DougN Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 Looking good Scott. Collecting the 20ton steel hoppers to go behind the Q6 takes time though. Can I recommend the Slaters 20ton timber hoppers. I have part built a number and they go together nicely and they do turn up in the hopper trains! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 On 03/06/2019 at 10:02, DougN said: Looking good Scott. Collecting the 20ton steel hoppers to go behind the Q6 takes time though. Can I recommend the Slaters 20ton timber hoppers. I have part built a number and they go together nicely and they do turn up in the hopper trains! Thanks Doug. I have a tranche of 21T hoppers I picked up when Hattons did a clearance a few years back - but like the locos, they willl need some serious weathering to look the part. Now that Slaters have re-introduced the wooden bodied NER hoppers, I will add them to the fleet... one day. Cheers Scott 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 (edited) So it was change trades time, for a short stint terra-forming once more. I wanted the church corner to be more elevated: So I doubled the height of the existing plateau and, worried the embankment would crack between old and new, reskinned it with a fresh plaster impregnated cloth. I've started flocking the grass sides today: I will need to blend the new ground cover into the old - don't get too excited; what you see there is just the very first layer. There's more muted colours, and then some static grass to go. I'd been thinking of adding pines around the church, but the proximity to the poplar stand made no sense. So I have recommenced poplar propegation, and will add another 14-16 and take that line of trees all the way around the curve. That will see the church behind the polars, which I like the idea of. Cheers Scott Edited June 9, 2019 by jukebox 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runs as required Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Wow Scott! Brilliant developments. I haven't been wasting ti roving around the web much through our spring (outside tasks have demanded priority), but Stock is looking really great. I love your action painting style of backdrop behind the terraces. I notice the terraces are all full of Rupert Murdoch's work shy "Welfare scroungers" with their curtains drawn all day. Sometime in the future you might return to those terraces and give them a bit of a roughing up so they are not so perfectly uniform, most UK working areas got their terraces built in slightly varied blocks of streets an acre or so at a time (cf the amazing Copenhagen Fields layout) Have you experimented with cheapo hairspray as fixative over water soluble prints before attacking them with (fairly dry) acrylic? We all used it as Mackem art students. Sunderland was of course distinctive for its single storey terraces with dormers. very best wishes dh 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted July 1, 2019 Author Share Posted July 1, 2019 (edited) Happy New Financial Year. Working continues in the church corner... terraforming, flocking, reforming, more flocking... blending in with existing flocking... That was the orientation I had planned to use... but me being me, I also took some photos with the church in a different orientation to the railway. I like this one better... So that will probably be how I place it. I've been rather inspired by the churchyard at Dalton-Le-Dale: So am making up some low walls to surround the property, and will flock the churchyard with a lighter, softer flock, then add some headstones for the mining dead... 5.15 A.M. Snow laying all around A collier cycles home From his night shift underground Past the silent pub Primary school, workingmen's club On the road from the pithead The churchyard packed With mining dead... I'll also make a half dozen more generic trees to fill the slopes each side of the church and tie it to the background; across the front will be the extended row of poplars. They are in production now: Turns out Woodland Scenics don't match batches of flock - I went to get three more bags to do these, and they were a slightly different (greener) tone. So I used the 1/4 bag I had left, and blended it to make some "transition" trees that I can plant next to the six already on the layout, without drawing attention to the difference. The church will be behind this row of trackside poplars - I like the idea of glimpsing it through the trees, rather than it being immediately visible. Cheers Scott Edited July 3, 2019 by jukebox typos and missed words 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian D Posted July 1, 2019 Share Posted July 1, 2019 Great stuff Scott. Your tree making has reminded me that my layout is currently treeless despite me having two tree making kits stashed away somewhere! Regards, Brian. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcredfer Posted July 2, 2019 Share Posted July 2, 2019 (edited) That's a huge load of flocking work done there! { Sorry, couldn't resist, it's sooo old, too.