stu357

I like what you are doing Corbs, keep it up!

The latest project has been some hedges and grass.

These are based on hanging basket liners for base grass,

rubberised horse hair for wild mixed hedges and a bit of static grass and flock over the top.

you can see the original signals and track bed, I'm just adding things around the track as I go.

Fences are Knightwing, advertising board Modelrailway Scenery.

You can see the small overall size of the layout in the background.

The steel sidings were formed by gluing half pencils to two interlocking pieces of wood and pressing coke can in between them.

the small brick building on the platform is the end I cut off the building in the picture above and below..

Dalmatian and Rabbits are white metal Langley models.

extreme radius of curve into the TMD gives the game away,

raised relay cabinet is from spare tubing, railings from bird feeder mesh and fine filter mesh for floor.

Again, I'd like to say a big thanks to people on this forum as most of this has been done with techniques I've read about on here and didn't have any idea about 5 years ago.

These scenes seemed to take such a long time, there are still some refinements needed. Hope you don't mind me sharing,

Stu.

Well, here we are Dec 2016,

thought I'd add some updated shots.

we are still building, Chloe is still (just about) interested.

the very tight radius track curves affect the scenery and compromise some areas,

we have a disused signal box with stinky interior!

and some new streets

As I was running out of space, the area above Tesco that was just a box to hide controllers has now become scenic and has a car park.

I've taken to painting more effects and using more in plasticard. Also shortening and repainting resin buildings.

Only problem now is I seem to need stronger and stronger glasses every time I go to the opticians.

Here's one that I was just putting together,

a disused small signal box

its an adaptation of an LCC wooden kit wit the usual ratio interior, but then loads of stuff scattered in and PVA'd down.

I was going for a soggy lino, wet leaves and fallen ceiling plaster look

I was pleased with the look considering the time it took to achieve.

Hope you like that one,

No-one will ever see it when I glue the roof on as it faces the back viaduct wall.

Stu.

The models on this thread are all excellent,

Here's my latest effort, modernisation of a Bachmann fast food restaurant to new style McDonalds.

There's not much room between tables, the resin walls were thicker than I thought so didn't leave much room! I hope it looks OK through the windows,

the serving counter at the back is just a photo of a real Mcdinalds.

they are supposed to be fast food boxes and  bottles on the tables, should have been big cups really!

The main issue with resin buildings is stopping the lights shining through the walls!

I eventually lined it with tinfoil.

Got to make some outside seating and fences for the front area now,

Stu.

Thanks Horsetan,

Yes. I have looked at a few Kitmaster ones. Not bought one yet, but its on the cards!!

You should do the Lima one. I reckon it might be more of a challenge though.

It looks to me like the Lima body also has height issues. there’s about 1mm missing out of the whole engine cover area and 2mm out of the height of the cab compared to the Hornby ones.I must say though the Wrenn body lacks a bit of height.

Your comparison image reminded me I've been meaning to put a similar image on of some of the body shells I've collected. Just for a bit of info really, So here it is....

1 top left Bachmann                                                                   2 quickly shortened railroad
3 shortened cab wrenn on bachman chassis                             4 Lima
5 one of my detailed railroad ones on a Hornby SD chassis      5 Wrenn
7 Hornby SD                                                                               8 Hornby railroad on lima chassis

In that same gallery there is also a quick re-proportioning job i did on a railroad shell tonight. (no2 in the above image) It took me about 2.5 hours

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/3535-quick-reproportioning-of-a-railroad-08/

Hope someone finds it useful

Stu.

Well, a couple of lunchtimes on Photoshop and some crafty computer paper, I now have a range of Decals.

with the price of these sheets of paper I've tried cutting small bits off and using just the amount I need, Many printer jams ensued.

now I just fill half a sheet up so I've got loads of spares!

It took me a while to find a big enough image of the Bescot logo. I thought it was two KFC ckicken legs, not a saddle, at first!!!

Stu

Ok, I think we had modern ticket machines...

what about 4mm tickets?

I probably need some better people if I'm going to bother putting tickets in their hands!

and maybe sweep up that stray ballast! Below is a discarded ticket... Couldn't even focus on it!

I really like this thread, there are lots of things I want to add now.

Matress etc..........

Thanks,

Stu

There was one layout featured in 'Model Rail' several years ago that featured modern motorbikes. They were from the Micro-Machines toy range and they scale out to 00 scale. Also in the range was a snowmobile using the same rider figure as the bikes and a jet-ski. Also they produced an Isetta bubble car that is 00 scale. I don't think they are made any more but there is plenty of them available on E-Bay.

 

I have a resin kit for a complete bathroom including the loo roll and lavatory brush, plus a bidet and towel rail with towel. This is 1/72 scale intended for military modellers. Another model I picked up at a military modelling show was a hip bath complete with rubber duck.

Thanks for this.

After reading it I thought I was lacking some small details on my layout. I got on ebay and there was a set of the micro machines bikes. I bought them!

I'm quite pleased with them.

