North Welsh Coast Railway - Welsh Dragon Rail

[Anthony Ashley]

Mr Gibbons thanks for the post on Western Thunderer. Some very interesting photos. I was unaware that the locos were in the area until 1969. I think however that the scale of the operation would put then out of the scene I am modelling, although I am not certain. The mountain is so high in real life I think I would need at least a second story to go close to replicating it. Perhaps I should have built one of those US double story barns instead of an Aussie shed!!! Thanks again for the info, as such material form persons adding to the posts is really appreciated. 

 

Progress on the castle has been slow and steady  with only 2 more fully stoned walls to glue.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

 

[Anthony Ashley]

Dear All,

 

The castle exterior walls are completed and glued together, including the walkways around the towers. Photos are below.

 

View to the east end and south side of the castle.

 

View to the south side of the castle.

 

Aerial view of the south east corner of the castle.

 

 

Aerial view from the south west corner of the castle.

 

More to follow.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Anthony Ashley

[Anthony Ashley]

Dear All,

 

Second installment of Conwy castle photos.

 

Shows the old entrance area for the castle. 

 

 

Interior of the castle. The line of holes on the far wall were I believe the holes to support the wooden beams which held up the roof of the lower area. The lower level is about 50 mls wide. I am going to make it 30 mls high, so will add a 30ml high floor in the rest of the castle area made out of foam board. There is a wooden walkway spanning the lower level gap which I shall make out of split ice cream sticks. Similarly the keep has a lower level on the same side of the castle. There are interior walls spanning  across the lower level which will be made in the future. I am going to elevate the whole structure on 30 ml foam board and then need to add additional foam board to create the mound encompassing the castle. 

 

 

The interior area of the keep. 

 

 

 

 

Regards,

Anthony Ashley 

[Anthony Ashley]

Dear All,

Worked on the foam bases for the two entrances to the castle. They were a very irregular shape and I needed to use the lower outer walls that I had glued together in order to format the right shape. I placed the foam under the whole castle and marked the interior walls. It worked well by using a drops saw for many of the cuts ensuring accurate and exactly 90 degree cuts along the way. First the western entrance section.

 

I had to try two positions for the west garden area against the castle wall, meaning that I ended up with 2 sets of marking on the foam. I moved the section a little north as you can see from the extra lines left on the section.

 

 

The castle wraps around the foam and is in turn encased by the lower wall sections. It fitted together really well. The glued wall sections came apart during this process, but will be much easier to glue onto the foam itself with a lot more support. The foam section in situ.

 

 

 

The eastern entrance using a similar technique, although the foam section is quite narrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regards,

Anthony Ashley 

 

 

  

[Anthony Ashley]

r 

Have cut the upper floor area and the castle support foam.

 

Photos of the sections are below.

Main castle area The wall to the right will require about 60 ml of foam to be trimmed off it the length of the wall.

 

 

Castle keep area. Similar to above the keep has a lower area against the top wall incorporating the royal apartments.

 

 

Foam board marked with the external walls to provide the 30 ml lift for the whole of the castle. 

 

Need to cut the foam support board and then add resin stone work to some of the walkways which are missing it.

 

Regards,

Anthony Ashley 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Anthony Ashley said:

r 

Have cut the upper floor area and the castle support foam.

 

Photos of the sections are below.

Main castle area The wall to the right will require about 60 ml of foam to be trimmed off it the length of the wall.

 

 

Castle keep area. Similar to above the keep has a lower area against the top wall incorporating the royal apartments.

 

 

Foam board marked with the external walls to provide the 30 ml lift for the whole of the castle. 

 

Need to cut the foam support board and then add resin stone work to some of the walkways which are missing it.

 

Regards,

Anthony Ashley 

Anthony, is that the XPS foam from the big hardware store where low prices are only the beginning?

