Jimmy styles

I agree with the rust staining, I went more for effect, a little bit of modellers licence, The plan is to have the boat in the harbour but preparing to move off which is why the captin is looking out to sea. I learn by my mistakes.

next up for my layout was something for the harbour, i wanted a ship and instantly started looking at battleships, these where clearly far to large. so i decided on a vosper motor torpedo boat. the Airfix kit was a great little kit to build, i would highly recommend this kit. i haven't really built any airfix kits since i was a child so this was a nice build. this will be perfect i thought but, if i want my layout to be of exhibition standard then i need to go over the top on detail. well today i finished the motor torpedo boat....... and finally this is captain John Styles looking out to sea, named after my grandfather who was a officer in the navy during WWII so please leave a comment and let me know what you think

Thomas runs lovely ha ha. It's even been converted to DCC. Not bad for a first attempt

What an amazing building with a great level of detail

Great looking building

Cracking work I'd be well happy with that

so there is no stopping me now!!!! first track down, first PCB soldered to the rails. just waiting for the glue to dry then i will be able to test. the soldering is not pretty but it seems to work, (im still learning, this soldering lark is still new to me.) so sector plate update....... well its been a long few days with some issues. i started off with cutting the PCB board to size, this went very easy, so far so good i was thinking. next was to tin the rails and solder the rail to the PCB. again this went with ease. i then remembered what i had been told on the forum was to clean the joint with nail varnish remover, the hardest bit of this was sneeking SWMBO'd nail varnish remover into the garage, where it still is after 4 days oops. i measured and lined up the rails on the sector plate and trimmed them to size. it was now getting quite late and being tired and impatient i decided to lay the tracks, pinned and glued in place. i wanted to do this quickly so the glue had all night to dry. well this was my first mistake. so at eleven PM i was out in the garage, i lined the tracks up pinned them and glued in place and went to bed happy with what i had achieved. oh how wrong could i be. the next day SWMBO'd was out so i carried my layout into the dinning room pleased with what i had achieved it looked good and i was happy. i sat with a cup of tea looking at my master piece thinking to myself "well that was easy." i then came to move the sector plate and guess what........... all the rails hit as i had not allowed a big enough gap for expansion. so out came the metal file and about 1mm was trimmed off the end of each rail woo hoo this worked. my next task was to work out a way of alignment. i went to see a friend who owns a model shop in the next town. we had a look through his stock and found some suitable brass tube and then tucked away we found a sprung canopy release for model airplanes which looked perfect. i soldered the canopy release to the in road and the brass tube to each of the sector plates and hay presto alignment is perfect each and every time. my soldering is not pretty but it works. and when finished wont be visible to the viewer just the operator. i then wanted to make a quick video to show you, however please ignore Thomas on a WWII themed layout and the speed i am running the locos it was just to show you the sector plate in operation.

hi this is the start of my layout build thread, i hope to update as i go but it will be a slow build due to two young children. sorry if you have already seen this as it is alson on another forum. i have started a new project, my large loft layout has taken a back seat. i have a old bit of wood left over from a previous base board which i decided i would build something a little different on. the board is 96 inches long by 14.5 inches wide. my vision is to produce a layout and fiddle yard in this area. but i wanted to produce something a little different from the normal. i have also set myself a goal........ to either get the layout in a magazine or to exhibit the layout, gives you some idea of the quality and detail that i am going for. if i achieve this it will amaze me!!!!. my next decision was what should i do..... well while sitting watching the D-Day special on TV it hit me, a WWII harbour. so i set about planning a layout via any rail. a few tweaks and some advice has led me to this as my layout design. i will just add, that while trying to think of a good name for the layout, my wife came up with 'Operation Abyss' as she said it sounded sea related. i liked it so it stuck i was then convinced on another forum to go down the route of a sector plate, having never attempted this i was anxious. I decided that i really must pull my finger out, i am not the best at wood work, however i jumped in and completed the base board. i have started to paint it with wood varnish as to protect it from damp etc, i still have a lot more painting to do. i placed the boat in the lowered section for the harbour and placed some track on the board to give you an idea of size etc. Ok so after working a set of night shifts where all i could think about was my layout and how to do the fiddle yard / sector plate / traverser.... after taking advice from the internet / magazines/ and the other forum i decided to go for a sector plate. i spent most of the afternoon today after not a lot of sleep playing with cardboard cutouts. i have decided that with a sector plate i can shorten the fiddle yard increasing the scenic area. i can just about fit in a end pivot sector plate so after spending hours with cardboard, string and pencils i decided what the hell, and this is what happened....... no going back now......... ok so back to the sector plate i have added some cross braces one in the center then one at one end to mount the pivot to and one at the front to keep the sector plate and the main board at the same height. however ...... what do i use as a pivot?? i was thinking a large bolt with some washers but i'm worried that the thread on the bolt would chew up the MDF sector plate. below is a picture of my progress with a little help from my son. ok so back to the sector plate, i had to make a decision on how to pivot it without the thread of a bolt chewing up the wood. now i could use a bolt with only half thread but i didn't like that idea. i decided that i would use a metal sleeve. so how to do this. i could go and buy some brass tube but that would be boring. i have some brass knocking about and the bolt that i wanted to use. this means that i can break out the metal laithe. so two sleeves where made one the exact thickness of the MDF and the other the exact thickness of the wood. i next drilled the holes in the wood a little undersize and hammered the brass into the wood for a really snug fit. the both fits the sleeve snugly so that there is no movement apart from the rotation. i have also screwed a support to the bottom of the MDF to stop it warping in the future. all in all i'm quite happy, next paint the wood then to start track laying. ok so copper clad PCB board check......... arrived on saturday morning. soldering iron check..... solder check........ flux check....... baseboard painted and sealed check..... flexi track check......... mini hand drill check........ track pins and pva check........ however wife and children at home and we got a christening to go to. (id better be there im the godfather.) however monday and tuesday i am off work, wife is at work and children are at pre school. watch this space.............