Exchange Yard Sidings

[Izzy]

3 hours ago, bazjones1711 said:

Nice looking project , an exchange sidings makes for an interesting layout , we have built a simular layout based on the sidings of BSC Bromford tube in 4 mm  ( virtually the same trackwork layout as you have  done ) 

Traffic is ingots in and tube loads outwards with a Sentinel 0-4-0 for tripping to the off stage works . Look forward to seeing updates.

 

Oh thanks for sharing that and the shot. It looks really good, just the kind of result I am hoping to end up with, something that looks real in that there is a sense of purpose to it all. Seeing it makes me even more pleased I added the extra siding as I went along. It makes it all seem 'right'.

 

Bob

Edited March 26 by Izzy

[bcnPete]

This is all looking great Bob.

 

Thanks for sharing the build and I look forward to the next update!

[Izzy]

 

A few problems

 

I think with a thread like this that relates to the building of something it’s important to mention any issues and problems that are encountered so the impression isn’t given that it’s always plain sailing. Otherwise those hitting similar difficulties get discouraged by thinking it’s just their lack of skill or such like whereas in my experience everybody has aspects that don’t go well at times. Mostly the trick is in overcoming them in one way or another, by fair means or foul as they say…..

 

After finishing the track I then went to paint the sleepers with back poster paint. Just to give them a basic colour before ballasting. Usually in the larger scales I’ve just done this with a brush by hand. A watered down wash to soak in to the ply sleepers. Then paint the chairs and rails later along with giving everything weathering via various tones etc. However for some reason the poster paint didn’t really work at all well, the ply didn’t want to absorb the paint. So since I also intended to give the metal bufferstops a coat I thought perhaps the best thing to do was to get out the airbrush.

 

A while back I obtained a little double action Iwata Neo for my 2mm work and also got a small compressor from Expo tools that came with a cheap double action airbrush. This has a larger built-in gravity cup so I thought it would be best to use this for the job, able to hold a larger volume of thinned down poster paint given the area coverage needed. It is still only a small 0.3mm needle job but okay for this scale. Any greater area and I be wanting to get out one of my larger needle Paasche single action bottom cup airbrushes. This is one of those horses for courses situations where you need different airbrushes relative to the size of the work involved. I also have a bigger and heavier (15Kg) Aztec silent air compressor to use with them that can deliver the amount of air they need at the correct pressure & volume but given that with age I now struggle to lug it around I rarely use it or the older airbrushes. But they are there if I really need them. They have given good service over the 40 odd years I’ve had them so investing in good equipment is never a waste.

 

The advantage of airbrushing the poster paint is that it went on as a thin coat and covered much better, but also coated the chairs/rail. To be honest although some modellers like to paint the chairs and sides of the rails in a red rust colour in reality they are usually much darker so I thought that with subsequent weathering it would probably look okay. Lighter tones of brake and cement dust that would provide contrast and thus help bring out some detail. Most track apart from some main lines seems to take on the mantle of various shades of brown, an overall brownish hue thanks to the seeping of the creosote out of the sleepers along with the general dust and dirt blown around. Well, until concrete sleeper days where it now stays much cleaner in the sense weathering is more gradual and mostly just atmospheric elements alongside brake dust and oil stains etc.

 

After the painting I left it a couple of days to let it all bed in. This is when the problems started to appear. Having cleaned the top of the rails after airbrushing to remove most of the excess paint before it dried I went over them with a Peco rubber – it’s all I ever use although others seem dead set against them – and then plugged in the DCC system to check it all. It immediately shut down with a short circuit warning as soon as the track power was engaged. After checking it all I came to the conclusion that one of the bufferstops must be the culprit.

 

As they are metal etchings the actual bufferbeam must either be wood, as it was with one, or they need isolating from the uprights. I do this by using thin layers of plasticard between them.

 

 

Having glued them into place I had to break off all three before I found the one where this insulation had not worked for some reason. I had used Evergreen 5thou so tried again using 10thou, which then seems to have worked. That it had broken down on both legs seems weird. I use EMA liquid poly to glue the plasticard in place. It’s a different formulation to either pure butanone or Slater Mek Pak, both of which I also have, and produces a really strong joint with jobs like this. More horses for courses.

