Jimmy styles

You will be there with me!!

It really does look good, and looks even better in the flesh. I'm looking forward to you fitting the diesel refuelling thing now that we have fitted LED's to it

Ok still awaiting news on when my article will be published, however operation abyss has now been booked for Spalding model railway show in Nov 2017 and warley nec show in Nov 2019 just gotta find some shows for it in 2018.

Thank you so much Thank you so much

This layout is the best you have built yet This layout is the best you have built yet

it was really exciting to see this on the model rail facebook page.

so as we all know a layout is never finished, and mine is no exception. i decided that no harbour layout is complete unless it has some pesky seagull's. so i had the honour of helping www.thelittlelayoutcompany.co.uk with their exhibition layout at peterborough model railway show. luckily Langley models where also at the same show. so i sneaked off and picked up some unpainted seagulls. i could of purchased these pre painted however i like to paint everything to give it my own touch. so after a afternoon of painting i was happy with how they looked. next up was to position all nine on the layout. so if you see me at a show, see if you can spot all nine.

I have received the professional photos and they are amazing, model rail said it will be in print early next year!! I am in the process of putting together a facts sheet with photos and size etc to email to exhibition managers.

The next big thing will be the model rail feature. Photos all done just awaiting to find out what month it will be in. However with exhibitions, I have nothing booked. I now need to get it out there that it's available for booking. Just Gotta work out the best way to get it out there.

so today i achieved one of my goals when i started this layout just over two years ago. i exhibited operation abyss at www.thelittlelayoutcompany.co.uk exhibition in peterborough. the started off good although i had to play a massive game of jenga to get it all in my car. once at the venue it was actually amazingly fast to set up. i am pleased to report that the layout throughout the end was completely faultless, the only issues was operator issues (wrong point direction and me being clumsey and knocking a wagon off the layout -nothing super glue cant fix.) i was pleased with the amount of positive comments i received. i hope this was the first of many exhibitions.

As soon as I know which month it is going to be in I will let you all know.

Will be good to say hi at the show then. Neil came over mine while Chris was taking the photos.

so i moved the layout into the lounge in order to prepare it for my photo shoot, and my children decided that they wanted to play trains, but they wanted to play with their train, i'm not sure Thomas goes with the theme but they had fun. however here it is, in all of its glory!! so now the amazing Chris Nevard has taken the photos for Model Rail i would say that its finished!!!! but is a layout ever really finished?? i cannot wait to see the photos and see my layout in print. the only thing left is to open her up to exhibitions. (when i work out how.) she will be at her first exhibition in September in Peterborough as part of the www.thelittlelayoutcompany.co.uk show at Werrington. when i started this layout i set myself two goals 1.to get it featured in a magazine and 2.exhibit the layout. both of these goals are going to be achieved and in the first layout i have ever finished! i'm happy with what i have achieved in the last two years. a labour of love.

so with the dead line looming i have made a last attempt to get another piece of rolling stock completed. i started off with a plastic kit containing three, yes three half track trucks made by a company called "the plastic solider company" this is the first kit i have built from this company and i must say wow!! i will buy some more. i decided that one of them would contain the soliders and the other two would be mounted to a flat wagon. so this is the line up, i dont normally like building the same kit more than once so i had a little production line going. however i didnt want the two on the flat wagon to have the backs opened up so i had to try to make a tarpulin to go over the top. i have never modeled this before. i first tried scrunching up a piece of cheap paper to see if that would work however it always looked like i had put a bit of paper on the top and didnt look real. i started to get a bit fed up. then i tried the way that i used, which i think worked. i basically got cheap toilet paper the stuff with no pattern on and hurts if you use it for what its intended. however if you screw it up place in the position you require, then soak in diluted acylic paint, it works it takes shape it stays in place and i think looks real. however time was starting to run out and the man below either looks concerned at the thought of going to war or is pulling the same concerned face that i was. i quickly pulled by finger out and completed the half track to go on the dock side. next up was to mount the other two onto the flat wagon, weather everything and change the couplings. then i couldnt resist placing it on the layout. now that the layout is basically complete roll on my professional photos i cant wait to see what he takes.

so the next little challenge. left over from my RAF recover kit that i bashed into my sub transport was a RAF Motorcycle. i decided that this was far to good to throw away and ignore so i set about painting it into a army motorcycle. i'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out. one i had finished this i set about some other bits that i needed to finish, first up was to build a gangway for the torpedo boat and add the ropes to tie the ship to the harbour. i built the gangway out of plastic card, cut down pins and cotton. and finally i thought that i needed some sort of material around the layout to hide the legs. i looked at different layouts at shows and love how people do this, however like everything else on this layout i wanted it to be a little different. then it hit me camo netting, this will hide my legs and will work well with my theme. sorry for the poor quality of this last photo.

