Les1952

Wheelie bins

The answer to my question is that there are blue, green and orange ones for different types of waste, plus big recycling skips here and there. I think the eight wheelie bins I got on New Year's Day aren't going to be nearly enough.

Does seem a bit of a funny angle to be taking pictures at Les. May be worth just giving up worrying too much about the interior, especially if you cannot see it at all from any really conceiveable angle for photographs.

Actually, I'm into the smoke and mirrors game in many respects- if the eye can't see it I can get away with it, but inside the shed is mostly visible, particularly to wheelchair users, if there isn't a tram inside- so the grotty bits I can't cure will need to be hidden. Actually more of a problem are going to be tall people standing close to the layout as they can see over the top of some of the subterfuges to hide holes in the backscene or unfortunate joins in backscenes or ground cover. Now if everyone were about 5' tall and would just stand about 4' back............

Inside the shed at last..

5 days of trying to get this photo and it has finally worked- another cruel enlargement! Shows the moved bit of walling doesn't quite go far enough up, and has a couple of air bubbles to flatten. I might not bother extending the wall upwards- the camera lens was percehd on a wall that has a railing to add. The railing will obstruct the view in from this angle.

Area on the left will be the workshop. Tools, benches and such will help hide the glazing and the rear door, though it is difficult to get an angle to look into the left. There is also a hole in the floor on the right to fix.

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Aready Wednesday

Schools are (mostly) back so nice and quiet. Music today Gryphon, which failed to repel a visitor! Something louder tomorrow.....

Almost a repeat of yesterday's photo except the DPM building on the brewery is now fixed in place and has been bedded in to some extent- a little more grot to add here and there. Foliage now added to the wall base, but I'm still painting railing panels....

That upright looks bad in cruel enlargement but from a distance isn't too noticeable. I'll try to straighten it tomorrow.....

Now a quiz question. What type of bins do they use in the Black Forest? In Windenreute the recycling is by blue wheelie bin, or at least it was about 20 years ago.

Another prototype pic

I was getting a little worried about the size of the arch the tram had to squeeze through- but here is the Freiburg tramways Route 1 squeezing through an even smaller one. Big multi-section articulated tram. Nice pale shade of grey for the roadway and patched cobbles, too.

Tuesday- not a Bank Holiday?

Hello again.

Seems odd to have a day that is apparently normal- monsoon season this morning so closeted in workshop undisturbed for 4 hours. Music by Sweet- they may have looked like builders in drag but the music was good, and repels visitors quite nicely when played loudly.

I've decided to paint the railings- gunmetal around the brewery and municipal blue (the same as the tram shelters) at the bottom. Top ones first as I've run out of blue paint. The white bits are where I need to plastic weld pieces together and will be touched up later.

Also painted today about 30 barrels, but no more boxes yet- I need to get very light brown paint for these as well as the municipal blue.

I've repainted the ones at the back of the brewery yard, and moved the short section from the second to the third position so it is out of sight except at very extreme angles. The roof on the left has had a coat of weathering. More tomorrow probably.

More work on the tunnel mouth- the uprights given some texture and stonework going inside far enough to be seen by most punters- though I've made a little nasty spot for track cleaning here, to go with the ones on the tramway.

Plenty still to keep me occupied.....

Still a nasty in view

Nasty join in the backscene is still shown up by the camera- plenty of gubbins in the yard and maybe smoke from the brewery chimney - iof you can't hide a nasty get people to look somewhere else......

Monday- Bank Holiday

Staying out of the rush to mindless shopping, music by the Proclaimers (another good one for keeping interruptions at bay!)

Most of today has been spent painting barrels and gas cylinders, putting down the yard surface of the brewery (buildings not bedded in yet, frencing and yard details go in first- working from the back), doing a trial section of railings along the back of the brewery to see if I can get away withouit painting them, and putting the first detail around the tunnel mouth.

Looking along the brewery back yard above the engine shed. Railings installed along here. Keep white or repaint, I wonder?

An idea of how the brewery side yard might look when finished - the railings need to come along in front of these. Kegs and gas cylinders await loading while the works bus stands ready- another model to finish...

Looking through the inner yard. Building on left is by DPM (built from sides and ends for "bespoke" buildings) with Faller boiler house. Enlargement shows the ladder on the chimney needs painting- as well as the boiler house roof. Kibri building in foreground needs cleaning and then weathering.

Bits and Pieces

Starting the tunnel mouth. The girder at the top will be painted grey, though not rusty, and I'll turn the pillars into stone butresses. Amazing how 3-D the Faller cut stone paper looks.

