Aston On Clun. A forgotten Great Western outpost.

[chuffinghell]

4 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

The postie has just delivered this from WWS. Never used seafoam before, but I'm already thinking of using the smaller bits for a hazel copse. 

 

 

All my trees are made using seafoam, I think it great stuff

[MrWolf]

I was inspired by what you and Kevin @KNP have done with seafoam particularly with background trees and shrubs. Both layouts disappear tracks in a similar way using trees as a view blocker.

[MrWolf]

Another coat to level out the trunk and main branches, followed by texturing with a stiff brush, then a dose of tea dust.

I'll give it another brush over when dry, doubtless much of it will fall off, but leave a texture behind.

 

[MAP66]

 

Nice work Rob, there must have been a lot of tea drunk since the last post. When your happy with the filler and bark detail on the main trunk and larger branches, I found it easier to then give it a base coat of paint. My two go to paints for this are Vallejo German black brown and they do a black grey colour, sorry, don’t have the name of that one. Dilute both colours down to consistency of milk and with a suitably sized brush, load it well and working from the top branches and top of trunk let the paint flow down the tree towards the base and it will highlight and pick up all the textures and details as it flows. I normally apply a couple of coats like this and when dry it makes it easier to see if any further detailing or filler work is needed.

 

When that stage is completed, you can think about adding any extra finer gauge copper wire to represent the smaller branches and twiggy stuff or going in straight with the sea foam? Either will work or a combination of both, once attached use more filler to blend in to get a seamless join.

 

For the sea foam, I try and keep most of the tufty florets facing upwards with the odd one or two facing down on a few of the lower branches as it looks more natural and tree like for the Oak I did. Basically, just work from a reference photo of an Ash tree and go from there. I’m telling you how to suck eggs here Rob, you know what your doing. 👍

[Donw]

The highest tree in England is/was (they may of found higher recently)  in Nutcomb bottom. Stand beneath it is most impressive, at just over 60metres it is almost twice the height of the Ribblehead viaduct. Imagine the viaduct scene at Pendon with a tree that size dwarfing it. Of course trees only grow really tall amongst other trees. If you see a big oak on its own in a field it is not as tall as forest oaks but more than twice as wide.

We had Elm hedges in Somerset quite common. However if you dont keep them trimmed they get to around 15ft or so before they succumb and you end up with dead ones in the hedge. I had to remove two from my neighbours hedge which he didnt trim  ( I had his agreement to do so). Here we have some good sized Oaks and Sycamores  and our fence we put up was immediately adopted as a red squirrel highway.

 

Don

[MrWolf]

That's something over 195 feet high, nearly 800mm in 4mm scale, or to put it into perspective, as high as Aston's platform is long.

I remember seeing an excellent American logging railroad layout, (I've always been partial to those Shay logging locomotives) which had its giant redwood trees disappearing behind the proscenium arch / lighting rig, giving the impression that they continued on for another hundred feet or more.

The tree I'm building is around 20 feet to the first branch, fairly typical of a mature Ash and will probably be around 60' by the time it's finished.

I've mixed up a wash of red brown and dark grey and given it a coat.

[57xx]

The tree is coming on nicely, Rob. I seem to remember when I made a tree from wire armature many many year ago, I used Das air drying clay to cover it. It was very easy to build up the trunk with thicker layers and then use a thick slurry for thinner branches.

 

A though on doing a woods could you get away with doing a handful of trees for the front, then you won't really see the trunks of trees at the back, so maybe could just model the canopy further back?

[Captain Kernow]

13 hours ago, Donw said:

Nutcomb bottom

What a wonderful name for a layout.

 

[steveNCB7754]

On 01/09/2023 at 16:44, MrWolf said:

...  But I was always interested in the old passenger brake vans flanking the goods shed. I decided that as I'd scaled back the goods shed in a big way, then only one grounded van would be the way to go.

