DavidMcKenzie

Got started on the VGAs this evening. Not finished yet, especially around the buffer beam and the buffers there is still some detailing to be done. I will also leave them for a few days now and come back to them later and see if I notice anything that looks out of place or wrong. How they looked this afternoon. After a few enjoyable hours weathering away they were sitting in the yard waiting for a run on the layout. The next shot got me thinking, the buffers of the 47 and the vans are not the same height. Is this something farish have got wrong? Surely they must be a standard buffer height/position in reality, but it's something I've never paid much attention to. It also shows the buffers on the vans need a little more work before they are finished. Diesel under the wires. All the best Dave

Hi Tim, Crakingmodeling as usual. The transrail 37 is a brilliant model. I've seen plenty of them when trawling though pictures of the mid to late 90s, you've captured it well. As for modeling exactly a time period, rule1 is the most important for me, it is supposed to be fun after all. I know for myself I've stuck loosely to a time period in an attempt to save my bank account. Otherwise my wishlist would bankrupt me. All the best Dave

That looks spot on Simon. Another brilliant respray. I always thought that livery sat well on the 142s. All the best Dave

Just a little modelling session this evening. On the right of the gantry is the tidied up grass between the fence and the track, on the left of the gantry is how it originally was. Not a huge change by any means, but the grass stands up a bit more now and the over spray from weathering the gravel is tidied up. Hopefully all of these little details add up together in the end, even though alone they are almost not noticeable. All the best Dave

That sounds great. 90/91 was another very interesting period with the liveries changing over and lot's of options from the BR blue into the Intercity and railfrieght sectors. It'll be one that I will be following with interest. Next on the agenda is a small tidy up of details on the ohle and to re do a section of grass that's bugging me and doesn't look great. After this I think I will attack the right hand corner in the old picture below and try to get this countryside section finished before turning my attentions back to the yard and the town scene on the other half of the layout. All the best Dave

It's one of the hard parts of living outside the UK for me, it'd be great to just pop over for an hour or two and see a few other British N gauge layouts and get some tips and ideas. I hope the show goes really well for you and I will be hoping someone takes a few pictures of your cracking layout. All the best Dave

I was thinking that as I took the pictures . I will have a play with the lighting one day, but last night I used all the modelling time on the fence.

Yeah I agree, just moving the air dam from the bogies onto the body is already a huge improvement and then a bit of weathering to hide the big shinny wheels . Still hoping that Bachmann bring out the shrink gun one day on the OO class 90 though.

Sounds great Rich, will you start a post on here so we can follow your progress?

Then after spending a lot of the evening trying to stop something standing out (and almost trying to hide it), I thought I'd give my favorite loco a run and get a few pictures to see how it looked with a train going by. It's definitely lost it's shine and distracts less from the train itself which was the goal. All the best Dave

Had a go at the fence this evening. It started like this which reflected the lights and drew too much attention to the fence, as well as looking a bit out of place. The first step was an undercoat for the wires. I went for a rust colour which will hopefully not show too much after the top coats applied. The the posts were given a coat of light grey. You can choose if that's for weathered wood or concrete . Then a top coat for the wires to make them a more suitable colour. And lastly a green wash over everything to stop the fence posts standing out so much and to blend the fence into the background a little. I don't seem to be able to remove the last picture. Sorry for this. It's the fence in original state.

Thanks for the kind coments Phil, I've been realy enjoying modelling again now the weather is slowly turning and it has been nice to be slowly progressing and getting close to the WCML feel I wanted to achieve on this section. Still plenty to work on though . All the best Dave

Ah well that'd be why they are grey then. Looking more closely I think you are right, I need to go through a few more photos to see if I am even doing the right thing with wooden posts or if concrete was more often used along the 4track sections of the WCML. Thanks for posting a picture of wood rather than concrete. Occasionally I seem to need saving from myself . All the best Dave

I never noticed the grey colour that wood goes when weathered, but you are right (see picture below). A grey wash will be applied at the same time as dulling down the wires in the fence. Great spot as usual. I never thought about the light direction needing to come from the south (although it is obviously correct). It might get complicated as a permanent feature because the layout goes through 180deg and In the sections directly opposite north and south are inverted. For a specific photo session I will see what I can do though. My wife's considerably better at photography than the photos I have posted here to date which have been taken on my mobile phone. She's been promising to come down and take a few once the first section is finished, maybe I can get something sorted for that. Your point is again seen in the photo above where the northbound 87101 has shadow on the cab. Thanks for your comments again, great tips as always. All the best. Dave

After one very light coat of dark brown the rails got a clean and a few trains got a run. A class 90 heading north with the parcels. A 37 a bit out of place on the fast line. Heading an engineers working to rugby. A class 86 pushing on South to London passes a class 87 heading north. I should really remember to check the pantographs before taking photos . I think one of the next things to do is to dull down the fence in the foreground and take the 'shine' off it. Another little thing I've been meaning to do for a while and never really got around to. It stands out in the first two photos. If anyone notices anything else out of place feel free to comment. I am always trying to make the models more realistic and even if changing something on this section is too late or impossible, there is another half of the layout to go yet and I am trying to learn from my mistakes along the way. All the best. Dave

So far I am pretty happy with it. It's a considerable improvement on how it was before. I have some photos of the track inside Tring cutting taken from above as a good reference for a model due to the viewing angle (they were taken from the most southerly bridge in the cutting). it could probably do with one more wash in a darker tone of brown. But I am not going to rush it and come back to it in a few days, because I definitely don't want to over do the weathering on this section. I want it to remain as simple as possible and be a section of track where the trains come to the fore and everything else is 'background'. I like the idea of a test section. Good idea. All the best Dave

(following on from the previous page due to picture size) Then a final going over with a different shade of brown to the first coat, again thinned to make a light coat. And a few photos with a loco posing to see how it looks both close up and with a longer shot.

The next job was especially time consuming a before and after shot below of picking out the little 'spring clips' that hold the track to the sleepers. Only a tiny detail, but adds a tiny bit to the over all feel. Maybe more noticeable in real life than the before and after photos below.

Then a black wash between the rails Then rubbing in some weathering powders. Pecos 'rust and brake dust'

After the kind and helpful comment from Duncan above I had a go at weathering the track. I've taken a photo at each stage. The starting point. After giving it all a very light coat of thinned down brown

He has done a brilliant job. It fits to the layout perfectly and adds a lot of depth without taking any attention away from the trains in the foreground.

Stunning modeling there Duncan. I know it's not the first time I've seen such brilliant photos from your layout, but I can't help thinking WOW everytime you post another. Is the backscene self painted? All the best Dave

With so many different versions of NSE going for the 'as new' livery sounds like a sensible option. All the best Dave

The 'later' NSE livery does look more generic doesn't it. I agree that it would make sense to make the model as generic as possible to not disappoint anyone modeling a specific route. Were NSE 321s used anywhere other than Euston upto Birmingham and the Anglia routes?

Does anyone know if transfers for 86245 'Caledonian' have been produced in n gauge? I have looked at both the fox and railtec websites without luck. I was looking for a winter project and I remember seeing 86245 going through Tring in 1998 and being very confused and wondering if virgin were switching from red to blue. I know the nameplates and numbers would be possible through a custom nameplate package as I've done for 87101, but I am not sure if my taping off and spraying skills are upto the maroon stripes yet. All the best Dave