New Years Day

Some more pics from yesterday- no modelling done today as it was Newark Toyfair followed by visiting friends.

The loading dock is close to finishing, needs a bit of weathering and a good selection of crates and barrels after bedding in. Ineed a good pic for an exhibition manager in fairly short order so I'm concentrating on the brewery area tomorrow.

Slightly out of focus but showing the biggest of my diesel fleet testing the new tunnel entrance clearances before detailing with a proper framed aperture. The blue thing on the right is one of the Modelex hand-held controllers.

Testing showed that everything works but I still need to chip away some excess ballast here and there.....

Looking into the tunnel it is nice and dark and can't be seen right through.

That perishing shed....

Having got the top corner entrance for the tramway improved it needed testing. As there is also a new wall next to the shed I tested the shed again. Trams now won't go in, yet again.

Back to the drawing board.

Solution- take the middle of the wall out- but that also needs the interior wall to be resited. So, to go with the wall-less shed we have...

the shedless interior wall!

I tried hanging fire buckets below the lamps but the tram took off the one under the nearer lamp. The shed has been altered to give a false edge at both ends of this wall piece, and looking in through the door the subterfuge isn't noticeable. I'll put fire buckets and safety notices on the new forward facing piece inside the sehd, where the tram can't hit them. Various repair benches and suitable machinery to go on the area tio the left of the track, within the wall. All of that can be seen through the doorway if the shed is tramless.

That Faller walling behind is very cleverly printed. It looks 3D but is actually flat. The coping is painted "Graveyard Earth" (Citadel) and will have the Chinese railings on the top.

New Years Eve.

Quite a lot done today, music by Mika.

First job was to do something about the top corner. I managed to find the houses cut off below the point where I cut the downward slope, and reunited them with the ones already on the backscene. Next a piece of Faller grass mat cut to shape and stuck over balsa formers, with "Graveyard Earth" patches and odd clumps of darker green flock. Not too bad a start but still much to do..

Putting the archway back into place gives this as the view through it with one of the blue trams approaching testing clearance. The Woodland Scenics kit-built pine tree in the background helps the view. Still plenty more to do.

Looking down as a tall visitor would see it, the two trees in the first picture have been stuck down and help draw attention away from joins in the backscene, but don't hide the wing the trams enter behind. For this a second pair of trees are needed. These in turn decide what the ground cover behind the flat blocks will need to be. First pic also shows some bare wood visible in the backscene hole, which the extra trees hide from this angle but not from further round.

Definite progress, one building and two trees now stuck down in their final positions.

The platform

Walling is now painted, the brickwork colour is better when not deadened by the flashgun. Shows Fleischmann BR86 obtained cheaply as a non-runner testing the track through the station. It basically just needed some grease removing from its gear train and replacing with oil. BR86 is my favourite German steam class- I managed to talk my way into the engineering shops in Trier to photograph their "plinthed" one. Despite my not speaking German and the gateman not speaking English we still managed to get through the formalities of my signing an indemnity form to enter the works.

Pic also shows the surface gone down onto the platform. Fine surface wet and dry paper (Wilko's cheapest). I'm not yet sure whether to paint it or just let it weather by itself.

"Time for bed" said Zebedee- boing! Showing my age again.....

Now where was I?

Sitting at the computer desk in the middle of a fit of insomnia.... T'interweb just crashed on me- doesn't like me.

A tram driver's eye looking from the tram stop up the hill through the cutting. Taken on Dec 23rd ( a week ago). the walling on the left is the embossed Slater's plasticard. Good, scale-sized stones but I wasn't happy once painted as I couldn't make out the individual stones and would need a microscope to focus on them to vary the colours.

Same view a week later. Shows the new Faller stone walling on the left- the stones might be on the big size but they are much better defined. Cruel enlargement shows a join to fix, though the buttresses aren't yet done. Also shows walling added (blu-tacked) at tunnel mouth on right, houses moved closer and the improvement trees make to the skyline. Work has also started on the infill between the tramway and the wall, and on putting wall covering on.

Still flitting from job to job as glue has a funny habit of not drying instantly.

It worked!!!!

The three storey block that came with it. Less tatty but still going in the second row of the town end. I've ordered a kit to get a second block to go with it.

The other two storey block- they came as a set of three from Germany. I don't know whose they were but the one I cut was quite poorly built- the missing corner was very grotty- though not as grotty as after cutting it... These two will need a little TLC, some balcony straightening, detailing etc but still quicker than building them.