 

I found a couple of pictures via Gloucester Warwickshire Railways, but obviously they're black and white.

 

Obviously once out of revenue earning stock the original livery would have been painted out.

 

Does anyone know what colour it would have been painted?

 

 

Hi. This is a bit belated I know, but I came across your 'build' here, after doing (as I sometimes do) a search for 'Shipston' on RMweb. For context, I was born there in 1957 and lived opposite the old station yard, until we had to move away in 1966.

 

The two images you posted are well known and I have copies of them and others -  sadly, colour photos are few and far between.

 

On a more positive note, the May 2023 issue of Steam World magazine, included the article 'A Railway From The Canal Age', covering the evolution of the Shipston branch. On page 44, there is a black & white photo (Lens of Sutton) of the aforementioned grounded van body. What is interesting (and is a thing I hadn't noticed, some 40 years after I first began researching Shipston myself), is that it is actually an ex-Taff Vale vehicle. You can just make out the 16-inch 'T' and ''V' letters in the upper left and right corners of the van side and now I know they are there, I can just make them out in other images I have collected, but never noticed before.

 

So from my understanding (http://www.gwr.org.uk/notvr1.html); TVR goods stock had light grey bodies until c WWI, after which they were brown. As for markings; 6" 'T.V.R.' lettering at lower left until 1909', after which just 'TV' 16" lettering at centre (presumably talking about open wagons and 'flats'). Naturally, the grounded van (and the ex-GWR coach body) at Shipston, could have been painted over in BR days (I have a colour image of the old station building somewhere, showing it painted all-over in a pink/Light Stone(?) and heavily weathered) and then have weathered back to what is seen in the photos mentioned. Towards the end, that grounded TVR van was replaced by an iron-bodied van, but still sat on its wheels.

 

Steve N

 

 

[MrWolf]

Very little progress on the tree I'm afraid, things have been very busy as we're going away for Christmas. Respective mothers and sisters visited, bags packed, half track serviced, waxed and polished etc etc.

 

So until about the 28th, I'll be making a nod to classic movies and leaving you on a cliffhanger...

 

Or probably not.

 

 

 

"Hang on lads, I've just had.......... a great...,..... Idea,.........."

[Winslow Boy]

There's never a Stuka around when you need it.

 

Merry Christmas Von Wolf and RRH.

[chuffinghell]

22 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Very little progress on the tree I'm afraid, things have been very busy as we're going away for Christmas. Respective mothers and sisters visited, bags packed, half track serviced, waxed and polished etc etc.

 

So until about the 28th, I'll be making a nod to classic movies and leaving you on a cliffhanger...

 

Or probably not.

 

 

 

"Hang on lads, I've just had.......... a great...,..... Idea,.........."

[Nick Gough]

20 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Very little progress on the tree I'm afraid, things have been very busy as we're going away for Christmas. 

I thought you were planning to finish it and get some tinsel on it.

[Schooner]

 

Merry Christmas to all at Lupine Towers, enjoy the break.

[melmoth]

On 15/12/2023 at 09:27, Captain Kernow said:

What a wonderful name for a layout.

 

 

I've seen Real Ales called worse.

[Rowsley17D]

The two of you have a good one. 

 

Looking forward to new year developments. 

[Nick C]

Merry Christmas Rob and Miss R!

[JustinDean]

Merry Xmas! Hope you and yours have a good ‘un mate. 

 

Jay 

[NHY 581]

Merry Christmas both. Hope Santa is generous but above all enjoy yourselves. 

 

 

Rob

 

 

[chuffinghell]

[Nick Gough]

Merry Christmas Rob!

[MrWolf]

Thanks everyone for the season's good wishes.

 

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all of you and I hope to see you all back here very soon.

[MAP66]

Merry Christmas to you both Rob and all the best for 2024 🎅🐺🍾

[Donw]

Have a great time all the best to you  both.

 

Don

[57xx]

20 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

 

Will we wearing stockings on our heads?