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Stockrington - Mojo ignited. Thanks, Heljan!


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And to finish the weekend, some tidy up and adding a few tufts of grass to suggest lesser used sidings

 

2403g.jpg.1328bd41fe448091e2217dffac6e63d9.jpg

 

The camera shows up the things the eye misses - because it's the "reverse angle", I'd not seen I have a gap on the far side of the ramp track I need to fill...

 

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The end of the carriage sidings.  Or where a breakdown crane will sit.

 

From the front...

 

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I will add more vegetation to both the far bank, and also some to that stone wall.  But the main task this weekend was get the grasses looking "different, but related"

 

2403c.jpg.ed7382b3ac7a9644ecd6488c942d9fbd.jpg

 

The view from the top of the curve:

 

2403a.jpg.7ac927a0d019b46758c83fe9fd88243f.jpg

 

..and a little further down the mainline:

 

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and a last one, looking back up from the entry doorway:

 

2403e.jpg.70b60c2c000d340fd2eaf4ff05589320.jpg

 

I'll get to some more vegetation during the week.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

 

 

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Hi Scott, great to see Stockrington continuing to take shape. The two lower sidings really look the part with the odd tufts of grass and the overall colouring. There’s something about the low level tunnel that I find fascinating. It’s almost hidden from view, but is a real feature on it’s own.

 

Pure coincidence I know, but Dave Shakespeare’s thread came to light again earlier this week and it was Dave’s use of Slaters 7mm dressed stone that really caught my attention and I always pick up the use of those sheets in other layouts. They still look the part, even though they are overscale. Somehow they just look right where heavy stone work is required in a retaining wall.

 

Enjoying seeing your progress over the years. It’s been a long time, but all the best things come to those who wait....

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On 24/03/2019 at 16:01, gordon s said:

Hi Scott, great to see Stockrington continuing to take shape. The two lower sidings really look the part with the odd tufts of grass and the overall colouring. There’s something about the low level tunnel that I find fascinating. It’s almost hidden from view, but is a real feature on it’s own.

 

Pure coincidence I know, but Dave Shakespeare’s thread came to light again earlier this week and it was Dave’s use of Slaters 7mm dressed stone that really caught my attention and I always pick up the use of those sheets in other layouts. They still look the part, even though they are overscale. Somehow they just look right where heavy stone work is required in a retaining wall.

 

Enjoying seeing your progress over the years. It’s been a long time, but all the best things come to those who wait....

 

Thanks for stopping by Gordon.  Progress here is, like Eastwood Town, not always as rapid as I'd like, but when I look back on where I was 12 months ago, it is getting there.  Deep down I know I have to finish the deep parts of the layout, and that means the "fun" stuff like the station, the MPD, and the bridge, all have to wait.  The up side is my confidence in modelling techniques grows as I get practice, so the quality should keep improving.

 

On 24/03/2019 at 16:29, David Todd said:

Hello, old friend.

My how things have progressed,since I last looked in,

Teriffic work Scott.

 

Thanks dt.  It's a marathon, not a sprint, but yes, it's taking shape!

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So I had a farm cottage that was built closer to 1:50 than 1:76...

 

2409a.jpg.83b848bef1e241febd319a20a0b86e02.jpg

 

On the weekend, I pulled it apart.  But I'd done too good a job sticking the plasticard to the plywood shell, so couldn't re-use anything other than the roof panels.

 

Mk II farm cottage:

 

2503a.jpg.574fddf3f96c11ab47a7f132b6ab61d3.jpg

 

So I set out to paint it on the weekend.

 

Did a nice shade of grey, managed to get some subtle colour tones and variations in the finish...

 

2703d.jpg.7c06daefb60c9c82d36c5a65505f567f.jpg

 

 

But now I look at it, it feels too Welsh slate.

 

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I might go over it with more sandstone tones... get it back to something more like the colour of the original plasticard (hopefully with the nice colour variations I have now)

 

2703b.jpg.6112c64233c36e90afdd2b2a77d3f3a5.jpg

 

I'm wrestling with it for a day or so before I crack open the bottles of sand, braun, and stone...

 

2703c.jpg.c3f1f2c1b534cc714c6fa7a3e51b8246.jpg

 

Your thoughts and observations on this conundrum are welcome.

