col_kilgore

All dry so managed to re blend the ground to match . Need to start working on the foreground now !

You say theres things wrong with the test truss but I suspect most people would be glad to get to that stage , never mind make it even better ! Excellent stuff.

Thank you , although like I said previously I think a lot of it is down to lighting. The next few shots are under the full glare of my kitchens big flourescent light which I think gives a bit too much contrast . Anyway I have painted up the tanks and bedded them down , just need to blend the ground back in when dry . I'm still not entirely convinced by them to be honest but I will wait to see when its all dry and the groundwork is blended to see how they look.

Love it , you can't get more " steampunk " , could do with a few dusty cowboys trying to take it down though .

All primed up ;

Done some work on the storage tanks tonight . As you can see very simple , old Triang tanker bodies and a bit of plastic rod . Obviously I'm no expert in industrial plumbing and I'm not sure what pipe does what , but I'm sure it all does something ! Hopefuly once its all painted up it wont look too bad ( although I cant help but feel it looks an objective for some Space Marines to capture in a game of 40k ! )

Thanks Although I think that's probably more an accident of lighting rather than design !

Finally got round to sticking the building down , as you can see added a few details to the building as well , the louvered vent is the front of a roof vent for the old Hornby engine shed ( I think its from that , I just had them in a box of stuff I was given ) The electrical junction boxes are just plasticard laminated to give the thickness with round plastic rod for the cable runs into the ground. I think the next job will be the storage tanks and pipework. Cheers for looking

Here we have the guardrail painted and bedded in , still need to do the roof and stick the buildings down .

A bit more progress this morning , I've made up some guard rails to add a bit of protection to the running line . After browsing around for ideas for making armco barriers , several suggestions came up including corrugated cardboard or takeaway trays etc. Another suggestion was 7mm corrugated plasticard , not having any to hand I had a look to see what I could come up with so ....... Slaters 4mm corrugated plastic cut into strips , Evergreen strip to create more of a profile and some I beam for posts I have managed to come up with this ; I dont think it looks too bad just needs painting up and bedding in. Thanks for looking

Glad I could be of some help , I can see from your layout blog you were thinking of using some Walthers kits , while I agree they are very impressive I would recommend you get a couple of packs of Wills sheets and some Plastruct girder and see what you can come up with . It would be a lot cheaper and results in something a bit more individual.

Wow ! What more can you say ? , from the beautifully painted figures to the worn and weathered cobblestones it just drips atmosphere. If I can criticize one thing , might it have been better to have the building and loading dock butting up against the bridge just to give the illusion of there being more of a corner ?

Thank you ! It's just simply grey card from packaging , cereal box card would be much the same thing , cut to shape and then just lightly dusted with weathering powders . I collect any loose powders when weathering wagons etc in a jam jar and its a nice dusty grey brown mucky colour , this is what I used on the concrete and applied it using a soft brush. I might do a quick photo guide later if anybody would be interested ?

Spent an hour this evening giving the shed a bit of grot , just need to do the roof then I can get it stuck down and bed it in. Next job will be the storage tanks .and a bit of associated pipework. Thanks for looking.

The lighting is very effective especially with the simple skybox , any chance you could share what you are using for the lighting rig ?

A little work done today ; Managed to start laying the groundwork using cardboard for the concrete hardstandings , the " gravelled " section for the storage tanks is just black sand lightened up with weathering powders . The filler is the base for a grass bank to seperate the buildings from the trackbed section.

I was just wondering had you considered looking in the german HO ranges for a dozer ? Wiking do a nice old fashioned Hanomag bulldozer , maybe with a repaint it could look ok ? Cheers

Thanks everyone for the comments. As for the code 100 it never really bothered me before and used it for the easy option of using set track points but when you mention it , it does kind of stick out . In a weird coincidence just the day before you post about the rail I got my hands on some more finescale track , SMP Scaleway for the first time ever which I am using on my cakebox challenge entry and I must admit it makes the code 100 look a bit crap ! I think from now on I'm going to use that for any future projects although looking at the options for points it makes it expensive to buy ready made ones , I might have to learn how to solder properly and build my own !

More work done tonight , finished off the rest of the building with gutter and drainpipe, primed and ready for paint . I would also like to thank Mallard60022 for answering my wanted ad and providing me with some SMP Scaleway flexi track . I must say its the first time I have actually used said track and I must say compared to the " train set " track I usually use it looks fantastic , I think I will use it on any future projects from now on !

Thanks for the comments everyone . More work done on the structure yesterday , finally added the roof and I'm surprised it turned out as well as it did , took me a while to work out the angles . Just a bit more detailing to add to the building then time for paint.

This happens to me all the time , what I end up with is completely different from what I planned ! I must say I think the first version looked good , I think you should have another try at something similar when this one is finished .

Been doing a bit more work tonight on the main structure . Using the excellent free warehouse kit from http://scalescenes.com/ I made up a brick base for the structure ; Here I have had a go at mocking up the roof in card , quite a challenge to make semi low relief structures at an angle , I think the roof angles will need a fine tune ! Thanks for looking

Hi everyone , after deciding to enter the cakebox challenge I was wondering if anyone had any OO C&L , SMP etc track offcuts going spare ? Obviously I wont need a lot as the diorama size is only 8" by 8" but anything would help . Cheers

Thought I would make a start on an entry into the competition . I'm still at the planning stages using a piece of paper for the base but I hope to have something a bit more permanent soon. Luckily I had a part made structure I could chop up to fit and as you can see it will be a small corner of a non specific industry . Thanks for looking .

Just a few little things to report , here's my first try at using seamoss for trees , just used the common method of spraying the natural pieces a browny grey colour , Javis scenics scatter was used for the leaves and 3M mounting spray was used as the fixative A cute little forktruck from Base Toys given a bit more of a bashed about finish ; Jut some general shots to show how it looks all together ;