“WASHBOURNE”

[Nearholmer]

Is your layout gradually becoming set in the Cuckmere Valley?

 

It could be, couldn't it, if you assume that there was sufficient traffic to tempt a railway into being in, say, the 1860s. Maybe a mini-Eastbourne, or a significant fishing village, at Cuckmere Haven.

 

It's a location that I've pondered setting a layout in ever since I could read an OS map, because it is about the only opening to the sea in East Sussex that never had a s.g. line in reality. I've even considered plonking a whopping great cement factory in it, as existed all around Lewes and down the valley to Newhaven, but that would create an AOMU (Area of Outstanding Manmade Ugliness).

Edited April 12, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Northroader]

It’s just a very vague peg to hang a LBSC line on. I’m fond of the area through getting to know it out walking, really I think Alfriston deserves a branch line, but I wanted to couple it with a sea view. Cuckmere Haven is very lucky in being about the last untouched place on the South Coast, amazing it never did get any “development”, hope it stays like that.

[St Enodoc]

The backscene would have a very “chocolate box lid” look to it, but here you are, just fill in the railway in front of the cottages.

 

684ED05C-4BFD-4CE1-8CD7-8767E69EE6A3.jpeg

Yes, the classic view with Birling Gap and Belle Tout in the background. As Kevin says, the railway itself would probably have been alongside the river itself. Although I find the area as a whole charming, the flatness of the river mouth always seems to be a little of an anti-climax when compared with the rolling downs on either side.

[Nearholmer]

But it does allow you to walk across the estuary, from side-to-side, at low tide, which saves walking all the way up to the bridge and back.

[Donw]

I have visited  the area quite a few times over the years. Lovely spot for walking. Perhaps the most Bizarre was while on a training course at Eastbourne walking up Beachy Head around midnight in the snow ( warning alcoholic beverages may damage your health ) the last time we were in the Motorhome and stopped and made lunch on Beachy Head before driving down through the Gap.

 

Don

[burgundy]

You could always resurrect one of the lost villages of Sussex named Exceat, which stood near the  mouth of the Cuckmere. It seems to have fallen victim to the Black Death and French raids during the 100 years war - but history can always be rewritten!

Best wishes 

Eric 

[St Enodoc]

You could always resurrect one of the lost villages of Sussex named Exceat, which stood near the  mouth of the Cuckmere. It seems to have fallen victim to the Black Death and French raids during the 100 years war - but history can always be rewritten!

Best wishes 

Eric 

The Golden Galleon was always a good spot for lunch. I gather it's now called the Cuckmere Inn.

[Northroader]

One job I’ve cleared this week is replacing the locking bar on the traverser. The old one was knocked up from a piece of rail, about code 80, and I found this was prone to twisting. Now it’s a piece of 1/8” brass rod, and I can tell the traverser to stay put and it does so, no messing.

On from that to the backscene. Looking at the old piece I put up, I decided that if you were near the coast, the sea was what you wanted to look at, so I’ve sliced it up to widen that part, and mounted it on sections of the back of an old scene. (If you turn it over, you’re looking at trees) These have all been glued up to join them, with the edges stuck down firmly with no lifting. I’m trying UHU this time, some time back I used PVA, but this gave a brown discolouring to the paper after a while, hope this glue doesn’t have the same effect, as not all glues seem to be paper friendly. I’ve then drawn in the horizon line, and the outline of the skyline for the downs on the left.

Normally I set the horizon halfway up, this ones a bit nearer the top because of the old backscene I’ve used being narrower. I’m probably teaching grandma to suck eggs here, but the horizon determines how the scene is made up, as it represents the eye level of the virtual person who is looking at the scene, and also gives the perspective for any objects in the scene, particularly buildings.

When you look at a layout, your brain is smart enough to compensate that your eye level is not necessarily the same as the virtual person who formed the scene, in the same way that paintings in an art gallery aren’t hung that way. This is where I disagree with the cameo movement that sets layouts very high, in particular what about the kids?