 

 

Having sorted this issue I then found another. Putting the loco on the track to test it all it started jumping/jerking at the toe of the points. I looked at the track and then could see the problem. The rails joints were not aligned.??? What was going on. It took me quite a while to discover the cause.

 

 

Now when I originally laid the sleepers on the templates I had no intention that they would remain permanently on them. So I just used two thin strips of d/s tape to locate them in place. A strip under where each rail would be. Just to hold the sleepers in place while the track was built. Had I meant to leave them on then I would have used a full width strip of d/s tape. The issue was that while it is almost impossible to pull the sleepers upwards, the tape will allow them to be pushed sideways a bit. And this was what was happening. It was all the fault of the Hacked servos. The brass sprung wire used to absorb the excess travel needed over the movement of the tie-bars means they are always exerting pressure on the blades. This is good in the sense it means they are always firmly located up against the stock rail, but when the sleepers can be pushed sideways …..

 

So I manually set the servos to the mid-point of the tie-bar travel, waited until the track joints moved back into allignment, and then flooded high viscocity cryno around the first few sleepers either side of the track joints to hopefully lock them to the baseboard. After leaving it a day, and then setting the servos back to applying the pressure it all seems to have worked out. No more movement. I wanted this sorted before ballasting because I didn’t want to rely on the ballasting holding them firmly in place just in case this didn’t happen when it would be much harder to correct if that needed removing first. I am pleased with the tie-bars. Not only do they work well they look decent too.

 

 

 

With all that sorted I can now move on to the ballasting. This is a job I don’t enjoy at all. It takes a long time and never seems to work in exactly the same way or look quite the same each time even though I use the same ballast, Woodland scenics extra fine grey, and the same glue, their scenic cement, which I apply with a pippette. However it should, hopefully, start to make the track look a bit better.

 

Bob

 

[2mmMark]

EMA's Plastic Weld is my solvent of last resort when all others refuse to stick.  It's designed as an adhesive for Plastruct ABS.

It can be a bit agressive on thin plasticard. I've had it cause wrinkling and warping.

Mark

[Izzy]

Hand uncoupling – with a magnet

 

Exchange Yard Sidings is proving to be interesting in that it has prompted me to try several new ideas concerning it’s construction and use. Firstly it was the track, then the point tie-bars, now it’s how I uncouple the DG’s.

 

Those using DG’s usually use magnets with which to achieve uncoupling. Either electro magnets buried in the track or under-baseboard permanent ones moved in and out of position by one means or another. I’ve tried both methods with different 2mm layouts I have built in the past. Both worked but had drawbacks I wasn’t keen on, either in the amount of hardware required to make them work, or the unrealistic way stock had to be moved around to accomplish it. And of course these methods can’t be used in a fiddle yard. So with more recent layouts I’ve resorted to uncoupling by hand using a piece of wire on a handle to lift the loops thus allowing the stock to be parted, which can be done anywhere I want on the layout including the fiddle, so very flexible in that respect. But it isn’t particularly easy to do and as I get older with my eyesight and hand co-ordination becoming less than it use to be I’ve looked for easier ways of doing it.

 

Recently I read about people using steel loops and waving magnets around to attract them upwards. I think this was in 4mm, not sure, but it sounded quite a good idea. My reservations were concerned with whether the stock was heavy enough to resist being pulled upwards and off the track by the strength of the magnet. But it did sound simpler and perhaps easier to achieve. There was only one way to find out, try it using one of the 6x6mm cylindrical neodymium magnets I had.

