Tetbury

[Chris Chewter]

On another note, I also laid some static grass around the base of the brick walls, but the glue has left a tide mark which is a pain.  Ive tried Goo Gone and even some isopropanol, but it’s fairly stubborn. Looks like I’ll have to repaint these in situ.

 

[Chris Chewter]

Made a bit more progress on the barn. A base layer of chinchilla dust laid. Just need to lay some grass now.

 

 

Looks a lot closer to the photo posted earlier in this thread.

 

[Chris Chewter]

Below is the photo of the actual barn for comparison.

 

 

Not quite the same but its close enough for me!

[Chris Chewter]

What to do whilst engaging in a spot of social distancing? Well I did aim to get the sides of the layout sorted out. However the kids insisted on an operating session first.

 

After that, with the assistance of my eldest, I fitted the side panels.

 

 

That looks a lot better than looking at a pile of polystyrene edges! I just need to decide whether to paint it brown or black, or just leave it as it is.

[Salmotrutta]

2 hours ago, Captainalbino said:

What to do whilst engaging in a spot of social distancing? Well I did aim to get the sides of the layout sorted out. However the kids insisted on an operating session first.

 

After that, with the assistance of my eldest, I fitted the side panels.

 

 

That looks a lot better than looking at a pile of polystyrene edges! I just need to decide whether to paint it brown or black, or just leave it as it is.

How about covering it with Cotswold stone brick paper?

[Chris Chewter]

After looking on YouTube at other layouts, I’ve decided that black is the colour to go with. The decision was slightly bias towards the tin of black furniture paint already purchased!

 

[Jimmy Thompson]

Quote

Captain said:

"However disaster struck when a pair of my wife’s riding boots somehow landed on the end of the layout damaging a pair of Scots pines."

When things like that happen, I always blame that Kepler fellow and his "Orbital Mechanics" thingie...

[Chris Chewter]

Bit more progress tonight. Another coat of black furniture paint applied to the side panels.

 

 

Ive also found a solution to the glue tide marks on the brick boundary wall. Weeds! In this case woodland scenics green turf applied to hide the blemishes.

 

 

And it gives a bit of variation to the verge too.

 

[Chris Chewter]

I’ve decided I’ve had enough of the goods yard. The massive crevices of the woodland scenics cinders hasn’t worked.

 

 

Started poking it about, and one area hadn’t set and the rest basically was only a hard skin over a layer of black dust!

 

 

Time to get busy with the scraper tonight!

[Chris Chewter]

I’m following Chris Nevard’s instructions for goods yard surfaces. After removing the abomination, step one, Chinchilla dust and diluted PVA. (Child labour optional)

 

Edited April 2, 2020 by Captainalbino

[Chris Chewter]

For reference, here's Chris' instructions on modelling cinder ballast.

 

http://nevardmedia.blogspot.com/2011/08/creating-effect-of-ash-ballast.html

[Chris Chewter]

Progress tonight is something I’ve been putting off for far too long. I present, the yard crane.

 

 

Sorry purists. I know the jib isn’t correct but life’s too short.

 

[Chris Chewter]

Tonight’s progress has revolved around painting the crane. Also made up a pair of Coopers Craft platform trolleys.

 

 

I reckon it must have been one of the last platform trolley kits made. Look at the flash on that!

 

 

[Chris Chewter]

Platform trolleys painted in Railmatch western region brown, with Humbrol 85 on the corners, wheels, and handle to match a photo of a similar trolley at Bishops Lydeard. 
 

 

One the black has dried, I’ll put a black wash on the trolley platform.

[Chris Chewter]

Spent the afternoon applying Das clay over the dried chinchilla dust surface. It’s nowhere near Chris Nevards standards, but when painted up will look better than what was there previously... I hope!

 

 

I’ve also nearly finished the crane, although I’m unsure about the brick colour for the plinth.

 

[The Fatadder]

Very interested to see how this comes out, I have a large area of ash ballast to do on Brent that I still haven’t decided on a method as to how I will model.

