turtlebah

Ballasting work continues... Nearly completed the first layer

Totally accidental I’m afraid. Sadly the last coat of weathering enamel dried with a slight sheen (probs due to my not mixing it well enough), but it’s kinda resulted in a nice effect. Only really shows up with the class 122 with lights on runs past.

Local services come and go...

A bit of additional foliage and scatter added...

Had a little play with the flock-it at lunchtime - quite pleased with the effect of an overgrown grassy siding, although need some slightly longer strands to add into the mix. Looks like someone’s been over it with a lawnmower

Thanks to Martin at Model Railway Solutions I finally got the laser cut back scene boards fixed in place. The high backscenes are designed to give an air of urban landscape aided by high retaining walls. I’ve also got an illustrator friend who’s hopefully going to whip up a suitably murky Wolverhampton industrial scene for the background. Hopefully tomorrow’s “modelling Sunday” will be productive.

Trying to improve my video making skills (still some way to go), but a good excuse to play trains before getting back down to the modelling.

It’s hard to actually do any modelling sometimes when all you want to do is play trains. Must get back to ballasting. A local service from Stafford.

I also couldn’t resist a short running session. A Grange class pulls away from platform 3 with a local service for Shrewsbury.

I managed to get a couple of hours over the weekend dedicated to West Park. Ballasting work continues, i’m fairly pleased with how the mixture of chinchilla dust and 2mm ballast is looking, albeit unpainted at this stage. I tested a small section with a layer of sleeper grime as a base coat, although the coating will only be this thick at the platform ends where the grime was at it’s worth. Elsewhere some of the ballast colours will be allowed to shine through. Also quite pleased with how the clay looks for those grimy platform ends, but needs colour and texture too.

Not strictly Wolverhampton West Park related, but earlier this year i spent some time in Sri Lanka and came across this wonderful old signal box at Kandy station along with some cracking semaphores. Signalman let me have a nose around too...

Finally got round to a little more ballasting this evening. Needs the once over with the hoover, but that doesn’t stop Thirlestaine Hall simmering away in platform 3 with a stopping service for Worcester Shrub Hill.

Looking forward to seeing how this evolves

What a stunning little layout. So simple yet so atmospheric.

This layout is just magical. I've not seen it in the flesh, but hope to do so soon (sadly I can't make this weekend)

What a great layout

Love the weathering

New to this thread but have been really enjoying it. Some lovely scenes captured.

Looking really good - love the ground effects.

Looking really good - love the ground effects.

Love the stone cobbles and the scratch building. I’m soon to embark on the scratch built elements of my own layout and if I can get them looking half as good as these do thus far, I’ll be chuffed. Looking forward to seeing how this lovely little layout progresses. Nicos

How do you get your artistic license back? Do you have to do an modelling awareness course...

Also, just been having a flick through Rosedale East, Greyscroft and Felton Lane. You're a serial quality layout builder!

Hey Worsdell - Box girder? Got an example to hand? I was kinda going for Snow Hill meets Moor St (with a bit of artistic license).

Ballasting work continued this evening. A combination of using 2mm ballast and the track being the thin sleeper C&L flexitrack means that ballasting has been a bit more challenging than i was anticipating. There’s only a thin layer of small material, which seems to make the required capillary action harder to achieve and ballast ends up going all over the track and sleepers. I’ve tried using the traditional PVA, water, washing up liquid combo as well as ballast bond, but the same result occurs and it’s a real pain scrapping ballast from the track sides and sleepers once it’s set. To negate this i’ve decided to just paint some PVA in between the sleepers and then sprinkle ballast on top, which gives a thin base layer i can then, once set, add more ballast to and use more traditional methods to fix in place. The thin base later seems to promote capillary action. I’ve then filled in any remaining gaps with painted PVA and sprinkled chinchilla dust. I think end result looks pretty good so far and the finer chinchilla dust offers some natural variation. Lots of additional track and ballast weathering to crack on with once we get the ballasting completed. It takes a little longer this way, but I think the end result will be worth it. 55xx sits over the ballasted area with a local service. An 8F sits in the loop siding waiting for a clear road to proceed towards Oxley sidings with a small freight - looking quite sorry for itself.