 

Cheers,

 

Scott

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..and just like that, the slate is gone:

 

3003a.jpg.9801b8a5c460a5dd13afc4e0f38690a1.jpg

 

The roof is only held on with masking tape, and I've window frames to make, and details to add, but I'm happy with the change

 

3003b.jpg.0ef7de39d2facab05d2908e2c316c015.jpg

 

Nestled in the valley, next step is to scenic the surrounding area and add details.  A few more fences/hedges won't go astray - that's certainly my first impression in this last view 

 

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Oh, and for the avoidance of doubt: there's a resin pour of water still to go in that river. It'll be 5-10mm deep, and come up to at least the bottom of the mid-river piers, submerging all that river rock...

 

Cheers,

 

Scott

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  • 2 weeks later...

This week I made up window inserts;  frames, bars, glazing, and curtains.  These needed to be epoxied in place before I tackled the roof.

 

0704a.jpg.6dcd608b286e1554d52d4ef7b37e630b.jpg

 

I simplified the window panes - as the frames were overscale anyway - but the effect isn't spoiled

 

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That whopping great I beam is some scrap roofing sheet, that I fashioned into a compression beam, to force the end walls out - the glueing and painting had made them pull in at the top

 

Once the windows were set, I added the roof panels:

 

0704c.jpg.a862fd601c6ea49708ee85a94847c6b0.jpg

 

I tried to fit some flashing made from asking tape earlier tonight, but it looked rubbish.  The gloss at the peak of the roof is the glue remnants...  I'll have another go with some alfoil, I think.

 

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Once I finish the cottage, I have my next task - same trade: plastic buildings:

 

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I had been stalking churches on eBay for about a month - I didn't want to pay new prices, and whilst a lot of UK sellers had them going cheap (under a tenner), few would post to Australia.

 

0704e.jpg.31403d55221817b24ffafce0097238a9.jpg

 

This one came up in Sydney for a fair price.  It's missing a downpipe on the left side, but otherwise is in good shape.

 

I'll set to filling the cracks in the joins, and then think about how to paint it.  Again, a light grey stone is in my mind, but a tan similar to the cottage would make sense.

 

I do enjoy working in plastic - it's a joy to pain, and the texture has a real relief.  The card terrace houses are a necessary evil, but I wonder if I'll be here in a decade, looking at them faded, and needing to deal with that.  Never mind, it's a problem for my 60 year-old self!

 

Cheers

 

Scott

 

 

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7 hours ago, drmditch said:

Perhaps a silly question, but should your lovely farm cottage/house be as close to the river?

There is rising land behind it, but it appears (?) to be built on the flood plain!

 

I agree with your logic and would be very unlikely to buy one in such a location...   However, there are millions of such placed housing examples in the UK.

 

Regards

 

J

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5 hours ago, jcredfer said:

 

I agree with your logic and would be very unlikely to buy one in such a location...   However, there are millions of such placed housing examples in the UK.

 

Regards

 

J

Not so many older buildings I think. The incentives to build on flood plains were less in the 18th and 19th centuries. It's 20th century arrogance, greed, or what-you-will that has created many of our current problems. 

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On 09/04/2019 at 16:39, drmditch said:

Perhaps a silly question, but should your lovely farm cottage/house be as close to the river?

There is rising land behind it, but it appears (?) to be built on the flood plain!

 

18 hours ago, jcredfer said:

 

I agree with your logic and would be very unlikely to buy one in such a location...   However, there are millions of such placed housing examples in the UK.

 

Regards

 

J

 

12 hours ago, drmditch said:

Not so many older buildings I think. The incentives to build on flood plains were less in the 18th and 19th centuries. It's 20th century arrogance, greed, or what-you-will that has created many of our current problems. 

 

A fair point for discussion, gents.  The inspiration for the building is Dial Cottage, and it's location?

 

Dial.jpg.9094c4f543e0224a496be3e14bc8d5c1.jpg

 

Being cursed by distance, I have to make 99% of my modelling choices through looking at things online -  so I do tend to use reality as the basis for my decisions.  Having said that, the willow tree across the water was decided on as a scenic treatment to hide the end of the watercourse...

 

There is of course the excuse of modeller's compression, too, for having the structure water-side.