[Anthony Ashley]

John,

 

Yes to your  question. I prefer the yellow higher density foam but it is no longer available from the local hardware supplier. The yellow foam is much denser than the green and hence preferable but you take what you can get. 

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

[St Enodoc]

20 minutes ago, Anthony Ashley said:

John,

 

Yes to your  question. I prefer the yellow higher density foam but it is no longer available from the local hardware supplier. The yellow foam is much denser than the green and hence preferable but you take what you can get. 

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

Yes, I'm still searching but unless I buy enough to insulate a whole house it's proving hard to find!

[Anthony Ashley]

Dear All,

 

Foam has been cut. Photos are below.

 

 

 

Next is to cut the mound around the castle and add stone work to the wall walkway floors.

 

Regards,

Anthony ashley

 

 

[Anthony Ashley]

John, 

 

The yellow foam is by Knauf and is called XPS. I have been unable to find it even on the Knauf web site. Looks like they have discontinued production, although I have found some on gum tree.

Regards,

Anthony Ashley  

[St Enodoc]

6 minutes ago, Anthony Ashley said:

John, 

 

The yellow foam is by Knauf and is called XPS. I have been unable to find it even on the Knauf web site. Looks like they have discontinued production, although I have found some on gum tree.

Regards,

Anthony Ashley  

I think this is the one I had in mind:

 

https://www.knaufinsulation.com.au/what-we-do/insulation/climafoam-xps-board

 

I haven't found a supplier that can/will supply in small quantities (yet).

[lezz01]

If you contact the supplier they will have off cuts or be able to give you the name of a customer that will be able to let you have some off cuts usually at the cost of going to pick them up. Most companies that use this sort of product have a large bin full of off cuts that they are only too happy to get rid of. It's the same with mount board just find a large scale user and scrounge it off them. Companies that make advertising displays are the best one's to approach as they always have bins full of stuff they can't get rid of that is useful to us modellers.

Regards Lez. 

[Anthony Ashley]

Dear John and Lez,

 

Thanks for the input. The last 2 months have been very stressful for my family with my mother in law, Jenny,  dying about a month ago. This sitution ahs obShe has left a lasting legacy as a really great contributor to my  viously been very difficult for my wifr Sarah anf her two sisters who all nursed her Mum at home for the last 4 months of her life. Jenny has left a lasting legacy in many ways. One of those is her fantastic art work. I am lucky that she was in good health when I commenced the layout, as she painted all of the walls around the layout with some assistance from Sarah. Everyone who sees the layout in person comments on the great wall painting around the layout. Jenny was very interested in modelling as well and was a very enthusiastic supporter of the model layout. Her loss is a great gap in our lives.

 

Modelling has therefore been very sporadic over the last 3 months or so but I have now recommenced serious modelling. I have been focussing on the mounds on hte south sid eof the castle next to Conwy Rd. I had to cut a numbe rof foam sections and then glue them individually. Results are below.  

 

I need to add a wall section in hte gap area between the foam from the castle to the road. Some of the foam sections need to be lowered in height against the castle and all need to be shaped.

 

The right section had a walkway extending from an entrance building cut into the mound and runnnning up the hill to the second turret on the right and then cutting back to past the first right hand turret.

 

 

Yiu can make out the lower level on the right of the inside of the castle. 

 

 

I just need to shape the foam, using google street view as my guid to some extent. The new castle entrance has substantially altered the right side of the mound, but the pictues I have of the area with the old walkways up the hill should be accurate enough.

 

Regards,

Anthony Ashley 

 

 

[Simond]

Anthony,

 

sorry to hear of your loss. 

 

Hopefully the Castle & layout background will be a fitting memorial - I have a Clyde puffer model named "Olive" for similar reasons - it's pictured in my PD thread I think

 

atb

Simon

[Anthony Ashley]

Simon,

 

Thankyou for your support. I agree that the layout should remind those that see it of Jenny's skill. 

 

I have spent the day sculpting the foam with good effect. It took most of the day. I have the photos below. 

