brylonscamel

Thank you Grahame - funnily enough I'm just about to fit both canopies permanently and fix the station in place.

As companion to the bridge at New Galloway, I fettled a spare cottage for my client, to represent the station master's house. The proportions are those of the original model but I added a porch and a similar palette of colours and stonework to help push it from Aberdeenshire to Dumfries & Galloway.

Cheers Lez - that's an excellent resource. Sadly the wheels on the transit measure up at 9mm and Langley's smallest wheel is 10.5 and therefore a tad large. But I've tucked the info away for future use!

I'm not so up on developments in vehicle models but I have seen larger scale models being kitted out with really impressive 3D printed wheels. It would be a great upgrade for the sort of die-cast models that we rely on in 1:76

After a disastrous mould-making adventure, I ended up having to rescue some buildings that were trapped in some unforgiving blocks of silicone rubber. Most were rescued from the broken pile of silicone with minor damage. This liberated cottage should be happy now that it is breathing fresh coastal air and will now find a home amidst the coastal buildings on Dad's harbour branch.

Cheers David - another adventure into reproducing a new type of structure. It was originally considered as a potential resin-cast but ended up as a straightforward commission. Fortunately it turned out well and my client is happy.

or border collies for that matter!

When I can, I'm still beavering away on side-projects for Dad's 'Braeside' layout. There's an 'unsatisfying' section of scenery that doesn't look right with just a couple of randomly plonked cottages. So I scratchbuilt a tiny Aberdeenshire steading, giving a more interesting combination of buildings and more excuses for Landrovers and border collies.

.. a bit of paint and some dry brushing later

.. once dry, it can be sanded into a sharper looking carcass and the stonework carved. Et voilà !

.. applying sheets of clay in the manner of a pastry chef, gives a good starting point for the scribing process. I allow for 1mm or greater depth, so I can dig around a bit, especially with more 'rustic' stone courses! The visible gaps show that it's a bridge in 3 x separate pieces, allowing access parts of the bridge more easily when scribing - especially the underside of the arch.

It's a stone structure and will be clad in modelling clay to render stonework. This called for a simple card carcass ...

New Galloway bridge A little piece of the Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Joint Railway (later Caledonian Railway ) has just finished its journey through my studio. The railway has gone but the bridge remains to carry the A762 over what's left of the original track-bed. Despite my client giving a good set of drawings and photos, there was a bit of faff, making sure that it had clearances for coarse scale track (PECO code 100) and a cork track-bed. So I made a simple card mock-up from my drawings ..

How did I miss this post? The hotel suddenly looks really 'planted' with your paving sections. I don't feel too bad that it's missing the side entrance porch features! It makes sense to adjust the ramp until you are happy and we can get it made to fit the exact space. I have some etches to design for another project and will add the components to the order.

You're on a roll with these!

A short, backwards glance at the model-making in 2022 ..

Fancy a flake with that? Fiddly model-making challenges keep hitting the workbench. Nobody asked me to make this one - it was my daft my idea to take on a station with Scottish baronial turrets at each end. Turrets at Aboyne are tall and slender, requiring multiple changes in slate sizes, applied individually in rows. The bonus is that I will end up with resin-castings of both style of turret. My slate designs as they came off the Cricut cutter / plotter Applying slates to the former that I fashioned from card discs Individual paper slates glued in overlapping courses. The pointed cone at the top of the roof will be capped off with a sleeve to resemble lead flashing ..

.. happy new year from me too Martyn!

Thanks for that! I'm trying to distinguish the railway company styles from each other and finding it tricky. I'd love to speak to some Victorian builders and masons as it seems some of the material choices were dependent on local contractors. Oh and then there are things like Kinnaber Junction where the signal cabin housed North British AND Caledonian instruments, although I appreciate this was a particularly momentous junctions! I picked up a book called 'Signalling the Caledonian' which contains a staggering amount of detail. If there were companion books of that quality on the North British, Highland and Great North of Scotland we would be spoilt for info! I also made a model of the Caledonian box (without a real purpose) at Camperdown Junction. It now lives in a picture frame as a purely decorative thing and it has polychromatic brickwork at the wall junctions.

A seasonal message from the wee folk ..

They are a one-off commission in 7mm for a client but I am thinking of something North British or Caledonian in 4mm as a kit to see what kind of interest there is.

Whilst at home, the platform buildings and canopies received attention ..

Trip to see my father and make contributions to his 'Braeside' layout have been in thin supply. But I made a trip in the autumn which provided some photo opportunities .. Here we have some blue moments ..

The big follow up to that cabin are two 7mm North British pattern signal boxes, inspired very closely by those at Kincardine Junction and Bridge of Earn ..