Jimmy styles

Very nice. I see you’ve applied the snow lightly enough to retain the detail underneath as well which is good.

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

Brilliant, all it needs is a Christmas soundtrack.......Jingle Bells anyone?

 

And where are all the reindeer?

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

Personally, I think it is wonderful, and the railcar is a work of genius.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

Looks very nice so far. Can I ask what the curve radius is and whether you will be castellating the tunnels to fit in with the building above them?

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.............

i think its really starting to take shape.

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.

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.

obviously i'm not going to say no to my little girl and any excuse to model.

watch this space for the next mad update.

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. 

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 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.