The Osney Story: 0 Gauge Cameos and Dioramas

[rcf]

Hi All, 

 

In my last post I said that I would potter on at my own speed, but a rush of enthusiasm has taken things at more of a gallop. As in other builds, the more I get into it and I can see things falling into place, the more I want to do 😃. The track is now all ballasted and painted, although there might be some fine tuning later on. The main work has been the 'terra forming'!

 

Normally I work from the backscene towards the front of the layout, this always seems more logical and avoids subsequent damage when reaching across the layout. However, this time I have broken with tradition. About a third of the layout in the foreground will be landscaping and I decided that I needed to get the overall landform right before getting into too much detail and the flat baseboard was confusing the issue, so 'terra forming' it was. The basics are now complete and give context to the railway. I do need to resist the temptation to start adding vegetation at this point, however.

 

You will also notice some buildings in the background. These are some I made earlier (!) and seem to fit the bill for the new layout. Work on the platform is also progressing but nothing is fixed down at the moment. So all in all some rapid progress down Osney way, or whatever the final name will be. A couple of pictures to illustrate all this.

 

Regards Rob

 

[rcf]

Regular readers may notice a change in the title to incorporate the new work. In line with what has gone before and in the pursuit of continuity in my modelling the new layout will be known as Osney Town, this will be the mark 3 version! On the map in my head the line down to the Town Wharf leaves the branch at the station, so it seems logical to use this name for the new station. A decision helped by finding a nice station nameboard in my box of bits and salvage, so one less thing to model.

 

Work has been progressing  but may slow with the approach of the holiday period and everything involved in that. I will post some pictures when I get a moment.

 

Regards Rob

[rcf]

A happy New Year to all the followers of this tale, I did say I would post some pictures of progress but Christmas and all its ramifications seemed to get in the way. However, here are a few, although there has been some more progress since these were taken which I will update in due course.

 

Rob

 

[rcf]

A few more pictures to show recent progress. The station building in this and the previous post is loosely based on the stations on the Highworth branch in Wiltshire, namely Haddington, Stanton and Stratton.  Some of the buildings comprising the backscene were salvaged from elsewhere and have been enlarged with added detail. I quite like the idea of some of the detail being re-used where appropriate as it provides a form of continuity between layouts. Most of the items are just placed for affect at the moment to give some impression of how things will look later on but I now really need to get on with the bridges as they frame the whole scene but also have a lot of stonework to do, which is possibly why I haven't started yet.  

 

 

[RAY NORWOOD]

That becoming a fantastic layout Rob. Keep up the good work.

[rcf]

21 hours ago, RAY NORWOOD said:

That becoming a fantastic layout Rob. Keep up the good work.

Hi Ray, good to hear from you and thanks for your comment. At the moment I am happy with the way things are progressing, and more quickly than I anticipated, but I am on familiar territory so far. The interesting part is yet to come when I get to the stream and the embankments as I have never tackled an area the size that is available and being in the foreground it will be very much in your face! Only time will tell.

 

Regards Rob

[Calidore]

Lovely stuff Rob, a bit of colour on the building has brought the scene to life. Good luck with the tedious stone work, I’m sure it’ll come out nicely.

Adam

[rcf]

Hi All,

 

Firstly just a comment in reply to Adam, I quite agree with your comment re the colour, its amazing what a lift it gave to the layout and not something I was expecting.

I have been working on the stonework on the two bridges, one done, pending paint, as below

 

 

 

and one to go, as below. Although I'm some way from doing the stream I have started to think ahead and experiment with Siberian Snooper's suggestion, a way back, for using pva glue and I am quite impressed with a test piece I have done, so could well go down that route. Despite all my resolutions to proceed slowly at my own pace I have accepted an invitation to a show in July.  Plenty of time!!

