Camel Quay - A North Cornwall inspired layout in 4mm

[tender]

Seems ages since I've posted any progress on Camel Quay, reason is there hasn't been much, too much work earning a crust getting in the way.

Made a start on covering the pink stuff with 'Sculptamold' which was recommended to me some time ago by a guy who's name escapes me at the moment, but he's written a book about it. Much easier (and lighter) to work with than traditional plaster.

 

 

It seems to have a fibrous filler which makes it robust enough to spread very thinly. It's more expensive than plaster but a 3lb bag goes a long way. Enough to do a 6x3 rocky canyon type layout so I'm told.

 

 

Once I've got the plastering done its down to Polly (Lady P to some of you) to get to work with her paint brush colouring the soil and rocky outcrops before adding flock and static grasses.

Edited May 30, 2013 by tender

[DLT]

Good to see this one progressing nicely,

 

Cheers, Dave.

[tender]

Made a start on covering the pink stuff with 'Sculptamold' which was recommended to me some time ago by a guy who's name escapes me at the moment, but he's written a book about it.

.

Creative Scenic Modelling by John Parkinson, I've got the book but its in a safe place, so safe that I can't find it.

[Andrew P]

Seems ages since I've posted any progress on Camel Quay, reason is there hasn't been much, too much work earning a crust getting in the way.

Made a start on covering the pink stuff with 'Sculptamold' which was recommended to me some time ago by a guy who's name escapes me at the moment, but he's written a book about it. Much easier (and lighter) to work with than traditional plaster.

 

image.jpg

 

It seems to have a fibrous filler which makes it robust enough to spread very thinly. It's more expensive than plaster but a 3lb bag goes a long way. Enough to do a 6x3 rocky canyon type layout so I'm told.

 

image.jpg

 

Once I've got the plastering done its down to Polly (Lady P to some of you) to get to work with her paint brush colouring the soil and rocky outcrops before adding flock and static grasses.

Hi Ray just having another catch up, lovely ballasting mate.

 

Bodgit, regards to Lady P and a half.

[tender]

Nothing to do with Camel Quay but very Southern.

 

Popped in for lunch at the Seven Valley Railway on the way back from a job at Lowestoft at the weekend and just happened to see this sitting at the platform.

 

 

Couldn't resist a ride.

 

 

Enjoy. I did.

[Oldddudders]

Very nice Ray, thankyou. A few weeks back I posted a pic of me, with my younger brothers, posed in front of 34053 shortly after her rebuild, so about 1957. It was good to see her again at Bridgnorth the other week.

[tender]

Polly's been busy with her paint brush colouring the rocky outcrops and a soil base coat before the grass/weeds/flowers etc go down.

 

 

The road leading down to the station from the bridge has also gained a dry stone wall before running into the backscene.

 

The bridge itself started off as a resin casting but had a fine brick pattern embossed in it. This would have been out of keeping with the area so has been covered with DAS clay before being scribed with a more suitable stone pattern.

The cess alongside the ballast is also starting to be filled with a finer stone.

[7APT7]

Hi Ray

 

Great work, Polly as done a great job... coming along nicely mate...

 

Jamie

[landscapes]

Hi tender

 

Just found your thread, what can I say excellent modelling, one of my favourite places Padstow, if I had not started Haymarket 64B Padstow would have been my second choice.

 

What I liked about Padstow was the range of locomotive class from the small 45XX class to unrebuilt Bullied Pacific's.

 

You really have got that Cornish branch line atmosphere.

 

I have a photographic website all preserved steam, I use to sell photos at some of the preserved railway shops, it has quite a few Bullied Pacific photos on it at,

 

www.landscapesandsteam.co.uk

 

I got fed up paying out lots of money to go on photographic steam charters only for the weather to screw the day up so I took up railway modelling instead and have never regretted it.

 

Keep up the excellent work.

 

Regards

 

David

Edited June 12, 2013 by landscapes

[tender]

Hi David.

Thanks for your comments and link to photos, much appreciated.

 

 

I thought it was about time i had a go at my first scratch built building. Starting with the warehouse that sits on the end of the Quay wall providing a scenic break where the tracks end at the left side backscene. (see post # 89  )

 

This is the simplest building and i had already made a mock up out of mounting board so i thought i might get away with just covering it with plasticard and getting Polly to paint it. Time will tell.