} I agree about the Church orientation. Firstly there is a more varied and interesting profile, but it also removes the shadow of the tower from the backscene. With a wall round the Church it will look wonderful on the hilltop, dominating the area, just as the Bishop decided it should. Regards Julian Edited July 2, 2019 by jcredfer 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted July 7, 2019 Author Share Posted July 7, 2019 Churchyard walls fabricated and painted downstairs on my bench, then taken up and installed: I've then coated the coarse flock inside the churchyard with PVA, and applied a layer of Woodland Scenics "Weeds" that is actually nice fine flock - to represent the well tended and naturally fertilised turf inside the walled yard. Once dry I will vacuum that away, and work on the static grass. I also tweaked the blue hills of the backscene, as they were not contiguous, and I kept having to photoshop a ridge in. The shot below, unphotoshopped, shows the area with the ridge on the RHS of the join now matching the LHS. As with the poplars, I have the challenge of blending in new with old - both the static grass and the shades of the cut embankment: I'm happy with the embankment - it's similar enough not to draw the eye to it. You can also see the San Andreas-like cracking on the old section... this, and areas of the new section, will have some vegtation added one I plant the trees and trackside fences. I will do this along the whole cutting, so I can make sense of it all as one scene and to give it a sense of unity. I'll also use a herbacious boader to soften the edge between grass textures off to the right - some clump foilage there should do the trick. Cheers Scott 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted July 21, 2019 Author Share Posted July 21, 2019 A most satisfying weekend here. I tackled the task of blending the church corner grass at disparate ends all in one hit. My thinking was that *if* my blending plan worked well, it would then "key" the corner in, and save me having to have a second go at blending even more textures and shades. I had kept some of the static grass under the poplar trees to one side, and noticed that the mid green Woodland Scenics static grass was a close match to the retaining wall end ground cover, which is actually flock, not static grass. I also had two shades of new W/S product - 12mm field grass. So it was on with a slightly diluted - so it doesn't skin as quickly - thick layer of PVA, then I got to work with the Greenkeeper... Static grassing is always a hold-your-breath thing - you cover a perfectly good layer of flock with a coat of white glue, and then have to wait 24 hrs to see what the result looks like as the glue turns transparent - and only after vacuuming the surplus up do you really see what you've created. The outcome was most pleasing! Here's a panorama I was able to Photoshop together (click on this one to get the large version): I'm pleased not only with how well each end has blended, but also how the shades in the main area subtly change. With the grass sorted, I got onto detailing. I have the 16 new poplars on the bench, and have trimmed and re-flocked them to plug any holes. While they were drying, I set out a string line, and dabbed a mound of earth flock at the same spacing the original poplars have. This will make it simple to place them when the time comes. I also made up some headstones last night, so glued those in place, along with some fine gravel to represent a path leading to the church. This is an in progress view: I'll need to vacuum up the excess gravel and turf, and add a little flock to the base of each headstone to disguise the glue. And you can see I now have some horizon greenery in place to divert attention from the hard join between the back-scene and the 3D world in the church corner. I'm going to make up another four or five nondescript trees and plant them either side of the church yard - that will create a bit of a visual block, and help the church stand out a bit, even though it will be hidden behind the poplars. Once all that vegetation is in, I can add the railway fence. Cheers Scott 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted July 24, 2019 Author Share Posted July 24, 2019 (edited) Just a little mid-week update, as the tasks I am doing, I can only spend 15-30 mins each night, then have to wait for glue to dry, then rinse and repeat... I vacuumed the path up, and added earth to one of the graves to make it look freshly buried. The I topped up the grass around the path. With that all vacuumed up, I glued the church into position tonight, and started planting poplars. I figured I can plant the ones at the scene edges, but will wait to plant the infill trees before I totally wall the church off with poplars. Because of the severe slope of the land here, trusty tins of spaghetti and flock tubs keep the trees close to vertical whilst the glue dries. At the other end, the root mass allows them to dry free-standing: Those bases will be disguised with more grass and flock, as were the original six. Cheers Scott Edited July 24, 2019 by jukebox 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted July 28, 2019 Author Share Posted July 28, 2019 (edited) ..and then there were trees. Three generously sized trees to give the Church hillside some mass - pun intended. I've also added some ground vegetation cover of varying textures, to both lock it to, and differentiate it from, the backscene, and I added some weeds around the base of the church to disguise any gap with terra firma. After I took these shots, I felt the left hand tree was a little "liquorice legged" and so added a lichen foliage mass in that area. The poplars are on some stiff side slopes here, so I can only plant them one at a time, using foam wedges and wads of rolled up toilet paper, to hold them plumb till the Liquid Nails sets. I'm sure in reality they would have grown perpendicular to the slope, but let's not let a detail like that get in the way of making a scene, shall we? The trees have done their job nicely, and the church doesn't seem like it's planted by the hand of god on a bare hill any more. I'm chuffed with how the graveyard is overhung by the branches, but also how the longer row of poplars is developing. Can't wait to see the final five (five? Yes: the sixth one, on the right side of the gap, was glued after I took this shot - five left) planted and the fence installed to complete the view. Cheers, Scott Edited July 28, 2019 by jukebox typos! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted August 3, 2019 Author Share Posted August 3, 2019 Clean up day today. Applying some static grass to the fencing all across the layout - a job I'd left until I had all the fencing along one side in place. As that was drying, I tidied up the layout room, whilst I decide what job to tackle next... Cheers everyone Scott 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted August 4, 2019 Author Share Posted August 4, 2019 I was a bit rushed last night, so didn't really take the time to explain myself in that last post. With the church corner complete, I essentially have achieved 85% of my goal of infilling the rear of the layout with "completed" scenery. The inverted commas come from the knowledge that nothing is ever complete, and there are farm animals, and figures to add, clumps of vegetation here and there, and other changes that I may make as time passes. But the goal of building the hard-to-reach stuff has been kicked. Almost. There's a multitude of ways to head now: Construct the other side of the deep cutting you can see to the left of the photo above. Build Stockrington station opposite the retaining wall in the middle. Pour the water features. Build terrace houses. As much as it doesn't appeal, I am probably going to chose the last item. The terrace house corner is the deepest unsceniced area on the layout. And I actually found getting to the farthest reaches of the church corner quite physically demanding - requiring some uncomfortable contortions to sit on the layout, lean across five tracks, not damage the track, and lay flock or place lichen. The terrace corner will be no different; I'll build the house rows off-layout, but will need to contort myself again, to place those, and then construct the roads and detail that beds them into the layout. Cheers Scott 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian D Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 15 hours ago, jukebox said: I was a bit rushed last night, so didn't really take the time to explain myself in that last post. With the church corner complete, I essentially have achieved 85% of my goal of infilling the rear of the layout with "completed" scenery. The inverted commas come from the knowledge that nothing is ever complete, and there are farm animals, and figures to add, clumps of vegetation here and there, and other changes that I may make as time passes. But the goal of building the hard-to-reach stuff has been kicked. Almost. There's a multitude of ways to head now: Construct the other side of the deep cutting you can see to the left of the photo above. Build Stockrington station opposite the retaining wall in the middle. Pour the water features. Build terrace houses. As much as it doesn't appeal, I am probably going to chose the last item. The terrace house corner is the deepest unsceniced area on the layout. And I actually found getting to the farthest reaches of the church corner quite physically demanding - requiring some uncomfortable contortions to sit on the layout, lean across five tracks, not damage the track, and lay flock or place lichen. The terrace corner will be no different; I'll build the house rows off-layout, but will need to contort myself again, to place those, and then construct the roads and detail that beds them into the layout. Cheers Scott Hi Scott, This is all looking very good. I know how difficult it is to work on these corners so I have a suggestion to make. I have taken the liberty of downloading your image and marking up an area thus. Is it not possible to construct all of the buildings, scenics, etc inside the red line on a module? All of this could be made "off site" on a rigid base and dropped back into position when complete. It would also be easier to work on the module because it could be accessible from all sides when "off site". Best Regards, Brian. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JZ Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 16 hours ago, jukebox said: The terrace house corner is the deepest unsceniced area on the layout. And I actually found getting to the farthest reaches of the church corner quite physically demanding - requiring some uncomfortable contortions to sit on the layout, lean across five tracks, not damage the track, and lay flock or place lichen. Cheers Scott I face a similar problem with my new layout. To get over this I have a cunning plan. Leave holes that I underneath to, then fill them in later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted August 5, 2019 Author Share Posted August 5, 2019 (edited) Thanks for the comments, gents. I have been watching your layout thread closely, Brian, as the corners we share are not dis-similar. I had actually already cut some plywood templates, not to build the corner as a complete unit, but each row of terraces: I am planning to build some plywood carcasses for durability, and cover them in the Scale-scenes Full Terrace House papers. A row of low relief houses will continue around the backscene from the left, so that "Street #1" on my town plan will actually be an alley where backs meet back. Dropping the houses in will be easy. Filling in the road, maybe less so. I think some matching plywood inserts may be in order. I did some 1:76 surveying when I laid out the streets, so that they matched the alignment of the storage sidings. The mainline has a dog-leg in it, so following that would have looked wrong. Trust me, I tried it that way first! There's quite a lot of backstage reveal going on in that last photo; you can see the incomplete embankment, and how the cover goes from layered static grass back to pure flock on the curve. Also the quilt-like patchwork around the tunnel portal - even some chicken wire and plaster cloth at what will be the back of Northmoor