Gook the Goblin

New arrivals onto shed.

Posed outside the shed is recently completed Re-w in hardly ex works condition! One of @JimFin excelent prints.

I was looking at this other day. As I understand it the official colour is RAL7001 for the side frames. A comparison search on the below website gave a close match for Humbrol 64 which I had in stock and used on my type Sl and will for my type Rw. Other matches are given for different manufacturers. I always apply over a spray primer in this case grey. A photo is the best guide as some Rw's seem to use the same colour for the stanchions. https://www.modelshade.com/paint-conversion-chart/ral/ Nigel

Spiral looks superbly Engineered Jim. What is the radius and what is the height gained for every 360 degree turn?

As suggested to me by @JimFin wires are now up on the plank although you cant see them! The catenary masts, beam and tensioner were all 3D prints by Jim. Fitting the tensioner between the flanges of the post meant a bit of fettling one morning which was quite awkward. Masts were sprayed with grey primer, then the concrete bases were masked and the steel bits sprayed with a steel wheels spray from a motorist centre. The metal was fairly shiny so had to be tone down with a white wash and a bit of weathering. The concrete post bases and tensioner weights were painted to look like concrete - at least you can still see the tensioner weights below. I spent a lot of time trying to make sure the masts were vertically plumb and and the beam was level and I was pleased with the results until I recognised that the live wire level looked too high at around 45mm above the rail head compared with the underside of the canopy on the shed which is at 40mm. I bit the bullet while the tools were still all out. Now all lowered to a live wire height of around 37.5mm above rail head. Sadly the concrete blocks and baseplates will be hidden below snow along with the imaginary earthing wires! I shall need to get all plumb again then glue up, fill drilled holes and make good the snow. I think it looks a lot better, glad I thought about it before it was all glued up. Nigel Nigel

I visited on Tuesday while in York for a few days. Have to agree, it is very conveniently located close to the centre and other attractions, was well stocked and I came away with everything off my list. Shame not to have a shop like this more local to me!

Its a good point you make about aligning two tunnels. It would be hard even with rear access provided.

Thanks Martyn. Both ends of the tunnel was my fall back idea but would mean most of the module would be under a tunnel! Food for thought.

I have been giving this some thought and I keep coming back to; if there was a forth end profile could this be a tunnel? My first two imaginary modules involved a bridge between two tunnels.

Mounds of blown snow on the bank have been added by layering the scattered snow as below. Thanks for the idea @DGO.

Thanks Paul, very helpful.

Good to see this progressing and I am following with interest. I am wondering how typically the end profiles connect to the ends whilst still allowing access at each ends for the bolting together. I am suspecting some sort of ply box rather than a ply/MDf board on 2x1"? I am new to the modular concept so apologies if this is a stupid question! If this was the route then I was thinking a pair of end profiles at each end spaced a nominal 6" / 150mm for hand access to create a clear void to do up bolts and for electrical connections. This could work with the profiles all joined up with a ply facia front and back with a flat deck provided between the two middle profiles for scenic work. The other question which follows is how legs could be attached which would in my case be ideally removable? Possibly they could slot into the void created also? I was thinking a module was not for me, however an idea has popped into my head and I cant shake it off now!

I was not happy with the amount of shovelled snow in front of the shed apron and so added some more including some snow plough grooves. Again this is some strange stuff to use, a bit like mastic sealant but without as much stickiness. Once this had hardened I was a bit happier with the piled up snow - below. However, the shovelled snow set brilliant white and showed a marked difference to the scattered snow I had set with the spray glue which had more of a creamy colour. The area I had masked from the spray glue though looked okay. I could not live with this and so set about re-covering the plank with scattered snow. To start off with I used some slightly diluted white emulsion mixed with PVA glue. Learning from past mistakes I generously painted the mix onto small areas, scattered the snow quite thickly and pressed down with a finger while the paint was still wet before moving on. Later on I omitted the PVA from the mix without any loss of bond. This has improved things to my satisfaction. A representation of blown snow on the bank has started to be created with some piling of scattered snow (a third of the way up the bank from the retaining wall towards the rocks). I plan to be building this up a bit more to create some slightly more distinct mounds.

Thank you DGO for the video. That is really helpful and thought provoking. My options are at one extreme to go for heavier snow generally that has been cleared which will mean raising the height of snow everywhere, with a furrow for the track and blown snow on the Bank - as per the video. Or to go for a lighter snowfall earlier in the season here the snow is less deep but with some snow clearance.

