brylonscamel

The bus forward to Kincardine O'Neil is taking forever. Probably because I haven't made it yet!

Old MacDonald had a farm ..

.. thank you - one of the joys of these smaller layouts & dioramas is that I get to photograph in outdoor light. It makes a big difference with all the natural shadows.

There are a couple of diorama models and resin-cast buildings that found new homes or were broken up. Before that, I messed about with combining them into photo-friendly scenes. This is one of my favourites ..

Thanks - in which case I'll carry on with posts that show my 'workings out'!

Cheers Mike - it wasn't so long ago that I started out with Metcalfe kits.

I agree wholeheartedly and it's a detail I'll be aiming to add in future.

Thanks - I hope to crack on with it soon! It'll be great when I get the main bay on and the roof with another couple of quirky chimneys.

Another day, another backdrop! I'm having fun, mixing diorama combinations to create different scenes, before introducing daylight. I hope they convey a sense of realism as it's easy to lose track (sorry) whilst fiddling with the scene.

Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew .. A little slice of Kent Fire Brigade has been running alongside Glasgow tenements, Aberdeenshire hotels and research for another commission! It has emerged from the drawing board fairly quickly and I am happy with how sharp it looks. Like most buildings, I find the beauty in them revealed whilst producing the initial drawings and in early assembly.

Have you got access to a colour laser-printer? You can get some lovely results by printing your design onto a laser decal sheet. The artwork would need to be a digital design but nothing fancy is needed to produce the text on a coloured background..

Room for a wee dram? The latest contribution to David's Glasgow Queen Street is on the workbench. A set of Glasgow tenements moves a little closer to the phases I enjoy the most; carving stonework, adding surface architectural details, windows, doors etc. before moving onto paintwork. I'm keen to place a shop or bar at ground level. With this in mind, the bay windows on one block start at first-floor level.

Oh! Thanks Steve and Chris - much appreciated info!

I hope to avoid any warping! It affected some of my earlier models, especially open structures like goods or engine sheds. Foamex is my current material-of-choice for carcasses and it seems to hold it's shape well without relying on bracing, even at 2 or 3mm thickness. I found Cyano/Superglue and 'UHO POR' are good adhesives when using high-density polystyrene. Cyano for structural joints and POR for layering materials onto the structure, including porous materials (card etc.) and non-porous (sheet styrene etc.). With these adhesives you don't get differential drying issues which can bedevil laminate construction.

These things seem to raise all sorts of questions, even when they belong to a standard design pattern and you have reference photos! I can't see evidence of the brickwork in photos but we may be missing the angle that reveals the rail-side constrution.

Yes, the batten construction was something I was aware of and I did fudge, partly due to our budget. Nigel's version of Thurso coincides with the last days of the shed and I struggled with a test piece to get the combination of repaired and original battens, which remained a feature of the shed. The layout is quite big and has broad sweeps of landscape so the overall proportions, colour and weathering of the shed should be enough to capture the spirit of the building. I have some thoughts on adding battens to any future timber structures. The joinery style is used widely in Scotland, so I need a good method. Using the cutter, I can get a sheet of styrene with equally-spaced strips to represent battens. It needs refining to get the right spacing and material thickness but it shows promise ...

Thurso Goods With help from an RMWeb contributor, I was able to reproduce a model of the goods shed that used to sit at Thurso, alongside the station terminus. It's a type of wooden structure that was once common across the Highland Railway.

Always happy to add to your workload David! Cheers, Brian

Yikes! That's a big toy to play with!

What a lovely reaction - it was a distinctive set of buildings but still great to be recognised from a small section of wall ..

Early spring sunshine has turned to some more *ahem* changeable ..

Another attempt at a 'no locomotive' scene. This one is my attempt at the old 'Allan & Black' station garage that used to sit at the back of Aboyne station. Now transported to Dad's 'Braeside' layout, cut down to fit our space and renamed, the aim was to at least capture the spirit of this classic garage in 1:76.

It's nae always bad!