Thank you it keeps me going. It has its first show booked in Peterborough cambs in September thanks to www.thelittlelayoutcompany.co.uk Then hopefully more shows.

Thank you for your kind comments, it keeps me going. One of my other hobbies is figure painting large scale resin busts etc, I basically use the same technique just on a smaller scale. The whole idea of this layout was something different, I know it will never be historically accurate but I wanted something that might have been and interesting. Thanks again more to come very soon

Yes mate it is a cheap Hornby railroad 08 changed slightly into a early LMS diesels shunter. In the mid 30's LMS pioneered diesel shunters, building them for the WD. Luckily these where the early form of the 08 only massively under powered but looking very similar. Thank you for your kind comments, I built this layout as its a little different. Model rail are taking the photos on the 1st of July.

Thank you it took a lot to change the kit but I think it works

so with my completion date coming up fast i have been determined to complete a few things. first up on the agenda was the lorry and sub. so basically for this i took the Airfix RAF recovery kit and decided that it needed some modification. the standard kit is designed with a max working load of three ton. now as the real x-craft sub has a dry weight of just shy of 30ton the trailer and cab needed some modification. the first thing i did was increase the length of the trailer and change it from a single wheel single axle to a twin wheel twin axle. this would increase the max weight if it was real. the next thing was the cab of the lorry is also not man enough to pull that kind of weight. however in the kit is a much bigger cab unit deigned to have a crane on the rear. so i set about changing this to be attached to the trailer. next up was to build some wooden supports to rest the sub on for transport. i looked on the web and found that when these where transported they basically built wooden supports. i built these out of balsa wood. however next came the biggest problem. my sub was finished and there is not a lot of information on the x-craft. however my grandfather served on the x-craft. he then told me that i had painted it the wrong colour. the on he served on X-21 was black. argh i screamed, i thought i could leave it but this would be no good so a repaint had to be done. now its finished i think it was so worth all the work.

I know what you mean I have had to heavily modify the sordid kit changing it to a twin axle trailer and extending the length. I also changed the tractor for a Beefer one. The real sub only weighed 30 ton however I suspect my low loader is still to week but it's the only thing that will fit the layout so needs must. Glad you are enjoying my updates there will be some more before its finished.

So i have a photoshoot booked in on the 1st July which is a little scary as i still seem to have a lot to achieve in what seems to be a short length of time. everything that i need to do is all little things but things that will really make the layout. So first up was to put the layouts name on the overhead lighting rig, but i wanted it to look War'ish. luckily i have access to a vinyl cutter. so after a little playing on the computer, the look i wanted was achieved. so next up was some testing (playing trains.) it was a good job i did this as i discovered some electrical gremlins. at first i thought that it may be a poor connection to the track feeds, i'm pleased that it wasn't as all the track feeds are buried under the cobbles. i found that the the poor connection was coming from the connector blocks i had used to connect all the track feeds. i quickly got angry and pulled out all the connection blocks. i intended to solder all the joints. if i had thought about it i ould have done a couple at a time instead of basically taking all wiring back to the start. next up was a control panel that would distribute the power to the building lights and the over head lighting rig. this was made from a old piece of aluminum cut to size with input and output feeds and push to make switches one for building lights and one for the overhead lighting rig so that i can control these separately. next up was a quick test of the building lights...... now for my least update, i decided that i wanted to place my x-craft sub on a low loader being delivered or taken away from the harbour, this vehicle would be the only royal navy blue vehicle on the layout. i decided to use the airfix RAF recovery set as my base. however the trailer in the kit is not long enough and only one axle. so first up i lengthened the trailer and built a rear wheel well to take two twin axles. the tractor until designed to go with this trailer is also on the weedy side however the kit comes with a big mother of tractor units but is designed to take a crane on the back. i am of course now modifying this to match. this is where i am at so far. so what are your comments

so operation abyss is actually nearing completion after almost two years of my life. i would like to share some pictures with you guys of how it looks. there is still some bits to do, and i'm sure i will continue to add to the rolling stock but at this moment as far as i'm concerned it is almost finished. please remember this is not a real location and not historically accurate, i designed it to be a what could of been and to inspire some imagination. i know there are a lot of pictures but has the last two years been worth it?? i will continue to update as i will no doubt add bits and change bits.

so i have been doing some more on the layout today, firstly i have painted the lighting rig, i decided to paint it so that it fitted in with theme of the layout. then i spent a long time positioning all the soldiers and crates, this actually took longer than i thought.

thank you for the nice comments, it is what keeps me moving forward to my goal