MAP66

I managed to put the sign on the gate, its a 'GWR Private Road' sign, not entirely appropriate but close enough and you need Steve Austins eyesight to read it anyway. I'm going to see if I can mange a padlock and chain, just for the hell of it and then it will be the post and wire fencing. For the ground to the right of the gate I would like to attempt modelling some water but not too much, more like some waterlogged ground. Here's a couple of more pics of the gate and sign.

Thanks Adam Yes, by the looks of it the gate hasn't seen a coat of paint for 10 years or more. I've been searching for a GWR brass sign fret I had, took me forever to finally find it but I think I have something suitable to stick on the front of the gate. Glad you like the brazier, when i wired it up you could only see the flicker effect from directly above which I thought was pointless. So I drilled some small holes around the bottom and it did the trick.

Hi Keith Don't worry about hi-jacking, its nice to see other peoples side projects. That ratio awning kit looks pretty comprehensive, I hope you get back onto it soon and apologies for the prompt. Purely unintentional you understand

Thanks Babe, what can I say - You really know what to say to get the bathroom floor finished, can't really refuse now.

SWMBO is very sneaky, I will have to change my password

I Promise I won't do this again to him, but I'm Mark's "SWMBO", I am so proud of what he does! His layout is really as good , if not even better, in reality! Mark, let's keep reaching for our goal that you'll have that outbuilding where you can really do your stuff!! He'll be so shocked that I hacked his account, but then he'll realise that I also have no problem with Laptrays for dinner :-) Well done Mark, it's fabulous! x

Keith You have almost all the ingredients for a perfect photo plank, just needs a length of ballasted track, couple of passengers on the platform and some scenery and hey presto. I wouldn't mind betting that you have all that stuff lurking in a cupboard somewhere just waiting to be liberated. Thanks Steve ditto with Rustons Sidings, really enjoying your progress, inspiring every step of the way. LIke most things on Tyteford this was my first attempt at trying to replicate distressed wood. I think it didn't turn out too bad and has provided me with something to perfect further on future projects.

Hi Keith That s a nice looking rural halt, do you have any plans for incorporating it into something?

Managed to do some more work on the gate scene today by adding more filler to reduce the camber of the access road and to build up the surrounding ground either side of the road. This was then painted with brown acrylics and then various lengths and shades of static grass were applied via puffer bottle. Then finally a mix of fine and medium leaf scatters and flock were added to represent weeds and rough grassy areas. Here's a few more progress pics...

Hi Jim Did the Storeman then try and sell the customer some Tartan paint?

Hi Steve Thats another superbly convincing weathering job on the corrugated hut. You have the eye for detail, there's no doubt about that and a master class in clutter arrangement all makes for a very lifelike scene. Looking forward to seeing what you have in mind next. Mark

Evening folks I have started on placing a gate across the road to serve as an access gate to the yard. Its from the Ratio fencing kit, same pack as I used for the station fencing. I plonked a couple of blobs of filler where the gate posts would be and then gently pressed the gate into position to straddle across the road. I left it there about 10 minutes and then removed it to leave two post socket impressions in the filler. This will make it easier to glue the gate into position after painting and adding the ground detail. The gate in position has highlighted that the road camber is too severe, so I will sort that with some additional filler and then complete the ground cover in this area. Post and wire fencing will lead off either side of the gate and then I need a nice looking GWR sign to go on the gate. Here are a couple of progress pics, I wanted the gate to look as distressed a I am, tough week working from home - say no more.

Thank you Bo-Bo, very nice of you to say so. I'm going to be working on a gate soon across the road as the entrance to the yard. I will post some progress on this soon. All the best Mark

I can always find a spare lap tray

Thanks Marc Your more than welcome to pop down to Tyteford Halte anytime.

Thanks Jim, I knew I was correct on this but its always good to receive confirmation from down-under. The layout only barely covers half of the table anyway, rest of it is covered in my tools

Tyteford Halte returns after being banished to the top of the wardrobe for the last few days and I am glad to report that it has made it back down to its rightful place (on top of the dining room table). I am still in deliberation with SWMBO with my argument that there is no requirement to eat meals sat at a table, as this is surely why lap trays were invented. Anyway back to the plot, I managed to add a bit more detail to the yard - a brazier complete with flicker effect led. This was added this evening to provide a place for the rotten wood from the repaired station fencing to be burned. I have also added a pile of something covered in a tarpaulin - not sure about this, I will decide if it stays after it has been painted. That's adequate detail for the yard, less is more and all that. Here's the pics...

Hi Keith If I can start with the Pagoda building it is in fact a Bachmann Scenecraft ready made building and comes as a duo with the store, half of which is visible in the photo, its a bit pricey, around £30.00 the set. Wills do a similar pagoda kit for around £7.00. If I was going to need another one of these I would definitely sratchbuild using this model as a template. Regarding the ballast, I use Exactoscale 60' track panels with a sleeper depth of about 0.8mm, the idea was to save on ballast with the shallower sleeper depth, I was able to save on this even further by infilling between sleepers with deep gap filler in the station area. If your ballast is a bit course, then you can sieve it to remove the larger pieces, I did this with the ballast I used. Generally most modelers tend to use ballast marketed at the scale below which they model, so for 00 use N gauge ballast. Hope this is of some help. All the best Mark

Just in case any one is wondering, I'm still in the yard, sorry its taking so long to finish this part but Tyteford Halte is now back on top of the wardrobe while other things in life take priority. Hopefully, it will be back down again soon and things will progress a little faster. Before it went up on the wardrobe I did add a tree behind the return of the fence (just a sprig of sea foam) covered in scatters. I dd intend for all trees to be made from copper wire armatures covered in grout or filler but as most of trunk is behind the fence and it needed to be a very thin trunk as I only wanted to pull this part of the fence forward a few mm just enough to slot the tree down behind the fence.

Hi Jim I feel very honoured to be the reason for you having another go at 00. Its a good feeling to be told that something I have done has given inspiration to others. By the way, don't sell yourself short on your modelling prowess, the models you produce in card are fantastic, your layouts are simply fantastic. Best of luck with 00, in theory you should at least be using less card and glue. Mark

The vans back and weathered, Its my first attempt at weathering a road vehicle - I'm sure I will get better with more practice. The van hasn't got dirty windows its actually residue from the masking tape I used which I need to clean off, I think it was a bit too tacky.

Still working on that yard folks, the store is now bedded down with some forgiving greenery around the base to hide any unsightly gaps. More climbing vines have been added to the roof of the store in an attempt to disguise the low relief aspect where it meets the back-scene. I have also done a bit more weathering to the store and the yard surface. So some more progress pics below, I have included one shot showing the actual depth of the yard which measures 4.5 cm from the front edge of the steel plate covering the point rodding to the rear fence and I've included a pic of the Austin 7 van belonging to Fred the carpenter. The Austin 7 will receive some weathering detail and will eventually reside in roughly that spot. All the best Mark

Hi Gerry Thanks for sharing your techniques, very inspiring and perhaps I need to experiment with enamel paints with the longer drying time to allow wiping off etc. On Tyteford Halte I ended up using colured pencils, I thought it didn't turn out too bad until I saw your brick work which I much prefer. Those self adhesive posters really sell it though. Mark

Excellent attention to detail and weathering on the railway arches, if it wasn't for the background of the garden, I would have sworn I was looking at the real thing. I think we are going to be in for a treat with the painting of the work shop, which by the way is also excellent. Looking forward to further updates. All the best Mark

Looking most excellent Chris - nice job with the airbrush.