Physicsman

This sequence may be of interest to some of you - from this afternoon. Typical of the re-walling procedure that's now been underway for 5 weeks. A "palette" of freshly trimmed stones, ready for laying. The top pile range from about 0.8-1mm thick, the second row 1.5-2mm and the bottom is a collection of different shapes. The ones at bottom right are around 3mm thick, so 9" to scale. At "time zero" there are around 300 stones on the palette. The work area is a re-wall of one side of the large cutting. The original wall was fitted in the dim and distant past - last May! The pic shows the start point for the day - yesterday's 400 stones are now set in place - copings will be added later this week. Half an hour later, around 100 stones have gone on. The wall will be clearer once the PVA has set and cleared. Not especially fast laying as working on an incline slows me down! After about an hour or so there are 220 stones on for the day....and the palette needs replenishing. This is the view after I've had enough - about 350 stones in 100 minutes. Compare the new wall to the "old" one (this is a pic from December 21) - the previous version was more than acceptable but the new one has a lot more detail and variation. Copings needed, of course.

Progress can seem to be slow at times. Then you look back a year - this was March 19, 2021. A bit of scenic work has been done since then!

A considerable amount of re-walling is still ongoing, as well as additional grass-growth and weed infestations. It'll take a while to pull everything together. On this day a year ago I was still working on the viaduct itself! Some pics - random views....

Cheers for the positive comments. I'm happy with the way it all looks to the eye, but it can be difficult to choose which rendition - phone or DSLR - to post on here. The camera is a touch too green and the phone a touch too yellow/brown. I've fiddled around with colour adjustments but I'll just leave things as they come off the hardware.

Some pics to update things. Working on multiple fronts - re-walling, grassing, trees etc. First and second pics of almost the same view - first with phone, second with DSLR. Colour difference very apparent.... Fence wire needs painting etc etc - a never ending task.....

Much appreciated, Tim. Here's a wider view of the path-scene - still a work in progress with trees swapping around and other scenics being added. The second pic is a view of the path taken from a different lighting angle, with my phone. Sharper, but the colours are a bit yellower than the reality. Jeff

Thanks Peter, I've sent you a PM on the subject....

Hi Neil. Good to hear that you've got a visit in the pipeline. I'm sure the UK weather will bring back many happy memories!! As for Arten Gill - I'll be passing by that way, weather allowing, the week after next. Jonathan (Rowsley 17D) and I are taking a trip from Settle to Carlisle and back, so it'll be nice to see Arten Gill after a passage of years since the last visit. As for the layout, re-walling continues - I'm now over half way there. Newly "discovered" interests such as tree-making are slowing me down!

Work continues on the viaduct area, and I'll lead you up the garden path.... Jeff

It's a bed of 12mm grass - Noch green and beige mixed together, allowed to set in place and then the tips of the grass dabbed with neat PVA. Then Noch leaves - I think I used a middle green - sprinkled over the top, allowed to set and vacuumed off. I did the same thing with the "beds" of yellow weeds/flowers, and the effect was first tested (for me) on the diorama. It's quite effective ground cover mixed in with a few shrubs and other grass lengths.

Thanks for the reply and apologies that I couldn't even spell Gedward correctly! Agree about the modelling. I may have some locos running at some stage, but in the meantime it's a lot more fun creating the landscape.

I said I'd wait a few days before posting again, but I've just tried something new - to me, that is - and I'm pleased with the results. Some sections of hedging from rubberised horsehair. The third pic shows the few I made (spent all of 30 minutes on this, just before tea - ironically after cleaning up.....flock, horsehair, static grass, spray then made a real old mess, but sod it!) just plonked in place behind one of the walls for a "photo op". I think there'll be a production line of these, in different sizes, shapes and colours, in the near future. Oh, cr@p - just another thing to make!

Hi Jedward. Is that a username, is it Jed....I like to refer to people on here by first names, where possible. I'm glad you've enjoyed looking through the thread. The philosophy is both "listen and learn" and "onwards and, hopefully, upwards" - principally due to the feedback and ideas generated on here. Nice to see someone modelling stone features in a different context - and a good job you're making of it. Keep the input going! J.

If only there was a support industry - to make the DAS strips, which is bl**dy boring. As for the clay quarry - I think the DAS company should give me some honorary shares - I've used around 40kg of the stuff in the last year. Hardly a pack in sight now. Where did it all go to? Answers on the reverse of your enclosed cheque, please....

