winterbournecm

Hi there They're going behind the main station at Mount Charles. I've had Metcalf kits there until now - these have "my stamp" on them, and should sit nicely amongst the Kibri & Vollmer kit blocks. I'll pop a picture on later of them in situ.

On the subject of weathering, may I add my Heljan Western?

Heres the harbour scene on my layout. Still some final bits to attend to though

Have been working on a modern block of apartments to sit behind Mount Charles station. It's based on the buildings near Saltash on the mainline with balconies overlooking the railway. This gives a welcome bit of relief and the railings really draw the eye in too. Here are construction pictures: The Hornby windows to form the "patio doors" are cut from the cardboard and the wing walls constructed using plastic Hornby & Muswell window brass frames. The painted building area is treated with Plastikote textured spary and painted cream to contrast with the brick effect wing walls. The wingwalls incorporate a garage and Estate Agents. The apartments have a lobby area below the patio areas. The railings are from Scalelink, and painted black with acrylics. It's a pity that fairly modern structures arent catered for in the Scaledale range etc. This is a variation on the wonderful Kibri / Vollmer kits withan English twist to them.

Hello guys, many thanks for the comments and interest. The harbour scene first: The buildings are all scratch built. I tend to see building I fancy and replicate in 00 guage. The Sloop at St Ives has always appealed to me, and I wanted to incorporate a railway scene around it. The cottages on the cliffs are based on quaint Cornish ones similar to the ones on tthe cliffs at Polzeath looking down on the beach below. If you scroll back through my thread, and my website you'll see the detailed way I construct them. They're Muswell windows and just imagination really. When the cardboard superstructure is complete I spray it with Plasticote textured spray and then paint them with acrylics. It's like building a Metcalf kit. They're just cardboard and windows really. Now to the weathering. I have written an article for Traction mag on this subject. The Western followed the same formula. The loco shell is taken off and given an areosol spray of Matt Varnish from Precision panits. I protect the windows with masking tape and paint these manually afterwardsThe chassis and bogies are carefully hand varnished. This allows the weathering powder to "key" to the texture. The dirt and exhaust is added first around the portals and roof fans. This is 80% black powder paint and 20% brown weathering powder. The faded look is acheived by GENTLY adding light grey weathering powder with a small brush with downward stokes. Finally the road dirt and body side grot is added horizontally with a thicker brush using the original black, brown and some grey added. Add small amounts and build up. Thats it really. With handling, some will come off eventually, but I can always "top-up". Heres the Western and the cottages! Hope this helps - happy weathering Craig

Hi there, well Mount Charles is all but finished, and I always loved the turntable area at OOC with 31s 47s 50s and 52s sat around the stabling roads and the grass bank behind. I think it would make a nice scene, specially with the 3 road servicing shed incorporated. PLUS I'd avoid having to build a roundhouse! Cheating I know. Space will be the problem, I dont have any with the garage full of trains anyway. Dads layout is getting interesting now too, but I may start on the structures anyway. I was a steward at the 2000 open day and realised what we have lost through the years that afternoon with two Warships, a Western & Hymek sat gently ticking over all around the area.

Well said that man. People should encourage any model railway skills, whether it's a window sill filler or a full working room-full. TMD's have an advantage of viewing your locos in a proper environment, rather than a MFI bookcase. Hope all is well with you, Spring just budding down here in the Duchy so some photo opportunities arising, but no decent traction sadly!

I've been itching to give Western Cavalier the Laira 1976 treatment, and had a go this weekend... Hopefully captures the well worn look of the vicious chemicals in the wash plants and the road dirt she picked up tearing along the desert or Cornish main line in 1976. a real 66147 appears in one of the photos.

The scrapyard has been decorated using a sludgy brown / black colour sprinkled with black shot blast. The area was given a quick spary of textured plastikote to bring out the contours of the tyre tracks etc... The bits & bobs were then added having been weathered and rusted with acrylics. The scene needs finalizing, but here it is anyway with some action passing on the mainline too.

Here are some pictures of the work in progress. The polystyrene areas stuck to the plywood and sheets of plaster applied: Then the liquid plaster added liberally to make up the uneven scrapyard ground. The tyre marks were added using a small 00 gauge car running back and forth just before it set hard.

Hello mate - it is a representation of Hayle (and St Ives) - nice that you recognised it. The clay has had a very slow start this week, no Goonbarrow traffic upto now and only Parkandillack trains. The drier's roof is under repair at Fowey I understand.

