Will J

Hi Ian, it is a tricky thing to get right. I'm fairly handy with a paintbrush, art wise, but anything I have ever attempted always looks like a painting attached to a huge billboard at the back of the scene. The way I have got around this is to deliberately continue the 'scenic' elements, foliage, colours, textures, up the back scene effectively blurring the boundary between the model and the vertical picture. The only thing I tend to simply apply as paint is the blue of the sky. This has worked well on victoria bridge, with its heavily wooded background.

Very nice! I am enjoying getting into Minitrains based 009 locos. Somehow the shiny flywheel does not offend my eye too much but you can always have fun hiding it. My latest project is with the short cabbed Baldwin, creating an approximate Ffestiniog 'Mountaineer' cab around it, which more or less hides the motor and 'wheel. The L&B carriages look great in blue as well.

I think Tom's perception of troublesome visible layering is different to most of us... they look really excellent, nice paintwork too, knowing how tricky painting that material can be! Looking forward to seeing more buildings and puddles. PS Thanks for all the help over the weekend Tom!

Barely a blog entry this, just a quick note! Things are developing nicely at the Engine House with Victoria Bridge in place with a lovely view of a nicely scruffy 'as it left service' 45110.... I suspect my assistant for the day will be studying it closely! See Tom's blog here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/347/entry-14852-ropley-weather-me-clean/ Looking forward to tomorrow, not least as the layout is set up, we can head up there tomorrow in GWR 'Toplight' style on the first train!

Remember I had promised to crank up the lighting on Victoria Bridge to 11.... well with the help of some LED tape I have the scene looking much more summer-y rather than a still from Disney's Frozen. Unfortunately, the amount of light emitted seems to have done troubling things to my phone camera so for now, we'll have to make do with these fairly hopeless pictures: I'll be at the SVR's Open House weekend this Saturday and Sunday, ably assisted by TomE, do come and say hello if you are in the vicinity of the Engine House. I'll try to post some better pictures over the next day or two. http://www.svr.co.uk/SEItem.aspx?a=67

Jerry has another interesting 0-6-0ST in the works, looking forward to seeing its stripes!

Nice pictures Tom, I like the early 80's preservation scene with the Austerity and sparkly new Ford Fiesta... ...though my dodgy old white metal cars do show up just how lovely Jerry's surrounding modelling is!! (We stopped short of recreating a full present day park and ride service with a line up of reasonably priced Japanese hatchbacks meeting the 153....) An excellent weekend... somehow after dismissing the idea for ages I have embraced the idea of uncoupling and shunting.. really enjoyed it.

Just a quick note to say thanks again to Jerry and Kim for letting me loose on TM for a very pleasant Sunday at Leamington. With Tom's guidance, I fared quite well in the 'learner pool' (wharf end) and I'm now a convert to shunting, uncoupling and generally not running around in circles....! I left (again) harbouring all manner of finescale thoughts.... limited for the time being to GWR railcars and short lengths of track, but who knows where they might lead.....

I reckon an Autogyro or two could look the part circling Frankland, or for something up to the minute to match up to the new stock on the line, see my profile picture to the left! (You can't beat a Dragon Rapide for layout Research!) Looking forward to the next instalment..

Five, wow! My new Northern Belle is going to need to look good to find itself fiddle yard space! Anyway, back on topic, I'm really looking forward to seeing the Pendolinos reach full 'Wharf Speed' on the layout!

Tom, if your Pendolino needs to stretch its legs come I can organise a day or two for you on Kinlet Wharf (though I suspect yours won't be the only one!)

Wow! Despite the trains being somewhat 'hemmed in' by the townscape, this model gives a real sense of a railway 'going somewhere'.. absolutely brilliant, thank you for sharing it with us. (I have always loved the W&L, despite only having travelled on it once... the café at Llanfair station has always served as a fantastic service station on long drives to North Wales!)

I like your style... I can never convince myself that I'm ahead enough to quit.. Which tends to be a viscious circle! My bet is some gloss green paint and a Henry face!

