Will J

Thanks chaps! You can tell I have spent the last few months relearning the island of Sodor with young Harvey, last years Thomas was very much an old school 'railway series' painting whereas exposure to the modern cgi animated series shows in Oliver's facial features. I actually quite like the new 'virtual' version but I still have a great affection for the paintings of Peter and Gunvor Edwards who featured prominently in the storybooks of my youth.

Hi All, A quick post from me, you may remember from last year http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/351/entry-13002-merry-christmas-a-tank-engine-and-a-brief-ramble/my Christmas present preparation for the younger members of our family involves producing paintings. After Thomas last year, I have just been putting the finishing touches to Oliver and Toad..... Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all on RMWeb. Thank you for all of your kind comments over the year, especially after my appearance at RMWeb live, the encouraging words really mean a lot. Hopefully more progress on mini-Victoria Bridge and maybe mini-Arley in the not too distant future!

Ooh, LMS... something to do with 'Pigs', N Gauge...... Flying Pig? (Just imagining one on my Victoria Bridge)

Looking forward to seeing 'modern' Highbury at Warley. Are you looking to populate the lanes with a sprinkling of appropriate vehicles?

Just a quick note to say that I really like the way you present your ideas, will be watching with interest, welcome to RMWeb!

Hi Mikkel, some kind of trackside shed or similar structure would be a good starting point and very achievable using something like Sketchup. With a couple of sheds designed you could then move on to wagons, which are in truth, just slightly more complex 'wheeled' sheds.... More atmospheric shots to come, though I'll introduce them gradually for the sake of your knees!!

Not much has developed on the 3D printed Arley front over the last couple of weeks, but with a few nights away from home looming, CAD design does make for a tidy way to create modelling output in a hotel, so watch this space! I have had chance to have a good look around the real thing however. On Sunday Arley was basking in spots of sunshine and a slice of lovely branchline-ish ness... Modelling challenges include the picnic area, which I know very well.. the site is busy and requires a number of less glamourous additions like big bins etc.. which are well hidden, and will want to be equally well hidden on the model: Cake! (& excellent sandwiches) Whenever I see this building I feel hungry... I also took a couple of pictures of the rarely photographed 'river' side of the station building, though from a respectful distance as this is the more private side of the residential part of the station building. I wonder if there is an etiquette to modelling 'from life' when dealing with a private house? I'd been wondering about this when pondering a model of nearby Northwood Halt, another scene dominated by a substantial private dwelling. With that in mind, I'll not reproduce the pictures here, but use them to get the one side of the building near enough right. The station is of course host to a procession of exotic machinery and long trains. That said, it looks very 'proper' with a 14xx (Sunday just gone) or a railcar (Railbus gala a few years ago). This might point to a way of creating a small diorama based on the station building without the need (yet) for a large layout around it... but ready for extension...

See here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/90905-shapeways-price-change/ for the full story, not a problem despite concerns over WSF costs. It will cost between 40Euro-50Euro depending on how clever/brave I am with wall thicknesses etc. A bespoke scale station building for the price of a bargain bucket loco seems good! (Phew)

An interesting point in the process will be uploading it to Shapeways and seeing what it would cost!! I have designed it with bog-standard 'White Strong and Flexible' material in mind, which ought to keep costs down. For some reason I have been putting it off... (!!!) but that needn't be the case, once the basic shape is roughly sketched out you could upload the shell and get a pretty close 'ballpark' cost. Any subsequent addition of details would be cancelled out by the hollowing out of windows etc..

Hi All, yet again, I find myself a bit square eyed after a CAD session figuring out the intricacies of my N Gauge Arley. Here are a couple of screenshots of progress so far: Project Arley will need a fair bit of traditional scenic modelling too, especially around the beautifully tended gardens: http://www.arleystation.org.uk/asgardens.html http://www.arleystation.org.uk/gagardens.html Which always remain friendly, colourful but in keeping with the surroundings. PS. On the subject of Arley and Victoria Bridge, yet another 'prototype for everything....'! https://www.flickr.com/photos/30895774@N02/15184037648/in/photostream/

In the case of the Black 5 Farish went beyond plastic coal, giving us a hefty slice of metal coal to aid adhesion on the tender drive. I tried putting some glue on the metal coal and giving it a light dusting of 'yer actual' coal dust, however I overdid it and the tender appeared to be wearing an elaborate coal 'hat'..... still working on a plan B.