If you look closely at the horizon, you’ll see a pale cream band below it. Here I’ve used Masking Agent (Winsor & Newton) which is a mix of rubber latex in ammonia, which I’ve painted on. This allows me to put my sky on as a wash with a big brush, big sweeping strokes, with no carefully going round the edge, which does show in the wash. When dry, you just go over with an eraser, which takes the latex and any overlapping paint wash off to give a nice clean edge. It’s also useful if you do such things as tall buildings such as church spires against the sky. The agent does like to unmix itself in storage, a year or two and you’re looking at a rubber block in a bottle, and brush cleaning is a fiddle, but it’s still a useful tool. The other preparation is a decision about where the sun is shining. I’m on the south coast looking at the sea, so it’s in front, and I’ve gone for morning so it’s to the left. This decides where the shadows and highlights go on clouds, trees, and buildings, as they should be the same, of course. Painting can now start.

The other thing in the pictures is you’ll see I’m trying out a rough outline of the overbridge on the right, and this is dovetailing in well with the scenic preparation. I’d really like an arch over the double lines, but I’ve found that this will make the bridge far too high, especially against the scenery, so it will have to be another girder bridge.

[Nearholmer]

Looking good, and inspiring me to have a go.

[Donw]

Coming on very nice. I am with you on the subject of baseboard heights. I find something that gives you an eye level view sitting down works well. I have had favourable comments from people with kids and in wheelchairs.

 

Don

[Northroader]

First job to get started on the scenery is the sky, so I cover the table with an old shower curtain, and put the backscene on it. For a palette I use an old china dish, easy to clean and the shape retains any runny mixes. Talking of runny mixes a paper tissue might come in for dabbing up. Then squeeze some paint out, (pva/acrylic) and I’m sure it’s very like Colmans Mustard, the paint manufacturers make it on what’s left on the side. Half a mug full of water, and remember every quarter hour or so change for more clean, as you wash your brush in it. I use plenty of white, a big tube of titanium white, I think makers invent their own names, it used to be flake white. The blue was easy to ask for at one time it was Prussian, but now phthalocyanine (!) it’s a very powerful colour, only a little bit needed before it takes over the mix entirely. If you look up over your head on a cloudless summer day, you see a really strong blue, and I’m all for colour in a layout but I want a much lighter hue. Mainly white, small bit of blue, not a lot of water, and start the top with a big brush and horizontal strokes. Getting lower near the horizon more white gets mixed in.

There’s a bit of a crease visible, I’ve tried to iron that out since. Once I’ve got the blue wash down I keep going with doing clouds. A small squeeze of mars black on the side of the plate, and mix very light grey, and maybe some of the light blue finds its way in. Then just light dabs, swirly movements, varying the greys. Plenty of clouds around for models, cauliflower tops, flattish bottoms in shade, and highlights on the sunny side. Large and well spaced close to, down near the horizon merging into hazy masses. I find that just dabbing with a finger to smudge the brush strokes and blend the greys helps. When I think I’m getting nearer to what I want, stop, leave to dry out, end of session. Next time small amount of touching up bits I’ve spotted, and you’ll see in the second picture there’s still some more touching up needed. This is mainly to show how the masking agent works, as I’m working with an eraser to remove it, and you’ll appreciate why I use it. The sea is the next job, so I’m putting a margin of masking agent round that part.

[Caley Jim]

 I use plenty of white, a big tube of titanium white, I think makers invent their own names, it used to be flake white. 

The 'white' in white paint these days is usually Titanium Dioxide, or tiox.

 

Jim

[Northroader]

Hi, Jim, now May 1st’s getting close, are you coming down with your shopping trolley, or do you want an undercover route setting up for nice English, low tax, high strength beverages?

Edited April 25, 2018 by Northroader

[Caley Jim]

Hi, Jim, now May 1st’s getting close, are you coming down with your shopping trolley, or do you want an undercover route setting up for nice English, low tax, high strength beverages?

Carlisle is just over an hour away! :-)

 

Jim (on my phone so can't add emoticons)

[Edwardian]

 one of the lost villages of Sussex named Exceat,

 

 

Presumably it was given a weekend pass, but absconded and never came back.

[Northroader]

Next stage in the scenic painting is the sea. It was just a plain blue patch, as it was a small element, but now there’s a bit more space, and I’m doing more with it. Same palette as the sky, white, blue, black, and done in streaks which I’ve blurred in with my fingers. Then load my brush with white straight out of the tube to get a reflected light effect in the direction of the sun, again blending in round the edges. The masking agent has been rubbed out once it was dry, which wasn’t long using acrylics, and there’s just a little bit where the sky and the sea didn’t meet, which has been touched up with a fine brush.