 

With a pack of DG’s from the 2mm shops you get a coil of 30swg PB wire and a coil of 29swg steel wire. I’ve always made the loops out of the PB so had plenty of the steel coils with which to make steel ones. These only had to be simple loops with no tail but a gap to allow them to be fitted into the pivots. So a rectangle with a slot in one end. I marked a pair of snipe pliers where the right length for the sides and ends were and then bent some up

 

 

I then removed the PB loops and fitted the replacement steel ones. I tried a couple of the Farish depressed centre PCA’s I had first. Using a round 6x6mm neodymium glued on the end of a coffee stirrer I waved it around the ends and the loops rose upwards and came down on top of the latches just as is meant to happen. I found if you got the magnet too close the wagons would indeed be drawn towards the magnet but with a few goes I began to see the basic concept would work. So I converted some more wagons to steel loops. A few 12t vans. These are plastic bodies on etched underframes. Here the metal underframes made it even more important that the magnet was kept at distance otherwise the vans just literally flew onto the magnet. But with more practice I found that it could work quite well.

 

So I have spent the last few days bending up sets of steel loops and fitting them to all my stock. I still have quite a way to go. About 40 wagons have been converted so far, with about the same again along with all the coaching stock. I think I might have to get some more steel wire to be able to make enough loops. The question seems to be which runs out first, the steel wire or stock to convert. But it is proving much easier to use. And nice and simple. I like that, keeping things simple.

 

In other news the basic ballasting has been completed and the bridge now glued into position. Testing of the track with locos and wagons has been undertaken during the job to ensure it all carried on working as it should. That points didn’t get jammed up with either ballast or glue. Using the Woodland Scenics scenic cement glue does mean it’s a slow job. This is because it’s very runny, like water, and thus not very strong. It takes a few doses to fully harden off the ballast, and it must be left overnight/24hrs to let each dose properly dry out. It doesn’t fully harden off until it does. So I have had plenty of time to bend up all those steel loops ……..

 

 

There is a bit more ballasting to do, odd bits where it hasn’t taken properly, and then I can give it a basic coat of weathering to try and make it look less stark. This will lower the contrast and bring out the details a bit more – I hope. The basics for the point levers have also been fitted. These won’t be made and added until later to prevent them getting caught and damaged/pulled about. Been there etc…….

 

Bob

[Izzy]

 

A bit of colour

 

Having got the track ballasted I have now been able to give it some basic weathering and build up the surroundings to provide the scenic framing, what little there will be. Weathering was carried out using Rowney pastels which are dropped on by brushing the pastel stick with a hard brush and then working the powder in and around using both hard and soft brushes. I mostly used a couple of brown shades and black and vacuum around to remove any surplus powder at regular intervals. I’m not sure the result is quite right yet, but the bullhead nature of the track at least does show a bit better. I tend to switch between airbrush weathering and pastels depending on what I think might work best. Airbrushing is very directional, is great for doing large areas in a uniform manner, or sometimes really tiny spot scenes, powders messy in a different way but easier to do in small bits, a bit here, a bit there, whereas using the airbrush means doing more in one go because of the extra work of cleaning up each time you stop or change colour. Not being totally happy with it at present I will next go over it with the airbrush using Reeves poster paint. I like using this as it always dries to a matt finish. At present the track has a slight mauve tint in certain lighting conditions and I am baffled as to why.

 

 

At other angles and after a bit more weathering it doesn't look too bad

 

 

 

 

But it can’t stay like that and I’m hoping playing around with the airbrush and poster paint will sort it.

 

I have also built up the edges using surplus mountboard and foamcore offcuts. The intention is to try and lay a basic grass layer and then add some other vegetation where I think it might suit. At the moment a layer of Javis earth mix has been laid down. I’ve never used this before but found it in my local craft/model shop and thought I’d give it a try as an under-layer.

 

 

 

It seems to be coloured sawdust as best as I can tell now it’s out of the packet and it looks like I might have to airbrush over it with some poster paint to get a uniform appearance that appears to actually be earth. But it was cheap compared to WS products so can’t complain. Three different colour bags of Javis 2mm fibres were less than one WS. A boundary fence is also being considered. All this is being done on the basis if I don’t like it, I’ll try again with something else. Worst case rip it up and start again.

 

 

Plans are also in hand for a couple of huts. One to be used as a general rest hut for engine men and track side workers, another as a track maintenance store. One will be a concrete LNER type D hut, a larger size than I made for Priory Road, the sizes for these varying depending on requirements, the other perhaps wooden or brick, we’ll see. Oh, and a toilet hut I think. I’m basing all this around the premise of the original layout plan, as much what is outside the area modelled having an influence as what is seen. So the low bank at the front is meant to represent one sitting between the main running lines and the exchange sidings. And the huts are meant not only for the sidings but those concerned with the main lines in respect to the track maintenance aspects.

