Northroader

I used to watch him with the Lone Ranger, didn’t know he was Scots?

Next stage in the scenic painting is the sea. It was just a plain blue patch, as it was a small element, but now there’s a bit more space, and I’m doing more with it. Same palette as the sky, white, blue, black, and done in streaks which I’ve blurred in with my fingers. Then load my brush with white straight out of the tube to get a reflected light effect in the direction of the sun, again blending in round the edges. The masking agent has been rubbed out once it was dry, which wasn’t long using acrylics, and there’s just a little bit where the sky and the sea didn’t meet, which has been touched up with a fine brush. Now to plan the land features, which will be very simple, just a few fields, and the downs behind. As it’s coastal and chalk Downs, there will be very few trees, and all the foreground stuff close to the railway will be individual elements stuck on as overlays afterwards. I’m sketching this out roughly with a pencil, and then cover the edge with more masking agent to protect what’s been done. I’m not doing it with this job, but if there are any outlying buildings they can be covered with the masking agent as well at this stage, then painted in in detail once I’ve got my main land washes done.

I just had to google what “Smiths Glasgow Mixture” was, its pipe tobacco, I thought it might be a drop of the hard stuff!

Depends on what they were using for bait.

I must copy your scenic methods and hope I get as good a result. The overall vista looks very good, and I really like your well reasoned facilities for trippers in no space at all. Great work.

But it IS a V2!

Looking at Cambrian Rly Sharp Stewart’s with 4wheelers tenders, the Small Passenger 2-4-0 were 43’ over buffers, the Small Goods 0-6-0 were 44’8”. (I’ve rounded to an inch)

You get a cheaper rate when they’re grilled.

Your kids better looking!

On required reading, two good booklets by Len Tavernder, but as they were privately printed you’ll have trouble getting your hands on them, but I’ll give the ISBN: “Coal Trade Wagons” 0 9510987 1 3, and: “Railway Equipment Drawings” 0 9510987 0 5 (variety of goods wagons, but includes more than a dozen P.O.)

One point about coal traffic, as we’ve mentioned the railway companies “common carrier” obligations already, is that general merchandise was charged for at a scale for whatever commodity and weight it was. Coal traffic, and some other bulk materials such as building items, bricks or sand, were charged on the distance the item had been carried, the mileage rate, consequently why a siding in a goods yard could be referred to as a mileage siding, this being where you find coal wagons in particular. As a result, if you wanted “bog standard” coal, it was cheapest if it had come from the nearest collieries, and so you’d expect faraway colliery wagons to be much rarer, unless it had some particular specialist quality such as anthracite from the Swansea area.

“Dallas”, dear boy. Now, blowing up your picture and most (edit: for ”most” read “some”) of those wagon are Yorkshire / East Midlands, and highly suitable for WNR, there’s one from west wales with anthracite, and another east wales, steam coal, both believable. Ps, the clean and dirty “United” have got “Swansea valley” underneath, Jim, there’s another lot down there.

With the woodland scenic grass, I did some a bit ago, which has since gone again with a track rebuild. I agree it will look better if you mix packs, some light green and some straw. What I did was pull some out of the pack, cut it across the middle to get a roughly square end and put the two half bunches together, then put a “puddle” of glue on the board where I wanted a tuft, and planted the square end in it. When it had dried, do a rough snip with scissors to get the length of tuft I wanted, and take care here that it doesn’t look all the same length, then tap the bit you’ve cut off to get the end squared up again, and on to the next tuft. It’s a job that is done in little short goes, with big waits for the glue to set and you do something else.

Here’s the SR diagram, hope you can make out the dimensions from that:

Well, I’ve had her mum on my thread in a surprise visit, putting me straight on our chairman’s assertations, which livens up things no end, and Routier du Nord seems all for it, whatever it is: Edit: what’s that? Quest ce que? Oh, beg your pardon, it’s Prince Louis he’s on about.. (looking forward to another revolution/ invasion)

Did the Anglo Saxons have submarines? I suppose they had to invent something to combat Viking longships.

It’s a good period for us dozy modellers, too, Annie!

Good lighting, it’s making the grass grow.

Hi, Jim, now May 1st’s getting close, are you coming down with your shopping trolley, or do you want an undercover route setting up for nice English, low tax, high strength beverages?

First job to get started on the scenery is the sky, so I cover the table with an old shower curtain, and put the backscene on it. For a palette I use an old china dish, easy to clean and the shape retains any runny mixes. Talking of runny mixes a paper tissue might come in for dabbing up. Then squeeze some paint out, (pva/acrylic) and I’m sure it’s very like Colmans Mustard, the paint manufacturers make it on what’s left on the side. Half a mug full of water, and remember every quarter hour or so change for more clean, as you wash your brush in it. I use plenty of white, a big tube of titanium white, I think makers invent their own names, it used to be flake white. The blue was easy to ask for at one time it was Prussian, but now phthalocyanine (!) it’s a very powerful colour, only a little bit needed before it takes over the mix entirely. If you look up over your head on a cloudless summer day, you see a really strong blue, and I’m all for colour in a layout but I want a much lighter hue. Mainly white, small bit of blue, not a lot of water, and start the top with a big brush and horizontal strokes. Getting lower near the horizon more white gets mixed in. There’s a bit of a crease visible, I’ve tried to iron that out since. Once I’ve got the blue wash down I keep going with doing clouds. A small squeeze of mars black on the side of the plate, and mix very light grey, and maybe some of the light blue finds its way in. Then just light dabs, swirly movements, varying the greys. Plenty of clouds around for models, cauliflower tops, flattish bottoms in shade, and highlights on the sunny side. Large and well spaced close to, down near the horizon merging into hazy masses. I find that just dabbing with a finger to smudge the brush strokes and blend the greys helps. When I think I’m getting nearer to what I want, stop, leave to dry out, end of session. Next time small amount of touching up bits I’ve spotted, and you’ll see in the second picture there’s still some more touching up needed. This is mainly to show how the masking agent works, as I’m working with an eraser to remove it, and you’ll appreciate why I use it. The sea is the next job, so I’m putting a margin of masking agent round that part.

Nice to see how happy your daughter looks.

And there ain’t one of them D599 wagons in the makeup! Seeing it going makes me realise what a lot the pair of you have achieved in such a short time.Ps and sem too

Oh well, while we’re waiting to see how that goes, and I’m sure it will be very well, here’s more lubrication, a real blast from the past. Hands up everyone who remembers molybdenum disulphide?

Yeah, them Elsan Furry Dancers, that why he’s doing his bog on wheels, innit?

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