudmagnet Posted June 12, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 12, 2013 I have also been looking at the rune situation and have decided that as it is such a minefield, whatever i do, someone will not like it so will be going for a suitable 'English' text similar to the first example David mentioned in his post (#98). Maybe doing it in gold lettering on the black background of the lighting pelmet when it is built - something I am not planning on building for the first show, I have exhibited there before with my other layout and know that the venue is light and so not a massive disadvantage. Hi Simon Good to read that you have been making progress. i think that the layout will be a hit at the show regardless how much more progress you make! I'll make sure that I put you in the darkest corner possible! Ha! Only joking! At least the hall is pretty good for lighting, so shouldn't be a problem. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 12, 2013 Author Share Posted June 12, 2013 today has been all about getting confused!! I am at the stage of starting the main scenic work and hit one of those modellers blocks about how to lay it all out, especially along the backscene, I want to have a break between the scene and the backscene to hide the obvious join but do not want to end up with a hedge/fence/etc which happens to follow the backscene across the layout. Anyway, here is a couple of piccies promised from yesterday - Firstly, one of hte completed rockfaces, now they are painted, darker in real life that the piccie but gives you an idea - secondly, the completed pathway surface, 3 shades of paint to give a highlight to the texture - After much head scratching I have started to add a fence along part of the layout to set up an animal enclosure mostly off scene, may be with a sheep or two near the fence? Some other parts are going to be rougher scrubland etc so will not be a problem and then I am thinking that using a longer static grass may help to hide the boundary also - opinions and ideas most welcome!! I am aware that when it comes to lighting, a lamp across the back of the scene will be required to ensure that there are no shadows on the sky! A new package arrived today including some barrels and a pack of halflings, although sold as casualties, I think they will look great painted up as asleep/drunk/both somewhere, eveen if only 1 gets used! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/thebattleforge-28mm-Fantasy-Halfling-Casualties-/360513895899?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&var=&hash=item53f04d7ddb All in all much less achieved today than I was expecting!! Simon 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 (edited) I want to have a break between the scene and the backscene to hide the obvious join but do not want to end up with a hedge/fence/etc which happens to follow the backscene across the layout. After much head scratching I have started to add a fence along part of the layout to set up an animal enclosure mostly off scene, may be with a sheep or two near the fence? Some other parts are going to be rougher scrubland etc so will not be a problem and then I am thinking that using a longer static grass may help to hide the boundary also - opinions and ideas most welcome!! The last photo looks like a natural hill-top/ridge line. From the angle you photographed it, it doesn't need much disguising, though perhaps it might look different in person. The ridgelines are pretty clean in this view of the movie set. I think your idea of some long grass, with some small shrubs mixed in and a tree or two, should look fine. Given the bucolic setting, organics are the way to go. Would a half tree (trunk and forward facing branches like a low relief) look wrong? (Presumably the grass would need to be short in a sheep enclosure.) When your trees are finished, these will make a huge difference in breaking up the horizon line. It's all looking great. I'm enjoying each of your installments. Edited June 12, 2013 by Ozexpatriate Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 12, 2013 Author Share Posted June 12, 2013 Most appreciated comments, I agree about the clean ridgelines, I have searched for and saved a mass of piccies from the films for inspiration. 6m static grass ordered and on its way, hopefully! Just placing the large tree skeletons I have made up changed the whole layout, I am plannign to have one of the larger ones towards the front so the viewer is looking around it to see the station, more of a suggestion of a slice of scenery rather than a staged scene. Best wishes Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 New personal statement - 'I is stooopid!!!!!' Thinkiing it would do the job, I glued the backscene using prittstick, is now peeling off, aaaaaaaargh!!!!! At least it is peeling off in one piece without tearing so I can now glue it back on properly!! New people undercoated by my son and on with the grassing, well will be when the backscene is sorted! Best wishes Stooopid Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB-AU Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Here's a thought... turn one of the trees into an Ent. Cheers David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 15, 2013 Author Share Posted June 15, 2013 That would be ent-ertaining! Sorry! Like the idea though, will add it to my notes to remember, thanks. Best wishes Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 15, 2013 Author Share Posted June 15, 2013 More frustrations, just had a parcel delivered which as I was hoping is an order of el cheapo chinese trees for the layout which looked great in the piccies on Ebay. They were packed into plastic bags and into a padded envelope, well you can see for yourself the resulting flat trees! No I am not modeelign low relief!!!! aaaaaaaaargh and i thought I was being stooopid!!!!! Not a massive problem, I am sure they are going to be fine with a little work but that is not the point! Anyway rant over, sorry guys! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 16, 2013 Author Share Posted June 16, 2013 Next update, I know thick and fast at the moment - 6 weeks to first show panics!!! I have been working on detailing the area around the left hand home today, static grassing and various planting, including a couple of hobbits and a dog Pleased so far, am aiming to get teh basics in place for the first show then develop and detail over time from then onwards. Best wishes Simon 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 16, 2013 Author Share Posted June 16, 2013 Oh yeah, I have dug a well as well - Ready for painting the slabs, bedding the well in and some vegetation. Best wishes Simon 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 I love quirky......and having Harry Potter on my own layout, I can definitely get Hobbiton Is the era The Hobbit? or Lord of the Rings? I hope your planning on being very prototypical Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 16, 2013 Author Share Posted June 16, 2013 I thinking is that the layout is set later than Lord of the Rings in a settled time during which Dwarf inventors have developed the steam engine. I can't get too prototypical as I have never been to the shire but and trying my best best wishes Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 I was only joking, prototypical is of course impossible, and I think a later era where the dwarves are doing the trains is a clever way of bringing it in to context. It gives you some great scope, Shall enjoy your progression. