Somewhere out west

[Dbr1295]

Hey Guys, need your help & opinions. How to locate my coal staithes? (Correct terminology?)

 

A couple of pictures below based on photos I've seen.

I think the second one looks better but which would be more prototypical? Or is there another way?

 

 

The staithes are Wills, though I may make some more out of wood depending on what they look like when painted.

Thought please.

 

Cheers, Les

 

 

[Dbr1295]

Well it's been rubbish weather this weekend, so made the most of it and spent some productive time in the train room. Just about finished the sets in the goods yard, couple of coats of paint dry brushed on the platform sides and the signal box bottom, and started work on the warehouse.

Now watching the cricket, which unfortunately isn't looking too flash. And is getting worse as I sit here...

 

Oh well, here's some pictures.

 

Cheers Les

 

 

[sigtech]

Hello Les, must admit I really like your layout,and the open, uncluttered  effect you have achieved. My one ('Sproston' - see my blog on here) has many similarities, but as I have less space, there are a few more compromises.

With regard to the coal cells/bins/staithes I agree,-  the second arrangement looks better and makes more sense. I think it is the more common.

I have recently rearranged mine the same way after reading a topic on here,as to which is the right way round.

 

Regards

SIGTECH  (Steve)

[Andy R]

Hi Les- Monday morning and the cricket result a realistic outcome given history between the two teams.

 

I agree with other observations about the coal staithes. But, I do note that looking through many layout pictures, there seems no standard approach to this. I decided to also put them away from the siding edge on my layout on the basis that a private yard would probably use manual labour to move bag individual orders.

the layout is looking really nice in the pictures Les.

Turn my mind to getting Dymstock ready for Cambridge now working with the other owner John Budden. See you that weekend - please make your self known to us.

Andy R

[Mikkel]

Hello Les, some very nice scenes in those last shots, especially the black and white ones. As Sigtech says there is a lot to be said for the clean uncluttered look, as it can help give that spacious feel.

 

Regarding the coal staithes, I tried to look for a discussion about this that I remember from this version of RMweb but failed to find it (probably the one Andy refers to above). However there's another dicusssion on old RMweb. Some pics are missing and the discussion goes off in different directions, but the point made by Buckjumper and others on the first page echo what Andy says above - ie that the staithes could face in different directions depending on circumstances: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13253

 

Having said that I also think your second arrangement looks more natural in this case. Having the staithes positioned at some distance from the track also seems OK, it can be seen in a couple of photos I just had a look at. 

 

Incidentally, I guess the most common arrangement would be to have no staithes at all, ie just a pile of coal on the ground - but that's not as much fun for us modellers 

[Dbr1295]

Hi Steve, I had a look at your blog and had an enjoyable read. I really like what you have done, especially the way the goods yard is laid out and the platform arrangement. I too, have a copy of 60 Plans for Small Layouts and so it is nice to see how one of these would look as an actual layout.

Cheers, Les

[Dbr1295]

Hi Andy, looking forward to seeing Dymstock again and meeting you at Cambridge. Thanks for the feedback. I did cheat a little with the photos, the grass in the foreground is just a piece of grass mat sat there for the purpose of the pictures. It looks better than wood & cork. It has however given me some insight as to how it could look.

Cheers, Les

[Dbr1295]

Hi Mikkel, thanks to the link to the thread re coal staithes / cells / drops. Actually has given me more to think about, in a good way that is. I did some searching and I read that just dumped on the ground, as you said, was common on the GWR.

 

Thanks also to Steve (Sigtech) and Andy with your guys input, it has helped and shows I kind of was heading in the right direction.

 

Cheers, Les

[Dbr1295]

Here's some more of the pic's I took in the weekend.

 

 

Cheers

[Andy R]

Les- by the way how are the Monty's figures measuring up? I have ordered an await delivery of a range of figures (not cheap) but hoping worthwhile for my purposes of late 30's/early 40's period.

See you at Cambridge Saturday at least.

regards, Andy R

[Dbr1295]

Hi Andy, yes the Monty's figures are expensive, especially including postage out here, but saying that they're comparable in price with the NZ Finescale 3/16" figures that were produced here a while back. The detail on them is really good, especially when primed, but them I went and painted one with my unsteady hand and dodgy eyesight.....

Here's some pictures, unfortunately the station staff figure looks a bit worse for wear as I dropped the poor beggar.

 

 

They're fairly well enlarged in the photos so you can how well they've been sculptured, so I have no complaints about the price. Certainly better than anything I've seen on sale here.

 

Cheers, Les

 

[Andy R]

Very nice Les. They haven't arrived in the post yet but looking forward to trying some paint on one or two. As a matter of interest what paints are you using?

regards, Andy R

[Dbr1295]

Andy, the undercoat is Tamiya fine primer, but I think I will try something else on metal figures in the future. It seems to work OK on white metal & pewter wagons but it doesn't seen to work so well on fine detail as on these figures. The one I dropped chipped off quite easily. The top coats are good old Humbrol enamels and the black uniform is Floquil grimy black, which is lighter than straight matt black.

