brylonscamel

I don't think this view of the cutting has been shared here - just a picture of our wee Sulzer 26015 clattering about on the 'Prize Length' ...

Just an everyday railway scene in the 1980s as diminutive McSulzer 26015 clatters along the 'Prize Length' at Braeside ...

I've looked at this layout before but keep coming back for another gawp. I love everything about it! Such a great Scottish Highlands flavour and the rich detail. Even the people feel like they inhabit the place. Oh and full marks for making the most of Hornby's flawed but effective class 29s!

Thanks Martyn - it was lovely to be persuaded to do some model making again this weekend. I'm motivated to carry on!

Making the most of a wet weekend: I returned to the cutting mat and some progress with an industrial building that I'm scratch-building for my wharf scene. After looking at some rather wonderful brick buildings in the Glasgow area, I decided to add a nice decorative tower (of a type that often conceals a stairwell) to a building that I had already started. Much fun of late has been trying to replicate those lovely decorative arched windows that you see in many of these buildings. They also fit nicely with the brick railway arches that have similar round 'romanesque' arches. Cutting round arches in plain and embossed styrene sheet. The idea being to create depth and texture by layering sheets on top of each other: How the tower will eventually fit within two flanking brick facades: The tower comes together nicely with all those lovely curved arches and decorative stone pillars. You've got to hand it to those Victorian architects - they did relish a decorative embelishment

Making the most of a wet weekend: I returned to the cutting mat and some progress with an industrial building that I'm scratch-building for my wharf scene. After looking at some rather wonderful brick buildings in the Glasgow area, I decided to add a nice decorative tower (of a type that often conceals a stairwell) to a building that I had already started. Much fun of late has been trying to replicate those lovely decorative arched windows that you see in many of these buildings. They also fit nicely with the brick railway arches that have similar round 'romanesque' arches. Cutting round arches in plain and embossed styrene sheet. The idea being to create depth and texture by layering sheets on top of each other Cutting round arches in plain and embossed styrene sheet. The idea being to create depth and texture by layering sheets on top of each other How the tower will eventually fit within two flanking brick facades: The tower comes together nicely with all those lovely curved arches and decorative stone pillars. You've got to hand it to those Victorian architects - they did relish a decorative embelishment

.. Allan - did you ever make anything that went badly wrong?

Oh for crying out loud - talk about setting the bar ridiculously high! How are we going to vault over this modelling spire?

"Build time two days" - crikey! If I went 48 hours with no sleep I don't think I could pull that off. Please don't tell me that included paint?

Hi again Martyn - I waited until the PVA was dry - at least dry enough to be described as "tacky". I hope you have fun with the cobbles/setts - I certainly found DAS clay a lovely material. I also found that wetting when you need to make it more pliable was effective - if a bit messy. Cheers, Brian

Cheers for the lovely feedback and apologies for the delay (I've been away for a while) The quayside setts are indeed done in DAS modelling clay. The clay has been rolled out by a combination of hand and small flexible trowel. I'm not sure my technique is brilliant but that seems to be the joy of the material - it is very forgiving! I found it easy to work and it remains workable for long enough that you can smooth it, trim it and form it before it starts to harden (at least half an hour - although I suspect longer). As always, I found a practice piece useful. I used an off-cut of plywood and rolled some clay onto it. I sealed it first with a dilute PVA - not something I had read about but something I've used when working with plaster. It's good for sealing and also improves adhesion. The DAS set fully overnight (approx 12 hours) and was hard and ready to be scribed. I'm sure the techniques are covered better elsewhere but you're welcome to my anecdotal description! PS this forum is proving to be a great place to share our modelling adventures!

A quick picture update to the thread as I make small progress with the bridge abutments - completing a set of arches which interface with the girder railway bridge .. The new bridge abutments - nothing fixed in place yet, these merely sit in place: A photo showing the whole 'diorama box' with the part-constructed buildings, railway arches and bridge ..

.. and tonight .. we have the bridge support added to the arches.

This is an amazing thread - it takes a while to get through all the pages!

Go on .. go on .. go on - you know you want one! Cheers Max - I'm aiming to keep this thread alive with little updates - there's a fair bit left to do!

'Stop me if you've heard this one before' as I've been adding these photos to a couple of threads - but I had started here... The 'Caledonia Basin' diorama has morphed a bit. I actually abandoned the original embankment after comments from another modeler had me questioning the likelihood of the scene! "Don't deviate too far from reality" is becoming a bit of a mantra. I actually found a real embankment of railway arches much more inspiring as a modelling subject. So I ripped out the embankment and drew some arches based on those at Bowling Basin, Forth & Clyde Canal. I had made a cardboard mock up, based on the arches - they were pretty but not as engaging as the three-arch one's: So I went ahead and made some more detailed ones, using the three-arch design in a combination of styrene and grey-board Here they are in the context of the rest of the model ...

Here are some photos of a card mockup of the embankment that I built before committing to the final styrene and card version. Following a discussion with a fellow modeler I had a rethink on the whole thing. That's why I tried out a card mockup of how an arched embankment would look - in place of my side for a sloped earth embankment. .. and the real railway offered up a wonderful old set of arches and I decided to build those instead. Here is the mockup with my little Hatton's Andrew Barclay to provide some interest...

Sunshine, bike rides and beer gardens have rather distracted me from model making! But a little progress has been made on my final design for the "Caledonia Basin" railway arches. I'm a fussy ###### and wanted the texture and decorative details from a set of arches at Bowling swing bridge. Slow but enjoyable work ...

I've just received a book on this very subject as I reckon there's some approaches to learn from! (especially having seen the amazing Dutch masterpiece "IJsselestein" at Warley) The book is terrific and has lots of ideas for blending foreground with background. The publisher is Crécy, author is Paul Bambrick and is titled "Creating a Backscene" - I haven't started using the techniques but they look really promising.

Cheers .. I'm learning to stick to the details in such a small model. I've had a couple of false starts whilst building this but I'm enjoying it more as a result.

haha - if its any consolation I've not been without my disasters .. I think it's all in the wrist action!

I bought a cheap set online from Olfa .. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000BK7NWC/ref=pe_3187911_189395841_TE_dp_1

I've been having a crack at an improved set of railway arches, based on some real ones at Bowling Basin on the Forth & Clyde Canal. I'm using a mix of grey board and plastic - with a newly acquired little disc cutter. Lets just say that it has proved very useful as its all about the curves! ..... Ctuting the various styrene and card pieces ... checking the arches for fit ...

Can I throw in a street scene from a model railway - this one featuring my Aberdeen tenements at Braeside .. I've been a bit cheeky and blended the obvious line where the backscene meets the model ...

Talk about "shabby chic"! I love all those rich, decomposing greens and rusting oranges. fabulous stuff ...