Now to plan the land features, which will be very simple, just a few fields, and the downs behind. As it’s coastal and chalk Downs, there will be very few trees, and all the foreground stuff close to the railway will be individual elements stuck on as overlays afterwards. I’m sketching this out roughly with a pencil, and then cover the edge with more masking agent to protect what’s been done. I’m not doing it with this job, but if there are any outlying buildings they can be covered with the masking agent as well at this stage, then painted in in detail once I’ve got my main land washes done.

[Edwardian]

Brilliant work on the back scene

[Northroader]

I’ve had another dab at the backscene, moving on from the sky and sea to the land bit. Patches have been glued on to make the whole sheet a regular size, and you’ll recall the intention is that I will try to fit individual trees and buildings painted on more stick on patches in the foreground, lining them up with the model buildings as I progress, so I’m not attempting to do anything very fancy at this stage. So far I’ve used white, blue, and black, more colours are now needed. I’ve got a bright lemon yellow, a yellow ochre, (could it be Stroudley’s “green”?), and two earth colours, raw umber and burnt sienna, both recognisable as freight wagon colours. The yellows can be mixed with the blue to get a range of greens, and you can also mix black and yellow for more greens. There is a bright leaf green paint can be added to speed up mixes if you want, depending on the amount you want to spend. The only other colour needed is a bright vermilion red, which forms the base with the earth colours for buildings. Then it’s just a case of mixing greens for fields and foliage, and a browner shade for the downs. As I progress, wash the brush frequently, and also change the water often, and I try not to make my mixes at all runny, just wet enough to go on. I try not to use black mixed in for shadows, more likely umber brown, and also I’m careful with mixing greys, for a road surface, say, as this tends to take over. All of the scene has now been covered, looking at it some of the fields have muddy patches, lucky it’s pva, as you can paint over, if it was watercolour you’d be doomed forever. So run away from it for now, come back and do some heavy touching up when I’m fresh and hope I can cover the worst bits with some cutouts.

[Nearholmer]

That really is very good, especially the light on the sea. Very, very good.

[Edwardian]

I’ve had another dab at the backscene, moving on from the sky and sea to the land bit. Patches have been glued on to make the whole sheet a regular size, and you’ll recall the intention is that I will try to fit individual trees and buildings painted on more stick on patches in the foreground, lining them up with the model buildings as I progress, so I’m not attempting to do anything very fancy at this stage. So far I’ve used white, blue, and black, more colours are now needed. I’ve got a bright lemon yellow, a yellow ochre, (could it be Stroudley’s “green”?), and two earth colours, raw umber and burnt sienna, both recognisable as freight wagon colours. The yellows can be mixed with the blue to get a range of greens, and you can also mix black and yellow for more greens. There is a bright leaf green paint can be added to speed up mixes if you want, depending on the amount you want to spend. The only other colour needed is a bright vermilion red, which forms the base with the earth colours for buildings. Then it’s just a case of mixing greens for fields and foliage, and a browner shade for the downs. As I progress, wash the brush frequently, and also change the water often, and I try not to make my mixes at all runny, just wet enough to go on. I try not to use black mixed in for shadows, more likely umber brown, and also I’m careful with mixing greys, for a road surface, say, as this tends to take over. All of the scene has now been covered, looking at it some of the fields have muddy patches, lucky it’s pva, as you can paint over, if it was watercolour you’d be doomed forever. So run away from it for now, come back and do some heavy touching up when I’m fresh and hope I can cover the worst bits with some cutouts.0BC6D532-AF14-408A-9C7D-16449CBCBE9A.jpeg

 

Very good indeed.  I do like a good painted backscene and this one is really coming together well.

[Northroader]

Well, thanks for the kind comments, it’s a nice thing to have a go at.

[Nearholmer]

Have you got an infinite collection of pictures of stout women? Or, is it an infinite collection of pictures of one particular stout woman?

[Andy Hayter]

Well as the French would say more politely, they are bien enrobée - which translates as well covered - which of course they are not - if you get my drift.

[Northroader]

That’s Hilda, and she’s not st***, what a thing to say about such a fun loving woman. How could you.

[Nearholmer]

I do beg her pardon.