@JimFin kindly gave me some Deluxe Materials shovelled snow to try on the plank a while back. After an experiment on a piece of card I took the plunge to add some to the plank. The idea is that it will show the concrete apron in front of the shed being cleared of snow by shovel or salt with it being piled up out of the way. Some would remain in the corner recesses and help in hiding any little gaps from the front of the shed - mentioned in previous posts. The shoveled snow was mixed with PVA roughly 50:50 and cut into small portions and moulded to shape. I placed some PVA down first with a brush as a previous experimental piece became unglued. I used the end of a brush to poke the snow into the recess. The whole process was a bit messy, it was carried out quite quickly as I could feel the stuff was starting to go off. It was left to cure for a day and has hardened off quite well. The result is shown in the photo and I am fairly happy with the result so far. I have decided following a bit of research (finding the useful video below) that I will need to add some more of this snow to emphasize the edge of the ploughed track. It was mentioned that some blown snow may be deposited on the bank and I am tempted to do this but need to visualize how this might look, a sort of splattered pattern I guess. https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/rhb-locomotives-shunting-in-poschiavo-station-stock-video-footage/481000992 Thanks for looking. Nigel

Some extra blown snow on the Bank sounds like a good idea. Thanks.

Some of the brush marks on the previous photo were removed by sanding. Deluxe materials scenic snowflakes have been applied over a mix of white emulsion and PVA. The paint/glue set quite fast and while I did work quite quickly the areas I started with did not take the scatter well. After a good 24 hours drying time I used the same mixture of paint/glue to cover the bare patches. After another 24 hours I was still not quite happy. I masked the track, shed apron and front of the shed and used a spray applied adhesive concentrating on the areas looking a little thin. The results are as below and I am fairly pleased with the end results. Two things to note are the imprinted footsteps which were so quite small are now largely hidden and the retaining wall stonework is not very visible anymore, but both things I can live with. Drifted snow will be next to be applied into the nooks and crannies of the apron. @JimFin sent me some scenic shoveled snow to use for that. Thanks for looking. Nigel

My snow reference picture was based on the below link of a similar shed! http://rhbstations.co.za/stations/pontresina/loco-sheds/ photo 10 of 78 With the help by @PaulRhB and also from his excellent Bonsai RhB thread Paul recommended that the consistency wanted to be like soft icing, malleable but not quite runny. I applied it with a small pallet knife which I occasionally wetted to smooth down the surface and stop the plaster sticking, I also used a wetted half inch brush (advised by Paul). Once I had the yard covered to rail top level I used the 3D printed snowplow tool which was well wetted to form the flange grooves and this worked very well. It also needed to be well wetted to avoid the plaster from sticking but overall I was pleased with the effect. Especially with the impression that a snowplow had passed as the width of the 3D tool matched that of the locomotive. With the brush I added some heaped snow in places to avoid a completely flat appearance and show some drifted snow. I had so much plaster left over I added another layer to the whole of the bank to level off some small depressions. The footprint tool was used to represent someone walking to the cab of a parked locomotive and a paper template was prepared in preparation with the location of a cab door for the longest locomotive in stock. The plaster was a bit too wet and so initially this did not work well, but after the plaster started to harden off the footprints did create an impression, though perhaps not as crisp as I had hoped but acceptable nonetheless. Nigel

Looking great Mr Tea. Good to see some recycling!

Footprints in the snow! I had a plan to form some footprints in the snow on the plank. These could be formed with some legs from a suitable figure. I did also have an idea about forming a jig with plasticard, but recent posts on the RhB forum suggested maybe I could create this as a tool with a 3D model. I did have a go at 3D modelling a few years ago using Sketchup which was web based. I did find it difficult to model accurately the object I was working on in 4mm scale - a slate barrow. It did print out okay in the end but took a long time to model in CAD. Following some excellent 3D modelling posts by @JimFinon the RhB forum I took a look at Tinkercad and it looked fairly user friendly so gave that a try. It did not take long to measure my construction site boots and a typical stride length/spacing. Creating a tool in Tinkercad waas surprisingly quick. Attention then turned to creating a tool for creating the grooves in the snow from wheel flanges - a sort of snow plow design emerged even quicker. Footprint tool below left and snow plow below right as modeled in TinkerCAD. A contact kindly offered to print these for me with his resin printer and the prints came out fine. Finished prints below. Nigel

Looking really good Keith. A lovely scene full of swiss character in my opinion.

Great photos Mr Tea, keep them coming. I really like the evening light shot. As for a wintery scene, well you can guess what I would vote for! No messing with grass or vegetation when it is all covered in a blanket of plaster! I am hoping to have a play with the Deluxe Materials Scenic Snow kit soon, if it ever arrives so I will let you know how that goes. Nigel

Since the last photo I have applied the base course of snow throughout. The yard will require another layer to bring up to rail top level. The ballast which can be seen will be covered - it has only been used as a easily workable filler between the sleepers. This layer of snow has been done with DAS modelling clay, I am planning on using polyfiller to bring the yard level up as I need to create some effects and the clay I think will be too sticky.

Fantastic video Keith. Love the long train.