Neilgue

Yup. You get get used to it to a certain degree, but never the extremes. Anyone who says they like the hot weather here is either somewhere else, or not in the middle of hot weather. Cheers, Neil

I am a passive viewer and armchair modeller. I have a partially built Inglenook thatI really should get back to. I have built a few wagon kits and card buildings over the years, but nothing has crystallised into a working, scenic layout. Other things always ways seem to get in the way.

I've had one of these sitting around for a number of years. Who knows, you may inspire me to do something with it...

That was quick. It used to take ages for you to build walls last time...

Wow, what a difference a lick of paint makes. The land of chocolate!

It looks great Jeff, it matches the goods shed vey well. I wouldn’t worry about comparing it to pics of the real thing. As has been discussed before, each of the prototype pics are different anyway...

Always happy Jeff. Looking forward to seeing the ground rise up to envelop the piers. Cheers, Neil.

I think you have taken his advice far too literally Jeff.

It looks fantastic now, but it will look amazing when it starts to get some colour on it!

Keep it up Jeff. There are a lot of very interested people out here!

You could try dabbing the face of the stones with a toothbrush. I have seen it done in another context ( , but I think it would work well in the larger scales. Sorry, but I could not paste an unobtrusive link without bringing in the graphics. The toothbrush is at 1’15”.

It’s looking great Jeff. I’m really looking forward to seeing it with some paint on it. And the piers buried in the ground. With grass and water and the rest. And trains running across it... But don’t rush. Watching you get there is what it’s all about.

It’s the 16th of January and we nearly had the heater on today. Instead I’m sitting here with a nice thick jumper on. it’s been a great summer so far!

Here are some pics of Inverteil viaduct on the outskirts of Kirkcaldy. In the scheme of things just another viaduct ordinaire, but it is one that I have traversed many times without even realising it. You are distracted because you are just got on or are about to get off and you can't see it from the train anyway. Not only that, it's hidden away and not really visible unless you are right next to it. I wonder how many people have crossed Gill Head without realising it?

Sorry Jeff, but I couldn't resist. I hope you don't mind, but I had a play with Photoshop to adjust the perspective of your photo. Of course you can distort any photo to fit any other photo, but very little was needed to match the perspective. The only thing that was slightly dodgy was to remove the curve along the top of the viaduct, but I think that's valid as the curve of the viaduct is the only bit of the model that's not to scale. Also, your picture was taken a little bit to the left of the original. I didn't correct for that, but as you can see, the model still fits over the original quite nicely.

Jeff, I think you just need to move back a bit if you can to get the right perspective. The piers on the second pic are angled in more than the first. Did you use a wide angle lens? That would account for the different perspective and the robust appearance of the model.

I have had modelling projects on the go for many years, but they never amount to much. Some background. My family came to Australia from Scotland in 1969 when I was about to turn twelve. For the three years before we came here I woke to a view of the Forth Bridges from my bedroom window so I have always been interested in railways, from both a historical and engineering perspective. Railway modelling in Australia in the 1970s was a very expensive hobby. Hornby and Mainline models were available at twice the UK price, but American outline models dominated the scene. Australian outline was only for scratch builders. A sense of nostalgia demanded that I model something from Scotland, but I have never been able to work out what I wanted to model. Time and money have always been a problem, but really I have never had a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve. My family originated in Kirkcaldy (once the linoleum capital of the world) and there was plenty of railway activity there to provide inspiration. Not only that, You go over a nice viaduct just as you enter the town. I only saw it for the first time a couple of years ago. You cannot see it when you are going across it. I’ll look out some pics. There is a great Kirkcaldy thread here on RM which is worth a look. Anyway, to return to the question you asked. Wide ranging interests coupled with a wandering mind and self imposed impossibly high standards has meant that I have little to show for the last 50 years of pottering around. The last thing I started was an industrial inglenook. I like making card buildings and here are some that I started but never finished. The one on the left is from Scalescenes, the other is of my own design.

I don’t think that the fact that I am a lazy sod is really relevant to the conversation Jeff... (It was a warm night, but not as unpleasant as it will be all too soon. Sleep is never easy when it gets too hot.)

Give us a break Jeff, don’t forget that some of us are on the other side of the world 11 hours out of phase. I’ve only just got up... Surface textures are one of those aspects that don’t scale very well. A printed brick wall is closer to actual scale than a plasticard brick sheet. But when we look at a model in real life, our eyes will think the plasticard looks closer to reality. However looking at a photograph of a model is not the same. We notice the details more. How often have you heard about the cruel camera lens. It’s an interesting phenomenon. An yes, you have captured the spirit of the stonework beautifully, even before it has been painted.

Yes, I must admit that I though so too, not in the size of the blocks but in the texture of the face of the walls. I appreciate that the walls are not finished or painted, but some of the stones do seem to stick out a bit. Given that the camera tends to cruelly exaggerate things, how do the pictures compare to the naked eye Jeff?

Hi Jeff, re the stone colour: As I near the end of an advanced diploma in photography I have picked up some snippets about colour theory. The main one being that you will never be able to reproduce colour exactly without a taking a whole lot of trouble along the way. The colour of the scene depends on the lighting conditions- sun, clouds, shade, the colour of surrounding objects (think of the seasonal change of the colour of vegetation) and more. There are manual camera settings for that, but how good is the calibration of your camera sensor? Then you have to consider the colour reproduction on your computer monitor. You will be amazed at the change you get when you calibrate a brand new monitor. Especially when you thought it looked ok in the first place. And then you have the same thing if you produce prints. The printer at the local shops may have been calibrated at some stage, but you can be sure that it isn’t now. And won’t be until it becomes so much out of whack that people start to complain. And then you need a calibrated eye to mix the paints to match the photos. And of course you need to think about the lamps you are going to use to illuminate the finished model... In short, it’s a fascinating Pandora’s can of worms to dive into, and with your background I think you would find it very interesting. For what it is worth, if I wanted to capture reasonably accurate colour in camera, I would shoot RAW files, include a grey card in the shot and use it do a manual colour balance in the editing software. Or you could just shoot JPEG, manually select the most appropriate light balance setting on the camera and further refine with a grey card in editing. But enough of the geekery. You are already following the correct path - you do whatever feels right for you. Cheers, Neil Oh, and Merry Christmas and a Good New Year to you and all who follow you. (We get there a few hours before you do...)

Looking good Jeff. As you say, the stonework does look a bit “sharp” without the mortar. But I am looking forward to see it when you have done some pointing and add some colour as with the arches you showed earlier. Cheers, Neil

It’s not tedious Jeff. I will look in here every day as a matter of course, so you might as well throw in a pic or two to show the progress however repetitive. At 300 stones a day, how long do you think it will take? Cheers, Neil

It makes a lot of sense to clad the arches at your bench. Working under the arches in-situ would be very awkward - probably on your hands and knees.

So next up will be quarrying the stone?