brylonscamel

More of the ModelU locomotive crews have been painted and are filling vacancies on the footplates at 'Braeside' ...

Thanks for the comment - these figures are scanned from real life and then 3D printed so they are remarkably 'natural' in their poses - they are a delight to paint as well. I looked at photos of footplate crew from 'back in the day' for colours and these seem about right ....

Brilliant! - I'm sure I'm not alone in being surprised at the way this discussion headed (in a good way). PS a flat stomach, good haircut and a winning smile helped me get out of trouble at times ... I have to rely on other tricks these days.

Hi Steve - just to pitch in with some ideas that might give you some options. I have built some signal boxes and have a method for the glazed part of the structure. It's quite simple and can come in useful when you have a largely glass structure to reproduce. As you know, cutting fine apertures can be tricky, so going at it from the other way and adding windows to the glazing can save a lot of pain! It involves using sheet glazing and then building up the windows by gluing frames and glazing bars to the clear styrene sheet. I've added some photos which might help illustrate this ...

I have some stuffed ptarmigan in a display case at home (it's a long story involving my Scottish ancestors!) - maybe I could press one of them into use. I've got a feeling I'll get carried away and end up with a scan of myself covered in birds flocking onto outstretched arms.

Thanks for the kind comment on the painting Allan - their method of scanning from life is so cool - it's got endless possibilities! Now if only I could get a seagull to stand still long enough to be scanned!

The latest batch of the excellent 4mm/OO - 3D prints from ModelU are being readied for footplate duties.

Some more ModelU figures have been painted up in readiness for footplate duties on the locos of Braeside.

Thanks! .. I think my Dad would be quick to point out that our layout has a very loose connection with Aberdeen! It's me that's taken to plonking a few scratch built structures onto the layout that have the flavour of Aberdeenshire - like the fish market, the tenements and the Caledonian signal boxes. Where possible, the locos and stock are supposed to fit the setting.

The crew are from the shed at Kittybrewster in Aberdeen! .. sorry I couldn't resist ... The model footplate figures you can see leaning at cab windows window are from the guys at ModelU

Time spent on the workbench of late has been loco focused! We have a number of locos that needed to be DCC fitted, renumbered. detailing parts added (lamps, real coal, vacuum pipes etc.) and crewed. The latest set include a BR 4MT tank*, Britannia, Black 5 and an A3 - three of these are featured in the photos. We've been hijacking Hornby's TTS sound chips, fitting different speakers and adding them to appropriate locos. In this set, we've given the Black 5, Britannia and A3 some DCC TTS chips. The speakers, speaker housing and position make a big difference to these chips which provide a nice range of sounds for those on a budget. *I did spot that the pipe running under the 4MT had come adrift AFTER I took the photos. Another thing that has become clear is that our packets of loco lamps are entirely the wrong design. I've been turning a blind eye to this but now I'm aware of the problem it's become really jarring. Finally, I need to invest in an anorak!

.. thanks - I did stare at a few photos first. They were either fresh out of works or pretty filthy - I don't know what happened in between? PS I'm glad you think the loco is convincing but I know the bufferbeam pipework isn't! I've just been busy putting the correct arrangement of pipes on the front.

.. thanks - it's a beautiful model to start with!

Here's our "Brit" after I took her lovely pristine paintwork and made it all dirty. The shed foreman isn't going to be happy!

The fishing boats in the harbour might be getting an upgrade ...

My Dad has a collection of steam locomotives from the 'transition era' and one-by-one we've been doing things like fitting DCC chips, adding real coal, renumbering, weathering into various states and adding footplate crew. Here are some recent subjects, Hornby A4 60019 "Sparrow Hawk" and a Hughes crab from Bachmann ...

After a bit of fettling, the Clayton made a visit to the harbour branch at Braeside. Where she bumbled about quite happily.

This lovely Heljan Clayton had been hanging around on the workbench for a while. It needed toning down a bit, without overdoing the weathering as they weren't as shabby looking as their reliability would suggest. They might have been short lived but they were a feature of the Scottish scene whilst they lasted. This example was the loco that hauled the last Deeside freight.

.. Hi there - I'd be fascinated to see any photos of the Aberdeen Gas Works as I'm in the early stages of planning a model based on this location. It would be great to see any views of the works - there are some photos online but it's a big site and doesn't seem to be very well documented. I contacted the Aberdeen Historical Archive and they're not able to help at the moment as the harbour collection is being taken to a new home. I'm following this thread so anything you post here I'll be looking out for! Cheers .. Brian

After a bit of a 'break' - largely working and introducting a new collie to my life, I've been inspired to do some more modelling. I was very impressed with the new 'ModelU' figures - so they are adorning a couple of footplates at Braeside.

Oh lord! I haven't visited this thread in a while and I'm blown away (again) by the modelling here. Such inspirational projects - especially as I'm thinking about a small scale industrial project as an aside to 'Braeside'. I've picked a great location but I'm going to have to read up about old school 'town gasworks' before I start cutting any styrene -as I don't know how they work and what the buildings house! Thanks again (everyone) for posting their work.

Jerry .. have you got a colour photo you'd like to share? - as others have commented, it's an absolutely lovely model. Would love to see the full colour version.

Thanks Al - you know what it's like - as soon as you spot something on your own model - it becomes a glaring error!