Interesting stuff Tom, thanks for replying to my pondering...... Weathering on models of preserved stock is an interesting subject. While the frequency of cleaning (especially for the more common 1948-68 'look') is higher, the odd converse effect is that a locomotive might actually spend longer carrying a livery than it did when in 'front line' service. Due to this, the effects of sun bleaching, and presumably plenty of polishing, add up! A favorite of mine, was the SVR's Bradley Manor, which I recall appearing as a gleaming freshly restored example in 1993 ish, then building up a distinct patina of not dirtyness, but well loved fadedness, over the next two decades. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bradley_Manor_7802_5.jpg Bradley Manor presumably carried elements of this paintwork for far longer than any 50's / 60's decoration. 7802 has now faded from the limelight to be made all rather spick and span and new again, hopefully my patronage of the owning group's shop at Bewdley will help a little!

Just a short entry today, have spent rather too long staring at a screen, here are the results: A number of people at RMweb live asked if, having 'printed' Victoria Bridge, I could print an Arley station to go with it. One way to find out....! The drawings in the Wild Swan 'Severn Valley Railway at Arley' have proved invaluable. It may yet form the basis of an extension to the Victoria Bridge diorama, as country stations go, it gets quite busy, see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/31339850@N06/15310859962/in/photolist-eaLmcr-6kZfbj-p3uUte-pjYafb-meXfGS-o6uM1h-pkJTdz-aDVdja-eQYSWK-dLVENo-m5puX2-akCPhJ-ddMhVR-ddMjWu-fYZQDz-aubfEL-9AE8Br-aubc5d-9wSYMm

After all the nice comments I was trying to pick up on something to be rude or flippant about, but it is next to impossible with such high quality modelling. One request, something I noticed at rmweb live but didn't get chance to ask about. There was some lovely subtle weathering on your loco smoke boxes which elevated them to another level of realism beyond their humble 'straight out of the box' beginnings. Please can we have a blog update on your methods?

Hi Jaz, thought you might be interested in this link, much of my work on Kinlet Wharf is the road traffic! http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/351/entry-4773-weathering-traffic-for-kinlet-wharf-just-what-counts-as-a-british-n-gauge-car/

Lovely to meet you too Jaz, I have to say your ipad makes a very good job of the close ups! The colours in the water are more a 'happy accident' after several 'pours' of different simulated mixtures, but after all the trials and tribulations it does look nice and natural.. all part of the fun... Would you mind if I borrowed one of your pictures to use in my blog? I was too busy to take any myself!

Looking very good indeed Tom, look forward to seeing the progress at the show. Looking at the latest plan we are both in the same 'bit' now which will make it easier to steal my carriages (sudden LNER gala?) if you get bored with green! I'll have to introduce you to the kinlet wharf team too.

Keep it going there, you can use the fiddle yard as a locally sourced, organic bacon slicer, the ultimate kitchen gadget.....