 

This is a picture of the general components.

 

 

The side and back wall are Random Stone Plasticard, the front Slaters Dressed Stone. This is a fairly typical construction of old stone buildings where only the most noticeable/frontage walls used the more expensive dressed stone, my house being one. 

 

The back wall has two double sliding doors, nobody but the operators will see these but you never know when someone will stick a camera somewhere where that shows up all the unmodelled bits. I know as i've done this myself.

 

The steps are from a modified laser cut wood signal box steps kit from Ancorton Models. These lead up to the first floor offices with windows from a Wills accessory pack.

 

Polly's done a test piece painting an off cut of the random stone. I think the far right swatch looks the best.

 

All for now, the next step putting it all together.

 

Ray.

Edited June 19, 2013 by tender

[tender]

One thing missing from the above photo is the Wills corner strips.

 

 

I didn't realise until i opened the packet that these are rebated to take the Wills plastic sheeting which is much thicker than plasticard.

I now have a problem in that the corner stones don't lie flat on the stone sheet. Looks like a bit of work thinning these down before i can go any further.

[7APT7]

Hi Ray

 

Great progress on your building work...

 

Great to hear the class 128 Sound Chip to...   Make me... what to go how and buy the BR Blue version... so I can get the Sound chip for it...

 

Jamie

[tender]

The corner stones have now been suitably thinned and fitted. This was quite tricky as they ended up so thin the join between the individual blocks started to disintegrate but I managed to get them stuck on just before they fell apart. The stairs have also been trial fitted to make sure the height of the door is correct.

 

 

Polly's been working her magic with the paint pots to bring the stone work to life, the roof was removed to allow the windows and door to be fitted. This will be replaced with either slates cut from paper mounted on card al la Sandside (takes forever) or slate effect plasticard sheet if I can find something suitable (takes a few minutes).

 

 

Looks like being a weekend of wet weather so hopefully should get some more work done on the layout.

 

Ray.

[Andrew P]

The corner stones have now been suitably thinned and fitted. This was quite tricky as they ended up so thin the join between the individual blocks started to disintegrate but I managed to get them stuck on just before they fell apart. The stairs have also been trial fitted to make sure the height of the door is correct.

 

image.jpg

 

Polly's been working her magic with the paint pots to bring the stone work to life, the roof was removed to allow the windows and door to be fitted. This will be replaced with either slates cut from paper mounted on card al la Sandside (takes forever) or slate effect plasticard sheet if I can find something suitable (takes a few minutes).

 

image.jpg

 

Looks like being a weekend of wet weather so hopefully should get some more work done on the layout.

 

Ray.

Hi Ray, that is Excellent and I am looking forward to it one the finished project.

 

Bodgit

[landscapes]

Hi Ray

 

Great work, the weathering really brings out the quality of your workmanship.

 

Please excuse my ignorance but out of interest who is Polly.

 

Regards

 

David

[RailWest]

>>>Please excuse my ignorance but out of interest who is Polly......

 

Clearly not a Tri-ang 0-4-0

[Rob T]

Hi Ray,

 

I am really enjoying watching this. My own layout is a similar concept, though I doubt it will reach the standard of your and Polly's work.

 

If I may ask a quick question - what ballast have you used? Apologies if you have already said.

 

Keep going, it is an inspiration.

 

Rob.

[tender]

Hi Ray, that is Excellent and I am looking forward to it one the finished project.

 

Bodgit

Cheers Andy, picked up some plasticard for the roof today so more progress over the weekend I hope.

 

Hi Ray

Great work, the weathering really brings out the quality of your workmanship.

Please excuse my ignorance but out of interest who is Polly.

Regards

David

Hi David, Polly as others would say is SWMBO, but I prefer my Artistic Director. She is the one mostly responsible for all this when she announced a few years ago just before Christmas that she never had a train set as a child, you can probably guess the rest.

 

Hi Ray,

I am really enjoying watching this. My own layout is a similar concept, though I doubt it will reach the standard of your and Polly's work.

If I may ask a quick question - what ballast have you used? Apologies if you have already said.

Keep going, it is an inspiration.

Rob.

