luke the train spotter

Looking good! What did you use to weather the gate?

Thanks guys for all your kind and encouraging comments. Tonight I checked on the resin and it’s fully cured now. Admittedly it isn’t perfect and you can tell where I had to use the clay to fill the gaps between the wood joints. However , as a first attempt I’m quite pleased with it. I took a quick shot on my iPad of the Peckett with the canal in the foreground. I think it makes a big difference to the composition to the scene and adds a much needed bit of relief to a relatively flat layout.Due to a technical failure on my phone I’ve had to swap over to my IPad so that’s the reason if the picture quality looks any different. The water effect looks a little flat to me so I’ve ordered some modge podge glue which is what Luke Towan recommends for creating small ripples on top of resin. Thanks for looking.

They really are excellent. The whole casting got a light coat of primer first then I painted the brickwork and the stone work around the windows. I didn't mask the window frames off, I painted them before I painted the black windows so I wasn't to bothered with how neat I got them first time because I could touch up around them with the black paint.

To me it felt quite counter productive but I think it's really important to be able to change your mind and build something your happy with. Best of luck with your new build!

Thanks David. Yes the skytrex building was primed first using Poundland's a finest grey auto primer which is a little dark for my taste but still works fine. As you say modeling is great for 'switching off' and I got to agree with you there, I always look forward to getting in the train room and working on some project. I think having limited time often drives the rapid construction of my layouts, if I'm honest I expect to have this layout done in six weeks tops. Potentially less if I keep at my current rate of progress.

Thanks Jerry, I think I'll probably be buying more from them in the future. They have an online store I believe too. So I've done the resin pour this morning. So far so good and now it's just a waiting game. I've put a sheet of clear plastic and some paper to protect it from dust.

So I think marmite must have really wanted some attention, or she thought she was a barge and ought to try out the new canal but she decided that she would claim the layout. Once I had persuaded her to get off the layout , I painted the base of the canal with enamels and the clay stone work. I select a few different blocks with different shades of grey before covering the whole thing with a wash made up of 2:1 brown to black valleyo acrylic then some normal tap water to thin it down to a good consistency. This is a more browny was than the clay on the building and a think I prefer the colour of it. I've also applied masking tap sealed with PVA glue along the front of the layout ready for a resin pour tomorrow morning before work. So far I'm really pleased with how it's coming out. Now I'm gonna give the resin 36 hours to set so I won't even go into the train room to ensure that the resin sets fine. This means that I won't be able to do any work on the layout until Friday evening.

So a couple of things have been done. Firstly the layout now has a proper name, 'marmalade wharf'. It's completely fictitious and I've had the name in my head for ages and wanted to build a layout called it. Its not specific to a particular region so i can run what ever type of stock I want and also it isn't to tied down to an era as well though I'm thinking that it could range for 40s to 60s. I for got to mention, marmalade is one of my favourite foods as well. Anyway, onto some more physical progress. At the York Easter exhibition (which was a very very good show and we'll organised - as usual) I picked up a skytrex resin warehouse. I've wanted to try one of their products for quite some time and this was the perfect opportunity. I originally painted the brick work and tried to put the mortar in as a wash then wipe.it off but this just didn't look right and I rubbed some of the brick paint off as I was only using acrylics. I rubbed most of it off, primed it and started again but dry brushing the brick this time, something of definitely recommend doing. The effect is quite nice and I will be buying from skytrex in the future. The whole building was painted with acrylics and given a light weathering. Instead of using a ready mixed brick colour I mixed my own up so the shades vary along the building and I also dry brushed 2 coats of 2 shades to add more depth. Next up is the start of the canal/quayside/wharf'. I removed some of the baseboard with a jigsaw then screwed a sheet of wood down to the underside. Das air-dry clay was used to fill gaps and was pushed against the side then stamped using another home made stamp tool to get a stone block effect. It's been left to dry then I can paint it and begin to add the resin effect. Unfortunately I'm working the rest of the week and then I'm back at sixth form on Monday so I won't have much time to do modelling as for some reason I left a my work to the last minute... I never learn. I'll keep you all posted though, thanks for looking.

