Jimmy styles

Yes as I don’t like everything being deep white, I think it looks more realistic is you can see the grass under

I did consider all the reindeer but as it’s only 16inches rudolf will have to do, I did paint his nose red

Thank you I’m really pleased with it

so over the last few days i have been busy, i wanted to get christmas eve finished. i have added snow, santa and a sleigh with rudolf. i then built a train, i used a 3d printed body in the style of a GWR railcar and added passengers and lights and a DCC chip. all in all im really happy with how this turned out and looking forward to taking it to peterborough show. and finally a video https://youtu.be/w7CuhAWPHH4 and so what do you all think?

so for my next trick........ i had to get all the greenery done. i started off with ballast, i used n gauge fine ballast. once that was complete i then added static grass and i mixed two colours together as didnt want bright green. then i added bushes and other thicker scatter materials to build up the landscape. its almost a sin to cover the entire thing in snow. so i also had to build a tree but this tree had to be a christmas tree with lights in it.......... well what my little girl wants. so i built the tree using hanging basker liner, once the trunk and branches where completed and the whole thing sprayed brown i then added micro LED's for the lights and hid all the wires inside the trunk. i then added scatter material of conifer green to the tree. i used two colours of LED's to make that christmas feel. all in all im quite pleased so far

Yep but a fun mess

so the next mission was to add the landscaping, the way in which i have done this is with simple plaster bandage and das air dry clay. i screwed up newspaper and added this where i wanted the hills. next was to add the plaster bandage, as this is my daughters layout she was keen to get involved and she helped throughout this entire process. so next up was to add the base colour and ballast. i have used normal poster paints mixed into a dirty brown colour. for the ballast i have used fine N gauge ballast mixed with ballast magic to secure in place. now for the fun of adding grass etc.

next up was a coat of paint on the road, this is just the basic base colour. but already taking shape. the next challenge was to make the tunnel entrance for each side, i decided that as they are so close to the castle the best thing would be to make the entrance to match the main arch on the castle. i then had to build a rock wall on each side to make the cutting. obviously once this was done i had to do a bit of playing (testing) https://youtu.be/zzXctuKx5Kw

Thank you

so after i built "operation abyss" i swore blind that i would never again hand scribe stones into clay, however my daughter said that on her layout she wanted a little road going to the castle and wanted it to look like operation abyss. well what she wants she gets. it is her layout at the end of the day. so she helped, im teaching her young, she's better than me

The diameter is 14inches across so as tight as a tight thing. I hadn’t thought about the tunnel mouths but have decided after your question that as they are so close to the tunnel I will build them to mirror the large arch on the castle

so my daughter now decided that one of the rooms at the top of the castle will be a bedroom and the other room needed a table with some people eating and drinking. these rooms also needed to have LED lights along with a light in the castle arch. so as i didnt want to upset her............. so next up was to start adding some height and contours to the layout and also i needed to add a facia board to help with the contour of the land. i think its really starting to take shape.

so my daughter wanted a station building, but obviously in 009 and on a layout this small, this was going to be a challenge. until i stumbled across a lovely little cricket pavillon kit. i decided that if i cut the front railing's off this would look like a small station, i knew that it dosent have to be completely prototypical as the castle is santa's house apparently. she then decided that the walls needed to be painted gold and found a white metal piano kit in my box of spares so yes this is the only station now with gold walls a piano and a counter with bronze till. so i painted odd planks to look as if they had been replaced at some point and a small LED light inside. next up was to make the Santa Halt sign. this was done by printing the sign and then sticking it to a wood off cut from the kit. all in all i think it makes a super cute little station. finally i will attack it with the airbrush

I have promised her it will be ready for next Christmas but will try my best to finish it this year. Once I get my teeth into something I do crack on. I’m planning on using the delux materials scenic snow

so i was bored and found a old wooden bedside table and some left over 009 track, a crazy thought crossed my mind and a new project was born. unfortunately my daughter saw this and as she loves my wifes christmas layout "Chapel Rise" insisted i built her a christmas layout with a castle and call it "Christmas Eve" obviously i'm not going to say no to my little girl and any excuse to model. luckily i scratch built a castle years ago, so a little dust off and its good to go, although she has insisted that it has lights fitted, and insisted on a station building. the goal is to make it look as though it is sitting on top of a hill. i have lost my mind?? watch this space for the next mad update.

so not much has happened on this layout and when i say not much i mean nothing, however i decided i have had enough of never being able to find anything i needed for modelling so i decided the way forward was to build a modelling bench, that i could easily bring in from the garage and take out again when the wife wanted the dining room back. here is what i knocked up. with a dual gauge test track

so my next project was the control panel, using the push buttons from dcc concepts. i had a quick look in my garage for a good bit of plastic, wood, metal basically anything i could use. i found a piece of old aircraft grade aluminium which i was given a while back, its kinda over the top but will do.

so not much has really happened, however what i have been doing is finally getting round to installing all the point motors and wiring for the layout. i opted to use DCC consepts slow action motors. these where a dream to install and set up. when you realise that you have gone a little over the top with the wiring. next job is to build a control panel.

so after a long week at work i have laid the top level, just gotta wait for the glue to dry so that i can lay track. hopfully this will be done and wired by monday ready for the point motors.

Thank you so much hoping to get the top level laid this week

Hi after completing my WWII layout Operation Abyss which i will post some pictures of in a different thread. i needed a new challenge. however i wanted it to be different. i happened to have a pre made base board with is six feet by just under two feet but what could i build that would be different, interesting and clever. i settled quit quickly on a 009 WWI trench railway. however this has previously been done so how can i make this work in the space and be different, interesting and clever. do the idea is a WWI trench railway set in winter in snow. now for the clever bit it is basically going to be a figure of eight with a helix at each end. fiddle yards on the lower level scenic on the top. i am going to go mad on details so this may be a long tread. basically one helix will be covered by a bombed out french town with loading and unloading of trains then the other helix will be covered by the start of a forrest and the start of a trench network. i hope that makes sense!! so i made a good start but well......... i have had a break over christmas from modelling and recently decided to start with this project again, however i was unhappy with the way the helix's worked or didnt quite in my case, i had made them out of 3mm ply and because of movement the locos derailed or struggled, so in a act of madness i ripped it all up and started again. this time using 6mm ply and so far so good. lower level all laid, wired and tested. i purchased a resin kit from WD models of a austin armoured ar and instantly set about building it. a bit of paint and then weathered with the airbrush a bit of paint and then weathered with the airbrush a bit of paint then airbrush to weather i have also built a tank. all in all i am happy and back on it.

so i can confirm that a layout is never finished....... i found a Hornby WD tanker at a exhibition and i couldnt resist buying it, however it obviously needed weathering. so here it is freshly weathered and looking the part.

so there has been a delay in the publishing of my layout but will be in hopfully very soon people always say that a layout is never finished but i though that operation abyss was......... clearly not as i decided that she needed sandbags, but i decided to make them out of das clay, as with everything else on this layout it had to be scratch built. i then treated myself to an airbrush, which quickly got out of hand and i decided to weather everything on operation abyss. i have never airbrushed anything in my life so i hope you like what i have done.

Point rods look awesome, photos don't do this layout justice, I hope you can get hold of the light system

good news, on the 17th January, i am being interviewed for model rail mag and taking the layout to my mates model railway shop in market deeping Lincolnshire for the day, as the guys from model rail want to see it. then the layout will be in Aprils mag.