Warrensleigh Works

Scratch building for me so far has been hacking bits of plasticard and hoping for the best that the bits I've cut will fit together - its not been too successful, but its enough to convince me to go a stage further. I've now bought a big sheet of 3mm foamboard from a local art shop ready to model a barn on a back road near me that I've been looking at for years. All of this has come about thanks to my road laying activity of the past few days. How, you may ask have I got from road laying to barns? Well that's where the filler comes in. I make my roads via the simple technique of a very wet mix of pollyfiller and water, mixed in a small pot and then spread onto the baseboards. This is then left to go hard, sanded with a sanding block and then painted a tarmac colour using various shades of black and grey. The forecourt of Warrensleigh station is set to be a cobbled affair, so I am now about to embark on the laborious task of scribing many tiny cobbles into the hard filler. By my logic, if I can make a nicely shaped foamboard shell for a building, I should be able to spread this same filler mix onto the building and scribe it with a stone block pattern, in the same was used by Phil Parker on the BRM DVD of this month. If not, its back to the drawing board for me! Also attached is a pretty picture taken of the layout featuring a Castle and King on shed.

Thanks Steve. I am very proud of the Austerity. For a project that was started as a filler between other jobs, it one of the best jobs I've ever done. White rims for were a risk, but it paid off! 009 work should come on quickly now, a chassis has been ordered.

Well I've got to begin somewhere, so what better way to start than a brief introduction to what I do. I model in three scales, four gauges and about a million and one eras - Basically, if I like something and have some money, I'll have a go! My main interest however is the preservation era. I'm certainly a steam man more than modern traction, so for me modelling the heritage era seemed logical. I know I could have chosen the past, but since I've grown up with heritage railways it seemed a close and comfortable setting for me to model. Both of my current layouts are heritage operations. The first and biggest is my 00 gauge line, the Warrensleigh & Canalside Railway, a fictional 12 mile long line in South Devon. My somewhat smaller layout is Parkfield, a station on yet another fiction heritage line, this time a GCR-esque double track mainline with a turntable in the centre - The curves are way too tight, but it was simply to satisfy the much younger me's desire to have a turntable.... I also have a 16mm scale garden railway, running on 45mm track and representing 3ft gauge, which is being taken up soon for a rebuild. My favourite aspect of modelling is locomotive repainting. Thus far, I am most proud of a Hornby Austerity that I repainted for myself. It arrived with me in plain matt black, and soon received a fetching coat of maroon. Soon lining was applied, and then a gloss finish, which is where I thought the project would end. However, I proceeded to apply white paint to the edges of the tyres, painted all of the backhead detailing and painted most of the pipework a brass colour. Smokebox door fittings too were painted to represent polished metal, and etched plates ordered from Narrow Planet. Now, Robert Stephenson & Hawthorne No.7085 'Jess' is merely awaiting handrails. About a year ago, my huge love of narrow gauge got the better of me, and I moved into 009. My first project was a simple wagon, but I soon got bored and moved onto a loco, a Dapol Pug kit bashed onto a Kato chassis. Currently on the bench is a Langley Ffestiniog Railway 'Prince' kit, so most entries will be about that. So there we go, that's what you can expect. I shall sign off with a few photos.