Well they say a layout is never finished. I think I'll just use that excuse so I can add a few more details to the layout. I've added a cat from Langley models which I've painted to look like my own cat who's called marmite. Since she like sitting on the layout so much I though I ought to model her as a bit of a tribute. Here is the added cat on the loading dock of the distillery.

So I've done more on the scratch built warehouse type building. Tonights effort has meant that all the stone work is painted and weathered. For this I used a variety of valleyo paints all mixed to different shades of grey. I too of that a dark brown wash was slread liberally. After ensuring that the wash had reached pretty much every place it was left to dry. Thankfully, the how weather finally probed useful to something as it didn't take long to dry so can now be handled. I'm not trying to sound big headed or anything but the picture really doesn't do it justice. The building is currently in situ on the layout whilst I await supplies for the roofing. I've got a short list of layout names that I like so I'll decide on one and announce it on here. Thanks for looking.

I'm not sure this is really that relevant to the actual prototype of distillery yard but since that's my only current Scottish layout I guess I'll post this here. I'd like to introduce the latest addition to the fleet, a Heljan AC railbus. A fantastic model really. It weighs a ton and runs and looks the part too. I've popped a decoder in it and am impressed by it's slow smooth running even over points. Now I'll have to build a Scottish halt .....

York was a fantastic show today! I really enjoyed and it was great to see some layouts that I've been wanting to see for some time. As always very well organised and a great range of layouts there. Also nice to have access to a few traders I wouldn't really buy from normally. This has resulted in a few purchases including a skytrex resin low relief warehouse and a realistic water kit for the canal section of the layout as well as some other detailing bits. I also bought a new loco but that'll be on the distillery yard thread as it suits that layout a little more. Anyway heres a picture of the layout. The paper templates are just my rough positioning of where buildings will be. There's also a lorry and building under construction which I'll mention in a later post. A strip of warm white LEDs has been fitted to the top of the fascia, a big improvement on the lighting. Thanks for looking

You could always add west/east/North/south before the name of a real place. Maybe east Langton or north heslerton

Thanks mate, I got to agree with you there. I don't want to force myself into modelling something that doesn't really suit me. I'll be heading to the York show tomorrow so will hopefully return full of enthusiasm, inspiration and maybe an empty wallet.

Funnily enough I already do that! I thought that thruwick would be a a layout that really stuck with me so I bipassed that stage. What a mistake it was!

The stock is looking great! What sort of colour scheme are you thinking for the loco and coaches? It amused me that a head was being used as a headlight, quite a literal interpretation of the phrase.

Seems to be a recurring theme with me at the moment that I'm rushing into a project then changing my mind about it. The thurwick layout idea has kind of crumbled before me. The layout just felt too cramped for the facilities that I was trying to model and I don't think I could justify it. I like to have some influence of prototype in my layouts but thurwick felt just too disconnected from the real deal (well Thurso and wick). Instead I'm keeping the boards and track plan and probably going to turn it into a wharf/quayside shunting layout for small wheelbase stock and the odd visiting sulzer. I don't think it will really have a region though so it's more dependent on the stock to give it a setting. The era will be late 50s/early 60s so plenty of shunting and a nice mix of diesels and steamers. Still trying to visualise how everything will fit together but i feel that this idea suits the size better. The thurwick idea isn't dead it just suits a larger space so may be revived in the future.

Sounds good. Id definitely recommend having a fiddle yard. Any ideas what scale / region / era / theme the layout will be?

Wow! Fantastic depth to the scene.

Glad it all went well for you. The layout really looks the part too. I look forward to seeing how the layout will progress.

Thanks Dave that is very interesting and helpful. I havent found that information out anywhere else so you've just saved me a lot of research. I like the idea of having an ammo train loaded with boxes.

It's been a while but I've finally finished a pair of RNAD wagons carrying a cargo of bombs from the airfix bomber supply kit. The bombs are just on thin strips of coffee stirrer on the modified peco wagons. I'm very pleased how they've turned out and may be investing in a second pack of these wagons to carry the rest of the bombs. The wagon chassis was given a light dusting of weathering powders to show a light accumulation of dirt. Here's a picture:

Looks like an interesting project. Any idea for backscenes?

Looks absolutely fantastic! The Adams radial suits the layout very well too. Big fan of the fascia too.

Just a quick phone shot of my roco diesel running light engine into one of the underground bunkers.