Hi Rob, thanks for your kind comments. The ballast was a job lot I bought from North Wales Models. The label says its Light Brown/medium. To be honest I think it's a bit course for standard Peco 75 track, but not so bad if you space the sleepers out as described earlier in the thread. The ballast down the sides in the 'cess' is a 50/50 mixture medium light and medium brown from Geoscenics. It's a much finer 'medium' than the stuff from North Wales Models. I will probably use this grade in any future projects.

 

Ray.

Edited June 24, 2013 by tender

[Andrew P]

Ray, You could have just described Polly as THE BOSS,   and TEA MAKER,   hahaaaa

 

Good suff with the layout, we need some more pics please.

 

Bodgit stirring it again,  hahhaaa :sungum: :sungum:

[tender]

Hi Andy,
Tea maker, yes, not so sure about 'the boss'. Although shes been at her paint brushes most of today trying to get the slate roofing card painted before I attach it to the building. She's not very happy with the result so will have another go tomorrow when the daylights a bit better. She did get the stone frontage to the platform painted and I've made a start on getting the surface built up to the correct level.



The grey portion is going to be a cattle pen, although I've never seen any photos of such at Padstow. There is however a reference to 'cattle' on the side of the bay platform in the signal and track diagram in 'An Illustrated History to the NCR' so I'm going with it for the time being.

I'm not sure what the general surface of the platform is either, early and later photos look like concrete, if anybody has any information about this it would be appreciated.

Ray.

Edited June 24, 2013 by tender

[tender]

Back to the slate roof, and I've just about given up on the Slaters Slate plasticard. Whatever you do with it it still looks like a piece of flat card with grooves in, the relief is all wrong for a slate roof, more like a brick wall. I've now ordered some York Modelling laser cut self adhesive slate tiles to try out. Watch this space.

[Jason T]

Hi Ray & Polly. What card did you use for the slates? I use 160 gsm paper and use a blunt blade to cut between each slate, which when glued own, give a decent profile. Real slates are pretty thin and when you look at a roof, it can look flat. As modellers, we do tend to use over-scale thicknesses to give more of an impression of relief where sometimes it isn't necessary.

 

With the paper slates, it is best to take real care with the painting, either dry brushing or using thin coats rather than try and achieve the correct colour straight away as the paint can fill in the gaps between each slate, leaving the roof with a grey planked look. On a couple of my buildings where I have been a bit over-zealous with the paint, I have gone back over the offending joined-together gaps with a sharp blade again to re-open the gaps (not as tiresome as one would think).

 

The York Modlmaking slates are lovely, it was the cost that put me off as I built a town

[ChrisN]

Back to the slate roof, and I've just about given up on the Slaters Slate plasticard. Whatever you do with it it still looks like a piece of flat card with grooves in, the relief is all wrong for a slate roof, more like a brick wall. I've now ordered some York Modelling laser cut self adhesive slate tiles to try out. Watch this space.

 

Ray,

I have some York Modelling slates for the cottage that I am building, but as the walls have not gone up yet it is a way off before I use them siI will watch with interest.  Being paper I was hoping to 'distress' a few

 

What are you going to use as the base for them?

[tender]

Hi Jason, first attempt at your roofing method (from 'Buildings for Bacup') I got as far as printing out the grid but I think the paper I was using was too thin as it kept ripping as I tried to cut the individual slates in the strip. I think it was maybe 80gsm paper but was all I had. I'll try and get some 160gsm paper at the weekend and give it another try.

Many thanks for taking the time put up your 'step by step', truly inspirational.

Being colour blind and a numpty with a paint brush I leave all that side to Polly.

 

Ray.

[tender]

Ray,

I have some York Modelling slates for the cottage that I am building, but as the walls have not gone up yet it is a way off before I use them siI will watch with interest. Being paper I was hoping to 'distress' a few

 

What are you going to use as the base for them?

The building started off as a card mock up which I then covered with Slaters embossed plasticard. The card roof has been removed to allow the windows and doors to be fitted and I will probably replace it with some 1mm plasticard reinforced underneath with some triangular pieces. This will be cut flush to the walls and the slates stuck on with a slight overhang so you only see the thickness of the slate and not the underlying structure. That's the theory, time will tell. Edited June 26, 2013 by tender