They vary in detail, the snow mobile is about the best! I think I can make something of the green trials bike though.

heres how they come...

Stu

So here's the progress on the wrenn body,

cab strengthening bars on the back.

roof hatch (piece of drinks can, I ve been saving off cuts of etches so I had some thin metal for plates/ hatches etc now I'm using drinks can!)

lifting eyes (.3 wire folded over and squashed)

rivets, till now i've been making a hollow with a pin and dripping a spot of superglue gel in (the ones on the engine cover) but I got hold of some Archer transfers recently (the black dots on the roof) they seem very fine to me, but actually more like the Hornby sd ones

Oh and I turned the door round!

here we are on the chassis.

body has now had glazing, handrails and some tissue paper stuck on the filter panels on the bodyside. Most of the 08s I've seen seem to have a lot less texture in this area than the RTR models show. I've decided this will be 08907 and that shows a very fine mesh.

the bottom few holes in the wrenn radiator side have had a cover over them and I cut in another at the top (I think there should be another but I cant fit it in!)

so this is the Bachmann chassis,

I filed down the coecting rods to make them more acceptable,

added a few pipes and cylinders from brass wire and plastic off-cuts

fitted my new front steps

and found some brass buffers that look a little like the ones on 08907 (they were in a job lot of bits I'd aquired, the pack said 40p on them!)

thats it for now, I've got to choose a red and make some decals next

RE above, do you think I need a new cutting mat!!

bit of progress on the Wrenn based experiment, but first though,

I re-thought the steps I'd made in an earlier post.

I had made up some front steps from a filed down set of railroad ones, I cast them and added hand rails. they were designed to fit on my modified railroad body / lima chassis and worked OK for that .(see somewhere above!)

I realised that they were way too short so cast up some more and spliced two together and re cast them. Because they are more likely to go on a newer Hornby chassis now I can cut the top part off and use the handrail mounting holes on the original chassis.

here we go

first off casting with air bubbles! they are not exactly super detail but are quite sturdy.

Well. I started driving in 1984, My friends had Marinas/Minis etc, I had Kadetts/Chevettes. Problem was I never grew out of it!!

Here is my daily car,

and one of my others,

and its rubbed off on my daughter, Here's her E30,

till recently my wife was driving this ,

And this is what I was really getting to,

Over the back corner of the layout, in Lidl car park.............

These are all HO, but over the back so long as they are not near oo cars I think you can get away with that.

I also have a 1977 Kadett Aero, and if I ever put it back together there is a 1:87 resin model of one to build and park behind Lidl!

Stu

Well, 2mm added, so project continues!

the proportions of the wrenn body are not as acurate as the old Hornby one though.

As they are so cheap I cut the center out of the grill area of another one and spliced it into the body I was on with.

The bit of lima hood was discarded and another 2mm longer portion was used on top.

I removed all the hinge straps, then added a casting of the left side boxes that I'd made for the previous ones.

It might just work this!!

Its a while since I did these.

with the price of a Super Detail chassis I always use tham now. They run so well!

But,

I have had a Bachman chassis lying about for a while, and when I aquired a coulpe of Wrenn bodies recently,

an idea formed!

I keep seeing pics of the DB ones painted in red, this seemed like a good idea!

there would be less moulded in detail to file off a wrenn body

here we are so far,

shortened cab, horndy doors (yes, I know in my excitement I've glued them in backwards!) and a panel off a lima 09 to fill in the hood moulding hole.

these bodies are made of a really good plastic. It files so well and glues with solvent nicely.

I was starting to think this was a better way to go

Then I realised the body is proportionaly more like a Lima one.

with the cab shortened its too short for the newer chassis.

So its on hold till I work out where to add the extra 2mm......................

Stu.

Here are some photos I took today,

Ithey describe this part of the layout quite well,

there are some more here,

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/3509-station-and-depot/

Stu

Thanks.

I was just reminded of this thread today, and realised there is quite a lot of development gone on compared to the last photo above.

here is the depot now

I'm finding each time I build something my skills are developing.

I'm so grateful to this forum. there has been a lot of research om here before each bit has been started.

wish I'd listened about using N gauge ballast before doimg this area though.

Well, its coming along.

As Chloe is getting older we can have more little details lineside, as they get knocked over less often! Most of the signs etc are still just resing in holes in the baseboard so they can be put back again and i've fitted many bits with tacky wax.

Above is the overall view of the left hand board. Lower center still not complete. all the armco will be yellow and the fuel depot needs some spills and dirt.

The concrete area has had some grey brown acrylics airbrushed and looks much more used.

I'm quite pleased with how this has worked. the 08 in the center shed is only 10mm long (the story of that is in one of my other threads) and the small shed on the right has no internal depth. this allows the tracks below to curve round and back along under the main line on the right.

talking of the line on the right, it seems to have turned into loco storage!

Stu

Because I have been working on some more detail parts of the layout I forgot it was supposed to be my daughters "train set”!

