Operation Abysis

[mason]

Looking awesome mate some stunning detail

[Jimmy styles]

so the next project for my layout was to attempt a light weight lighting rig.

 

i started by deciding how to attach the lighting rig to the layout, i decided to attach it to the legs of the layout.

 

i opted to use simple and cheap shelving. i had to cut up one bracket that was mounted to the legs, this was the upright just clips on.

 

 

then for the lighting rig i used high intensity LED strip lights. i went for warm white to give a nice colour.

 

 

then it was time to test.

 

 

this was taken with the garage light on (as you can see i still need to paint to the rig.)

 

whereas this was taken in complete darkness.

 

then i went a little mad taking picture's.

 

 

 

 

 

what do you guys think??

[Jimmy styles]

so its taken quite a long time and i have gone very cross eyed and at times thought about throwing these out the window however finally finished my army of soldiers for the layout.

 

i am actually quite happy with how they have turned out and think they will look really good.

 

[rockershovel]

Wish MY eyesight was still rated for that sort of detail work...

Edited March 18, 2016 by rockershovel

[emt_911]

Seriously impressive

[Jimmy styles]

thank you for the nice comments, it is what keeps me moving forward to my goal

[Jimmy styles]

so i have been doing some more on the layout today,

 

firstly i have painted the lighting rig, i decided to paint it so that it fitted in with theme of the layout.

 

 

then i spent a long time positioning all the soldiers and crates, this actually took longer than i thought.

 

[Jimmy styles]

so operation abyss is actually nearing completion after almost two years of my life. i would like to share some pictures with you guys of how it looks. there is still some bits to do, and i'm sure i will continue to add to the rolling stock but at this moment as far as i'm concerned it is almost finished.

please remember this is not a real location and not historically accurate, i designed it to be a what could of been and to inspire some imagination.

 

 

i know there are a lot of pictures but has the last two years been worth it??

i will continue to update as i will no doubt add bits and change bits.

[Thomas H]

so operation abyss is actually nearing completion after almost two years of my life. i would like to share some pictures with you guys of how it looks. there is still some bits to do, and i'm sure i will continue to add to the rolling stock but at this moment as far as i'm concerned it is almost finished.

 

i know there are a lot of pictures but has the last two years been worth it??

 

i will continue to update as i will no doubt add bits and change bits.

 

You've done an absolutely Incredible job Mate!

[CourthsVeil]

... at this moment as far as i'm concerned it is almost finished.

...

i know there are a lot of pictures but has the last two years been worth it??

 

i will continue to update as i will no doubt add bits and change bits.

 

 

Sure it has been worth, Jimmy.

Thanks for sharing and pls enjoy us with further updates.

Regards

  Armin

[Jimmy styles]

So i have a photoshoot booked in on the 1st July which is a little scary as i still seem to have a lot to achieve in what seems to be a short length of time. everything that i need to do is all little things but things that will really make the layout.

So first up was to put the layouts name on the overhead lighting rig, but i wanted it to look War'ish. luckily i have access to a vinyl cutter. so after a little playing on the computer, the look i wanted was achieved.

 

 

so next up was some testing (playing trains.) it was a good job i did this as i discovered some electrical gremlins. at first i thought that it may be a poor connection to the track feeds, i'm pleased that it wasn't as all the track feeds are buried under the cobbles.
i found that the the poor connection was coming from the connector blocks i had used to connect all the track feeds. i quickly got angry and pulled out all the connection blocks. i intended to solder all the joints. if i had thought about it i ould have done a couple at a time instead of basically taking all wiring back to the start.

 

 

next up was a control panel that would distribute the power to the building lights and the over head lighting rig. this was made from a old piece of aluminum cut to size with input and output feeds and push to make switches one for building lights and one for the overhead lighting rig so that i can control these separately.

 

 

next up was a quick test of the building lights......

 

 

now for my least update, i decided that i wanted to place my x-craft sub on a low loader being delivered or taken away from the harbour, this vehicle would be the only royal navy blue vehicle on the layout. i decided to use the airfix RAF recovery set as my base. however the trailer in the kit is not long enough and only one axle. so first up i lengthened the trailer and built a rear wheel well to take two twin axles. the tractor until designed to go with this trailer is also on the weedy side however the kit comes with a big mother of tractor units but is designed to take a crane on the back. i am of course now modifying this to match. this is where i am at so far.

 

 

so what are your comments

 

[mason]

Bloody awesome my friend

[CourthsVeil]

This layout becomes better every day, Jimmy !  It is really interesting.

Especially the addition of the sub.

 

However, if I may, the low loader appears rather more than "weedy"

for the purpose. It was by chance that I today (yes!) came across a

project of a German modeler: klick!

And the next post in this thread links to a clip where the transport of an old sub

along the Rhine river to a Technik Museum in Speyer can be followed

(starting 1:36).

A bit hefty the vehicles they had to use on the ride from river to its final location...

(Please don't tell me "Those Germans always overdo it" - I think, Revell underdid it.)

 

Of course, you should use only what really fits onto your layout.

Not only that it is your layout, important also that imagination often is more

relevant than meticulosity.

 

All the best

   Armin

Edited June 3, 2016 by CourthsVeil

[Jimmy styles]

I know what you mean I have had to heavily modify the sordid kit changing it to a twin axle trailer and extending the length. I also changed the tractor for a Beefer one.

 

The real sub only weighed 30 ton however I suspect my low loader is still to week but it's the only thing that will fit the layout so needs must.

 

Glad you are enjoying my updates there will be some more before its finished.

[Jimmy styles]

so with my completion date coming up fast i have been determined to complete a few things.

 

first up on the agenda was the lorry and sub.

 

so basically for this i took the Airfix RAF recovery kit and decided that it needed some modification.

