islandbridgejct

C1 "And every year, on the eve of the accident, she rides again, hurtling through the station, whistle screaming, safety valves lifting, her driver and fireman clinging grimly to her swaying footplate, doomed passengers oblivious to their impending fate..." (Ghost train, in other words.) Which gives me an idea for your frequent lighting woes - why not get some good quality illumination and take some photos at night under artificial light? (Or just calculate how much it would cost to do so, then spend the money on a C1 instead, and count it as a saving.) All the best,

A suggestion for the 04 hoist cameo - try P4 profile wheels on a 00 axle for the axle that's out in front of the loco. This is one place where the benefits of the narrower profile would really show, and you're not worried about wheel rail interface. (And I stress 'try' - it might look funny.) Alan

Yes, but have you seen what they called the terminal station? "Typical English," as the Frenchman remarked on arrival, "to name a station after a defeat."

Thanks, graham. It was more entertaining to assume the worst- and I really should try to get more modelling done. A useful trick is to paint up a grey scale - 10-15 blocks of grey shading gradually from black to white (not more or you get copyright issues). You can use it against old black and white photos to measure tonal values. Often your eye corrects to what it thinks is there without you realising. As one who had 2 arthroscopies in his early 30s after overdoing it on the bike and running, you have my sympathy, Big. It takes about 8 weeks before the knee begins to strengthen properly. Sore but not serious, apart from impeding the use of layout duckunders.

That's excellent. I think you may need to step forward towards the tracks, so that the left side of the train shed is clear of the signal, and move the loco back about a length in line with the turnout. That should move the offending down signal more nearly out of the picture and give a more head on view. So I think you're closer to reality than the present photo is giving you credit for. Alan

Hi Peter, You certainly have the advantage over me in that - I was born in 1967 and steam was gone in Dublin by 1963 so I only ever saw RPSI specials. When I travelled behind this train - - I spent the rest of the day picking coal dust out of my hair. I do remember how black the major buildings in Dublin were in the 1970s, mainly due to burning coal for heating, so I do take your point, and also your point about the lighting. My only real comment is that black doesn't look black, even when it's painted black in the rain on a dull day, and that every grey is less grey than it looks. (And I'll take it that 'Robert''s agree tick was agreeing that I should go and do some modelling. Now I should go and do some work.) Alan

Could I make a suggestion about colour - or rather tone? Your ballast and walls look very dark, and you may not be allowing for the effect of the big yellow light on the colour of things. Black is never black, and indeed a road seldom looks more than about half way on the scale from black to white. Its tonal value will always be on the lighter end of the scale. LS Lowry's painting took off when he was advised to paint on a white background. As a modeller, you shouldn't go that far, but it will create a greater impression of space and openness if you lighten the colours. Exhibit A is the shed at Connolly Station in Dublin with the main running lines in the foreground - admittedly a modern picture but illustrative of the fact that the grey ballast looks almost white, and even the dark grey diesel looks more light than dark: http://www.thewandererphotos.com/RailtoursPreservedRailways/2015/RPSI-South-Munster-Railtour/i-qRZV3QV/A Exhibit B shows that even on a dark rainy day, the ballast only looks about half as dark as black black, which itself only looks about half black when it's on the roof of a carriage, and still creates a mix of light and shade when it's on the side: http://www.thewandererphotos.com/RailtoursPreservedRailways/2015/RPSI-South-Munster-Railtour/i-pKQrVc8/A (Usual thanks to the Wanderer for his excellent photos.) Anyway, the build is coming along nicely: you're making much better progress than I am, so I should just shut up and get on with my own work. Alan

Speaking from experience, bargain ponies have a tendency to come back to bite you (literally). If it's one of the ones that starts to turn right and then throws in a little shoulder lurch to the left, you should keep the video camera on your phone handy for the inevitable and amusing unseatings.

And what about the pony? What's it good for?

I've been reading this thread bit by bit over the past few weeks, and it's a stunning display of scratchbuilt craftsmanship - highly inspiring. Thank you for posting it. Alan

I'm a bit worried about those boats. How will we get any modelling done if everyone goes off navel gazing?

Black, or sometimes very, very dark grey... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyOb1KyZdbY

I'm awestruck at the realism of those posts.

