LBSC123

Well, I'm pleased to report that my deposit for this flat is safe for now and the resin pour has been successfully completed. For this I used CFS Fast Cure Water Clear Epoxy Resin, because of the quantities I needed this was the cheapest option for the pour. Before doing the pour I repainted the seabed to touch up any knocks that had occurred during the previous stages of construction. Underneath, I used some DAS clay to fill any suspect areas to ensure the resin didn't leak out. Next I used masking tape and PVA to form a dam around the board to ensure the resin wouldn't leak out. Finally, I used a digital level to get the board sitting flat. With that done I was ready for the resin. I weighed the resin and hardener out and added a few drops of Vallejo 'Dark Sea Blue' to add a slight sea colour to this. After mixing for 5 minutes I poured this onto the sea bed as evenly as I could, using a cocktail stick to get the resin into any difficult to pour corners. I used a small gas powered soldering torch on the surface of the resin to remove any bubbles from the pour, and then covered it with greaseproof paper to keep dust off whilst it dried. I've had a preliminary look at it after 12 hours, and thinks it looks rather good! I'll leave it another 12 (possibly more) before I dare touch it though. There are a few imperfections here and there but the whole lot will be covered with Mod Podge gloss to make small ripple waves, which should hide this without a problem. Like with all things, by doing it you learn how to do it better the next time, that said, I'm happy with how this has panned out.

I've finally received all of the necessary supplies for the construction of the water and have undertaken a satisfactory test of resin using acrylic paint as a tint. Expect a more comprehensive update shortly on either the satisfactory completion of the pour or how I lost the deposit for this flat!

Apologies for the lack of updates for the last week, I’ve been taking a bit of time out following the flurry of activity over lockdown. This weekend I have made some progression on the Layout with the view to completing the resin pour before Christmas. There are a few outstanding jobs around the shoreline which needed to be completed before this could happen, so I set to work on these. The first was fitting ladders to the quayside, essential for enabling anyone to get off a boat and onto the quay. After much deliberation, I opted to use ECKON etched brass ladders (possibly designed for signals?). I cut these to length and carefully removed some of the rungs at the top of the ladder enabling the end to be bent over for handrails at the top in line with what appeared to be common practice at quaysides. These were painted a rust colour and glued into shape. Before the resin I’ll do further weathering of these. Next I used Woodland Scenics Coarse Turf to make a representation of seaweed. The tide line was done using Medium Green, scattered onto a line of PVA. The darker seaweed below this was Earth coloured, and mixed with PVA and black paint before being stuck down. These look suitably different and I’m fairly happy with the effect, I may wash some other colours over these and the rocks when I tie in the whole ‘sea bed’ before I do the resin pour. Finally, I have made a tentative start on a Thames Barge kit. This will look good, I think, although the rigging is going to be quite an undertaking! I’ve also been working on some half completed rolling stock kits I’ve had lying around from 10 years ago when I first tentatively stated plans to model Shalfleet Quay. These are a both resin affairs from Smallbrook studios, my 15 year old self didn’t have quite the patience I do now and so there not perfect, but with a little filler, painting and weathering will come up OK, I think. It will certainly be a good opportunity to hone my skills ahead of more rolling stock construction following the brilliant work of @TeakDB on ‘Brading’, although I’m not sure I have quite the same levels of patience or skill, so may be willing to accept further compromises on rolling stock as long as it looks right.

Hi Schooner, I’m not 100% sure why but I much prefer the new plan. Keep up the good work! best, Will

Thanks for the kind words, there’s still plenty of detailing work to do, but I don’t think it’s panning out too badly. I must confess I built the baseboards back at my parents, although there’s no reason I could built them in a flat (the fiddle yard will probably be built here), but yes, that’s come with its own challenges too!

Well, I would deem ‘Project tone done the fencing wire’ as a success...

Good question @NHY 581. I've made things a little harder for myself on account of designing it so that two sides of the the layout are the viewing area and the other two have backscenes, this means I in effect have a free standing corner without support at the front of the layout. The current plan (about version 13?) is to use some appropriate aluminium L-angle for the lighting. At the right hand end of the layout this will be L shaped, one leg attaching down the back of the layout, held by bolts tightened into captive nuts in the soft wood at the back of the layout, the other leg will extend out to above the front right hand corner. I'll then run a piece of Aluminium L angle from the front left corner along the front to connect to this. Hopefully this will be light and strong enough to prevent it sagging. These will be bolted together and have two strips of LED strip on them. This was used to great effect on my first lockdown project as seen below.

Definitely keen for a Stroudley brake or any other LBSC stuff, it looks great. Keep up the good work!