Evening All, No report on Victoria Bridge this evening, but some further new layout pondering while stuck, Alan Partridge-like in a Travelodge. In my last post I reported that a house move had, happily, left me with an office room with a long thin wall, or at least reasonably long in N gauge terms. My current project is finishing and occasionally exhibiting my N Gauge Victoria Bridge, I'm also planning an exhibitable 2mm finescale (or with finescale elements) 'Wyre Forest' in the 1960s among other plans. For now, I'm keen to create something simple to run at home. For a while, I have been inspired by: http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/hayle-wharf-branches.html The Hayle Wharf branch, which existed until recently as mysterious, crop circle like scars in the tarmac and abandoned rails glinting in the summer evening sun. Sadly, this was recently torn up, such it progress. Search RMWeb and you will find further fascinating threads on the surviving 'archaeology' and technical details of wagons, operations and other bit of inspiration. My plan goes a little like this, I was playing with some spare bits of track over the weekend and realised I had space for a layout inspired by the scene, though shortened and squashed a fair bit. (This clears up the mystery of why my 'Preserved' Warship on Victoria Bridge retains its full yellow ends, see the Cornwall Railway Society pictures) I'm not going to be too specific with timeframe here. There might be elements of scenery that can lift out and change so the scene can skip from the fifties to the present day. As it is not a precise copy of the location, I'm thinking about extending the line a little further than what would have been the power station, incorporating a seaside terminus for passenger trains. This way the scene might be a fairly close recreation of the seventies shunting operations shown in the link above, or a more modern scene with my collection of Class 153s and the like shuttling back and forth. This is where it gets a bit off at a tangent, I have been inspired by American outline layouts where you see trains winding through on street scenes. I'd been looking for an equivalent in the UK and this idea seemed to fit the bill. Much of the track will be embedded in the wharf, which is also part of the picture in that I have a bundle of unused, coarse, but useful Peco N gauge track which I wouldn't use for exhibition purposes. At home, and buried in a road surface, it will look OK. The other arm of the 'L' shape will be a sort of scenic fiddle yard, but I may dress it up as a station scene. With a bit of an imaginative leap (not a long distance one) I might have a go at a model of St Erth bay platforms. As you can tell, the scene will have a tangible 'sense of place' but enough differences to need a new name. EDIT: Also, if you look at the extreme left hand side you will see a mysterious shed at the end of the line, this will be a bit of a geographical leap, replicating the current depot at the end of Stourbridge Junction's bay platform, for no other reason than the usual 'my train set' excuse!

They are not very accurate, as far as I know, but somebody else might know better. Proportion wise, they are more of a robust toy than a proper model. Is your light railway based on a real one or freelance. I'd suggest these http://www.gwr.org.uk/proratio.html (with a good article by Mikkel) as a good starting point but the joy of a light railway is, I guess, that you can mix and match with whatever comes along, like the real thing!

Evening all, I'm trying to do one post a week in the run up to RMWeb live. Just a quick one this week, hopefully more coming soon. Replying to comments from last week's installment: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/351/entry-14551-ricoh-preparations-victoria-bridge-lighting-carriages-and-photographers/ richbrummitt: (edit.. 2m's and 2t's) That young gentleman in the second picture looks very happy. How old is he now and what impact has he had on modelling progress? He is just nine months, and is taking a healthy interest in modelling, to the extent that certain modelling supplies have migrated to higher shelves! He stays with his slightly older cousins while Katie and I are are at work, who are involving him in some epic Thomas the Tank Engine toy train set constructions, which he enjoys. Modelling process in recent months has been set back more by working away from home so much (1:1 scale railway engineering....) and a house move. The latter has had a silver lining in a little office room that is all mine, with a long, unencumbered wall along one side just waiting for a layout. paulprice: As an LMS man I must say the LNER coaches look great any chance of some more photos? Here you go. All based on Dapol underpinnings. The Great Northern carriage is a bit of an approximation with some home printed panels, the open 3rd is an Ultima etched side, I'm quite pleased with the wooden paint effect. Bits of humbrol, and detailing with, of all things, a black biro... To finish, some freight. See you all soon!

PS.. impressed by the degree of precision, fit and finish, bearing in mind my fiddle yard to scenic connection needs ballasting with blu-tack to get things to work!

Space? Surely that's what the door is there for, allows space for expansion. Your lamp stand (to the right) looks like it could support a little, well illuminated, layout of its own.... Do you have some trees in the works that could dress up the rear of the scene, even if just temporarily prodded into holes?

Will do! Look out for a carriage based post on the blog next weekend (ish) - working most of the week away from home at the moment, so posts are a bit intermittent!

Well, I sprayed the Dragon Rapide pin badge with some light grey etch primer and a ) in a matt finish it transforms into a lovely little model with the 'bling' obscured and; b ) the grey shade is spot on for a silver-winged aeroplane some distance away in a hazy sky. I might try to give it a lick of blue paint for the fuselage (see my user avatar thing in the corner of this post...) or maybe leave it as is, as the way it will appear, carefully glued to the backscene, it would tend to appear as a grey silhouette. For RMWeb Live I'll try to concoct a scrapbook of images borrowed from the project's beginnings to explain why there is an aeroplane in the scene and where the idea came from: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/351/entry-1306-bridge-over-the-river-severn/