 

Bob

 

[richbrummitt]

I think the pinkish comes from WS ballast but don’t know why. From what I recall of Javis (of 30yrs ago) it is dyed dust.

 

What special treatment is required around the switches? I notice they are deliberately untreated thus far. 

 

[chrism1964]

28 minutes ago, richbrummitt said:

I think the pinkish comes from WS ballast but don’t know why. 

 

I suspect that it's what's called illuminant metamerism, where some dyes look different under different lighting conditions.

 

It was a nightmare when I was printing my own photos using a dye-based printer. It would turn out cracking black & white prints when I looked at them at home but when they went under the camera club's balanced daylight fluorescent lighting they were more "green & whites". So I got myself a balanced daylight tube and tweaked the printer settings so the prints looked good under that lighting, but in any other lighting  they were more "magenta & whites".

 

In the end I gave up and sent them off to be printed on proper silver-halide based photographic paper.

 

 

 

[Izzy]

5 hours ago, richbrummitt said:

I think the pinkish comes from WS ballast but don’t know why. From what I recall of Javis (of 30yrs ago) it is dyed dust.

 

What special treatment is required around the switches? I notice they are deliberately untreated thus far. 

 

 

Thanks Rich, I think perhaps it's a combination of a different brown pastel colour to normal combined with light refraction that's maybe the issue. The Javis earth is actually like small slivers of wood and I've spent a while rubbing it down. When first done it looked like stubble in a cereal crop field, which would have been ideal if that's what I had wanted. It's now had a poster paint coat via the airbrush. Once the grass is on top not much will show probably. Maybe just at the side of the ballast edge.

 

I'm not really intending to do anything with the switch bank. Maybe drop them out and give the mountboard surroundings a fresh coat of paint, but that's all. I have raised the bank in front and at the side of them to the same height and will probably add a few shrubs/bushes etc. on top.

 

 

 

But as this is the viewing and operating side I don't want it too high. Trying to cover them over would raise it far too much.

 

Bob

Edited April 10 by Izzy
add photos!

[richbrummitt]

Sorry @Izzy I meant the switches as in switch rails, where the TOU are attached. 

[Izzy]

4 hours ago, richbrummitt said:

Sorry @Izzy I meant the switches as in switch rails, where the TOU are attached. 

 

Ah, my mistake Rich. To be honest I don't intend to do anything to them, they will stay as they are. I will add the hand levers at some stage, the wooden coverings for the mechs have been fitted following the drawing of the standard BR hand lever design, very kindly posted in the RMweb track section by @bécasse of one at Witney.

 

 

But apart from that nothing else is really needed that I am aware of for hand operated points. Am I missing something obvious? I have a habit of doing that ......

 

I can't post a current shot of them because today I spent the morning laying the grass fibres and the rest of the day colouring them and the track with poster paints via the Neo and it has yet to fully and properly dry out. The shades can change considerably when it does and I feel there will be more to do yet even then. Perhaps when I am able to show the completed finished results with the hand levers in place it will look okay.

 

Bob

Edited April 11 by Izzy
add link

[bécasse]

It is always good to know that one of my drawings has proved useful. That point lever at Witney was carefully measured up almost sixty years ago!

[Izzy]

1 minute ago, bécasse said:

It is always good to know that one of my drawings has proved useful. That point lever at Witney was carefully measured up almost sixty years ago!

 

Yes and I'm most grateful to you for not only measuring it up and producing the drawing in the first place but posting here for the likes of me!

 

Bob

[richbrummitt]

1 hour ago, Izzy said:

 

Ah, my mistake Rich. To be honest I don't intend to do anything to them, they will stay as they are.

 

[snipped]nothing else is really needed that I am aware of for hand operated points.[cut]

 

I can't post a current shot of them because today I spent the morning laying the grass fibres and the rest of the day colouring them and the track with poster paints via the Neo and it has yet to fully and properly dry out. The shades can change considerably when it does and I feel there will be more to do yet even then. Perhaps when I am able to show the completed finished results with the hand levers in place it will look okay.