Excellent, I'm looking forward to seeing one nicely converted to a 'mainland' version, I'm sure you will make a good job of it. I'd been wondering myself how it would look without the buffers and presumably a less shiny coat of paint! Does the face remove easily or is it part of the main cast smokebox, I'd guess this would be a big clue to the likelihood of a standard Bachmann version. I'd love them to do a 'Duke the Lost Engine' but it seems Duke hasn't been translated to the modern CGI series... so I'm going to have to build myself a Prince or Palmerston. As I'd mentioned in the product thread, it would be nice if they would do one of the Corris derived characters. Looking forward to seeing progress!

In terms of enjoying motorsport 'live' I'd recommend the Goodwood Revival over the Grand Prix any day if you are looking to attend a 'big ticket' kind of event. It is all a bit 'staged' but the theatre works well..... their RAC TT is an incredible spectacle, I recall Jean Alesi clinging on to the lead (sideways) in a priceless Ferrari 250 GTO... he didn't last long at all but it was fun while it lasted. I'd certainly agree with Peter on Shelsley Walsh for atmosphere and proximity to the action. To be honest, my enthusiasm is only really for historic events. I used to love the British GT Championship with its variety and esoteric cars but it has become very artificial with tight holmlogation of GT3 spec cars, which is good for racing but means it has much less appeal for the discerning anorak.... hopefully one of these days there will be a proper historic GT event, after several faltering starts. I had wanted to go and see the WEC at Silverstone this year but I fear the field hasn't the strength in depth, nor enough numbers, to keep things interesting over such a long race? To revel in the 'good old days' of F1 I might be going to the Grand Prix Collection at Donington this weekend, I thought they deserved a plug as I won the tickets in the raffle at the Weston on Trent model railway show!

How much were they being offered for on the UK market? The websites linked to seem to have sold out. I'm guessing looking at the Dollar prices that they are not quite as 'cheap and cheerful', pound for pound, as the standard gauge Thomas range from Bachmann? Looking at other narrow gauge members of the Thomas cast list there could be some really useful ones given a lick of paint and a smokebox door! -Double Fairlie -Kerr Stewart Wren -Ffestiniog 'Prince' / Duke the Lost Engine -Maybe a couple of Corris spin-offs. My son favours a Peter Sam with a 'sat on' chimney (Giesel). I'd happily agree with him and buy one.... The only odd bit seems to be the thick spectacle plate.. presumably a bit of a cheat to get some extra weight over the wheels?

Little Pannier Tank (N Gauge 1501) plus totally inappropriate LNER / Great Northern carriage set... the joys of modelling 'modern steam'! And its my train set!

Ah, you underestimate the time taken to ink in all those tiles...... Actually I'd been scribbling them on since Friday evening. One thing I must to is some proper careful maintenance of my older models. One thing I noticed on Foster Street was how beautifully your Minitrix Ivatts ran... wheras mine (the one with the Dapol facelift to the smokebox) runs like a bag of spanners. I'm guilty of concentrating on the 'arty farty' elements of modelling to the expense of the mechanicals... ....do you have any hints and tips or oiling routines to keep these old machines singing happily? Back to modelling, now doing the roof on my weighbridge tea shop for Arley.... and painting a little square carriage Ffestiniog green, ish.... Mikkel, there is an idea, I wonder if a visitor can drop in to their home premises on the way to Corris or somewhere like that. Next job for the evening, measure up 'Gerald' the giraffe!!

DCC all a bit of a mystery to me (usually making do with an oval of track and some scenery!) -but thank you for the heads up Re: Thurso which I had managed to miss altogether, the first three posts were very interesting!

