Revolution Mike B

Cheers Rob. You wouldn't say that if you saw all the boards together.....it looks a right mess where nothing is finished!

Just added a bit of gravel to the middle of the bay platform to see what it would look like finished. It's copied from Castle Cary but considerably narrower which spoils the effect a bit but it'll do. I just need to remember how I created the paint for the slabs now so I can finish off the other 7 feet (well it's actually all three platforms so nearer 16 feet!) of them now. On a less positive note, I managed to knock the signal and break it loose from the board. Does anyone have any suggestions for a better way to fix the CR Signals bases down other than glue?

Good Luck to you and your Wife, Rick. I've really enjoyed following the progress of this thread and it'll be a shame to dismantle it but hey ho, onwards and upwards. Mike

I love my Lima 59s Sam......and they don't need sound chips

Hi Phil What did you use for the grass? It looks bloody amazing! Mike

Now this is exactly what I meant earlier by looking at things and being totally gobsmacked! How on earth do you go about building something like this Grahame??

Wow! Thank you all very much for you kind words and support, and really unexpected too. I think I suffer a bit from OCD and I have a very bad (or good, depending on your perspective) trait of needing things to look right and I'm trying to make things look as real as possible which I'm finding is pretty hard with my limited modelling experience. Whilst it may not be of much interest to the more senior members who like a bit of steam, please feel free to have a look at my layout thread (in my signature) and pass on any constructive criticisms you may have because I'm always open to learning things in order to improve my modelling skills. Apart from building a very large N Gauge club layout (which has yet to have any scenery), I've never done anything like this before in my life so to have people say that my bridge is good - well I'm a bit speechless...........and as for Allan Downes saying it looks ok......mate, have you missed your appointment at Specsavers?! Cheers Mike

Thanks Orford There were a few things that needed finishing in that photo such as scribing the stones that separate the brick arch from the stone wall, and the coping stones really need the edges removing to hide where I've glued two strips of plasticard together. I tried to copy a bridge that I found on the internet from Somerset and has light red bricks for the underside of the arch. My layout is set in the West Country for 2013 to present and there's still a lot of soot / discoloration present on quite a lot of the old stone / brick bridges so I figured I'd make the middle darker and then throw (literally) some weeds and ivy at it. Cheers Mike

Thanks SAD, I really appreciate your words of encouragement, especially as a newbie to modelling. I think the worst thing I find is that I lack patience and get quite frustrated when I can't get my head around stuff. There's a lot of really good modelling on here and I quite often think 'how the bloody hell did they do that?'. I've never really been one for reading books because I have the attention span of a Goldfish, therefore everything I do is self taught, or I ask people how they do things (some aren't quite as helpful as others - which I find quite odd) and try and replicate their skills. I saw a thread in which Allan (Downes) explained how he achieved the colour of his stonework and I'd have never thought of the techniques he used in a million years. As previously mentioned, yes, this bridge is skewed and slightly lower on one side. For anyone that's interested, this picture will show just how much skew is on the bridge........and for the record....I have absolutely no idea how I managed to build it! Cheers Mike

Thanks, I wasn't expecting a reply like that!, Yes it is a skew bridge and it's also lower on one side than the other. I've never built anything like this before but didn't have a lot of choice as there wasn't anything suitable for my layout. Unfortunately, the stones are wrong for the area I've modelled but unless I'd used the Wills stone sheets (which are a bit to thick for my modelling skills at present), I was unable to find anything else that would do the job. Mike

School Boy error really due to lack of concentration. I've not finished the track weathering yet and had planned some nice oil / diesel deposits. The fence was recommended to me by Mick (Newbryford) and is made by Wills, airbrushed and weathered.

Now THAT.......could be real!!!!

.....here's the bridge.... The brick arch has since been painted but I don't have a picture of it finished. Mike

....and here's one more.

Somebody has suggested that I post a picture in here so here goes.....

I was going to post a couple of pictures up of a bridge that I built but after looking through this thread, I'm not going to bother. How you guys can build such great models is unbelievable and to make them look so realistic is just beyond my comprehension! Remarkable!