 

Rob

 

 

[rcf]

Hi All,

 

Some steady progress to report, the stonework on the bridges is completed and some work has been carried out on the platform, including some vegetation behind the fencing. The two pictures of the bridges show the possible use of mirrors beneath the arches. (Just noticed only one actually illustrates the mirrors) I am very undecided about this but my other half is very enthusiastic. I think it looks better under the stream arch but am really not sure about the railway track which although showing the apparent continuation of the track also, from some angles, shows the platform.  Any thoughts would be appreciated as I need to make a decision soon so I can fix the bridges down and start blending them in. The alternatives are to leave them with the coloured backscene or even paint them matt black to reduce the affect of the openings.

 

Having agreed to an exhibition in July, I now find I am being asked to attend one in May. I don't know what happened to my resolve to proceed slowly at my own pace but you can see why I need to make a decision re the mirrors as soon as possible!

 

Regards Rob

 

[RAY NORWOOD]

The bridges look good. The mirror in the third photo you can see the buffer stops in the mirror and the buffer stop  is behind the bridge wall. It is the angle of the camera, I have the same problem with my Hounslow Sidings with the station building it appears the show what behind the wall.

[rcf]

13 minutes ago, RAY NORWOOD said:

The bridges look good. The mirror in the third photo you can see the buffer stops in the mirror and the buffer stop  is behind the bridge wall. It is the angle of the camera, I have the same problem with my Hounslow Sidings with the station building it appears the show what behind the wall.

Thanks for your comment Ray especially regarding the mirrors, you refer to it as a problem and that is my difficulty, am I going to be looking at it  in the future as a distraction or would I get used to it, I don't know!!!

 

Regards Rob

[Gedward]

 

I had the same dilemma on Bovey Tor, with a tunnel mouth at the end of a canal. So I also experimented with mirrors and decided in the end to go with matt black everywhere. And for similar reasons.

BTW, the stonework on the bridge is looking really good and very convincing.

 

[marc smith]

I'll echo other comments on how good this is looking Rob 

But mirrors on a layout? Now who would do such a thing? ha ha ha ;) 

In my experience, it's all about careful placement, and disguising the ends / edges of a mirror. I used a cur-down tree on my 7mm "Poynton Sneer" O gauge micro, with a Pipe gantry running across it. On my OO "Hendre Lane" a chimney in the far corner helped disguise the join... with a tree placed in front of it. But the factor that disguised it most, was the half-relief footbridge I placed across it. Mirrors placed under bridge arches can work really well IMO - but it's carefully disguising the join that's the secret IMHO.

[rcf]

Thanks Gedward  and Marc for your comments, even though they support both arguments! I have to say Marc that I had your layouts in mind when I wondered whether to use mirrors but I don't think I can use the ideas you had for disguising the joins. Interesting that you used matt black Gedward, I might give that a quick try.  All comments welcome.  

 

Rob

[magmouse]

27 minutes ago, rcf said:

Thanks Gedward  and Marc for your comments, even though they support both arguments! I have to say Marc that I had your layouts in mind when I wondered whether to use mirrors but I don't think I can use the ideas you had for disguising the joins. Interesting that you used matt black Gedward, I might give that a quick try.  All comments welcome.  

 

Rob

 

I think Marc is onto something with trees. A small tree/bush between the buffer stop and the bridge abutment would block the view of the buffer stop and platform, as seen in the mirror. Perhaps try it with a bit of sponge, crumpled paper or whatever, to see if it works before committing too much effort.

 

Nick.

[Stubby47]

Just park a van at the end of the siding, partly under the bridge.

[rcf]

I'm supposed to be stripping wallpaper off a wall in the sitting room prior to the better half re-papering at the weekend but this is more fun. I have tried blacking out one arch and had almost decided it was the way forward but then came Stu and Nick's suggestion backing up Marc's comment, so have just planted a tree which I happened to have handy and that certainly works very affectively, so....

