mega_mort

Smoothed over and painted up the road way on the layout now, few coats of different shades of black and a wash of dark brown in the hope it will make it a much industrial type of road. Once I finish this set of shifts will start on painting the track.

The building for the right hand and has gone in today, and started the small path/road across the tracks and linking up the buildings. Decided that was a good idea to do before I started weathering the sleepers and track. Will smooth the clay down tomorrow before starting on the painting but want more of a used haphazard path than a perfect road surface.

Hi in the break between days and night shifts managed to get the layout down for a couple of hours. Decided not to start on the painting of the track but to try and fit in a couple of buildings I made to complete the back scene of the layout. Oooooohhhhh that's a little close for comfort... One saw cut later.... Good job using card kits that made the surgery easier Everything in place along the back of the layout.

Hi Guys Ok this is a small thing my local model railway society are doing, is this ok to post here if not feel free to delete, this is open to anyone anywhere in the UK. We are trying to keep the club going as it's only a year old and just before lock down we got access to a unit in the local market place shopping centre. Now trying to keep the club alive we are seeing if this competition will bring some funds so we can stay in the unit. Bolton Model Railway Diorama Competition To show our support to all the NHS heroes out there and to celebrate VE day we are pleased to introduce the BMRS War Diorama Competition! We are inviting everyone to take part in creating their very own war scene, it can be railway related but doesn't have to be. The competition starts today and runs until 30th May 2020, the diorama's will be judged by non other than Jenny Kirk and Les Cliffe, with the winner being announced on the 1st June. Judging criteria - build quality, realism, creativity. The winner will receive a Dapol streamlined Diesel Railcar 00 gauge. (DCC ready) worth £150. To enter you have to create your diorama no bigger than 12 x 10 inch, take 3 photos of different angles and email them to bmrscompetitions@gmail.com no later than 12 noon on 30th May 2020, also we would like you to make a voluntary donation of your choice to our club of which 25% will be donated to NHS charities and 25% to the Royal British Legion. Please go to - http://www.boltonmodelrailwaysociety.uk/ and click donate. Please help us support these great charities. Open to UK residents only. Again if this not allowed just delete Cheers Neil

So new paint arrived today, can start experimenting with weathering wagons and track. So start with the track experiment Both base colours added to the track left the middle 2 as idea of the starting point. Ok so may have a better idea on what to do after playing lots with shades. After some mucking around got to the above, think I like the sleepers, chairs think I may mix the two shades, and going for the brown with a slight yellow wash as the bottom of the rails for the rails, wash to be added post ballasting so get a rust tinge to the ballast. Also sleeper grime to be added as glue is added so the ballast takes a brown tinge.

I tend to go for bridges, only because if I ever did a level crossing it would have to have moving gates and lights, which is currently a little beyond my skills. Also tarmac can be broken up by puddles, potholes and weeds breaking through depending on how dilapidated you it to look.

Right before I start 4 shifts back on the desk and need to put the layout away a little update on how it's getting on, modelling has been slow since I wired the layout up and started playing with it and fixing all the dry joints in the soldiering, annoyingly all the ones to the inside of point blades... Test fitted some of the buildings as well at the same time. Had to readjust the un-coupling magnets which was a lot easier pre-balasting due to playing/testing which is my justification for doing very little modelling and just running trains around.

Oh yeah it makes a mess.

one way I've used to remove scatter before is to add more water to the area, not a lot just enough to dampen it and that then loosened the glue and made it easier to scrape off. Think this only works if used diluted pva to stick it down.

This is a nice looking layout, like the idea with the fencing saves drilling lots of little holes in the posts.

Wow....... That's amazing....

Hi Terry, Just found the magazines at my house, building number 1 is the creamery kit from March 2019 and can be got by getting the digital back issue ( I got it on pocket mags). The building in number 4 is the low relief factory which came with November 2019 not sure how you will get that as it came with the print only version on a big A2 sheet of paper. Cheers Neil

They are both free scalescenes kits that came with the Hornby mag over the last couple of years, can't remember what issues they where in though sorry. Well until I can get back to my dad's to dig through his library.

Good point, on my other layout that folds in half I use this method, but I use a massive nail that was a snug fit into the hinges as the tapered end helps pull the hinges together. Then on removal can just tap out from the bottom, also helps if you slightly blunt the point of the nail.

