Blog- George Hudson's Blog - Stratham

RSS Fetcher · October 20, 2009

Stratham

by george hudson

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Comment posted by artizen on Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:23 pm

I have just read all the way through this post. I am so glad I was able to get far enough down before being interrupted to see your ideas for a dust-proof cover. I live in the land of diesel and dust and the cover idea will work for me too. Thanks for the photos - now I can get on with building my layout!!!!

I like your trees as well. Good quality trees seem to be all hand-made unfortunately. Too many layouts are ruined by shiny plastic tree trunks.

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??? posted on Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:00 am

Rather a long time has passed since I posted anything but this does not mean that Stratham has been halted, rather that like many of us, the 1:1 scale world has been taking up rather a lot of my time recently.

Despite that, I have managed to produced a couple of new buildings and have been "fiddling about" (as Mrs H calls it) trying to find a satisfactory location. I thought I would post some pictures of the still incomplete layout for the curious.

The backs of the two new buildings

ifr house backs.jpg

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The other side of the main street with one of the shopfronts now reworked as a clothes shop

irf browns stores.jpg

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bilteezi house and bungalow facing onto the line Wisbeech and Upwell style

ifr 50s house.jpg

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The Metcalf church which wil be at the back. I will fill in with more poplars and probably paint some on the backscene

ifr church poplars.jpg

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I am no photographer but this looks to me like something from countryside feature from a 50s English magazine

irf magshot.jpg

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Overview

irf overview.jpg

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Comment posted by McRuss on Tue Jun 09, 2009 12:15 pm

Hello George,

your new houses looks great, are they all based on Bilt Eezie kits or are some of them scratchbuilt.

yours

Markus

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??? posted on Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:37 pm

The five houses that you can see on the main street in the overview shot are all scratchbuilt.

Others are "bashed/unbashed" bilteezi and the church is Metcalf.

Andrew

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Comment posted by Sithlady82 on Sun Aug 30, 2009 1:13 am

Some food for thought here. The dust cover is an excellent idea although it might call from some redesign work on Kevin's part (we live across the road from a Road Train depot and this is unsealed. The dust kicked up from them coming and going makes me wonder why I bother cleaning house and they usually do something half an hour after I finish!) - what are the dimensions on Stratham please?

The Metcalfe Church could save some design time too.

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??? posted on Sun Aug 30, 2009 7:05 pm

Hello RMWebbers,

No, this thread has not fallen off the end of the earth.

Unfortunately 1:1 scale absorbs rather a lot of time but the snail continues on his merry way.

I have been indulging in my major vice of constant re arranging of elements. At least I have had the patience to start the landscaping at the back to make life easier and I have managed to get one structure, the church, in place.

First the areas which look like they work

The church will definitely go at the back on the right. More trees to come and an overgrown graveyard.

bus_and_church rm.jpg

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The garage and stores will be in front.

pumps_and_church rm.jpg

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My oldest structure will go by the river.

river_cottage rm.jpg

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The overall look of the village is not bad, not too cluttered.

from_tower rm.jpg

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The question is: around the village green should I group the buildings with mixed sizes???‚¬?¦

line_up_1 rm.jpg

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green_1 rm.jpg

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Or have buildings of the same size together???‚¬?¦???‚¬?¦

line_up_2 rm.jpg

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green_2 rm.jpg

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Would be interested in any views on this or other observations (even critical)

Regards

Andrew

ps to Sithlady....Stratham is about 190cm x 60cm

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Comment posted by sithlord75 on Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:19 pm

Looks good from here Andrew. Sithlady made me read through it yesterday as she was very interested in the cover you had constructed.

I think the church could do with a bit of weathering - IMO it looks like it has just been restored and the stone all cleaned, something which in 1950's Britain would have been unlikely.

Around the green for mine should be the different size buildings, suggesting different times of construction and renewal.

How did you do your river (the water bit)? This feature, most of all, has prompted some rethinking of Tuck's Bridge (since it is only paper at this point, this is not a problem!) with the trains coming around the curve being seen rather than not.

Keep up the progress - it looks like a little cracker of a layout.

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??? posted on Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:05 am

Thanks, you are quite right about the church. I will probably dust it down a bit with some grey since I have already been thinking that it was rather too yellow: more Cotswold than Fenland.

The river was just several coats of some old yacht varnish which I had on top of some indistinct sludgy brown green poster paint.

The inspiration for my latest building was this by the way.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1241059

Andrew

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??? posted on Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:03 pm

This is less of a thread, more of a threadette. But for those of you, like me, who just like to see even the smallest developments on layouts on the forum here's mine.

Breaking with a long tradition, I am trying to be sensible and do all of the scenery on the far side of the board and working my way to the front. Now there's and idea!

I think I have just about finished with the flora at the back of Stratham so this is how it looks just now plus a first stab at dirtying the church and much more to go. Sorry it's a bit dusty, the cleaner is on holiday.

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