 

I plan to have a small wooden jetty out front - perhaps a punt - and a pathway.  I would have imagined if the owner had land beside the river, he'd be quite happy to look out over it.  The view of the trains crossing the brick bridge over the water would have been a bonus!

 

Cheers,

 

Scott

 

 

 

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12 hours ago, drmditch said:

Not so many older buildings I think. The incentives to build on flood plains were less in the 18th and 19th centuries. It's 20th century arrogance, greed, or what-you-will that has created many of our current problems. 

 

I don't disagree with you about the avarice of modern developers. But also true that many older properties were also built in floodable locations. There is one such house that I would very much like to buy but French planning laws would probably forbid me from restoring it to habitable condition.

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8 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I don't disagree with you about the avarice of modern developers. But also true that many older properties were also built in floodable locations. There is one such house that I would very much like to buy but French planning laws would probably forbid me from restoring it to habitable condition.

 

I used to live in Devon, Cornwall, Norfolk, near York and now Salisbury, I have also been a frequent traverser of Somerset.  Modern "developers" avarice is absolutely agreed, but there are many areas in these and other counties where housing was built in areas that flooded on a frequent basis.  There are a number of reasons for populating these and other similar locations, some making a living around coastal estuaries, ports, lower river crossings, fertile water meadows, reed beds, relatively recent land reclamation and the like.  Modern property development has certainly made a meal out of cheap, vulnerable land, with appropriate lack of restriction, but there were those in the past who, also, made fortunes out of construction, wherever that may have been.  I'm not quite sure that the developer principle is all that new, none-the-less the rapid increase of population, available to purchase properties has made such fortunes so obviously [obscenely?] large.

 

I suspect that the exploitation of those in need of housing, close to places to earn a crust, may not be all that recent.

 

Regards

 

Juiian

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The roof of the cottage was sorted over the weekend - flashing and ridge capping added, a lick of paint and it's almost done.

 

I misted some Dullcoate over it, after masking the windows, for a nice dead flat look, and then used some weathering powers to break up the monotone of the roof:

 

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Ouch.  Cruel close-ups!

 

For comparison, here's what I was trying to emulate:

 

Postcard-George-Stephenson-House-Wylam-Prudhow-Ryton-Ovingham.jpg.5e3021845e41519e161c74e5f1fdeb94.jpg

 

So that's the cottage done.  I've also drawn up a site plan for the surrounding "farm" and will spend a bit of time making hen houses and vege garden beds.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

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Happy Easter everyone :)

 

Religious holiday, so time to paint a church.

 

Take one Hornby church...

 

0704e.jpg.e3af7d4653c0504a66456e51e56285dd.jpg

 

...and a fistfull of stone coloured paints

 

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Cover the whole structure with a base - in this case "Deck Tan" a rather yellow sandstone shade

 

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Now add some brown.  No need to keep between the lines for this first colour

 

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Then pick out a darker brown...

 

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...and a greeny grey plus a blue grey...

 

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lastly, another earthy brown.

 

Then go back, and paint the sandstone blocks using "Army Marine Sand"

 

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Once that is dry, I will try a wash of acrylic black to fill out the mortar between the stones.  I'd contemplated light grey, but figure that in 1940/50/60 England, mortar would not stay clean long.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

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Hi Scott, I'd paint the tower roof to look like slate. You won't find many English churches of the age yours is supposed to be with red tiles! Or you could replace it with a sheet lead roof.

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13 hours ago, Rowsley17D said:

Hi Scott, I'd paint the tower roof to look like slate. You won't find many English churches of the age yours is supposed to be with red tiles! Or you could replace it with a sheet lead roof.

 

 

Hi Jonathan

 

I haven't painted the gutter or the roof yet - and my 17 year old son walked in, and the first thing he said was "Looks good, but the red roof is silly" so there's consensus there.

 

Agree 100%.   Gutter and downpipes black.  Roof slate grey.

 

I'm contemplating picking out a few of the sandstone blocks on the buttresses in contrasting shades of "sand" - I have "armour sand" and " British gulf light stone" that didn't seem quite right as a base colour, but I'm always conscious of painting swaithes of homogeneous colour, because natural materials are rarely like that in real life. 

 

Watch this space!

 

Happy Easter

 

Scott

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Getting closer....

