Dinfield and Norton Rd - Will Pwllheli solve all my problems?

[pirouets]

Been playing with card and thinking about the surfaces that need to be created. It was inspired by watching an Everard Junction video where Richard had been laying paving slabs for the shop area under the arches. In that he had used a Cricut machine to make the pavement slabs, but that got me wondering about scoring the card. Need to make the paint go in to the cracks better but think it might be OK

 

Next piece is thinking about cobblestones. This is just a pen creating the pattern but it took longer to do that small piece that the paving stones, so I think this is a non starter

 

That led to the idea of the station yard area having concrete slabs. Again, simply scored in to the card and concrete paint with a grey coat brushed on thinly but think this is to dark. I need to find some reference pictures for this and have another go but I think it will work.

 

[pirouets]

Still working on the road area and basic paint layer down. I will dry brush this to add some darker marks and will have a go at fitting a drain. I've also scored the paving slabs in to the pavement and thinking about next steps and whether that goes right up to the house.

 

However in doing this I do need to cut off the chimneys for the houses on the left. As its only the 1st 6ft of the house that is modelled, the chimney stacks shouldn't be there as can be seen by the house on the right which is a full building.

 

My other challenge is trying to find the right type of street lights for this. Been looking around all the suppliers but not 100% sure I can find one that isn't a slight comprimise. Back to googling 70s UK streets for now.

 

[pirouets]

Nearly 6 months since I last logged in but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing any work on the layout. In fact Dinfield has been ripped up yet again and is now in its 5th incarnation. The problem with the previous version is it did not work operationally for passenger trains due to the way the storage sidings were laid out. I'm not trying to be a serial layout builder here and think its more about planning.

 

So after a lot of browsing I saw the P4 Pwllheli layout and it just seems to tick the boxes. With the access to the station coming from the door end of the shed it means any passenger stock runs straight back to the storage sidings, plus having 2 sidings means freight stock can be held and then reversed.

 

What the layout will not be is a replica of Pwllheli as I see the layout as with a Devon feel but I could work out a way to have plan for Barnstaple. 

 

 

 

 

Over at Norton Rd we have station signs now, some lights on the platform (non working) and junk by the sidings.

 

 

What this also means is a lot of tidying up in the shed to store old buildings. I do wonder how much I have spent on card and glue over the last 3 1/2 years given Dinfield is on its 5th idea

 

 

[pirouets]

So over the last couple of weeks I have been working on the road down to the station and taking a slightly different approach to my normal building. As you can see at the top are 2 buildings with brick and normally I would have done the windows, doors, roof, before moving on but I though may be take a more strictured approach so have built all the carcusses for now. I'll then do the same job on each in turn so something along the lines of - Brickwork, window sills, dors, upper floors, curtains, brace for roof, tiling, etc

 

Hopefully a slightly better approach but we shall see.

 

 

Nothing happening over the other side but I just thought I would take some shots. the one below makes me realise if I am going to use spare peco sleepers, I need to lay them out so the bottom cannot be seen. Might actually be best to get some scale model scenary sleepes though.

 

 

And this, well I just like the picture.

 

[pirouets]

Good lord after a month I have found I am actually following the process I wrote in the previous post. Slowly trudging through this and adding the windows lintels and sills has taken a while. Only issue is as I finished them off today I think I made a mistake. I had been gluing in to the window and then folding down once the glue had dried. Problem is that has given a slight inconsistency so maybe I should have glued to the wall and then folded in to the window.

 

 

That led me to having a little play with this idea. Its a lot easier to cut straight in the styrene brickwork because of the pattern. So I sit here now debating whether to mock a complete building up. With that in mind I do have a question about windows - Do people cut the window openings in the supporting card structure to the same size as the styrene sheet? Asking because from a detail perspective the brick coarse will then be in the card. 

 

[pirouets]

I know i'm supposed to be adding things to a list assuming I have been reasonably good this year but I couldn't help getting this 2nd hand from DCC Supplies.

 

 

How ever over at Dinfield that row of houses has gone in recycling and starting again for 3 reasons

- I think the houses are to wide

- Rather than making individual houses I am going to cut groups of 4/5 houses from a piece of A4 card and work on them in groups. That way I can add the slope line to the card to get just the right height.

- I wasn't happy with the window sills and spent most of Warley looking at houses, plus have emailed KirtleyPete as to how he does window sills for York.

[pirouets]

I had the day off and was supposed to be playing golf but I have a sore knee and had walked off after 4 holes on Saturday. Didn't stop me driving to and wandering round Warley though which might not have been the brightest idea. 

 

I could have worked but decided to keep the day off so post 2 of the day shows the progress. At the moment everything is pushed back to hold the house fronts up, but the building will be about 1.8 cm deep. I've pulled the terraced house front from a scalescenes kit as the template. This was printed on to thing card rather than paper before then being glued to mount board. 

 

Instead of each house front then having to be aligned I've then simply worked my way down the slope ensuring that the doors are the same height above the road and left the card below the road surface to support it rather than having to cut pieces of card to get the height of each house as I previously had to.

 

Once I have made it to the bottom of the slope, i'll start on windows and doors. Again, rather than print to paper I will print to the thin card which makes it easier to cut and handle.

 

I reckon it will take me to the end of the year to get all the house fronts done and then I can worry about adding the supports than will make it all stand up.

 

The good news from my point of view is I still thing the bridge, road down and housing is the right look.

 

[pirouets]

So every house is covered with brick paper, has lintels and window sills in place now, though going all those small pieces and cutting out the window templates definitly had me thinking about getting a cutting machine.

 

 

The first set of windows and doors in place and so far so good. Probably take a good week to get the whole row sorted as I am taking it slow so glue can set and I don't knock anything out of place. Good thing I have a large data allowance so I can watch stuff on the tablet whilst I do this. 

 

[pirouets]

So the last dfew weeks have seen good progress and the main set of houses climbing up are now in the process of getting their roof slates added. Really happy with how this is coming together so far.

 

 

 

As well as railways the workspace in the shed has a few new kits in the coming months. As you can see the Zero is started and doing this is making me look to the future and how could I lay the shed out to have a proper work bench. I do have some ideas but nothing that is going to make me rip everything out just yet.