Today's update will be the last for a few days as I'll get a fair bit done and then show some real progress. Today: Fence poles and wire onto right wall, longer grass onto left path border, another 100+ stones on the wall that's gradually creeping up the hill.

Today's update pics. I'm now nearly 300 stones on the way uphill in the background, but that's just mundane walling - maybe discuss that when I reach the top. More layering work around the path with a bit of flock. And an hour or so fitting the first set of fence poles with a wire along the top. This has to go in now - I made the mistake of putting this feature onto the diorama when I'd already done the longer grass. Made it a bit tricky to see the fine holes the plastic rodding is seated into! It's still too neat for my liking, but nature will take over in a day or two - grass, flowers, a few shrubs, a bit of hedging are all waiting in the wings.... And btw, serious comment, I do apologise for the sequence of "samey" pics this week. Same angles - but they do show a progression and I know that some of you want to see what's going on - rather than "hey, look - here's one I made 2 weeks ago".

The discussion re. barbed wire instead of wood is a fair one, but actually moot in this context. The wall DID fall down in places and, albeit temporarily, the authorities DID go to the trouble of shipping wooden fencing up to the site, as shown in the prototype pics. As wooden fencing provides a nice contrast with stone walling, I'll be proceeding as planned. As for barbed wire, it's actually not THAT difficult to model, but you need a bit of luck. In the pics in the next post, the fence poles have a "barbed wire" line at the top. Painting this wire to make it stand out (it's white and nigh on invisible otherwise), the paint tends to clump along the wire because of surface tension. I try to remove this, but if left to dry the beads do resemble the barbs in barbed wire....

The first pic pre-dates the second, so you can see that the gap in the wall has been repaired. However, I think a section of wooden fencing and a broken down wall provide additional features, so they'll be included.

Good observations, lads. There'll be a post and plank section of wooden fencing across the rest of the gap - I'll post the prototype pic later. And quite a number of bits of wall debris scattered among the grass/vegetation that'll soon spring up in the area. Off to make the fence poles now - as I used to the rear of the diorama. I'm on my tablet, will nip and put those prototype pics up so you can see what I'm aiming at.

Path installed (mix of medium/fine ballast and chinchilla sand), base coat of 2.5 and 1.5mm fibres added around it. Work in progress - the earthing nail will vanish when no longer needed!

The copings on the path walls are now complete and the wall sections have been given another wash of paint and fixed in place. The path will need re-doing as it was easier to alter the levels between the walls than trying to accommodate the existing levels. A gravel path of some sort will be added-in over the next few days.... First pic is a close-up of the walling, as requested by a couple of people.

Peter, the first suggestion is a very good one. Nuclear Physics and Model Walling. Contrasting specialisations!! However, I think your latter comment is the more likely.....

Jonathan, Don - much appreciated comments on the trees and walls. And Jonathan, if you'd like one, I'll make you a "generic" tree and bring it with me when we head off up the S&C. Let me know how tall you'd like it, to fit in with Derwent Spa. Up to, say, 12cm (30'). Don, I was always very pleased with the original walling (it dates back to the mists of time.....2013ish!!), and it gradually improved. However, putting a bit more effort in - and thanks to discussions with Jamie Warne and Steve Gibbons for inspiring me to do this - the new "product" is, I think, a step-up. And btw, Don. Great to hear from you. I hope you've got your potential home move sorted. I added over 400 coping stones to yesterday's walls and gave the DAS a quick "wash" over. It's started to bring out the wall detail and the pics are better balanced than last nights. So here are 3 "updates". By the middle of next week it should look a bit more "natural" and complete!

I've attached some pics to show what I'm currently doing, re-walling wise, on Gill Head. The first pic shows the state of the wall/path/vegetation leading up to the viaduct, as of a week ago. Since then the "old style" (6 months!) walling has been ripped out and new stuff is under construction. Each wall length is around 70cm and contains about 1400 stones. The present stage is without copings. The phone had problems with the white balance owing to the proximity of so much "white" due to the DAS stones. I've jigged things a bit, but the problem will reduce once the walls are built and some washes added. I'll say more about what's going on in a few days when further progress has been made. The trees and walling aren't fixed in place. Having spigots in each tree also makes it easier to move them about/replace them, should that option be required.