Thanks both for the kind words! The glue finally dried, allowing me to take some photographs of the woodland at the far end of the layout. I think I need to find something to take the shine off the fence wire, I’ll try some acrylic paint and if that fails use the airbrush. Otherwise it’s shaping up nicely. (One of) the next jobs is to sort out the lighting, I promise.... I need to do the other bit of fencing at the rear of the layout too, alongside fitting some ladders and seaweed to the quay and shoreline to get this ready for the resin pour....

Spent a few hours over the weekend pushing the quay on. I wired up the Scale Model Scenery fence posts with 0.2mm wire which then cleared the way for fitting the trees. These are a mixture of Woodland Scenics armatures with seafoam attached to the branches and seafoam trees, all covered with various Woodland Scenics coarse and fine turf and Noch leaves. Please excuse the paint bottles, which are supporting the trees whilst the PVA gluing them down dries. I couldn't resist taking photos before this had dried.

I quite agree Ray. My Fishbourne also seems OK but is in need of a full running in which I hope to do over the coming weeks.

Looking good as always. I didn’t realise the Ex IWC midland Brake Van was painted in SR livery before being rebuilt, do you know when it was rebuilt?

The wagons look really good @woko! Keep up the good work.

Looks like a good project with lots of potential, I shall watch with interest. Foamboard is an interesting material to work with, you definitely need to clad it in some sort of Ply if you're planning on moving the layout through around, as it's not very knock resistant. Make sure you use PVA and a hot glue gun for the joints, I've gone back in a few places where I just used hot glue during construction to add a bit more strength to the joints. Also be mindful of if you're going to have an integral backscene or not, on Shalfleet Quay I've only got a backscene on two sides, which means they layout doesn't really act like a 'box' when lifting or moving it, so I had to go back and put a few more supports in some areas underneath to reduce deflection. The stuff is very easy to work with, so there's no need to scrimp on under-baseboard supports and bracing. I'd probably use 10mm stuff if I was to do it again, purely because it's so light, and you might as well use a material that's thicker and stronger to start with, but 5mm was totally fine for Shalfleet Quay. I would also consider putting down some sort of base for the track bed, possibly ply or something that wouldn't warp as this would add more strength and give something less shock absorbing for SEEP point motors to mount to, if you're using them. This would also mean that it would be easier to take up and put down track should your plans change halfway through. Having said this, I don't think it's essential to do this at all. Chris Nevard's photos on constructing Catcott Burtle are also very useful for baseboard construction.

This was news I didn't need to see, having seen on of the Yugoslavian derivatives working in the Zenica coal mine back in 2014 these have always been a favourite class of mine....

Thanks Colin!

Finally received my replacement Rail's Terrier. It looks rather splendid.

As promised, here are some photos of the O2 and the newly arrived replacement Rails Terrier. Both are looking good, I think.

I didn't know about the air pump being a different size. I think there are a few other differences such as the Cab roof vent too but I can't remember off the top of my head what the others our. Still its should look mostly right. Thanks @Graham_Muz for this. I was thinking about LED strip too, although I'm not yet settled on a way of mounting them above the board. Some more thinking is required in this area, I think. I can't remember which was the last loco to get a name but think it was around 1930 ish? I can't find the appropriate book to hand at present. I was mainly thinking of avoiding names because I thought it was more likely for a model to be made with name plates, but I haven't made a firm decision on this either way. Should EFE do another batch I am sure I'll end up with quite a few, finances permitting... I'll watch with interested to see how you get on with the conversion @TeakDB

Crikey that's a fine piece of kit! I was thinking of something slightly simpler, this being a wooden frame which would attach to the top of the layout and allow me to glue some LED strip to it. Something like that could still be very useful for the workbench/photography though...

Thanks @Graham_Muz, it’s certainly an ‘interesting’ model to take apart and put back together, but a good learning experience all the same. I do have half an idea to remove one of the air tanks and move the other, and then re-number it as a pre-1928ish O2 before they received names. Whether I manage, or whether it’s wise do this before a possible EFE announcement on another batch (should there be one) remains to be seen.

Plucked up the courage to pull the non motorised O2 apart and fit the replacement chassis, it was a very involved process see the pictures below. Thankfully got it all back together and it's still working. When testing this, I got another DC loco out for running and couldn't resist taking this photo. I really must sort a proper lighting rig out rather than relying on an LED spotlight...

Looking good! What weathering powders did you use to create such an effect?

Great work as always, I’m particularly enjoying watching you adapt standard wagon kits into good representations of IoW wagons. Keep up the good work!

A lovely layout. The quayside area looks really good, I will enjoy reading updates with interest.