aberdare

When I was a young man on holiday from College I used to help out a neighbour on a building site - I learnt a lot there - and inside the managers office was a project planner with the time scales for builds on, the 3 bed bungalows we were working on could be built in 53 days as long as everyone turned up on time and completed their job. As with most projects they always over ran. Theories good though. I hope yours is on time Jeff.

Thanks for the comments Andy, Chris, Jaz and Nick. I'll try to keep a few pics coming but I have a major garden project on the go at the moment which limits time, but I can't resist popping into the shed so who knows. Here are a few from a few days ago that I have only got around to loading. These show the start of each cottage roof under construction. The first one with it's lines of slates. With the second one being thatched I decided to go all Pendon on it and used real hair, mine as it happened as I still have enough despite it getting thinner. Luckily the wife has a home hairdresser visit so it is easy to gather it up later when I clear up, the hairdresser hasn't asked why I bag it up yet instead of binning it but I'm sure she will. Unless she just accepts that I'm a bit odd. Anyway a clump is taken and trimmed..... stuck to the board.... and weighted until dry. Both of these have progressed a bit further but no pics yet, the thatch has been brushed and flattened and is waiting trimming. When external work has been halted due to showers and sanctuary is sought in the shed I try to find odd little things to do to pass the time and one of these was more weeds for the riverbank. When I was at the old station site last Autumn I took a few pictures of the weeds on the bank in case I could model them, well that chance occurred this week-end, something caught my eye and I had a Eureka moment. So here it is The weeds at the old Hemyock site My 4mm version in amongst the grass ( the single stemmed spiky ones) Could be a couple of weeks before any further progress is made unless I sneak in when SWMBO isn't looking. Catch you later.

Hi Chris I just love those little Dean Goods engines and look forward to seeing you backdate it, I also picked a couple up in recent years one of them an outside framed version (2301 class) and think I need to do the same. The standard model (Kays kit) I got really cheap at a toy fair as it is badly glued with impact adhesive and unpainted, a complete rebuild for this one which will make any mods easier. Looking at your coaches I would have thought that the interior would be varnished wood so a brown would be fine, just a guess though as I know very little about coaches in that area. Don't worry about changing your mind and doing something different, I'm always doing it as I spot something I missed in a photograph, or even stumble across an image I forgot I had and then wonder how to get round it. I need that mental challenge now that the big 60 is getting ever closer. All the best Jim

I have just been given a major garden project by the wife so modelling has taken a bit of a back seat for now. It involves a bit of demolition (outbuilding), moving a shed (not the modelling one), building walls and coal bunker, then laying a patio, making a raised bed and planting up. Should keep me busy for a while. It won't take me 120 days though.

Interesting traverser that one, but I must admit I'm quite happy with much simpler manual systems. I, like you thought about drawer runners but was not happy about the amount of movement in some that would occur with quite a large board especially when extended (open position), looking at your method above makes me think I should get some linear bearings on steel rods supported at both ends and give that a go, pity both me and a toolmaker friend have retired as we could have got hold of both of them quite easily when at work. I look forward to seeing how your traverser progresses.

Andy. I can fully understand the way you must feel as I think I would feel exactly the same, but please don't let one persons criticism spoil it for everyone else. When I was going through a rotten spell last year I thought in a very similar way but looking at how many people followed my thread and their obvious enjoyment of what I was doing made me continue instead, so do it for those of us that appreciate and love what you do. Seeing as how I'm modelling a prototype I'd better watch my step, Oh no I think I'm alright unless there is anyone alive who can remember 1904. All the best mate Jim

Great idea Mikkel. I have recently been thinking of ways to lay out my storage yard which will be beneath Hemyock and you have now given me something else to think about, it looks a lot simpler than some of the ideas going through my mind. Jim

Hi Mike Just been having a catch up and you have taken some cracking photos of your work so far, great stuff. Like you I made up my own mix but for my roads and thought it a bit gritty but after a quick sand like you intend it looked a lot better, looking forward to your progress from here which is a lot quicker than mine. Jim

Just been catching up Al and I must say you have certainly been busy. Going back a bit I think the packing cases are great, I looked at some of those when I was at York and thought 'how much' I can make those, so it is good to see how you went about yours and has helped me decide on how to go about it, so a big thanks from me for posting them. Trains running too hey, I'm getting left behind here and need to make more time for modelling - but the wife just came out with one of those "How long would it take you to........", so it looks as if my time is required elsewhere for a bit. Good to see your progress though, it's looking great. Jim