 

Bob

I understand now how the small area that appears to be without ballast at the side of each stretcher bar and the adjacent sleepers is going to be developed. Thank you. I look forward to seeing the results when they are ready. I have a scale hand lever to make too so the linked drawings will probably come in useful too. 

[Izzy]

 

Adding the grass

 

I don’t know about anybody else but I really struggle at times to get even a small bit of grass to look anything close to realistic. But a recent comment I read might have changed that for me and how I approach all scenery in general in the future. Over the recent years I’ve bought quite a bit of static grass in differing colours none of which has turned out to be what I wanted. I’ve mixed it endlessly, laid different lengths in patches and so forth. Mostly the tonal shades just seem wrong. It has been very frustrating. Then just recently I read a comment that the person went over the static grass with whatever particular shade he wanted via an airbrush. Now I don’t know what type of paint was used but this simple action had just never occurred to me despite the fact I always weather the track and ballast.

 

So when I had laid the Javis static grass I got a few days ago and once again it didn’t come up to expectations colour looks wise despite all the mixing of the various differing shades I thought it was the prime time to give this painting of static grass a whirl. And what a difference. Such a simple and easy solution which I now realise could be applied to most items connected with scenery making in respect to trees, bushes and so forth. I have never thought about painting any of it before but it does now seem quite a logical thing to do. Matt poster paint also seems a good medium to use and that’s what I have done. Having plenty helps here but it’s more about the light matt finish that results. It always dries quite a bit lighter tonally than when it is mixed and wet. Mostly. With pure white and black it’s a bit different and extra care is needed not to overdo them.

 

I had first laid the grass using Hobbycraft ‘School Glue’ PVA with the grass being put on using a Gaugemaster/Nock puffer bottle with a bespoke nozzle on the end. So no fancy static grass applicators were harmed here. I did look at them once. For my tiny layouts they seemed complete overkill. And rather expensive on the whole for something that would get very little use. By contrast the puffer bottle was a quick and easy try out. At first I did think that perhaps I would have to spend a bit of cash on something better as the initial results were rather disappointing. But then I hit on the idea of using a spare nozzle off a Anita’s Tacky glue bottle to better contain and direct the grass. This just push fits over the head of the puffer bottle and it’s internal push fit cap with the large holes in it, and once cut down so there was a reasonable hole in the end it has proved ideal. All my recent layouts have been grassed with it. Although it can get a bit tiring squeezing the bottle multiple times in succession, and not huge amounts get puffed out with each squeeze, you can go back and forth over an area building up the thickness as required. That’s how I now do it anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

I left it to dry out for an hour or two – the school glue goes off quite quickly - and then airbrushed it. Because I used my little Neo for this with it’s small 0.3mm needle I drew back and set the needle a bit to allow the poster paint to flow and not continually jam it up. Poster paint is quite coarse in contrast to the fluids such as ink and thinned enamel/acrylic paint normally meant to be used with such a fine size. I also set the psi at around 25-30. A few coats were needed as the thinned paint didn’t give much coverage in colour depth terms. I also varied the tonal shades and then did a pass with some beige/brown to tone it all down. I’m fairly happy with the final result as it stands at present. Not up to what others seem so easily to achieve, but far better than anything I have been able to produce before. It looks a bit uniform at the moment in respect of the earth banks but I’m hoping that when I add some buses and such like it will appear a bit more natural.

 

 

After this I went and airbrushed the track. Various brown shades, black, and a coating of a greyish white to represent the cement dust getting blown around from the wagons. This does now mostly seem to have eliminated the mauve tint.

 

Oh, the bridge has also had the weathering treatment with the Rowney pastels. As I gave the brick paper a coating of Ghost matt varnish before making it, I could attack it with both the airbrush and poster paints, (or rather the overspray from doing the grass), and then the pastels, without doing any harm to the base paper. I did a couple of times run a wet brush over some parts to alter things without affecting the printed paper beneath.