I generally use Humbrol for this sort of work as they're what I'm used to. A lot of people are recommending acrylics, so I may give them a go, though there isn't much selection at our local model shop. I used a brown wash over the face to highlight the details like the mouth.

Cheers, Les

[Dbr1295]

Flower Power.

 

I've been trying to come up with a way to make my own flowers. I've used mininatur flowers on the layout and they look real good, and I've also use Noch, but I wanted to make my own to get more variety.

I knew how I wanted to do it but I couldn't find anything that met my needs. While looking though RM Web I came across Class 66's thread where he used grated crayon. That got me thinking. I wasn't convinced about using crayon and I'm pretty sure the wife wouldn't want me using the grater on them either.

So then I thought why not coloured pencils?

So what I did was grab some old coloured pencils, cut away the wood then scraped the lead with a Stanley knife. This seemed to produce something like what I was after. The next step was to make the plant. I already had some little plants I had made from fine Kanuka (NZ native) twigs and Woodland Scenics medium turf, so a quick blast with some matt varnish and dipped them in the pencil scrapings.

They looked pretty good so I then tried some single stem plants. This way's a bit mental as they are a devil to plant but they look OK.

I took some coarse green garden twine and pull out individual strands, cut to length, dab into some PVA glue then dip into the pencil scrapings.

Planting is tricky, but I think it's worth it. It also doesn't take long to do. Here's some pictures.

 

First the raw materials.

 

Some finished plants

 

 

Planted

 

Cheers, Les

[Dbr1295]

Goods yard side of the layout slowly coming along. The asbestos clad warehouse is supposed to represent a more recent structure and the plan is to have a older stone built building along side that. Construction is from Wills sheets and Evergreen sheets and strip.

Not much done this long weekend as outside jobs taking precedent.

 

 

And a picture of 4573 on shed.

 

 

Cheers,

Les

 

 

[prime586]

Greetings from another WR modeller in windy Wellington - great looking layout you have. I'm currently putting up baseboards in the garage - early 1970s for me though!

[Andy R]

Hi Les- my Monty's have arrived in mail and I can have a play on a figure along the lines you have described- which I thank you for.

Need to look at the paint tins and sort out primer and colours. If no primer a visit to Greerton model shop is in order...I hate that...not!

 

regards, Andy

[Dbr1295]

Greetings from another WR modeller in windy Wellington - great looking layout you have. I'm currently putting up baseboards in the garage - early 1970s for me though!

Hi prime586, there seems to be a few of us NZ modellers on RM Web. Will be interested in seeing how your layout comes along.

 

Cheers, Les

[Dbr1295]

Hi Les- my Monty's have arrived in mail and I can have a play on a figure along the lines you have described- which I thank you for.

Need to look at the paint tins and sort out primer and colours. If no primer a visit to Greerton model shop is in order...I hate that...not!

 

regards, Andy

Hi Andy, await to see how your Monty's figures turn out. Mine are still at varying stages of painting, have plenty of tins of paint to choose from but the problem's selecting the appropriate colour for period clothing.

Cheers, Les

[Andy R]

Les- my answer to the clothing colour question has been to google 1930's clothes in uk (in my case) and you get many choices of images to work from.

 

By the way, your flower power tutorial is genius at work.

Andy R

[Dbr1295]

Had a bit of a play with the settings on the camera today. Normally for model photos I just shoot in Aperture priority, using the smallest available f stop, usually f25/f29. Today I tried full manual, adjusting the shutter speed as well. I found that 8" & 10" seemed to give the best results, making the photos appear a lot sharper that just using aperture priority. Here's a few specimens from todays experiments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers, Les

[Andrew P]

Hi Les, just having a catch up and looking at the stunning pics, Lovely scenery and stock, Thanks.

[Dbr1295]

More uses for coloured pencils.

 

For some time I have read about and seen evidence of the use of coloured pencils for colouring bricks, so I thought I would try that method on my warehouse.

The brick work is Wills English Bond. It was primed with white Tamiya fine primer then brush painted with Floquil aged concrete for the mortar. Unfortunately the Floquil range has been discontinued, which is a real shame as I find they do some really useful colours,

I then proceeded to rub various colours of pencil across it. Firstly using an orange all over, then red and crimson here and there. Then a medium brown and a reddish brown. Finally random colouring of all shades.

I think it looks ok though the mortar may be too prominent.

Certainly when it's weathered it will look better.

 

 

And a train pic.

 

 

Cheers, Les

[Dbr1295]

Not much done in the train room this week, but I have had a play with Photoshop after watching Andy Y's tutorials. I've taken a picture I've posted before and added a sky which has really made the model "pop". Not the tidiest of edits but I reckon not to bad for a first attempt.

All other editing is done using Windows Photo Gallery, which is real easy and instinctive to use.

 

 

Cheers, Les

[AireValley1962]

Very nice indeed, Les.