Hi All, another quiet spell on my blog, I guess mainly because the Victoria Bridge project has more or less come to a point of 'more or less done-ness' although there are a few enhancements to come. Primarily, I want to improve the lighting within the diorama box from the cheap and nasty LEDs sourced from a caravan that are, one by one, giving up the ghost... (and are a horrible blue colour) Over recent months I have been learning more and more about colour temperatures and associated things as I have been working in lighting design professionally, watch this space! I have spent the last couple of evenings decorating the roof of my Arley Station building. What you see at the moment is mostly marker pen and fineliner, which looks a bit 'in yer face' but will be toned down with washes, tiles picked out in lighter paint, and finally dry brushed and matt varnished to bring it all together. But to the main topic for the post..... another new idea for a micro layout. I have really enjoyed the 'preserved bridge in a box' concept with Victoria Bridge, and had been pondering a similar model I could build to share the same '9mm gauge' plug in fiddle yard around the back, and sit in a similarly sized box as, in itself, another plug in module. I had been pondering a bit of a shift in scale using the same fiddle yard around a 009 diorama. I have been quietly collecting Ffestiniog Railway carriages in the scale for a while and the project might spur me on to completing the kits which currently sit unpainted but more or less glued together. The tricky thing was locating the scene. I had a fairly strong memory of an ornate bridge over a road from my early childhood, but in recent years I have only seen the middle of the line from the train itself so pinpointing the bridge was not immediately easy... however, a bit of research soon found the location I was after: https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Tan_y_Bwlch_Bridge Which has been modeled before, but I think in an earlier era rather than preservation. I'm minded to go for a modern view, maybe with autumnal surroundings in a similar vein to Victoria Bridge, a simple run though diorama that would not quite reach the station itself. The road narrows under the bridge which would allow for a realistic traffic jam (of two or three modern cars) which, along with the urgent looking 'ARAF' markings on the tarmac would set the scene nicely in time and space! I think I have got the right bridge, are there any other (nicely 3D printable) ornate bridges on the Ffestiniog line? I have also just ordered one of the nice 'Snapper Bar' Peco L&B carriages from the Peco section of http://www.festshop.co.uk/ which may have something to do with my latest layout idea! What I am lacking is a Ffestiniog engine, but I have some chassis in mind, to sit a home designed 3D print on. One thing I would like to attempt would be a really good model of a (present day) 'England' 0-4-0 tender engine. I have happy memories of riding in the tender of 'Prince' not, oddly, on the Ffestiniog but alongside the river on a temporary track at the 2013 Shrewsbury Flower Show. I'd end up self-indulgently modelling myself in the tender of the model version, which will be interesting as I was carrying a 6' tall carved wooden giraffe at the time....

Hi Andy, Big thanks again for the invite, a lovely perfectly proportioned show and I'm glad to hear the fundraising side of it went so well. Hopefully one or two of the new books can reflect something of the spirit of the show and include a train or two! Your whole team were excellent hosts, I even managed a bit of Christmas shopping at the talylyn railway stand. The raffle prize of tickets to the donington Grand Prix collection will be much appreciated too! You had a very chatty audience who all showed a great interest in my 3d printed work. It was also nice to be operating next to foster street making up a little n gauge corner.

This week I have mostly been painting..... Tiny trim lines with a whisker of silver paint on tiny cars (3D printed Ford Focus, see: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/102514-british-n-cars-on-shapeways/ And completing the weathering on some more.... To populate the roads and canalside carparks of Wyre Forest MRC's Kinlet Wharf, which is out on tour this weekend at Taunton: http://www.somersetrmc.org.uk/Rail-EX/layouts.html I have also been repairing the chassis on the little N Gauge Class 139 which should be back to full health on the branch line. If you look closely in the yard you may spot a fantasy 'GWR' version thanks to a can of Halfords 'Renault Brooklands Green' paint which seems a good match for the new colour scheme. I'm imagining it is being prepared by Kinlet's engineers for a new role on a Cornish Branch line, or perhaps to Heathfield http://www.lctltd.co.uk/ ? If you are at the show do drop by and say hello. I'll have some of my other 3D printed projects (Including the Arley Station building seen in the background in the car shots) in case anybody wants to see them. Looking forward to the weekend immensely, some excellent layouts by the look of things, I'm looking forward to catching up with developments on Tucking Mill.

Looking forward very much to exhibiting... The victoria bridge blog has been quiet of late but I have been preparing more additions so I can run a mini branch line gala.... Stretching reality a little there will be a dean goods visiting from Swindon for the day. With the floorplan still to be confirmed, is there any chance of victoria bridge being next to foster street- as I am very keen to have a closer look!