 

 

 

 

Sorting the hand levers for the points will be next I think while I muse on the huts and lineside fencing along with some bushes.

 

Bob

 

[Izzy]

 

The Cement works

 

As I have based the premise of this layout around the cement works at Claydon near Ipswich I though I should try and find out a few basic details about it to help with decisions such as what type of huts to make and so on. The information I have managed to find so far is interesting.

 

The works opened in 1914 being built by Masons to replace an earlier works of theirs at Waldringfield which had been closed down. The new location was to take advantage of not only rail access but nearby chalk deposits as well as those for clay. It survived bombing in WW2 and was taken over by Blue Circle Industries in 1946. They built new kilns at it, at one time numbering 5, one being for some time the largest kiln in the UK. The works operated until 1996 and closed down completely in 1999. Although coal fired through the Masons era in the 1960’s it was connected to the National Grid and became totally electrically operated. Production in later years reached towards half a million tons annually, so it was an important place yet I have seen few mentions of it in articles concerning Blue Circle cement works in the UK. Of the few photos discovered is one from 1971, an aerial shot, showing rows of both original Presflos and later type cement wagons in the sidings along with large numbers of cement lorries. It always looked a large busy place whenever I had driven past it, I just didn’t quite appreciate how big it was.

 

The fact it was connected to the National Grid during the time period I am modelling means that coal wagons for power supply shouldn’t feature but as I am only using the works as a general guide then in my case they will. I have plenty to use plus it gives another different traffic flow. The more variety of wagons that can be used the better. In fact if I were to choose I could just use it as a set of exchange sidings situated near a junction or some similar situation and have a wide variety of traffic use it.

 

That the works existed for so long does give rise to the question of what kind and type of huts to produce though. I had originally planned to make a LNER type D prefabricated Hut for one but I am now leaning towards having brick built structures. Or maybe since @bécasse very kindly provided drawings of brick built exGE huts which I have made for Priory Road perhaps I will provide a couple of these for the maintenance side alongside the Type D, the idea being this arrived at the same time as Blue Circle took over the plant. Having to wait for ballast and paint to dry out for days in a row alongside being occupied with other non-modelling activities and wider family duties has given me plenty of time to think about such matters.

 

Bob

 

Edited April 18 by Izzy

[Izzy]

The layout cover

 

One of the driving principles behind this little layout was that it should be small and easy to both use and store. So as part of this the fiddle board was designed to plug into place in use, and be stored within the outline size of the main board. This has been achieved by making a pocket in the cover into which it is placed. This accounts for the lack of even a low backscene. This internal pocket sits just above the fencing posts. It is a nip & tuck situation but as it is shorter than the layout itself there is still room for the bridge!

 

The cover is made of 5mm foamcore sheet bought from Hobbycraft and is a close fit over the layout, quite tight in this particular case. I have used this material for all my layouts covers in recent times being lightweight yet providing enough protection. The joints are glued using tacky PVA and then reinforced with 2” wide masking tape. This is to both protect all the edges and corners from damage and guard against any paper cuts cause by handling. The outer covering paper of the foamcore board is thin, hard, and cut edges can be sharp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With some care taken in the design it is possible for the cover to take the weight of the layout involved so they can be up-turned to work on the underside for wiring etc. when needed. This has proved most useful now a countless number of times. Some covers have been made before track laying and others such as in this case towards the end of the layouts construction when locations of all the scenery is known.

 

 

 

 

Despite the material they have proved surprisingly robust. Although easy and cheap to replace should they get fatally damaged none have needed doing so to date and I would be surprised if any got to that stage given the length of time that has passed since the first were made and survive intact today.

 

Bob

 

[Izzy]

The point hand levers, and some fencing

 

I had laid the point lever bases when the track was ballasted. I used 10thou plasticard to represent the wooden plank mechanism covers. However when I came to add the actual levers I found they were already starting to break up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This didn’t seem very good and having had problems with plasticard like this before I decided to replace them with new covers made from scrap nickel silver etch culled from the etched kits I have made. I have a habit of saving what I see as useful bits of etches after all the proper bits have been used. In this way I have lots of straight strips in various sizes and lengths and used a few to also make up the actual levers. I haven’t got the shapes quite right, finding it awkward to get the bends in the right places at the correct angles. But using metal for both the levers and the bases meant I could solder the levers into them to assist in making them stronger and more damage resistant.