Watch this space Simon......I have a nice picture taken at Didcot of something 'dumped' out the bottom of a MK3 which I'm going to model

I'm so glad you took this off of Pete's hands and continued with his good work. There's a good collection of 'proper' modern image layouts starting to appear now (no disrespect to anyone with a roundy roundy and set track due to space constraints) and I love getting ideas from people. If I have one criticism (and even though it's a small one - it's a big job!), which I've also suggested to someone else for their layout........it's, please paint the rails a different colour, it'll really make it stand out with the effort you're going to. I've spent a long time trying to make my track look as real as is physically possible with Peco stuff (I wish I'd used Tillig and C&L) to the extent whereby it's actually fooled people in to thinking they're looking at the real thing. I've only been modelling for about a year or so, so I'm probably not the most qualified to be giving out advice or criticism so I hope I've not offended you. I love the amount of detail your adding and reading through your thread (and you previous one) is so much fun. It's such a shame I'm helping operate Tidworth at Uckfield on the 15/16th because I'd really like to see your layout. Keep the updates coming - it's how we all learn. Cheers Mike

.....or even the correct colour blue......and retool the TGS so it's actually the same as all the other coaches and not a repainted Lima effort! But then again, all the manufacturers are looking to do is make money....and the chances of people buy stuff that's completely wrong by far outweighs them not buying it....Dapol's 08 is a prime example! Lets hope OR get the MK3s right because there's a good market for these coaches.

Here's a little post that's going off on a tangent and if it's outside of the moderation rules, I'll happily delete it.......I am also in no way affiliated with any of them..... In addition to the help / advice etc from many people on this forum (and others), I'm eternally grateful to a number of retailers that have bent over backwards to help me out in one way or another and I think it's only fair that I give them a small mention here as a way of saying thanks for the support. Firstly, there's a small model shop about a mile and a half from my house called 'The Model Shop', you can find also find them under the names 'New Road Model Shop' and 'The Model Shop Portsmouth'. Now these guys deserve a medal because I always turn up about three minutes before they're due to close, even on a Sunday, and they'll still make time for me. They offer our club a small discount for purchases and will always have the most obscure items in stock! Next up is a shop that recently had a full two page spread in a well known model railway publication - AC Models in Eastleigh, Hampshire. Don't be fooled that the owner Annette doesn't know what she's talking about and they're so friendly, I could quite easily spend thousands of pounds in there without even blinking an eye. And lastly, all of my DCC stuff comes from Kevin at Coastal DCC, because I can ask him the most ridiculous questions and he'll always try and help, even if I'm not spending any money with him - I've mentioned this elsewhere on this forum and as a relatively young bloke compared to most people in to our hobby, I've noticed that customer service seems to have become a thing of the past so it's nice to know that someone actually cares about the customer's perception of their business. OK, I would've still been able to build my layout without these people but it wouldn't have been anywhere as easy and half as much fun!

15 / 16 of October Chris

Well I think I'm going to give up building this layout and release a book titled 'How to model everything twice'!!! I thought I was doing so well this weekend, I'd managed to ballast the second station board, get some more of the platform top down and also make a start on where the platform lights should go. Pretty straightforward stuff? WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Somehow, I'd managed to pick up the wrong sheet of plasticard for the platform top and only noticed this the next day once I'd stuck it firmly down with superglue. Needless to say, it didn't come back up very easily and took half of the little lugs form the Peco platform edging with it! 2 Hours later and I managed to sort out 'another' of my silly errors and get back on (no pun intended) track. So far so good, and with the platform fixed, I was a happy camper......until I noticed this....... .......the ballast on the left was much darker than on the right........which means I hadn't mixed the right quantity of Calci Sand with the WS stuff. In the real world this would be normal and it wouldn't be such an issue if it wasn't on a board joint. I'm trying to divert people's attention away from the join and not to it! I love ballasting so I'll enjoy taking it up and doing it again.......NOT! Oh well, onwards and upwards.......and in the mean time, here's a couple of pictures to keep you going until the next installment.....

Just found this thread and all I can say Phil is......WOW!!!!!! I had to look a few times to check that it wasn't actually real, and if the curves weren't so sharp, I'd have put money on it that it was! Great modelling. If I get my scenery to look anywhere near as good as yours I'l be over the moon. Mike

I'm not so sure about that mate, I think you're doing a great job.

Hmmmmm, people keep telling me I'm underestimating my modelling skills so I'll pass that one on to you. I'll use your tunnel as a reference if you don't mind? It'll be really helpful. Mike