Hi Chris The parade figures are coming on nicely and should look pretty good when completed. Your boards fine to me and even though mine are not like that I have made other things from ply similar to that and suffered no warping so it looks as if you can progress steadily from now on. You'll have that track down in no time at all now. Jim

Ooo, talking trees are we, lovely I like trees. Funnily enough while I was away we met a Professor of Trees and Forestry so imagine if you can these two old f@rts talking trees over dinner one night, I do worry about myself as I get older. Also when I moved into this house and the last one I cut down and removed several trees as they were just wrong for what I had in mind, a lot of them were conifers though and were replaced by Acers, cherry and of course other fruit. Iv'e only got room for 4 dwarf root stock apples here but had an arch of 22 in my previous garden in the first half of the fruit/veg plot, I really do miss that garden. Luckily another friend has kindly let me have the use of some spare land and a 40ft poly tunnel all within 100m of the house which gives me more to look after than I ever had and seeing as how the weather is better today it looks as if I will be busy. Catch you later

Nice work on the figure Chris it looks just fine to me and I don't think you would see any red flecks at normal viewing distance. If I was tempted to add them I would mask all the other bits and waft a fine mist of red about from the airbrush and hope for the best. Great bit of painting. Jim

Thanks Jeff Gordon is a great person and easy to talk to and share methods or thoughts, a thoroughly enjoyable thirty minutes or so until I made room for 5050 of this forum. The cottages are still progressing and the first has reached the roofing stage so I have a lot of slates to cut out and fix before moving onto the second. The tree building is always ongoing and while I was waiting for glues to dry I continued along the riverbank with grass, weeds and a bush or two. But a post is not a post unless it includes a picture or two so here are some of the progress to date. The work done has been from the wooden planks to the small tree on the righthand bank.. Looking across the river and a bit closer. And a final black & white one, just like the ones I work from. The trees here will get bigger and the bushes thicker as I progress away from Hemyock. Looking at these now I'm so glad I went to the trouble of building in the internal detail on the two sheds. Jim

Hi Al love the sunny spring shot posted earlier and it's good to see you back making things again with a nice little building for the station. I like those Dart casting items and nearly got some for myself at the weekend, but other projects on my mind have taken priority. Jim

Hi John, thanks, but yes I have tried the Archives and though I found plenty of drawings for the station buildings at Tiverton Junction which I need later, I found nothing for the butter factory. The OS plan I have is for 1904 which is perfect for getting a rough size and shape of the building and with the photograph I think I have enough to model what I need, however you can't have too many photographs can you? As the cottages take up a fair amount of the area where the new offices sat I didn't have too much space left to fill and the original mill building and a small butter factory with boiler house should do nicely, at least it all fits with the information I have managed to gather. It's quite a big project so should keep me busy for a while - amongst other things.

Andy - The wavy curtains are thanks to the dear wife who is into crafts, a bit overscale but I liked the effect so used them anyway, as for the scenics I did buy a few more bits today to work on the riverbank so you will have to wait and see. I did ask Gordon about one thing I intend to do and he said that it was something he hadn't ever done either. Thanks Chris, I'd always rather leave things for a day until I feel right, I hate messing things up. glad you like the cottages even though I'm not quite happy with the first one myself, it needs a couple of tweaks to get rid of some small errors that are starting to irritate me. Iv'e tried ignoring them but they just won't go away. Mikkel - ahh, those little panes or was it pains weren't that bad, just time consuming but it was what I wanted so stuck with it. Yes the locals did have long legs to negotiate the flood waters from the Culm. Ground levels are currently being worked on now that positions have been finalised. Butter factory design and drawing is progressing well and with a bit of luck may be cut out for trial assembly in about a week, unless I get sidetracked of course.

A few more pictures to show progress so far. This has been a bit slow as I had problems cutting windows a couple of days ago as they were a bit finer than those already cut, so I decided to take a short break away from them and then have another go. The first cottage has now gained one of the doorframes and some curtains. The second cottage now has some windows now that I have a steady hand. The other side including the first of the cottage doors, each of those small panes in the door is approx 2mm sq. The two together in roughly the position they will fit. I have now also started to draw up the butter factory of which I only have one picture of to work from, this is shown here (bottom of page) and isn't much like the modern factory seen in later photographs. At least the picture I have is larger with better resolution than this. Once completed I hope that I will have faithfully replicated this scene. Thanks for visiting. Jim

