cornamuse

Finally, some progress to show.. the Corris brake van is now finished, with it’s mini Corris train. The steam locos are a bit beyond me… and the layout has a basic sky and some neat sheeting to hide the cupboards and junk. Lightens the room up, too.

Btw. Son asked me “why the giant tooth brush” when he saw it. The git.

I’ve been putting this off for ages because, well, it’s slow and repetitive and I need to be in that frame of mind. A length of stone wall for the platform; eventually most will disappear under enamel signs and plants, but wow this is testing me. We may have lineside fencing not walls, and I’m certainly considering rendered walls on the castle! About 18” more to go!

such a lovely layout. I love that you can virtually stand on the platform under the canopy and wait for a train. The overgrown track rocks too

Can we make keeping Boris permanently a condition of the gift? Please?

funny you should say that, they are exactly the gentlemen due to be billeted in Fort Charles.. with a noonday gun on the larger tower. I’m taking my anachronistic little island to new levels. I’m thinking of adding a bandstand with fireman on it too… I’ve a horse drawn waggon kit on the way to finally give my travelling preacher somewhere to preach from. That’s a bit more real life, but again not necessarily right for a specific period

The sky is in place, now the work can start on the harbour and fort. I like building big! I think the planks on the harbour wall should be transverse, but I’ve got these boards, so…

Also got some cute 3D printed milk churns. At a price that made it unattractive to make my own! Ebay, and excellent.

New backscene: 10m of sky blue poly cotton for £20. Should be enough to do the full layout, with spare. Then old curtains below. Might even warm the place up a bit! it isn’t perfect, but it’s so much lighter, and doesn’t detract from the increasingly busy foreground. From my scenery painting days, I used to think of the audience was commenting on the scenery it wasn’t doing it’s job- or the actors weren’t!

I’ve got some books on historical costume, including how to make patterns and so on, if your daughter would like to borrow them… it gets a bit addictive!

Weirdly, just ordered about a mile of pale blue cloth to replace it.. it’s too long to paint effectively, without expensive boards and fittings. I’m putting curtains at the front too, so it should look a lot neater and less fussy. I felt the 3d stuff was getting lost

Love this; new sky is very effective, and has convinced me to go paler.. the overgrown track is great, too. your trams rock, I love all the varieties

Oh, the trees are from post Christmas sales in garden centres. Some are as much as 18” tall and are essentially fake full used plants. But then that feels in keeping with the garden railway vibe. Rule 1 applies, too :D

Finally, some progress after months of real life getting in the way. The Corris brake van is done. GWR markings and number totally made up, but I have built my first GW train after years of indoctrination by my West Country dad… I think one of the lovely Corris locos might be a bit beyond my skills, though… The mail truck next, and maybe another waggon or small van. I must say, I do like rolling stock to have two buffers - and yes, the van should have the door on the platform side, but then I couldn’t see Bill the Brake having his breakfast!

I use brass eyelets. Very cheap, look similar, but not precision engineering. But then, I model in cardboard so none of it is precision. That said, some of the kits you can buy use the same.

Damn, did that wrong. Looks amazing! You still in our part of the world?

very impressive.. I’ve donated my rather dodgy sackbutts and Cornett to Auckland Castle near here. Best thing for them, given the noise I made! I’m happier with valveless horn, organ, singing.. trying to keep the politics derailed, it’s depressing

Absolutely. I also have a cornamuse. I play useful things too, but hey… The other cornamuse is lower, so the air hole is in the side.

Look, amongst other things I play sousaphone, ukulele and bagpipes. I have no self control where dodgy music is concerned :)

hehehehe

Oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeese link to a singing one. Bwahahahaha

that said, some of the more inaccessible country parishes, even now… it could be a useful way to explain away duplicate figures on our models, too. Old Bert, young bert, not bert, Bert’s cousin..

Trying out the LED lighting. Not sure it is in the right place, really. I need to look at theatre style lighting I think- easy enough to achieve these days with all the remote control LED units around. Like having a massive toy theatre for trains really- suits me, I love toy theatres!

Trying out a long Ffestiniog train… occupying around half of the available line so far. tbh the railway has the air of a newly preserved line- lots of stock stored on sidings, work in progress, a feeling of potential.. and very little running line, just a loco and a couple of coaches shuttling up and down a few yards of track I rather like it that way, too.