Have spent some time on the last of the scenic areas on the layout. The area around the hidden sidings was going to be left undone, but looking in from the door, it's very noticable that there's bare wood on show, so put in a cutting and tunnel mouth. This awkward removal area alos threw up a triangular area of board near the sidings so I decided to incorporate a little scrap metal yard (with inspiration from Jenny Kirks' lovely Grove Street layout). The area has to be removable in case of tunnel derailments, but I can hopefully blend it in to cover the join with yard "grot". The are differences in height, so the plywood was given some polystyrene to counter this. I then left a gouge in the centre area for the yard vehicles to potter about in (complete with tyre tracks) and then added plaster sheets and ready mixed plaster after to give some contours. Pretty pleased with the results and hope to decorate shortly. I am looking at a browny / black slduge to cover the floor area, and assembling metal detritus to make the yard contents. The green Scaledale portacabin will be a perfect addition and a small crane maybe too will bring the scene to life. I may get another Knightwing one which has a large span.

Some recent additions to the layout from the excellent range unitsmodels.com lots of accessories including point motors, air conditioning units, oil tanks and huts sheds etc... Well worth checking out. Here are some shots taken with the buildings having the items added. Sandy Hill panel having some A/C for those hot balmy summer days!!

As promised - some pictures.

I'm certain many a green thousand has resided at BZ. Just need a D6300 peeping out of the roundhouse now! Bring em on... Happy New Year guys. Hopefully see the layout in the flesh this year somewhere. Best wishes Craig

Found some time to myself to do a bit of modelling! Applied a coat of Liquitex high gloss to the water surface to give some relief to it, and hope it dries today, still quite milky last night. I also have been adding some dry brush weathering to the cliffs and finishing the awkward shapes of the harbour wall incorporating some rather disgusting concrete pipes as an outlet pipe from the walls which look OK. Going to paint some small stones black now to give that "St Ives" look to the sand area, I love the contrast between these dark rocks and the golden sand, My sand is from Perranporth though - shh dont tell anyone! Planning to illuminate the layout for some night shots in the new year, and of course want some harbour light reflections in the water outside the Sloop. Would like to get a string of coloured fairy lights to string along the harbour front, maybe Preiser make them? I'll have a look. Happy new year guys, and happy modelling. Pictures to follow when the liquitex goes hard!

I hope Santa was carrying some rectangular boxes for you this season. I've obviously been good, as Hornby R2701 blue powers cars were bulging in my sack (ooer). The beginning of the end? HST's make full scheduled moves on the layout with a 1/2 hourly London service. Powers cars from SPM arrive for crew & fitter familiarization and some practise runs starting ready for full service in Jan. Enthusiasts may not be celebrating, but the travelling public certainly are, now where's Jimmy Saville?

Hi there. I think the digrams for Hymeks concentrated them on the Swansea & Cotswold routes and the far west had D6300, D600 D800 & Thousands instead. They were visitors to Cornwall, but were relatively scarce - especially West of St Blazey. I think modelling 1967 - 70 would be optimum, Cornwall had more diesel classes at that point than ever. Diesel Electric classes 03 / 08 / 25 / 45 / 46 / 47 & Hydraulics 600 / 6300 / 800 / 1000 in any livery you fancy too!

Hi - thanks Tim. The rock face is chicken wire with papier-mache laid over the top (plaster-paris would be suitable though) and then a covering of mixed plaster spread over it afterwards and contoured with an old brush or lolly stick for crevices. It is then painted grey - white and flock, weathering powders and dry brushed grey powder paint added to tone it down a bit.

Despite the cold - we braved a running evening which featured a first. A loco hauled railtour to Bishop's Bronescombe - which Yogi appropriately christened "The Bishops Chopper". The 20's 118/063 top & tailed took 4 NSE coaches down there, and 20063 on the rear smoked out the tunnel as the train was too long for the platforms! 812 worked a short pick up freight to Truro: The newest silver bullets arrived from Kernow featuring a semi-weathered example. Here it is behind the loco 37417 arriving at Mount Charles:

Hello fellas - thanks for the interest, comments and queries. The resin I used originally did have some "life" in it, but overnight it fell completely flat - which is fine for an estuary or lake, but I want a tidal inlet so will be adding some slight relief (dont want crashing waves!!) As for Sandy Hill panel - it is inspired by the Western region panels like Bristol & Par. The push buttons are points (X Over have black for Normal & Blue for reverse. The red button is a "check" switch for the 3 -way to remind the "Signalman" it's a 3 way point and must be normal before the X over before you set up into the yard. The rotary switches are for the signals. Red for the main aspects (2 positions red / green, 3 positions red / yellow / green and so on) the yellow switches are for shunt signals, ground PL's or the sub dots on the main apsects (draw-ahead etc) The silver switches are good old fashioned isolaters! CM

Decided that the harbour scene water effect was a little flat and needs some relief to it - so purchased some Liquitex Super gloss to give a top coat and add some movement to the surface water. also hope to lap up over the sand slightly to give a tide mark look. The liquitex is water soluable so I can experiment with the thickness if required.