 

Over view of the area. The ply piece is the wrong shape and I will need to cut the correct one. The gap in the right side of the foam is for the entrance building. The walkway is rising from behind the gap for the entrance building. I also need to create a stair way on the left side just behind what will be the front garden lawn area.  

 

 

The walk way is clearer in this photo.

 

.

The ply wall has been replaced with the right shape. Just need to add stone on both faces

 

Next is to paint the foam brown prior to adding gravel top the walkway and static grass to the rest of the area with other vegetation for bushes as required.

 

Regards,

Anthony Ashley

 

[Anthony Ashley]

Path has had gravel added. Just a couple of photos with the glue stil damp in a couple of areas.

 

 

 

 

 

I shall try the static grass tomorrow.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

Edited February 2, 2023 by Anthony Ashley

[lezz01]

It's looking very good Anthony. As castles go Conwy is one of Britain's best. It's great to see you doing it justice.

Regards Lez.

[CameronL]

On 31/01/2023 at 08:44, Anthony Ashley said:

 

The real thing - 

[Howard O]

Great modelling Anthony. Keep having to remind myself it’s n gauge. 
Sorry you’ve had a tough time recently 

Howard

[Anthony Ashley]

Lezz, Cameron and Howard thanks for the posts. Cameron after looking at the two pictures you submitted I did a close somparison and realised I needed to reduce the height of my lower mound and increase the height of the top mound for the area closer to the bridge. I made the approriate cuts and repainted the yellow bits. I think the two mounds are closer to the real thing now. Hopefully the seven odd years it has taken to create this building will pay off!!! A photo of the actual mounds are below.

 

 

I have experimented with different grass and earth colours and lengths. Shown below in a single photo are the results.

 

 

The left most sample is with drk green 1 ml staic grass over dark earth scatter.

The second sample is drk green 1 ml static grass over light earth scatter.

The third sample is 2ml light green static grass over dark earth scatter.

The fourth is 2ml light green static grass over light earth scatter.

 

I think the best effect is the fourth sample. What do others think? All comments are welcome as the mounds are a comparatively large area which will take soem work to complete. I want to get it right the first time. 

 

I have added further walls in fron of the mounds as well.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by Anthony Ashley

[Simond]

Hands down the right hand one…

[lezz01]

Now I think the one on the left is better. I would like to see one with 2mm light green combined with 1mm dark green on the grounds that grass is never the same length or colour.

Regards Lez.

[Simond]

Ah, I agee, the one on the left is better, but the one on the right looks more like the grass in the photo!

[lezz01]

Yes but it's a very small test area. The overall tone of the grass in the photo of the real thing exhibits a tonal variation it even has some red in it. The point of using different lengths is to vary the reflected light and thus change the overall colour if you also add in a different shade of green and also a small amount of red to it it will appear more homogenous and thus more realistic. If you increase the area the colour will lighten as well. If you use all one colour and all the same shade it will look artificially manicured like a bowling green and unnatural. 

Regards Lez.      

[Anthony Ashley]

Simon and Lez,

 

Your discussion is interesting. From viewing a few photos of the area the lawn on these mounds it is always very well manicured and seems to be of very uniform length. I think for that reason the single 2 ml length is OK. If  I was modelling my lawn length, variation in length would definitely be a better representation.

 

I also have another packet of 2 ml static grass with a mixture of bright green similar to the 4th option green with some yellow and a touch of red. Perhaps a few patches of this scattered in amongst the light green 4th option would be the best to match the colour variation in the picture, which definitely has predominately green, some yellow and perhaps a very slight touch of red. The samples above were modified by removing some of the grassed area to create the divots of brown seen in the photo. I think the browm patches in sample 4 using the lighter earth base are fine.

 

Your additional comments are much valued and help refine the static grass process. Any comments or discussion?  

Edited February 8, 2023 by Anthony Ashley