MPD. That's a GNER Mk4 coach in the sidings, that I used to check structure clearances... I've a full rake of them, plus a 3/4 finished 89001, a throwback from my days of very little self control on the rolling stock acquisition front. Also in view: stacks of take-away tubs - those are just the ones with static grass; there another 20 or so with flock, boxed up and away under the layout. To think one day, a coaling stage will block a lot of that right hand view.... Cheers, Scott Edited August 5, 2019 by jukebox 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runs as required Posted August 6, 2019 Share Posted August 6, 2019 Once again dropped in on your magnum opus (and smarting from a kicking I've just had about my ruin of a railway room - I'm not giving you a link) It is all looking great, love how the church has hunkered down in the landscape (could I request a short EE lancet style chancel addition sometime?) Speaking of kickings - and b100dy Ozzie cricketers - I've got a small one for you: Its well over time you treated your fan club to a moving train on the layout ... even the shortest of short videos. Remember how dt used to give us run-arounds past his lekky meter on his Jekyll & Hyde tunnels and cliffs extravaganza? It might serve to give you a boost about the terrace houses you're not looking forward to - or give you an excuse to tackle a different priority. I have to confess I've forgotten where that magnificent bridge sits in your parallel universe. Best wishes dh 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Rowsley17D Posted August 10, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 10, 2019 Hi Scott, just re-associated myself with your build. I hate to say it at this late stage but the orientation of your graves in the churchyard is incorrect. Christians are buried east to west, like the orientation of the church building, yours are north to south. The sshould be at the left-hand end of the grave in your churchyard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcredfer Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 6 hours ago, Rowsley17D said: Hi Scott, just re-associated myself with your build. I hate to say it at this late stage but the orientation of your graves in the churchyard is incorrect. Christians are buried east to west, like the orientation of the church building, yours are north to south. The sshould be at the left-hand end of the grave in your churchyard. Apparently a little known Northern Ecclesiastical Sect, which has always followed the N-S option since one of the original leaders mis-read the compass and claimed it as a Sect tradition, as an excuse - which, of course, has had to be followed ever since. Regards Julian 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 lovely to see this is still coming along (ps only visiting) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted August 11, 2019 Author Share Posted August 11, 2019 (edited) On 07/08/2019 at 00:18, runs as required said: Once again dropped in on your magnum opus (and smarting from a kicking I've just had about my ruin of a railway room - I'm not giving you a link) It is all looking great, love how the church has hunkered down in the landscape (could I request a short EE lancet style chancel addition sometime?) Speaking of kickings - and b100dy Ozzie cricketers - I've got a small one for you: Its well over time you treated your fan club to a moving train on the layout ... even the shortest of short videos. Remember how dt used to give us run-arounds past his lekky meter on his Jekyll & Hyde tunnels and cliffs extravaganza? It might serve to give you a boost about the terrace houses you're not looking forward to - or give you an excuse to tackle a different priority. I have to confess I've forgotten where that magnificent bridge sits in your parallel universe. Best wishes dh Okay, I'll bite: can you please translate "a short EE lancet style chancel addition" into Australian? I'm not ashamed to admit I stopped following our cricket team about 20 years ago - the boorish behavior of Shane Warne and Co, and the win-at-any-cost ethos lost me as a fan long before messrs Smith and Warner soiled our reputation permanently. On 10/08/2019 at 17:35, Rowsley17D said: Hi Scott, just re-associated myself with your build. I hate to say it at this late stage but the orientation of your graves in the churchyard is incorrect. Christians are buried east to west, like the orientation of the church building, yours are north to south. The sshould be at the left-hand end of the grave in your churchyard. On 11/08/2019 at 00:15, jcredfer said: Apparently a little known Northern Ecclesiastical Sect, which has always followed the N-S option since one of the original leaders mis-read the compass and claimed it as a Sect tradition, as an excuse - which, of course, has had to be followed ever since. Regards Julian *EDITED, twice, cos I muffed it up when I first posted, and again, when I corrected it! Hi Jonathan - I did see the palaver about grave orientation over on Tony Wright's thread, and wondered about the authenticity of mine. (W)rightly or wrongly, the nave of the actual church at Dalton-Le-Dale is oriented almost East-West, and in the 12":1ft world, the headstones match that alignment: But my 1:76 graves are perpendicular to the nave... so in theory, if I'm strictly mimicking Dale-le-Dale, yes, they are lying North-South.... If the discussion on Tony's page had happened before I'd buried my dead, I would have aligned them with the model nave, too... but perversely, the graves on the model are aligned East-West in the real world that Stockrington exists in - the long wall of my layout being approx North-South - so ultimately, I'm happy to let the Stockrington dead rest in peace! In reality, I actually used PVA