 

the standard kit is designed with a max working load of three ton. now as the real x-craft sub has a dry weight of just shy of 30ton the trailer and cab needed some modification.

 

the first thing i did was increase the length of the trailer and change it from a single wheel single axle to a twin wheel twin axle. this would increase the max weight if it was real. the next thing was the cab of the lorry is also not man enough to pull that kind of weight. however in the kit is a much bigger cab unit deigned to have a crane on the rear. so i set about changing this to be attached to the trailer. 

 

 

next up was to build some wooden supports to rest the sub on for transport. i looked on the web and found that when these where transported they basically built wooden supports. i built these out of balsa wood.

 

however next came the biggest problem. my sub was finished and there is not a lot of information on the x-craft. however my grandfather served on the x-craft. he then told me that i had painted it the wrong colour. the on he served on X-21 was black.

 

argh i screamed, i thought i could leave it but this would be no good so a repaint had to be done.

 

 

now its finished i think it was so worth all the work.

 

 

[Danim]

that looks stunning, love the way you have modified te RAF recovery set 

[Jimmy styles]

Thank you it took a lot to change the kit but I think it works

[deltic9014]

WOW! I'm not usually interested in steam-era layouts, but this one is absolutely fascinating! Love the way you've added all the details and made old, cheap models (Smokey Joe, ambulance train etc) look really good. 

BTW what is the 0-6-0 diesel shunter in the pictures in post 83? It looks as though it's made from an old Hornby class 08. Am I right?

[Jimmy styles]

Yes mate it is a cheap Hornby railroad 08 changed slightly into a early LMS diesels shunter.

 

In the mid 30's LMS pioneered diesel shunters, building them for the WD. Luckily these where the early form of the 08 only massively under powered but looking very similar.

 

Thank you for your kind comments, I built this layout as its a little different. Model rail are taking the photos on the 1st of July.

[Sharky]

Loving this layout.
Been a fan of Military style Layouts as well as Water front ones. So this is Great from my point of view.
Love the wharehouse on the Backdrop.
It's inspiring me to get my Arse Behind into gear and do something about mine 

 

Looking forward to what you do with this in the future.

Cheers,

Sharky

[lmsforever]

Like the detail on your layout particularily the flail tank  don't see many models of Hobarts Funnies the people are also very well painted,the chaap sitting down on bin looks like he should be behind a machine gun?  The X Craft   adds an extra dimention to the quayside get your grandfather to put his experiences down on paper as there is a great deal of interest in their activities hats off to him for his service.

[Jimmy styles]

Like the detail on your layout particularily the flail tank don't see many models of Hobarts Funnies the people are also very well painted,the chaap sitting down on bin looks like he should be behind a machine gun? The X Craft adds an extra dimention to the quayside get your grandfather to put his experiences down on paper as there is a great deal of interest in their activities hats off to him for his service.

Thank you for your kind comments, it keeps me going.

 

One of my other hobbies is figure painting large scale resin busts etc, I basically use the same technique just on a smaller scale. The whole idea of this layout was something different, I know it will never be historically accurate but I wanted something that might have been and interesting.

 

Thanks again more to come very soon

[Jimmy styles]

Loving this layout.

Been a fan of Military style Layouts as well as Water front ones. So this is Great from my point of view.

Love the wharehouse on the Backdrop.

It's inspiring me to get my Arse Behind into gear and do something about mine

 

Looking forward to what you do with this in the future.

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

 

Sharky

Thank you it keeps me going. It has its first show booked in Peterborough cambs in September thanks to www.thelittlelayoutcompany.co.uk

 

Then hopefully more shows.

[Jimmy styles]

so the next little challenge.

left over from my RAF recover kit that i bashed into my sub transport was a RAF Motorcycle.
i decided that this was far to good to throw away and ignore so i set about painting it into a army motorcycle.
i'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out.

 

 

 

one i had finished this i set about some other bits that i needed to finish, first up was to build a gangway for the torpedo boat and add the ropes to tie the ship to the harbour.

i built the gangway out of plastic card, cut down pins and cotton.

 

 

 

and finally i thought that i needed some sort of material around the layout to hide the legs. i looked at different layouts at shows and love how people do this, however like everything else on this layout i wanted it to be a little different.

then it hit me camo netting, this will hide my legs and will work well with my theme.

 

 

sorry for the poor quality of this last photo.

[Jimmy styles]

so with the dead line looming i have made a last attempt to get another piece of rolling stock completed.
i started off with a plastic kit containing three, yes three half track trucks made by a company called "the plastic solider company" this is the first kit i have built from this company and i must say wow!! i will buy some more.

 

i decided that one of them would contain the soliders and the other two would be mounted to a flat wagon.

 

 

so this is the line up, i dont normally like building the same kit more than once so i had a little production line going.

however i didnt want the two on the flat wagon to have the backs opened up so i had to try to make a tarpulin to go over the top.
i have never modeled this before. i first tried scrunching up a piece of cheap paper to see if that would work however it always looked like i had put a bit of paper on the top and didnt look real. i started to get a bit fed up. then i tried the way that i used, which i think worked.
i basically got cheap toilet paper the stuff with no pattern on and hurts if you use it for what its intended. however if you screw it up place in the position you require, then soak in diluted acylic paint, it works it takes shape it stays in place and i think looks real.

 

 

however time was starting to run out and the man below either looks concerned at the thought of going to war or is pulling the same concerned face that i was.

 

 

i quickly pulled by finger out and completed the half track to go on the dock side.

 

 

 

next up was to mount the other two onto the flat wagon, weather everything and change the couplings.

 

 

then i couldnt resist placing it on the layout.

now that the layout is basically complete roll on my professional photos i cant wait to see what he takes.