She was asking when she could use it again, or help paint something. Now, we are running out of bits she can paint that won’t be visible later on!

She actually wanted to paint some figures, so how to let a 7yr old paint 4mm figures that she could be proud of?

It turned out quite easy, I had been painting some figures with the shadow technique. Primer then black for shadow and white for highlights, then colour wash leaving the highlights shadows visible.

By using a basic version of this she was happy with her little people, I painted white on the flesh/shirts grey on some other clothes and black on the rest then handed them over and Chloe used thinned acrylics to paint the colours on

here she is painting a figure. 

 And here's the little family she created!

they turned out well, they can be left center stage! She has already proudly showed them to everyone who will listen!

Just an idea if you have a little time for setup and want to keep kids interested.

Does anyone know the make af thoes figures. are they Merit? they are a soft cream coloured plastic. I found them in the spares box,

Stu.

Well I finally got round to adding the trees,

I'll not repeat all about them, I was inspired by others I have seen on RMweb.

I made a post about mine here,

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/85050-trees-inspired-by-everyone-elses/

***retrospective edit Dec 2016, in the middle of the top photo there is a tyre hanging from the tree on a piece of dental floss... don't use the expanding type as a few months later it was about 8mm wide!***

Stu.

Not done much on these recently they are still "nearly finished"

I did have a go at making some better lamp brackets, bent up from phosphor bronze pickup strip.

when I looked at images on where to place these I realized the back of the cab on 08648 was wrong.

you cant look at too many photos of your prototype!

so now I've moved some decals, added the strengthening ribs, a better scale halogen light and the lamp brackets,

Bit happier with that,

Ill get round to weathering something one of these days...

A bit more progress,

the bank and wall to the right of the bridge has been installed. traffic lights arrived and I added a white band round the head to modernise them

On the painted black area I hope to add varying height trees to disguise the fact that the trains are running underneath! the big gap is the removable panel.

still much to do here, the flat grass area is for a small mobile phone mast

its far over the back so I can get away with HO scale cars. models of all my real cars are available in HO from Germany so I created a "my family shopping scene" right down to my eldest daughters slightly faded BMW E30..............

Over Xmas I was away at the mother-in laws. Appart from a couple of hours new years eve when Chloe and I managed to sneak into the DB TMD in Doncaster I had to get my fix by re-reading BRM back issues on my Android Tablet.

In the free sample edition there is an article on track and concrete by Andy Y. (thanks its really good)

So reading that and seeing the TMD gave me some inspiration and the last couple of days I've been concreting the area round our sheds.

You can see in the first Pic how the sheds are only about half usable as they actually disguise how the track comes back round underneath on the right hand side!

I followed the article except I couldnt easily get cork of the required thickness as I'd already layed the track on cork.

What I did find was an excersize mat that was just right and from the 99p store(the dark grey) It also seemed a similar material to the light grey fab-foam.

here it is after a coat of plastikote suede touch. I already had a can of this but thought I would get another. It seems really hard to get now, the shops that sell PlastiKote dont seem to stock suede anymore. Is this right or is it just me?

***edit for 2016 suede touch seems to be no longer available***

Its hard to clean the track afterwards for good slow running so I ended up masking the rails with narrow pressure sensative tape, that slowed things down!

It now needs a lot of weathering and pencil lines to help the cracks and expansion joints show up. but I got distracted by that gold Jaguar hanging over the end of the bridge and started on the aproach road.

Here is the road, a mix of scalescenes, my own photoshops and Wizard models Manhole covers (I can recomend the Wizard etchings, they are nicely priced too)

I'll have to find where I put the camera, this phone one is all blurry in low light!

Well theres still lots to do but its filled a hole!

the Hornby water tower is just an experiment at the moment as I noticed what I thought was an old steam era tower in Doncaster and thought one might be interestig and desguise the ground height behind the shed.

the street lights are just soldered brass tube with the end flattened and a yellow SMD on the end.

the archways on the near wall of the bridge were originally photos of the arches on Southend sea front. There is an extra low wall to go on the top yet.

there are also some traffic lights to go in just where the red Saab is exiting to the backscene, I was going to make somr but there was a set on ebay the other day that were cheaper than I could do it for and ready wired! just waiting for them to arrive.

I am hoping the doorway leaning up to the left of the Hornby shed will be the paint shop with the end 10mm sawn off an 08 inside to give a perceived depth to it

Hopefully I can keep on at this pace as its been slow till now!

Stu

Just worked out how to link to my own gallery, instead of photobox!

so

here are the other two,

the lamp brackets are a bit short and my halogen front rear lights seem a little small. might have to re-think them before weathering!

Stu.

I've got the paint and decals on now. They are seriously lacking weathering now though

I,ve added loads more images into a gallery,

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/3016-Hornby-railroad-class-08s/

I'll see how that works before I add more here.

Stu

To be fair the 'Railroad' version is base on tooling from 1976 (and the Thomas versions use the 1956 tooling!)

Yep, one of these says Triang/Hornby moulded underneath!

Stu