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 Lots on the go at the moment for this evening as I have the place to my self as soon as my son is off to bed - my wife is off chasing some dancy prancy singie type geezer called Robbie Williams, not my taste in music at all and despite years of trying to turn her to the dark side of proper music - rock and metal, she still see fit to waste her hard earned watching him and Ollie murs instead, oh well at least it is a couple days peace!! I am going to be doing some more static grassing and also have some 'casualties' to paint (see a previous post) as well as some barrels and also are working over one of the large tree skeletons with filler to model the trunk and main branches properly - busy busy busy!!! Best wishes Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 Prototypical, of a sort, would of course be possible with a flight to New Zealand etc to see the area that they filmed Lord of the Rings and the Hobiit. I am not aiming to do a model of a model as such though but it would be an advantage if my layout was similar in many ways to the vision that Peter Jackson has given us all through the films!! As I have mentioned before, the biggest headache this project has given me is for the stock, developing ideas for the railway side of things which, although are recogniseable, do not obviously replicate the railway heritage of our world. Certain things doneed to match such as rails, wheels, boilers etc but there the similarity should end. Not being a designer, this is hard, wagons can easily be boxes/hoppers/flat etc but passenger stock I am still hitting a brick wall over! Ideas so far include - open coaches for the biggers, I have built a set of seats on wheels facing to the sides for one of the rakes (see post 116). horse drawn carriage style coaches with round doors for the first class hobbit folk as a 'Pullman' sort of rake. Who knows, I don't! Another issue for the passenger rakes it finding suitable figures in seated positions for them, may require a batch of chopping and repinning legs to make them up, something that will not be completed for the first show at least!! Best wishes Simon 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Sheep Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 may be worth drawing inspiration from the very early days of railways such as the stockton - darlington etc Was just thinking while having a catch up that a tender may well not be the square water tank that we know it as but merely a large barrel mounted across the back of a wagon that has a coal hopper on the front of it to act as bunker. A random array of pipes to draw the water from barrel to boiler. You never know, the dwarves might mount the chimney to the rear of the loco so that as it's going the smoke and soot don't blow into their faces. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 Barrel fo the tank is a good idea, so far the tenders have been just for coal as the locos are tankies already but will file that one for the future, sure it will be used! At least one of the early railways used big hopper style wagons as coaches so that is another option to look into. Another aaaargh moment recently!! Having completed all the ballasting and airbrush weathered the track, I managed to drop a sprat of wet plaster right in the middle near the tunnel which was impossible to clear up so a section of ballast needs to be ripped up and redone, this is visible in the piccie below. I have started to work on the Chinese trees, the colour of the Japanese Ash is great but the other one shown here has shiny greenery so requires a blast with the airbrush - probably mat varnish with a splat of dull green to tone it down at the same time possibly. I will also need to coat the trunks with filler to hide the obvious twisted wire they are made out of. Other than that, and the fact they arrived flat, I am really pleased with them and more than recommend getting some! Am concentrating on the scenics still, the static grass is spreding over the layout rapidly - quicker than the spread of ash dieback!! I am aiming to get a basic green covering for the first show with the aim of going over the layotu after that to blend in variations and detail when I have more time. Please note that the excess grass has not been hoovered up yet so it is everywhere. The paths and platform will not be grassed. I am really pleased so far, the grass has really brought the rock faces to life. As always, all comments appreciated! Best wishes Simon 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Alister_G Posted June 21, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 21, 2013 The static grass really changes the layout, and brings the whole thing to life, doesn't it! It's looking great, and your "splat" of plaster, whilst annoying, could have been in a much worse position. Excellent! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 22, 2013 Author Share Posted June 22, 2013 Yeah, I agree, I didn;t think that it was going to be worth using the static grass but I am sold totally!! The splat could have been in a worse place, at least there it is accessible to redo, over a point and I could have had real issues, teach me to stop being so cluimsy!! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isambard Kingdom Brunel Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Thats Nothing Simon, I dropped my SLR Camera onto the Cattle Dock on Llanfyllin, wiping out most of the scratchbuilt Dock and a P4 Cattle Wagon which was posing alongside it. Made me think about how I now take photos at exhibitions. I love this layout, very good modelling and a refreshing subject. Static grass is an amazing addition to our hobby isn't it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 22, 2013 Author Share Posted June 22, 2013 Yes it is other although I have all but run out, seem to use more than I thought so need to order more! I have now grassed all across the back of the layout. Best wishes Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 You may find some suitable fonts here http://www.thehobbithole.co.uk/fonts%20page.htm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted June 22, 2013 Author Share Posted June 22, 2013 Most excellent and useful link, thanks for that!! best wishes Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgiesimon Posted July 4, 2013 Author Share Posted July 4, 2013 Next update, piccies to follow - I have completed the grass across the back of the layout, I have decided to concentrate on there so unlikely to get the front grasses before the show. The thinking is that I am likely to trash it leaning over to detail the back of the scene so why do it twice? Also it would be good for people to se the layout as a work in progress. I have also been constructing wagons and fitting couplings which are easier on some than others! I have a bogie bolster with long logs which is going to be more complicated to fit couplers to but it is one of th eprogrcts for this evening. I also have to construct a new chimney for th hobbit residence at the front of the layout as it has gone missing, we have searched the room without finding it, the conclusion is that is has dropped into the bin and disappeared for ever, aaaargh!!! As mentioned, piccies to follow later! Best wishes Simon 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alastair-I Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Following with interest.. I like a model with imagination! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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