aberdare

Fantastic work Al,

obviously well out of my period but how you have gone about it is great and what an end result.

Now, do think I could do the same with a horse and cart - a three legged horse on bricks??   No, maybe not then.

Good to see you back in top form.

Jim

Vegetable dyes were used in the early Victorian period, however from 1860 onward aniline dyes started to appear and more vivid colours started to be used on some materials.

This link gives a few more details.

http://www.victorianweb.org/art/costume/nunn13.html

Hope this helps

Jim

Hi Nick

Really looking forward to seeing the results from the day, whenever and wherever they appear.

Jim

Thanks Chris

I don't do Facebook so I appreciate you putting the picture up, they do look good again and I look forward to buying these later despite the fact it just adds more to the 'to do' list.

Jim

Hi Duncan

So far so good, I hope it continues to go OK.

Personally I always prefer to add a bit of PVA to my mixes as I have had bits chip off over time in some cases.

I can see why you are worried about thatch too, it's not easy the achieve realistic finish, if I do another I think I may try the paint brush bristles as well, I've got plenty spare and if it works I can always get some of those cheap ones - the ones where the bristles always fall out.

Best of luck with whatever you do.

Jim

Duncan

You're certainly not hanging about are you.

I know with my thatched model it was quite quick to produce the building and getting it to the roofing stage, however the thatch itself takes an age. I am currently making the ridges for mine and keep having to wait for glue to dry before I bend it over the top, once I feel there is a good enough cover I will do the stitching to look like the original, I can't see any problems with doing it as yet but who knows until I get that far.

I also searched for ridge detail to ensure I got it right and there's plenty to look at.

Following with great interest.

Jim

Thanks again for all the likes from everyone.

Thanks Mikkel, the layout is currently 10' 6" by 2' 9" and I have tried to include as many things as I could that created a number of differing views, it took me ages at first with a scale drawings of the board and layout being twisted all ways to include the bits I wanted to model. One of the reasons for me turning it around was to put the flat area (the pasture) to the back as it is then easier to photograph from both sides as well as being easier for me to operate. When I think that I'm only just completing 20% of the whole project I know I will keep busy for a while yet. I just hope I can maintain the standard and my enthusiasm.

Thank you as well Jock & Andy for your comments. As for your comment Jock I was inspired by others when I first joined and it feels good to be able to give something back to the forum that I took so much from. I hope to reach completion of this section in another year plus a bit more, I need to keep ahead of Andy.

I'm hoping to complete the thatched ridge (slow going though) and the butter factory over the winter as other scenic work takes too long to dry.

All the best

Jim

Glad to hear you are still managing to do a little Chris during a busy period for you.

As for the post above, sorry you lost me too. So like Neil I'll wait for clarification so I know what to do with these bits of ply I'm holding.

All the best

Jim

Blimey!!

I thought I had a lot of stuff in mine but it's nowhere near like that, I've still got room to duck under the boards to work on the back of the layout.

Best of luck sorting that lot out Andy, I don't envy you one bit.

Take your time.

Jim

Evening Shaun

 

I'd forgotten about Linka. Something I need to think about.

 

There are a host off model kits that I'm looking at., I've just got to decide which units to represent.

 

I'm having a look at my modelling materials tonight to see if I can do my first experiment with a new idea.

 

Duncan

I like the sound of that, I do like to see how these ideas progress as I think we can only improve as modellers if we challenge ourselves now and again.

I hope whatever it is that you are thinking about works out eventually and we get to see the results.

Best of luck

Jim

This morning I will start the mammoth task of finding places to put all the boxes of stuff I had in Storage.

 

I have found lots of bits that should have gone to the tip Months ago and so there will be several runs down the road with those bits.

 

I will also be making sure that all the units are in the right places before I start as I don't want to fill them and then have to empty them again to move them, this is going to be a long process so please bear with me.

 

I will be back again soon with more updates and pics.

Hmmm, I obviously did it all wrong as I have moved mine three times - I blame it on the wife changing her mind on the odd bits of furniture I have in there.

Jim

Crikey Adrian, I'd just done a similar post and thought I'd done quite well to get as far as I had, but I come on here and you got yours built and published while I'm still only halfway through.

Not that I'm deflated in any way though, it just encourages me to make sure progress continues to reach that same goal.

Looking forward to following more of your work in the future now that I see there is more to come.

Envious of East Yorks.

Jim

Jaz

When you decide to put some lintels in Boy! do you put some lintels in

Looking good though.

Jim

Hi Adrian

Congratulations on getting Westerham into BRM, it looked great and it was good to get some of the background information too as to why it was built.

I love your scenic work and often pop in for a comparison to my own and hope to reach the levels you have once it's all together. Keep the photos coming with their little stories as if/when they stop it will be a sad day and I will miss them a lot.

All the best

Jim

Hi Jason

It's been a while since my last look at Bacup and a lot has happened in that time.

So congratulations on getting married and getting Bacup in BRM, I enjoyed reading about that and it was well deserved.

I now need to try and keep up and watch your kit building as that is something I need to do so I can actuaally get some stock on my layout.

Keep up the good work and photography on what has been and still is one of my favourite threads.

Jim

Thanks Duncan, Andy and Paul.