to form slight mounds above the graves before I flocked - which then gave me rows that I could orient the headstones to. So changing that would be a bit of work. If I was going to change anything, in hindsight I might have shifted the church to the far right of the plot of land, and made the graveyard on the left... but as I'm agnostic in real life, so I shall be in my religious modelling. And that way I avoid the worst of the shadows being cast on the backscene there. As always, very grateful for people to chime in with real life observations. I can only see so much using Google Earth... Cheers Scott Edited August 12, 2019 by jukebox Making peace with the dead 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted August 11, 2019 Author Share Posted August 11, 2019 (edited) I'm now knuckling down to the task of making four terrace house units off-layout, and spent the weekend sawing up 9mm plywood. Preceding that, I had to go back and add one last layer of static grass where there were some bare spots along the fencing. Once I'd vacuumed that lot up, I took the liberty of taking a few layout photos that make things look a lot more finished than they are, so here goes: Driver's eye view about to cross the river, looking out to the farm. Gates, and farm animals to come... Stockrington West signal box. Lots of rail head needs cleaning before I can get trains moving again This is one of those views that doesn't seem like much till you get the driver's eye perspective. Once I build the matching hill on the right, this should take on quite a trainspotter's view. Some detailed vegetation still to be judiciously planted... And a little further down the track, the view along the poplars. Avoiding lines straight ahead, station roads off to the right... This is the view from the Northbound station road. Marginal platforms and station building to come. Getting a bit of elevation, to show the way the church now is part of the scenery, not an after thought And a close up of the church. The camera is a bit cruel - the vegetation around the fence that covers the glue isn't as prominent as in the photo - but even so, I like the way the ground textures blend and change. If I'd had a slightly lighter shade of green for the graveyard, I'd have used it - but even so, I am happy it doesn't draw attention to itself. Enjoy your Sunday, everyone. Cheers Scott Edited August 12, 2019 by jukebox Now with added captions! 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted August 17, 2019 Author Share Posted August 17, 2019 (edited) Well this is slightly less tedious than I had feared... 12 Terrace house carcasses now set up, and 11 + x2 half cupolas (no idea what they are really called - the sticking-out-on-the-rear bit to terrace houses) ready to brick paper... Funny how a little bit of progress can fire up mojo... I had built these in my study, and by the time I'd glued the last one together, I could see in my mind how they would look on the layout. It's going to work well, I think - enough of them to look "busy" and suggest a North East locality You can see the two 1/2 rear additions at the front. They go on the ends of two rows, where I can't fit a full terrace, but didn't want to leave a large gap to the backscene. The small board closest to the camera will need one on the right hand side - hence the full chimney end and then half another house. The row second from front is wrong way around on it's baseboard - the half houses both go at the backscene ends. Cheers Scott Edited August 17, 2019 by jukebox edited for clarity 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runs as required Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 On 06/08/2019 at 17:18, runs as required said: love how the church has hunkered down in the landscape (could I request a short EE lancet style chancel addition sometime?) On 11/08/2019 at 13:53, jukebox said: Okay, I'll bite: can you please translate "a short EE lancet style chancel addition" into Australian? Cheers Scott Sorry bin away on walkabout hols. So here goes: The top and right lower is the church next to us in Ryton, Gateshead. It is pretty typical (except for the lead spire) of NE churches in Tyne & Wear being "Early English" in style - about 1200-1300, which is the first use of a simple pointed arch with narrow "lancet " windows in Gothic architecture. Taking Alton -le-Dale, (your model), notice how it has a slightly lower extension eastwards -also with 2 EE lancet windows. The chancel at Ryton is more exaggerated as an extension eastwards in comparison with the main nave and aisles. The inside view shows a broad arch above some steps leading up into the chancel. The chancel is where some of the holiest liturgy is performed - heard, but only dimly seen by oiks out in the nave.. Ryton profited from coal revenues in the early 1800s so much of what you see has been "improved' during the Gothic revival - especially the triple lancets at the east end of the chancel. (I confess to being an unbelieving Pom. but do enjoy my bellringing on the 8 bells up behind the clock twice a week) Best wishes dh 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted August 20, 2019 Author Share Posted August 20, 2019 Thanks dh - I must say I do like that Gateshead effort! I'm sure the bell ringing is rather splendid to hear. No room at the inn for a chancel of any size at Stockrington - the nave is too close to the boundary wall. I guess there won't be too much holy liturgy going on under that roof... but I'm pleased to say that thanks to your explanation, I'm suitably educated now. Probably still not enough for a ticket "upstairs", but I reckon I'll be in better company in the basement. Cheers Scott 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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