At the moment I'm back on shift working from home, the modelling desk, aka dinning room table, doubles as the home office desk so the layout has to be stored away for next 4 days. Will probably at the minute pack and re-drill the holes in the back. I do have some small hinges and a dremmel copy so could take the pins out out of the hinges. Power feed was going to be via fishplates on the track connecting the 2 as it was to be semi permanent when layout in use. Quick pic below of how far out I was.

Have already done this on another layout, but where this layout is to be stored, there is not enough room for the cassette on the end if attached and vertical. Have just noticed that the brackets are not level. May have to remove, fill in the holes and re-drill........would explain having to pack the track on one side......

Thanks for the comment, it has taken many hours of working on them to get them looking like that, my first few all ended up in the stove as fuel, but the best bit is once bought only costs me card, paper and ink to make. Also buying a decent set of anime marks helped colour all the white edges I hate, then a set of ultra fine anime pens to get the odd one in a difficult place. If you want any advice on building with the just ask. Been playing with adding a fiddle stick to the layout, below is the current current idea that may stick but seems to bow a bit may need to figure out some way of stopping that, also think that the braket may have slipped when drilling so are not level will look at the more tomorrow.

Reading through this has lead me to spend most of today in Tinkercad as I'm getting a 3D printer later in the year and this has just proven how much of a useful tool it is to a modeller. Just wish the stuff I've been making in Tinkercad looked half as good as the stuff you have made.

Hi All, OK the Lockdown and subsequent working from home has meant that the refurb of Jewal Line is on hold till my office and the wife's office move back to my to their respective offices. But I still wanted to be working on a layout, I had a 4by1 board in the loft from a long failed project, the rest being in the garage awaiting scrapping. The board was to be the fiddle yard and there were 3 points and a few yards of track and seeing all the Inglenook appear on here I thought why not join the club. Also having the big works kit from the Hornby mag and a few other of the scalescenes freebies from said mag. So below is the starting of the layout. Not got a clue on what era going to do it in just yet, but my Black 08 looks at home on it at the minute so think ether 1950's or do it a a living museum then I can run any of my 0-6-0 locos as the shunter. First are building built from the mag, and current track layout. before all this started a trip had been made to Transport Models and picked up the Metcalfe signal box kit to go inside the signal box, for the Decided the wiring was going to be semi underneath, needed to drill big holes to get the wiring for the point motors under the layout so thought would run the wiring to the point motor then sink to the underside of the base board. Also when started this I didn't have a drill so was going to be 100% surface wiring, but a drill was purchased and the wiring run underneath, as in the space above with the DCC concepts control boxes for the points was limited and the wring going back and forth getting harder to hide. You can see the cutouts in the cork where the the control boxes would have been and the space where the wiring would have all come together. Cheers Neil

Got a couple of hours to myself to work on the layout, moved on a little bit with the goods shed. Work on the goods shed took longer than planned and didn't get as much done as I wanted due to the normal problem i have when working with wills plasticard sheets, they shatter as I cut through them. I even drilled holes at the corners of the opening and it still shattered. Manage to glue it back together and added some strengthening to it. After a few hours the goods shed looks like this now. Now to look at planning the floor to the shed and where to put the wires for the lights. (think my scarab truck and back into that gap.......)

Now for a couple of shots of the current upgrade in progress, which is replacement goods shed for the layout as the lights in the old cardboard one died during the show annoyingly. This has also given access to the track under the shed so i can now clear out the really bad ballasting job I did years ago.

Hi all, Slight reboot of this thread as the layout has been out to Furness Model railway show, and may be off out again to another show. It is also getting at set of upgrades over the next few weeks/months and documenting the upgrades here. Below are pictures are of the layout when it was on show at Furness show. One shot of the whole layout set up and ready to go. As you may be able to see another reason for this layout being out on show is that Bolton Model railway club has been rebooted (YAY!!!) and this went out as a little advert for the club. Now for a couple of close ups.

Hi all, Had a few hours to play with the layout today, tested all the wiring the point motors and made sure everything could get out of the fiddle yard as its a tight bend out of it. Gave the back scene a coat of paint and started to build the end wall to the station. Now have a choice to make, buy a wills platform kit, or print the scalescenes one i have, which brings another choice replace ink in the old battered printer or purchase a new one. Any way a couple of picks of the layout as it is.

This is a lovely little layout, lots of nice little touches

That is a lovely layout.