 

 

 

I will probably still catch and bend them at times when track cleaning though….. They were given a dunking in metal black before gluing into place and the levers then painting white. I think they look okay.

 

 

 

 

I have also made and planted the fencing along the back and end. 1/32 ply cut into strips and planted into drilled holes after a coat of black poster paint. I did try at first to drill holes in them to string wire, but this didn’t work out, they just kept breaking up, so the idea is it gives a hint of post and wire fencing without the wires. I managed to wire all those on Tendring, but most of the time the wires are not visible unless the light direction catches them so I think this subterfuge will work.

 

 

 

 

The etched buffer stops do make up nicely.

 

 

The next job is to try and put a hedge behind the fence because the fencing alone looks too stark to my mind. But I have never made field hedging much before and so this is proving a real challenge and especially in 2mm as most of the scenery materials around seem more suited to the larger scales.

 

Bob

 

[Caley Jim]

2 hours ago, Izzy said:

The next job is to try and put a hedge behind the fence because the fencing alone looks too stark to my mind. But I have never made field hedging much before and so this is proving a real challenge and especially in 2mm as most of the scenery materials around seem more suited to the larger scales.

Have you tried using green scouring pad, cut (or torn and trimmed, depending how neat you want the hedge to be) into strips, then dressed with flock as foliage?

 

Jim

[Izzy]

9 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Have you tried using green scouring pad, cut (or torn and trimmed, depending how neat you want the hedge to be) into strips, then dressed with flock as foliage?

 

Jim

Not yet Jim, I’ll give that a try. All this is as you can see both experimental and rather nip & tuck in that there isn’t much room which makes it seem more difficult. I never seem to have enough space with anything I do!
 

Bob

[2mmMark]

I'd recommend this instead of scouring pad. It's a little bit finer and has a better base colour


I made an "electric nozzle" for a Noch puffer bottle that works very well.   The charge for the nozzle comes from a Flockbox.



I documented some of my scenic work on British Oak a while back.

 

[Caley Jim]

1 hour ago, 2mmMark said:

I'd recommend this instead of scouring pad. It's a little bit finer and has a better base colour

That's the sort of thing I was meaning.  Maybe I used the wrong name for it.

 

Jim

[Izzy]

8 hours ago, 2mmMark said:

I'd recommend this instead of scouring pad. It's a little bit finer and has a better base colour


I made an "electric nozzle" for a Noch puffer bottle that works very well.   The charge for the nozzle comes from a Flockbox.



I documented some of my scenic work on British Oak a while back.

 

 

Thanks Mark, I did follow what you did and thought it really good and to make a note of it, which I then forgot to do being typical me, so thanks for the reminder and the link. I have found a few different materials to try today, some scouring pads and also something from Woodland Scenics.  I also have an old grinder my wife gave me years back which I must try and dig out and see if some of the scatter stuff can be made finer.

 

Bob

[martin580120]

I have used the below to great effect, admittedly for wargaming at larger scales:

 

https://www.geekgamingscenics.com/products/tree-canopy-tree-foliage-sheets

 

Spray it brown, spray it with a yacht varnish or tacky glue and flock, or one of the leaf covers, then stick to base.

 

Also another vote for steel wool - I'm working on some Normady Bocage at 28mm scale (somewhere between 1/56th and 1/48th) and this is the base material I'm using with the same process above, airbrush brown, yacht varnish, dunk in my big box of mixed flocks - I've not tried it at 2FS scale, but I  suspect if you use fine flock it will look the part.

[bécasse]

Never use actual steel wool for foliage or other scenic effects on a model railway, the synthetic stuff is OK though. The trees on our P4 Bembridge layout built over half-a-century ago used steel wool as the base for the foliage, but while it looked good we were having to continually clear away the "beards" (actually tiny fragments of the steel wool) that grew on the locos' motors each day.