 

Out with a nice slate grey to cover the gaudy red plastic roof in 2 coats, then a look over my shoulder at some reference photos to see how such a roof would weather...

 

2304a.jpg.7cd6674e639771864ee1e4b1b4bc1d2e.jpg

 

And if you look closely, you'll see I did go back and pick out some buttress stones...  it's subtle, as it should be.

 

2304b.jpg.03c0514b973935921daca19811ddd989.jpg

 

 

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That's a gull grey wash, applied with a cotton bud; full strength in places, dragged and mottled with a fresh bud in others.

 

Still to do list: 

  • Attach a couple of wooden crucifixes
  • Attach the downpipe
  • Reattach the Hornby doors
  • A squirt of Dullcoate all over to flatten the areas where some gloss still is peeking through
  • Apply a weathering wash of black acrylic to highlight the grout.
  • Apply some weathering powders to strategic parts outside
  • Make 3 clock faces
  • Reattach the Hornby stained glass strips back on the inside

Cheers

 

Scott

 

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And it's all done!

 

2504a.jpg.0d306e06dcc5a25fdd546c8c17392b0c.jpg

 

The tower will face toward the backscene, so this this the side on view

 

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The technique is the same I used for the bridge abutments - building up washes of acrylic soot over the enamel paint.

 

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And from eye level...

 

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I dusted a little more white onto the roof after I'd given it a soot wash; the latter brings out the rows of tiles, but did dull the initial weathering.  The powders bring it back to a higher contrast.

 

2504e.jpg.767475beb7f59017fee51e4b79be55fa.jpg

 

Now, back to detailing the farm...

 

Cheers

 

Scott

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The weathering has certainly toned down the stonework. Those crosses on the porch and east end don't look right though, Scott. They would have been smaller, not as plain, made of stone and part of the ridge work rather than stuck to the end of the roof pitches.

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Agree, Jonathan.  And even can see some examples where the cross is part of the end stone in my research material - but the effort-to-reward ratio isn't great, which is why I went down that road.  I'll contemplate upgrading to something in plasticard that I can "stone up".

 

Curiously, the base model from Hornby had no crucifix - and it messed with my sensibilities that a church would not....  so rather than nothing, I added the wooden ones.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

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  • 3 weeks later...

Back to the farm for a change of scenery.

 

I made a "mud map" of the space I had, and used that to set out some features...  and decided I needed more trees.

 

1105a.jpg.433b7b75c133a19c6271d5161bd67359.jpg

 

Other ideas that came to mind were a pig sty, chicken run, veggie patch, compost pile, and greenhouse.

 

Some of these were more successful than others, and as I started to place them on the actual plot, I swapped things around.

 

I started by making hedgerow borders for the area, and then started adding detail from the rear, working forward.

 

In the following views, only the back trees are glued in place.  I'm not happy with the larger front tree, so will give that some attention in coming days, but you get the idea of what it will look like:

 

1105b.jpg.cbfc8f55fe7484d9066a33e8c687d09b.jpg

 

I'll disguise the glue at the tree bases once it goes hard.

 

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There is a gate for that picket fence I will add after - and some extra hedge at each side.  I ran out...

 

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There's even a nice view (just) through one of the bridge arches.  Once I add water, I suspect the camera will not be able to sit low enough to reshoot this one:

 

1105e.jpg.ae2946cc07da69460ef7ec07a9f0f5af.jpg

 

 

Cheers

 

Scott

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Only been picking at bits and pieces this month... but progress is progress.

 

The farm is all but done:

 

0206c.jpg.56186b73c50d5f90e2f0435fb565d667.jpg

 

No water in the river yet...  I need to have a look at the bullrushes; I think they need a trim

 

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Forgot to take the flouro orange tape measure away, didn't I?

 

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After I took these shots, I set to with more farm fencing - there's quite a bit to do...

 

0206a.jpg.692c43b4368b7c3e79e3101cc0ab00c0.jpg

 

The view down the valley is nice and spacious...  you can see the fencing underway now.

 

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I'm now headed to working in the church corner, behind the camera

 

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I shall build this up a little bit, as it wasn't unusual for the church to be in an elevated location.

 

Lots more trees for here, too...

 

Cheers

 

Scott

 

 

 

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