First try with Photobucket

This should, if it works, be the block of flats with the corner missing. I decided it would be better to get a ready made block on eBay and cut it rather than buy a kit and chop the wrong parts as I built it.... The grotty parts of the two chopped sides are hard against the backscene, thank goodness, and are positioned against a join where the front layer ends.

Friday work

No pics again- the server doesn't like me again today.....

1. I've found the bit I cut off the Faller backscene paper that continues the hill at the right hand end- much less obvious, especially when hiding behind a few pine trees.

2. The wall round the brewery is now present on all three sides, and complete on the back and end. Next job here is to paint the capping a suitable colour and start on the metalwork fencing to go with it.

3. I've got five trees made and tried them out in the corner. I'll fix them with blu-tak and try some clearance testing.

More pics as soon as I can upload them......

Very interesting layout. Looking at the fun you've been having getting wagon loading working in OO makes me more determined that when I start my colliery layout in N next year the wagon loading in the screens will be cheated......

Very many thanks, Heruss, for the compliment- the layout too often seems like a catalogue of errors. Two more possible exhibition appearances later in 2012- I'll post when they are confirmed.

Testing clearances

Mr Simon decided that as Gresby is without its ends (one on the floor and the other on the workbench) he would try some of his stock on FO. The Class 60 came in useful for finding bits of track where the ballast was too close to rail top, and also gave the maximum dimensions for stuff that will run on the railway- it only just clears the corner of the wall at this point. None of my stock is as long- it is a private light railway, not the DB after all.

I don't think Mr Simon was pleased that his nice modern BR bogie wagons won't go round the corners........

Tough!

Side note- hole in ballast since fixed.

Top corner nasties

This was taken before the roadway was entended into the front corner. The houses for the top are all now made or bought and butchered- the half-relief at the far right has been replaced by the small shop that was going to be on the lower level.

The apartment block next to the backscene is chopped to fit the space. One change is that the brewery will not now have a courtyard in front of it. The gateway will be at the side and there will just be a parking and turning area in front of the buildings (front of building is side facing houses).

Behind the houses is still a problem- this is to have trees- looking up "trees of the Black Forest" I find they are mostly pines or firs. The selection of firs at Wendy's today mostly looked like bog brushes, so I bought Woodland Scenics Pine kits. They may be a bit dubious as pines when finished but won't look like a small clump of bog brushes parked in the corner. Next job here is to look at how the ground cover on Rowlands Castle was done beneath the pines.

The left corner

Note the taller bank building, tall enough to distract the eye from the join in the backscene just behind it. Note though that the corner behind it is still a mess- this needs to be hidden- the department strore (Kaufhaus) will go here.

I've also found a better solution to the problem of the corner of the wall at the end of the railway arch on the left- more pics of this when it is finished.

First of new pics- ten weeks into the project.

Taken on Christmas Day- shows the top level buildings are all now sourced, but also shows nasties to be dealt with in each corner.

Additional decisions

The blue bank building has regained its two floors and has been turned through 45 degrees. This gives enough space for the low relief houses behind it. There will be the beginnings of a set of steps in sight, and the exit at that corner will be covered by a modern department store, with the railway and tramway running through the basement. The view of the turn on the railway through the gateway arch can be hidden with the Woodland Scenics stone walling, cut to fit.

Turning the bank onto an angle and putting the houses at the back also means the space in front is now crying out to have a street market. DM Toys do German market stalls as lasercut kits in N, so I'll get some of those when the PayPal balance recovers.

Opposite the gate on the Market Square can be a newer Rathaus. Kibri do one of the right style.

The white shopping building is going altogether. I'll look for another two or three more traditional shops.

Dec 29th

I was going to post plenty of pictures this evening but the uploader won't co-operate. So a list of what has happened-

1. The stone walling above the railway has been done as far as the goods laoding dock.

2. The track has been vacuumed again and holes in the ballast repaired again. This part is getting tedious....

3. The stone walling on the tramway cutting has been removed and replaced by Faller Black forest stone card- as Faller are from Gutenbach which is only 5Km from Furtwangen I reckon they have a better chance of getting the stone colour right than I do!

4. The nasty loading dock is now almost finished- the roof is complete, platforms added and canopies applied.

5. I've been over to Wendy's and spent a small fortune, coming away with cobblestones for the factory area, and some Woodland Scenics pine tree kits. She didn't have barrels or similar, but Newark Toyfair is on Sunday so I might get some there.

Only 16 weeks to its first exhibition outing at Cotgrave, (but that is more weeks than it has been in build so far)

Mr Simon has suggested making the roof as two seperate pieces. Back to the drawing board..........