[Chris Chewter]

I’m not too sure how it’s going to turn out either. I fear the Das clay is probably too thick, but let’s see if I can   recover it.  The other technique is to paint the chinchilla dust dark grey  which can be found here:

 

 

but I wasn’t convinced when I tried the same technique on my cakebox diorama.

 

I’ll keep you posted how it works out.

[Chris Chewter]

Goods yard is done and I’m not doing that again!

 

Some acrylic was mixed up based upon the colours of some ash in my barbeque consisting of medium grey, brown and black and or white to control the brightness of the overall colour. In the absence of talcum powder, I mixed in some Humbrol black weathering powder.

 

Painting was fraught because at first, it just didn’t look right!

 

 

My child labourer thought it looked ok, but I wasn’t about to trust a ten year old just yet!

However by dragging a dry brush with a little black to pick out the lumps, we have probably about as close as I’m going to get without using real ash, and I’ve heard real ash is bad for models, so I’m not using that. Something to do with corrosion which sounded nasty.

 

I did try clearing some of the paint off the sleeper tops, but it ended up dragging paint off the adjacent Das clay surface, so I gave up with that idea.

 

I need to clean the paint off the sides, but I’m having a quick brew first.

[Chris Chewter]

And a view from the hilltop.

 

 

I dragged a bit around to look like vehicles driving in and out of the yard. I’ll glue some weeds about to break things up once the paint has dried.
 

Hopefully you’ll agree it looks better that the previous expanse of Woodland Scenics cinders.

 

[Salmotrutta]

It might be worth giving the surface a going over with "Pan Pastels" or ground pastel sticks. That should kill any remaining shininess and has the advantage you can wipe off the bits you don't like. I use them a lot rather than breaking out the airbrush for weathering. They would also do a great job of the brickwork as you can build of layers of grot and algae "to taste".

 

Enjoy following your progress!

[Chris Chewter]

I’ve been thinking about how else to dull down the surface when I remember I had a tub of Humbrol Smoke weathering powder. A light application by my apprentice now has this:

 

 

Seems alright to me. Just need to add some weeds.

[Chris Chewter]

After studying the photos, I decided the grey looked a bit too even, so I’ve gone over it with some black weathering powder.

 

 

I might do a bit more tomorrow depending on whether I feel these photos have caught the right atmosphere.

 

[Chris Chewter]

Now the goods yard has been tidied up, onto lamps.

 

From studying Randolphs book, there appears to be three types.

 

Firstly there is a distinctive lamp by the main platform gates. The closest match I could find was an old Berko lamp.

 

 

Next is the lamp by the station sign. The closest for this lamp is a DCC concepts oil lamp.

 

 

It’s not a precise match but close enough.

 

Annoyingly I didn’t realise I could buy singular lamps direct from DCC concepts until I purchased the triple pack. Ah well, now I’ve got spares.

 

Finally there’s the lamp for the cattle dock. Here the LMS lamp seems to match it fairly closely.

 

 

Now I need to paint them what I presume is cream and brown.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Captainalbino
Spelling correction

[Chris Chewter]

Just checked the B&R video Volume 116.  Whilst the screen shots aren't clear, they look like they are cream with brown tops to me:

 

And the view across the cattle dock shows that this one is the same colour scheme:

 

 

The lamps to the upper part of the platform appear to have lost their lamp heads by closure.  There appears to be two posts remaining of the original four which is corroborated on page 51 and 53 of Randolph.  (I know there used to be 4 as this is shown in an undated photo on P48.)

 

 

As I'm modelling the late 50s and early 60s, I'll follow the same colours as the others, and not the brown shade shown here.

 

However this does raise the question of when do you stop following the prototype and use modellers licence.  The lamp nearest the camera lost its head in 1955 by using a dated photo in Randolph.  However if I model a lamp post without a lamp head, wouldn't that just look naff?  So do I fit another of the DCC concepts lamps with the oil head?  The other option is to not fit the headless lamp post at all. I’m probably thinking of selecting the no post option.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Captainalbino
Grammar

[Chris Chewter]

Well the lamps took longer thinking about!

 

 

I decided that the base of the Berko lamp was poor, so a bit of butchery later, it’s affixed to the base of one of the DCC concept lamps. Unfortunately the wiring didn’t survive on that one. Oh well...