Oh, and you have reminded me to say thanks to the lads at TMC too for their comments on the trees, the requested order for 50 is underway

Now that hedge that I didn't like. It just looked wrong to me so I set about making something different to try and produce the more open texture I wanted with a few straggly bits.

So I cut a few bits of wire between 20 - 25mm and superglued them into a cardboard strip, a little sprinkle of mud was added to help them stick and create some groundwork, then I flattened them and scrunched them up, anyone would think I'd gone barmy at this stage. They were then straightened a bit but still left tangled and some shredded string was added into the mix to create the framework, as seen in this photo.

A quick spray then to disguise the colour of the brass wire.

A sprinkle of my dyed tea leaves and assess the result.

The two together.

Yes, that was more what I had in mind and I thought it will be easy for me to change the height and create an out of control large hedge.

So it grew a little bit more.....

...and a little more...

....until it got quite big.

I went to bed a happy modeller that night.

Jim

Hi Duncan

I have kept having a quick look at this until I had more time to post.

I like the concept you have of setting it during the war years, I love those kinds of layout as there is plenty of scope for scenic details and little cameos, I really am hoping that we shall see a bomb damaged building at some as they are a challenge to get right, but once completed must give a great sense of achievement if it looks authentic. I wish you the best of luck if you do go for that and I will watch with interest.

I can't help with track layouts as I'm hopeless with that which is why I model prototype.

I remember some time ago meeting the couple who exhibited Q dump which was a WW1 layout which fascinated me, a great bit of work.

I look forward to seeing this up and running.

Jim

Thank you for the positive comments and all the likes too, I'm very pleased that the trees look as good as I intended them to be - they took long enough - but I have enjoyed making them and I'm looking forward to some other challenges I've set myself with trees, not just yet though.

While I was away with the wife to aid her recovery I see I have raced past 20K views so thanks to you all for helping to reach that figure.

Just before I move onto other things apart from trees just a couple of pictures of what I call my gap fillers, trees made in other ways that is,

I just wanted something quite simple that I could knock up in a few hours but look similar to those I had done but with a little less detail.

So I looked around the shed.....thinking.....thinking some more and dismissing a few things until.....

Looking at my ball of garden string and my superglue I had that 'I wonder if' moment again, as it was only a bit of string and some glue what did I have to lose?

So here is a couple of shots to show the result.

All in all for something that is going to sit at the back of the layout or behind larger 'Proper' trees it will serve its purpose.

Also as I started to vegetate the river area I kept some Thyme prunings from my gardening days and used them for bare or nearly bare trees.

So that's it for trees for a while until I complete a section somewhere that is worth posting.

Right the walls.

Now that the cottages were progressing I had to think of building up the ground area around them, so after forming the landscape with card and covering it, it was time to form some walls around the garden edges. The first was for the brick cottage and is the front wall that ran from the factory entrance to a side lane, my thoughts were that as this was the front wall on the main road it would be of better quality than any others. It was formed from card with Slaters stone card glued to both sides and after a dab of paint or two, glueing in place and a few weeds it looked something like this.

I then set about making the walls that line the lane alongside and continue in front of the thatched cottages, this time I wanted some older random stone walls that were in a poor state with weeds/Ivy growing from or over them. to do this I again cut some old cardboard box up, coated it liberally with PVA and tipped a load of large ballast over it, rolled it around a bit and left it to dry.

Once fitted in place the foliage was added to cover most of the wall so it just becomes a background item, not the best of pictures but I can't find another yet.

That almost brings the wall story up to date so I'll leave it there until complete.

The hedges.

I started off with the old scouring pad method as it is a tried and tested method so not much to say here apart from showing a picture.

I was quite happy with this as it looked just like my hedge out the front, nicely trimmed by the ....hedge trimmer....ahhh!!

Doubts started to creep in.

Old pictures were consulted and I was convinced they were just wrong, they did not look anything like what my vision for this area was like, some old cottages with hand trimmed hedges that were a bit sparse in places and with one cottage having a very overgrown hedge, how would I do that with scouring pads?

They were scrapped.

Back later with part 2.

Jim

Hi Mike

It's been a while since my last visit and it is good to see the landscape coming together, my favourite bit of any layout if I'm honest.

The static grass and shrubs have now started to add a bit of depth and I look forward to seeing it grow over the next few hours days

Jim

Hi Al

It's taken me a while to catch up on here but it is good to see you still solving little problems in your own unique way, even if you did create it in the first place.

I see you had a bit of a break too after your 'off road' escapade, good to see you are OK though.

Keep up the inspirational work on things like the poles.

Jim

Great work Nick,

Shame I didn't get to see you at Coventry, I wanted to go but was unable to make it so a meeting and viewing will have to wait.

I noticed Heki 1675 mentioned a few posts back and I found it very good and have used it for making Ivy, though I do add my own scatter mix to it after a quick PVA misting.

Good to see you making MM even better, is that possible?

Jim

Those who follow this thread regularly will remember the big trees (pages 10 & 11) and that they weren't quite finished, I had more leaves to add and I was thinking of some Ivy.  Well they went into a box while I was moving things around - including the layout -  to avoid damage until I was ready for them, that time came not long ago and they are now a permanent fixture on the hillside.

So enough from me and what about the pictures. (click for large picture)

Three differing views showing new foliage on the left hand tree, Ivy on both and a few dropped leaves.

A couple of close up shots of the Ivy

There that's it, told you it was only a little post.

Jim