 

Rob

[marc smith]

I can't quite see from the pics above, but are you using surface-silvered mirrors?
Most mirror materials are silvered on the back, so you get a "gap" between the layout and any reflections.

 

There are several brands of surface-silvered plasticard out there - it's nice & easy to cut (unlike glass mirrors) and the surface silvering really helps hide the join.
It's not quite as reflective (in terms of brightness & sharpness) but it's good - just don't stick it onto a surface with lumps & bumps on..... or you get distorted reflections

[RAY NORWOOD]

4 hours ago, rcf said:

Thanks for your comment Ray especially regarding the mirrors, you refer to it as a problem and that is my difficulty, am I going to be looking at it  in the future as a distraction or would I get used to it, I don't know!!!

 

Regards Rob

I have that if you look directly in front of the Bridge it would ok. I don't know how the mirror would pick out the buffer when you look at it at an angle. As mark said can you put a tree there or paint a tree on the mirror before putting the mirror in place. 

[RAY NORWOOD]

8 minutes ago, marc smith said:

I can't quite see from the pics above, but are you using surface-silvered mirrors?
Most mirror materials are silvered on the back, so you get a "gap" between the layout and any reflections.

 

There are several brands of surface-silvered plasticard out there - it's nice & easy to cut (unlike glass mirrors) and the surface silvering really helps hide the join.
It's not quite as reflective (in terms of brightness & sharpness) but it's good - just don't stick it onto a surface with lumps & bumps on..... or you get distorted reflections

I used sticky back plastic on Hounslow Sidings, I think it does not give a sharp image. 

[rcf]

57 minutes ago, marc smith said:

I can't quite see from the pics above, but are you using surface-silvered mirrors?
Most mirror materials are silvered on the back, so you get a "gap" between the layout and any reflections.

 

There are several brands of surface-silvered plasticard out there - it's nice & easy to cut (unlike glass mirrors) and the surface silvering really helps hide the join.
It's not quite as reflective (in terms of brightness & sharpness) but it's good - just don't stick it onto a surface with lumps & bumps on..... or you get distorted reflections

 

46 minutes ago, RAY NORWOOD said:

I used sticky back plastic on Hounslow Sidings, I think it does not give a sharp image. 

Thank you both, yes I am using flexible tiles which bend and cut nicely, as this was necessary due to two arches being on a curve, but they certainly don't give the clarity of an ordinary mirror. They do the job, though, the question is, will it do for what I want and that is the question as someone once said! I think I had better get back to the paper stripping. Thanks for all your interest and comments.

 

Rob

[marc smith]

The best Mirrored Plastic-card I bought was some time ago. I got it from a theatre supplies company. It was just a tad "brighter" than other materials available at the time. Although since then, I've seen several suppliers offering it. The plastic mirror I used was also just a shade thicker than others. Funnily enough, I recall searching for the material and not being able to see it in any modelling shops or shows I'd visited.... then as soon as I bought some online.... it was at every show I visited for some time! ha ha

[GWR57xx]

Rather than using a mirror you could try a piece of black acrylic.
It will give some reflections depending on the lighting, but not as bright as a plain mirror.

If you don’t have any to hand to try, you could get a feel for the effect by putting your phone or tablet screen (turned off!) up against the opening.

[rcf]

They do say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here goes,

 

 

Well just a few words maybe to explain myself. You will notice that there has been much progress with the scenic side. This is on the back of a decision about the treatment of the bridge After all the thought and contributions from you all, which was really appreciated, you will see that I have gone for the matt black option. The deciding factor for me was when I thought about operating the layout as I realised that from the operating position I would be looking straight down the bridge openings and however well disguised, to me it would always be an issue whereas I can live with the black. So its onward and upward and just one more picture which doesn't show the openings.

 

Rob

 

[Calidore]

The scenics look great Rob. And as always, the weathering and tones of the bridge / trackwork look spot on. I'm late to the debate here, but I agree about plain black rather than mirrors for the bridges.