Very nice. Use a curved turnout on the viaduct? It might prevent any problems with transition from curve to straight and back to curve for a train crossing over on it, and the visual effect might be better (?) Alan

Hmmm, no. 2, maybe 10 parts green, 1 part yellow and 2 parts white, then repeat if necessary, or no. 3 with 20 parts green to 1 part phthalocyanine blue. That's just a guess based on how they appear on my monitor which isn't calibrated or anything - so no allowance made for the lighting of the photo, the camera, your computer, rmweb, or my computer. If you end up with something too bright, you can let it down with a half or quarter part magenta / quinacridone red. This will have the same effect as black, but won't be as instantly overwhelming. Good luck, Alan

That loooks very impressive. The potential with 3D printing is incredible. Alan

Hi Jason, If you're mixing colours, you're better to start with paints that use a single known pigment - cobalt blue, azo yellow, vermilion, that kind of thing. The reason is based in substractive colour theory. It's a long story and I don't fully understand it myself, but you'll get a cleaner colour mixing 2 pure pigments than mixing 2 colours that are already a mix of 2 or 3 different pigments, because each time you mix pigments you absorb more light and reduce the amount that reflects out. This means the more pigments you put in, the duller, browner or muddier the result looks. A lot of old paintings that you might see in galleries have very dull muddy greens, because the green and yellow pigments didn't last, and paintings where the sky is almost black are often a result of the use of cheaper blues. There was a topic on here, or maybe in MRJ a while back about the constituents of NER green and how the blue component faded faster than the yellow (I think), that might be worth looking up. There was something about copper in the pigment. For a quick fix with modern pigments, Artist's colours are the best source of single pigment colours. They generally have a number, eg, PY27 and PY 31 would be yellows. PB45 a blue, PBG70 a blue-green. In other words, P is for pigment, followed by a colour letter or 2, followed by a number. Fewer pigments are better for mixing. Most greens are an unholy concoction of everything you can think of, so not great for making new colours. Acrylic is good for cover but if you want a really fine finish, you might need to use oils, built up in several coats. As a starting point, I'd look at azo yellow, cobalt blue and a good deal of white - and maybe experiment with some phthalocyanine green as well. Make up a colour chart, mixing different proportions from pure yellow to pure blue, repeat for pure yellow to pure green and pure blue to pure green. That will give you an idea of the range of colours available. Then take the ones that are in the right sort of colour range and add white to them in increasing amounts until you decide you've gone too far. You'll get a much better understanding of this if you look up proper explanations and don't rely on the above. And an even better one by sitting down with a few sheets of A2 paper and filling them with colour permutations. Have fun, and try not to paint the dining room table. Alan

When waking up at 3am, the only thing to think about is model railways. To return to that telegraph pole, it looks to me like 2 wooden posts braced together 2/3 of the way up. A concrete pole would be in one piece, so wouldn't need the bracing, whereas a wooden pole would be about as broad as it could reasonably be at the width shown on the narrow side, and would need to be doubled up to give the extra breadth required. (I could of course be wrong.) (Also, can anyone tell me if a pole has to be round, or can you have a square pole?) Alan

If I could throw in my tuppence, if it looks wrong, maybe the carriage is riding too high on its bogies.

Well, if the leading wheels were located in the Eastern Atlantic, the drivers would be over the Azores, and the trailing wheels somewhere near Newfoundland, which by my reckoning would make it a Great Banker. A word of warning though, with all this talk about P1s and P2s, you're clearly embarking on a number sequence that will lead in very short order to P4. Slow down, before it's too late! (as the road safety ad used to say.) (Lovely pictures and an always enjoyable thread, thanks.) Alan

Yes, but I think you may mean 'serendipitously' which in P4 works out at 18.82 letters, or as near to 19 as makes no difference. You've shortened it, appropriately, to 16.5 letters, by losing 'ndi' but then sticking an 'i' back in after the 't'. A clear case of art mimicking life. Or should that be life mimicking art? Or maybe models mimicking ... oh, forget it, my brain can't handle analogies. (It's like a J15 on the Coronation like that.) As to the question of what to put in the space beyond the end of the world, carriage sidings might be a good idea. It's certainly not something to worry about, because the world, as Copernicus found out, is round. And so is your layout. (Which is how we like it.) All the best, Alan

Just be careful - there's a lot of us in that darkened, humble space already. Alan