Patience Andy, a few coming up soon. No Andy it wasn't, it came from Tiger sheds and had virtually the same spec but as they had a sale on at the time it was considerably cheaper. The only issue was their delivery times are anything but accurate but as I was in no hurry at that time it didn't bother me. If you need to know more PM me and I'll give you any details you need. Gary, thanks for commenting and I nearly beat your reminder for the other Forum but I got side tracked that night by other things, I must admit I am well behind on there as I saw at the time. Jim

Nice little story and painting Chris, it's good to see a lot of the parts coming together and now with the baseboard under construction there will be no stopping you. Looking at that last post I know for a fact there is 'NO WAY' I would be allowed to do that anywhere in our house let alone the living room. I've definitely become a shed man now. Keep up the good work. Jim

Cheers Chris, I just needed a finer finish to the surface than the wills sheets could provide and of course there was also the length to consider as well as securing the plastic to the card, though this was the way on the station building. Iv'e also got a lot of card to use up so I might as well use it and save the pennies for other things. Thanks Al, I hope you are right, I really do. Hi Nick, Yes I did see Hemyock in the MRJ and very nice it is too. I'm just glad to be doing the early version of it though as I feel it just has much more typical BLT character. As for Exhibiting the answer sadly is no, that's something I don't have time for in my life as a carer so it was always built as a small part of something bigger and permanent. I was hoping to get to see you and MM but I can't see that happening anytime soon either as much as I would like to. Polly, go for it. I wasn't sure how they were going to turn out when I started, I just had an idea of what I wanted and tried my best to achieve it, at the end of the day if it all went wrong it was only a bit of wire, some plaster and Oh! lots of hours. But like with any model we make we get a feel for it and know if its going right or not. Things still progressing in the shed slowly despite gardening taking up a lot of time. The rendered cottage is now a pretty solid box and is waiting for its windows, the other has just had the curtains hung and the floors fitted and is just getting a few last external window and door details. Thank you all for your comments and I'll update after the next window cutting and fitting session.

Excellent! I wanted to be Hackit when I first saw the post. Ah, the old days of 'borrowing' things, I remember them well as that was how I got my first soldering iron and a few other useful tools too. It was when another department was incorporated into the one I was in and I acquired a tool cupboard packed full of new equipment where the previous owner had accumulated more items - at the companys expense - than he needed to swell his own collection at home, as he was shown the door before he could empty it I was allowed a few bits for myself on taking it over, happy days.

Thanks Jaz and Andy. The cottages have progressed a little more, enough to warrant a post anyway. So now for the important bit, a few pictures and words. First up are two shots of the first cottage, all windows and doors are now fitted and the front ones have lintels and sills, I have yet to do all the others, fit curtains and make doorframes. This cottage has now had all the inner lining for reinforcement fitted and the floors are in though not secure until the curtains are in. So onto the second building. As I mentioned earlier this had been cut out and has now been assembled. I then wanted to get a rendered type finish on here and that's something I have never done before, so after a bit of experimentation this is what I did. I coated the surface in glue and then sprinkled plaster on through a sieve to give an even coat, then it was given a sharp tap on a tray to knock off the excess powder, once it had time to dry it was given a light spray of varnish to secure it. This is the result. I have now left this overnight to dry. The cottages and the last trees in a rough position of where they will end up. I was always a bit concerned about perspective on here and often wondered if some buildings should be made smaller to force some but in the event I don't think I need to. Here are a couple of shots to show the overall thing and when looking along the length of the layout I don't think there will be any issues. Thanks for popping in and I'll post again soon. Jim

We have around 15 - 1600 books currently and try and keep it at that sort of number to stop them taking over too much of the house. When we moved we had to get rid of several hundred as the new library room was only half the size of the last one. I also had to get rid of several years worth of magazines accumulated over time, luckily a friend of mine is a book dealer and he often has a pile of old magazines for me to look through and take which he has left over from auction buys and can't be bothered to sell, some of the older ones are great for drawings and building methods.

Ouch! A kick up the backside, just what I need, there must be a soldering iron somewhere under all this card and plastic.

Hi Chris Yes those multipacks seem useful and are OK if they tell you what they contain. The 20 thou I use is 0.5mm or thereabouts and then I have sometimes used a 10 thou (0.25mm) piece with added rivet detail if needed to lay on top. I have found the need for formers is crucial to stop distortion. As for the HO figures, yes I had seen that and added a reply. Take your time with the figures and the result will be worth it, I don't know about you but I found painting them under artificial light harder than good daylight, maybe I needed more lamps.